AQA A2 English Literature 2016 - Elements of the Gothic (LITB3) - OFFICIAL THREAD

Original post by chanda01

Hi, so I was wondering if we could do something along the lines of posting one past paper question a week on the thread and everyone puts down their discussion points/how they would approach it.. it doesn't have to be in too much detail.. more like a plan with an introduction..so that we can all learn from each other and get alternative view points/contexts etc?
(perhaps section B as we're all doing different texts... and we can just read plans of students who are studying the same text)

That's a really good idea! What day should we do it on?

Reply 182

paddy999

3

Original post by chanda01

Hi, so I was wondering if we could do something along the lines of posting one past paper question a week on the thread and everyone puts down their discussion points/how they would approach it.. it doesn't have to be in too much detail.. more like a plan with an introduction..so that we can all learn from each other and get alternative view points/contexts etc?
(perhaps section B as we're all doing different texts... and we can just read plans of students who are studying the same text)

That sounds like a really good idea!

Reply 183

Anyone have a few quotes for the supernatural in Frankenstein?
I have these so far:
'convulsive motion agitated its limbs' when the creature first comes alive, as the creature himself is in the liminal space between humanhood and the supernatural.
'My own vampire' 'My own spirit' - Victor describing the creature after William's death.
Victor digging up bodies from 'charnel-houses' to create his creature.
Anyone got anymore?

Reply 184

Original post by chanda01

Hi Guys,
Quick question

Are York Notes worth investing in for English Literature? I read that they contain detailed notes on the A0's as well as critical citations?
Specifically for LITB1 and LITB3 (Elements of the Gothic)

Thanks!

Also, regarding the past paper question.. I'll see if I can sort something out

I have them and they're really good but I would definitely not only use them, if you use them in conjunction with online resources as well, that's best but yes they're really good :smile:

Reply 185

OP

Original post by AqsaMx

)

You do English too! What texts do you do :tongue:

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Reply 186

Original post by kingaaran

You do English too! What texts do you do :tongue:

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Haha yeah, I do Doctor Faustus, Frankenstein and The Bloody Chamber wbu?

Reply 187

OP

Original post by AqsaMx

Haha yeah, I do Doctor Faustus, Frankenstein and The Bloody Chamber wbu?

I do Faustus and TBC too! I love Faustus <3

Reply 188

benj1999

4

Hi! Does anyone have any good analysis for any of the poems of rossettis poems, for example Echo, Remember, Up Hill, No Thank you John, Birthday, Twice, Song, Shut out
And particularly Soeur Louise De La Misèricorde, Winter: My secret, and Good Friday, as i really struggle with analysis! I have a good foundation of key quotes/language/structure, but my ideas are quite vague :smile:

Thank you

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Reply 189

OP

Original post by thatlizziegirl

Hi! I'm sitting this exam this year, having got an A at AS I'm hoping for the same this year. However, we've never attempted a Section B question in class - we are quite behind and haven't even finished learning Wuthering Heights yet (which I am very stressed about). I've written a quick paragraph in response to this week's question. I would love if some one could have a look and let me know whether this is what the exam is looking for.

Frankenstein can be characterised through a fascination with death, by Victor’s fascination and by Shelley’s own. Victor is much more engrossed in reversing death rather than its implications. Victor usurps the role of God in this sense and shows his overreaching personality, claiming that he wants to discover ‘the secrets of heaven and earth’ [AO1 clear]. Victor’s own fascination with reversing death could be linked to the despair he feels after losing his mother; his nightmare in which he kisses the dead lips of his mother go far in explaining this fascination [It is just sentence after sentence, no real explanation here I feel]. A psychoanalytical reading would place great importance on this nightmare; it is revealing Victor’s unconscious longing for his mother [You should attempt to explain why]. The protagonist’s interest in death can be read through Shelley’s own interest, critic Ellen Moers sees this novel as an exploration of the guilt Shelley feels for her mothers’ [AO1 slip, should be mother's] death and the deaths of her children. She suggests that the guilt that Victor feels for the murders ofWilliam and Elizabeth could be parallel to the guilt that Shelley herself feels for the deaths of her children. I would agree with this to some extent as a structuralist reading might see the different narratives in this novel as different expressions of Shelley’s own personality; Victor’s narrative is characterised through a fascination with death to a large extent. Attempt to evaluate, I can see, but you're not really evaluating anything because your interpretations, while clear, lack substance

I don't study Frankenstein, but I've read it and added some comments.

You should aim to explain more of your interpretations and use AO2 to do this. While only a paragraph, AO2 should be consistently used to support an interpretation - using evidence and then breaking that evidence down is a skill that is necessary. You do stick to the question and your AO1 is generally clear, it is just that AO2 that needs to be weaved in.

