OCR English Literature (AS 15th May 2015 Exam Thread)

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retaking my AS english lit to try and get an A... trying but not really succeeding, to be honest. when the A boundary is 26/30, does anybody really have much hope?? :frown:

anyway, does anybody have any predictions for yeats and jane eyre??

I thought it was 27/30 :frown:

Reply 181

Aleena Maryam

what are your predictions for the turn of the screw

Predictions:
outer beauty=inner purity
corruption of innocence
governess is the true menace
TTOTS is a typical ghost story

Reply 182

kishoret

anyone got any frankenstein practice essay questions??

Reply 183

sally.7

What are people's predictions for Edward Thomas poetry? My teacher does such random themes I don't think they'll come up, but I'd like to do a couple of practice essays if anyone has any essays and predictions? Thanks!

Reply 184

thecatwithnohat

Original post by mperry97

I have the feeling that the Yeats poem will be something that would be unexpected, last year Man and the Echo came up and i don't think that was expected by many...i'm hoping for the stolen child or easter 1916

I'm thinking of something like along the lines of Among School Children

Though my teachers are convinced that the examiners may be clever and re-use a past poem but with a different theme!!

Reply 185

claudiar99

I'm doing Dorian Gray and Yeats - my teacher's convinced that the relationship between Basil and Dorian will come up - if it does, which points could you make? I'd probably do a paragraph on basil as a moral voice to dorian, and maybe a paragraph about homoeroticism, and then one on the relationship between art and the artist - what would you guys write?

Reply 186

claudiar99

Original post by thecatwithnohat

I'm thinking of something like along the lines of Among School Children

Though my teachers are convinced that the examiners may be clever and re-use a past poem but with a different theme!!

my teacher thinks the same! although i would loveee a question on easter 1916 - my teacher thinks a question on politics/relationships/death will come up :frown:

Reply 187

thecatwithnohat

Original post by claudiar99

How many paragraphs/points would you write, excluding the intro and conclusion? The great thing about DG is that the themes get repetitive

Original post by claudiar99

my teacher thinks the same! although i would loveee a question on easter 1916 - my teacher thinks a question on politics/relationships/death will come up :frown:

The Stolen child and ASC are my favourites :tongue:

Reply 188

claudiar99

Original post by thecatwithnohat

How many paragraphs/points would you write, excluding the intro and conclusion? The great thing about DG is that the themes get repetitive

The Stolen child and ASC are my favourites :tongue:

I think I'd write around 4 or 5 paragraphs because thats how many they have in all the exemplar scripts but its so hard to get an A on Dorian because all the themes get quite complicated :/ if the presentation of women came up I'd be quite happy, would hate a question on morality. I love the stolen child as well, but if sailing to byzantium came up I think I would cry haha

Reply 189

thecatwithnohat

Original post by claudiar99

Sailing to Byzantium would be perfect also!!! What I would dread having is The Second Coming or Leda and the swan...

Reply 190

sally.7

Original post by katinthehat

SHOUTOUT TO MY FELLOW EDWARD THOMAS PEEPS:

The past papers have been:
-The Glory (2014)
-March (2013)
-The Sun Used to Shine (Jun2012)
-Tears (Jan2012)

So, considering how many more there are in the anthology, the question is highly likely not to be on one of these four poems! This doesn't mean don't revise oc, as you can always quote them in your answer to another question and OCR may be unoriginal, but bear it in mind! :wink:

Good luck chums :biggrin:

Hi! I don't wish to be cheeky but you really seem to know your stuff (I don't :frown:

) and I was wondering if youd mind sharing a list of the poems that could come up along with the themes you think they might ask for each one? I am struggling with practice essays so this would be really helpful! thank you!

Reply 191

dftba10

I'm doing Yeats and Frankenstein as well. I think Frankenstein will be alright as long as it's a kind of theme based question - so like Nature or Knowledge or something. I really struggle with setting though.

For Yeats I've kind of lost hope because I hate the majority of the poems - particularly Among School Children...but can anyone explain The Cat and the Moon to me? I'm totally lost on how the whole mysticism idea comes into it...

Reply 192

sussan

same, I really need some predictions for Edward Thomas and Jane Eyre to guide revision atm :/

Reply 193

enyav

Did anybody find any quotes for evidence of homoeroticism in TPODG?

