Help with A Level English Lit Coursework Please!!!

I have to pick my books for my coursework section of my exam and I was thinking of doing The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde but I don't know what book to compare with but also what to explore. I may alternatively do Pride and Prejudice but I have the same issue of I don't know what book to compare and what theme to explore. Please help!!

Reply 1

TSR Jessica

19

Sorry you've not had any responses about this. :frown:

Are you sure you've posted in the right place? :smile:

Here's a link to our subject forum which should help get you more responses if you post there. :redface:

Reply 2

helpfindmybeans

9

Original post by theelearner_

I have to pick my books for my coursework section of my exam and I was thinking of doing The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde but I don't know what book to compare with but also what to explore. I may alternatively do Pride and Prejudice but I have the same issue of I don't know what book to compare and what theme to explore. Please help!!

Of the top of my head, I'd say Dracula would be a good comparison both due to the Gothic/horror genre and also more nuanced themes such as homosexuality. If you're struggling for a theme then try and think about what you enjoy or find interesting in Dorian Gray and try and find that sort of theme or technique in other works to compare

Reply 3

theelearner_

OP

1

Original post by TSR Jessica

Sorry you've not had any responses about this. :frown:

Are you sure you've posted in the right place? :smile:

Here's a link to our subject forum

which should help get you more responses if you post there. :redface:

Will do. Thank you

Reply 4

misseuropa

11

Original post by theelearner_

I have to pick my books for my coursework section of my exam and I was thinking of doing The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde but I don't know what book to compare with but also what to explore. I may alternatively do Pride and Prejudice but I have the same issue of I don't know what book to compare and what theme to explore. Please help!!

Hi! I did Wilde for CW but not Dorian Gray. My friend did Dorian Gray and she compared it to Christina Rossetti's poetry. Possible topics in general for DG may be about the supernatural, the gothic genre (I would narrow this to like gothic novels in the 19th/late 19th century), you may want to look at things such as sexuality (i'll try find out what my friend did hers on - it was similar to this). Maybe even looking at philosophies on life, Art, beauty, superficiality etc I know a few people who did Austen books. I didn't do Austen but the topic for my essay was marriage and obviously that applies really really well to Austen. You could compare P&P to Shakespeare texts, maybe even Wilde (I did The Importance of Being Earnest and Much Ado About Nothing), the Brontes would be good - gives you the opportunity to look at the importance of marriage in the 19th century. For my essay, I spoke about the importance of wealth/status/family when it comes to marriage and that's prevalent throughout Austen's (and the Brontes) work. If it helps, I just made lots of little plans when trying to decide on texts and a topic. I googled the text I was sure I wanted to do and looked for similar texts online to see what could be fun to compare. And also, the topic and theme may just come to you from that point. In my initial plan, I had various different themes I considered but once you actually start thinking about your texts and looking for comparisons, you'll see what theme comes out the strongest.

Reply 5

theelearner_

OP

1

Original post by misseuropa

Hi! I did Wilde for CW but not Dorian Gray. My friend did Dorian Gray and she compared it to Christina Rossetti's poetry. Possible topics in general for DG may be about the supernatural, the gothic genre (I would narrow this to like gothic novels in the 19th/late 19th century), you may want to look at things such as sexuality (i'll try find out what my friend did hers on - it was similar to this). Maybe even looking at philosophies on life, Art, beauty, superficiality etc I know a few people who did Austen books. I didn't do Austen but the topic for my essay was marriage and obviously that applies really really well to Austen. You could compare P&P to Shakespeare texts, maybe even Wilde (I did The Importance of Being Earnest and Much Ado About Nothing), the Brontes would be good - gives you the opportunity to look at the importance of marriage in the 19th century. For my essay, I spoke about the importance of wealth/status/family when it comes to marriage and that's prevalent throughout Austen's (and the Brontes) work. If it helps, I just made lots of little plans when trying to decide on texts and a topic. I googled the text I was sure I wanted to do and looked for similar texts online to see what could be fun to compare. And also, the topic and theme may just come to you from that point. In my initial plan, I had various different themes I considered but once you actually start thinking about your texts and looking for comparisons, you'll see what theme comes out the strongest.

This is so helpful. I’ll definitely do the comparison thing. Thank you so much

Help with A Level English Lit Coursework Please!!!

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you