I would say this paragraph alone would be exemplary of a top Band 3/bottom Band 4 response.

Reply 190

OP

Original post by chanda01

‘Gothic settings are desolate, alienating, and full of menace.’
In light of this comment, consider some of the ways in which writers use settings in the Gothic texts you have read.

My Plan:

Macbeth

•

The setting is used to create tension, to provide the audience with ominous element of foreshadowing and symbolise the distortion of what is normal (the weather resonates with the chaos).

•

‘Thunder and lightning’ of the witches, ‘upon a blasted heath’, imagery of darkness abounds - ‘nor heaven peep through blanket of darkness // to cry, ‘hold, hold’ - the night loses it Romanticised tranquility and becomes a byword for evil.
When King Duncan dies, ‘the night has been unruly’, ‘chimneys were blown down’, the ‘earth was feverous and did shake’.

•

The switch to England later in the play allows the audience to be transposed away from the evilness and corruption within Scotland and ‘into the light’; Shakespeare placates his audience from the extreme/excessive violence previously. The switch in setting can be seen as a symbol for the reducing power of Macbeth, a positive foreshadowing now (instilling hope for his contemporaries): Macbeth no longer dominates the play, just in the same way he will not dominate the country for much longer.

Dr Faustus

•

Setting as potentially enlightening: ‘buildings, fair and gorgeous to the eye’, ‘streets paved in the finest brick’, Renaissance desires quenched, criticisms of religion are teased out through the significance of the setting: ‘a sumptuous temple stands, that threats the stars with her aspiring tops’.

•

Setting as a tool to entwine allusions to myths to further characterise Fausuts: myth of the over-reacher, the sinner, ‘fly to India for Gold’, ‘ransack the ocean for orient pearls’.

•

Not to undermine, however, the significance of hell: ‘why, this is hell, nor am I out of it’, ‘Think’st thou that I, who...tasted the eternal joys of heaven, am not tormented with ten thousand hells in being deprived of everlasting bliss’, ‘homo fuge, if unto God, he’ll throw thee down to hell’,

The Bloody Chamber

•

Sylvan settings to expose deep-rooted subconscious desires; the Erl-King, setting becomes a metaphor for depths of the protagonist’s mind, her first person narrative shows that she takes control of this exploration of her psyche and thwarts the notion of the male gaze.

•

The title story’s setting allows Carter to shake the shackles of feminist resistance to the male gaze by showing how it can provide pleasure and enlightenment to the object of desire; just like the castle is ‘neither on land nor at sea’, Carter’s narrative floats between exposing the depravity of the Marquis and the coming of age of the protagonist, which she does through the imagery of the chamber, ‘wound downwards’, ‘light caved in’, ‘absolute darkness’, ‘my first thought was how to escape it’.

Anyone to counter my ideas?

Reply 191

chanda01

13

Original post by kingaaran

My Plan:

Macbeth

•

The setting is used to create tension, to provide the audience with ominous element of foreshadowing and symbolise the distortion of what is normal (the weather resonates with the chaos).

•

‘Thunder and lightning’ of the witches, ‘upon a blasted heath’, imagery of darkness abounds - ‘nor heaven peep through blanket of darkness // to cry, ‘hold, hold’ - the night loses it Romanticised tranquility and becomes a byword for evil.
When King Duncan dies, ‘the night has been unruly’, ‘chimneys were blown down’, the ‘earth was feverous and did shake’.

•

The switch to England later in the play allows the audience to be transposed away from the evilness and corruption within Scotland and ‘into the light’; Shakespeare placates his audience from the extreme/excessive violence previously. The switch in setting can be seen as a symbol for the reducing power of Macbeth, a positive foreshadowing now (instilling hope for his contemporaries): Macbeth no longer dominates the play, just in the same way he will not dominate the country for much longer.

Dr Faustus

•

Setting as potentially enlightening: ‘buildings, fair and gorgeous to the eye’, ‘streets paved in the finest brick’, Renaissance desires quenched, criticisms of religion are teased out through the significance of the setting: ‘a sumptuous temple stands, that threats the stars with her aspiring tops’.

•

Setting as a tool to entwine allusions to myths to further characterise Fausuts: myth of the over-reacher, the sinner, ‘fly to India for Gold’, ‘ransack the ocean for orient pearls’.

•

Not to undermine, however, the significance of hell: ‘why, this is hell, nor am I out of it’, ‘Think’st thou that I, who...tasted the eternal joys of heaven, am not tormented with ten thousand hells in being deprived of everlasting bliss’, ‘homo fuge, if unto God, he’ll throw thee down to hell’,

The Bloody Chamber

•

Sylvan settings to expose deep-rooted subconscious desires; the Erl-King, setting becomes a metaphor for depths of the protagonist’s mind, her first person narrative shows that she takes control of this exploration of her psyche and thwarts the notion of the male gaze.