Reply 194

bertiewallace123

Original post by enyav

Did anybody find any quotes for evidence of homoeroticism in TPODG?

Homoeroticism is a subtext in TPODG, it therefore requires a great deal of reading between the lines and is not immediately apparent. Several recent interpretations, notably Will Self’s Dorian and the 2007 film adaptation have exacerbated the homosexual undertones yet in the novel they are not as apparent as these recent interpretations want them to be. There is good reason for this, Wilde had to remove large swathes of ‘sordid shame’ because of Victorian intolerance and censorship. However despite this several quotes and literal references escape the net of censorship which well informed readers would have been aware of as being indicative of homosexuality. The most obvious being dandyism embodied Dorian, Harry and Basil (DHB) throughout the novel; Harry is described by Fermoor as a Dandy who does ‘nothing all day'. Basil paints and Dorian’s whims are laws to everybody except himself, all characteristic features of the dandy and the flaneur, forms in which camp homosexuals were deemed acceptable to inhabit in society.

Another few points...

Harry and Basil have an unnatural obsession with Dorian which many of their female counterparts do not share, Harry has ‘seventeen photographs’ of Dorian and ‘spends all his time’ with him as Victoria listlessly remarks. Wotton stays with Dorian despite him ‘ruining’ his sister Lady Gwendolyn and the divorce from his wife Victoria. Similarly Hallward feels that Dorian ‘controls his whole personality’.

Wotton’s estranged marriage to Victoria is another indicator of homosexuality.

D,H,B are Wagnerian’s (fans of the operatic composer, Wagner) which in Victorian society was a codeword for whether you were gay or not.

Dorian ‘shames’ several young men such as Adrian Singleton, Alan Campbell and ‘that boy from the guards who you used to be such good friends with’ for reasons unknown but judging by the violent responses it is undoubtedly a sordid sin such as homosexual intercourse, a good enough reason in Victorian society to disown ‘your son’ as Lord Alfred Douglas testifies.

The aptronym Dorian is a classical reference to homosexuality, presumably one which Wilde had unearthed in his Classical Civilisation undergraduate degrees at Dublin and Oxford. The Dorian’s were a Greek tribe around the time of the spartans and were said to have introduced homosexuality to Greece, indeed there are many scriptures which document their practice of pedestry and homosexual initiation rites.

Perhaps the biggest but paradoxically the least obvious indicator of homosexuality is misogyny. Although inherent in patriarchal society misogyny and ‘vagina dentata’ (fear of the vagina) is an important component of homosexuality. Wotton lampoons women consistently throughout with his witty epigrams, ‘My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex’. ‘Women inspire us to make masterpieces but always prevent us from carrying them out’. Wilde’s personal portrayal of women throughout the novel (don’t conflate Wotton with Wilde, thats what he wants you to think!!!!) actually reveals them to be the most moral sex staying truer to life and reality than their Aesthetically deluded male counterparts.

Wotton and Dorian feel compelled to marry their respective ‘lovers’ (and are use that word liberally) more out ‘of duty’ than of real affectionate love. Even then it is unlikely they will have children or even consummate their marriage as the Wotton’s childlessness makes clear. Besides Dorian is more obsessed with showing Sybil Vane ‘to the world’ and making her famous than ‘loving her truly and affectionately’ which, judging by how quickly he forgets her is clearly the case.

It takes a while to really find the homosexual undertones but they’re their alright.

Reply 195

niamhayes

You could write a paragraph on who Dorian and Basil's character is based on (real life people) and how they are connected to Oscar. I know we've got to included context but that's the only type i could think of for that question

Reply 196

itschloen

is anyone doing Yeats or Frankenstein, if so whats your predictions?

Reply 197

mperry97

Original post by thecatwithnohat

I'm thinking of something like along the lines of Among School Children

Though my teachers are convinced that the examiners may be clever and re-use a past poem but with a different theme!!

Imagine! All the poems they could choose and they re-use one :eek:

Reply 198

strawberryum

My teacher is predicting As the teams head-brass, rain or old man as the most likely to come up for Edward Thomas. As for turn of the screw, I'm hoping for something on the master, but really it could be anything