•

The title story’s setting allows Carter to shake the shackles of feminist resistance to the male gaze by showing how it can provide pleasure and enlightenment to the object of desire; just like the castle is ‘neither on land nor at sea’, Carter’s narrative floats between exposing the depravity of the Marquis and the coming of age of the protagonist, which she does through the imagery of the chamber, ‘wound downwards’, ‘light caved in’, ‘absolute darkness’, ‘my first thought was how to escape it’.

Anyone to counter my ideas?

Interesting!

How about the significance of the setting at the beginning of Faustus in his study?
A possible representation of religion? I.e. when he leaves his study, he leaves religion, and goes towards magic which is perhaps why he is unable to comprehend the idea of repentance and salvation.
This is also representative of the renaissance and humanism. Also, the study is mentioned again in Act 5, I think it is, when Wagner enters it and talks about the fact that Faustus is still enjoying himself and indulging though he thinks his death is near.
Hence, it could be argued that the setting is used to oppose the new movement present at the time, of humanism etc.

Alternatively, It could also perhaps be an attack on having knowledge of divinity? and religion? I.e. even all this knowledge couldn't save Faustus though he has a 'scholarship' in these fields.

This is just from the top of my head. I don't have my books infront of me.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 192

OP

Original post by chanda01

Interesting!

How about the significance of the setting at the beginning of Faustus in his study?
A possible representation of religion? I.e. when he leaves his study, he leaves religion, and goes towards magic which is perhaps why he is unable to comprehend the idea of repentance and salvation.
This is also representative of the renaissance and humanism. Also, the study is mentioned again in Act 5, I think it is, when Wagner enters it and talks about the fact that Faustus is still enjoying himself and indulging though he thinks his death is near.
Hence, it could be argued that the setting is used to oppose the new movement present at the time, of humanism etc.

Alternatively, It could also perhaps be an attack on having knowledge of divinity? and religion? I.e. even all this knowledge couldn't save Faustus though he has a 'scholarship' in these fields.

This is just from the top of my head. I don't have my books infront of me.

Definitely support the idea about it representing humanism and used as almost a fiducial marker.

What about the other texts?

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Reply 193

Chez231

15

gothic writings warns of the dangers of aspiring beyond our limitations"
How far does your reading of gothic writing support this view

Anyone have any of there answers for this question? Preferably THe Bloody Chamber

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Reply 194

OP

Original post by Chez231

gothic writings warns of the dangers of aspiring beyond our limitations"
How far does your reading of gothic writing support this view

Anyone have any of there answers for this question? Preferably THe Bloody Chamber

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I'll write one up tomorrow, as I like this question. I'd completely argue against it, because I feel the whole collection is about encouraging transgression, as she shows within her stories that sticking the norm makes you a victim and an object of desire. You?

Reply 195

Chez231

15

Original post by kingaaran

I'll write one up tomorrow, as I like this question. I'd completely argue against it, because I feel the whole collection is about encouraging transgression, as she shows within her stories that sticking the norm makes you a victim and an object of desire. You?

Oh cheers ! You don't have to if you don't want to mate !

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Reply 196

Original post by kingaaran

Definitely support the idea about it representing humanism and used as almost a fiducial marker.

What about the other texts?

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I have this for TBC :smile:

TheBloody Chamber: In the titular story, the marriage room is described as a‘funereal parlour’ and it is the room in which the narrator explains that the Marquis ‘impale[d]’ her carrying connotations of a rape-like attack, also shown through the words ‘one sided struggle’ and he was ‘fighting with me’. Carter intrinsically links sex with violence/death in this setting foreshadowing the contents of the ‘enfer’ the narrator finds at the end.

The Erl King: ‘The woods swallows you up’, the woods reminds the reader of the consuming nature of male-female relations which is a trope that runs throughall Carter’s short stories. It has also been suggested that Erl King is in the liminal state of being half man and half forest with his hair like ‘dead leaves’ suggesting the fate of the protagonist as the woods ‘enclose’ her. The description of the ‘vertical bars’ and the ‘sulphur yellow interstices’ are used to remind the reader of the female protagonist’s entrapment. ‘Sulphur’ inliterary tradition is a substance associated with hell enhancing the danger that the narrator is exposed to.

Not too sure about Faustus, need to do some more work on that one :redface:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 197

sophie0098

1

Hi, I am studying Frankenstein, The Bloody Chamber and the Pardoner"s Tale.

Does anyone have any essays they would be willing to share?

Reply 198

OyinkanO