Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

OCR A2 English Literature exam. F663. Othello, Duchess of Malfi and The Pardoner's t

Scroll to see replies

Helloo, Do you know if there is there anything like this for Othello, Faustus or Paradise lost? Thanks

I really like this reading of Paradise Lost Book 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIVmQ9i3zhc&feature=plcp

But it only goes to line 124.

Maybe give these a go:
http://librivox.org/paradise-lost-by-john-milton/
http://librivox.org/othello-by-william-shakespeare/
http://librivox.org/the-tragical-history-of-doctor-faustus-by-christopher-marlowe/
(I haven't actually checked them out but they're done by the same 'librivox' group)

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 41

Manisha93

Original post by LeSacMagique

Thank you so so much. The Librivox links however, what are they? audio files?

Reply 42

LeSacMagique

Original post by Manisha93

Thank you so so much. The Librivox links however, what are they? audio files?

Yeah, they're MP3s you can download. (Except for the links that say 'ogg vorbis', they're in another format.) You could have one on your iPod/MP3 player if you're keen enough--imagine that...

Reply 43

Manisha93

Original post by LeSacMagique

Yeah, they're MP3s you can download. (Except for the links that say 'ogg vorbis', they're in another format.) You could have one on your iPod/MP3 player if you're keen enough--imagine that...

hahaha, thanks again! hows your revision going?

Reply 44

LeSacMagique

Original post by Manisha93

hahaha, thanks again! hows your revision going?

You're welcome! I'm not sure. I am taking this day off to celebrate the halfway point through my exams. I'm never entirely sure how to revise for English so I'm just reading through the texts, preparing essay plans, and making cheat-sheets of quotes.

Reply 45

Manisha93

Original post by LeSacMagique

sounds productive aha :') oooooh okayy, good luck in your exams!

Reply 46

zog

Original post by Manisha93

I am also doing this exam - But doing Faustus and Paradise lost, in addition to Othello. Our teacher has basically taught us nothing. Really really starting to panick!

If anyone has any typed up notes or anything they wouldnt mind sending me then that would be much appreciated! Thank you

Ahh me too! I'm more worried about Othello though. I don't have any notes, but if you can get hold of Peter Western's analysis of Paradise Lost that's really useful, it might be online somewhere :smile:

Does anyone know anything useful to put in for AO4 in the Milton and Faustus part? Thanks

Reply 47

Manisha93

Original post by zog

Does anyone know anything useful to put in for AO4 in the Milton and Faustus part? Thanks

Thank you! I will be sure to have a look. I havent started english revision yet due to other exams so no sorry, Ill let you know though :smile:

Reply 48

LeSacMagique

Original post by zog

Does anyone know anything useful to put in for AO4 in the Milton and Faustus part? Thanks

A good thing to talk about in terms of AO4 is Renaissance cosmology--the structure of the universe and the "Chain of Being" and all that. There's a good page on it here: http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/medievalcosmology.htm

Basically the idea was that every being had its own allotted place in the universe, with God on top, beasts and plants on bottom, and man somewhere in-between. Faustus could be said to try to break out of this structured universe and climb up the 'chain of being'--like Faustus says, "A sound magician is a demi-god". Faustus also asks Mephistopheles about the structure of the universe and about a lot of the concepts talked about in that article I linked like God as 'primum mobile'. As for Satan, you could talk about how he refuses to accept that God should occupy the top of the 'chain of being', and how, like Faustus, he seeks to break the chain and defy the confines of that structured universe.

Reply 49

snow leopard

Original post by LeSacMagique

"A sound magician is a demi-god".

I had it down as "mighty god"...

Reply 50

LeSacMagique

Original post by snow leopard

I had it down as "mighty god"...

One of the differences between the A-text and the B-text.

Reply 51

Harry.K

has anyone got any practice essays on othello. and comparison between dr faustus and paradise lost that I could use as guidance please?

Reply 52

shaniee

I really need a B in this exam i have been revising for the last 7 wks secretly i want an A though. I have reserched what the question mite be but had no luck. All i know is a question about Othello and Iago will not come up as it already came up this year kinda :frown:

about that would have done so well. So my bet is on Racism which would be quiet boring or Emilia and Iago's relationship.
Good luck to you all :smile:

Reply 53

rocknrollnerd

Hey, I'm doing othello, malfi and Donne, and Ao2 is my weakest area- does anyone have any good complex language analysis point that I can just memorise and slip into my essay? I'm only good at ao3/4/1 :frown:

Thanks!

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 54

dione

Anyone got any good predictions for the Compare and Contrast section?

Reply 55

JEFFERSON

What would the questions actually be on Iago and Emilia's relationship?
BTW I made a thread where we could just focus on Othello questions http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2032048

Reply 56

cerrr

Original post by JEFFERSON

What would the questions actually be on Iago and Emilia's relationship?
BTW I made a thread where we could just focus on Othello questions http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2032048

Maybe something like 'Emilia is simply an extension of Iago. How far are her actions and their relationship equally responsibly for Othello's fall as Iago himself's actions?'

Reply 57

Harry.K

I really struggle to nail A02- how do people manage to talk about language, form and structure to the level of band 6?

Reply 58

LeSacMagique

Original post by Harry.K

I really struggle to nail A02- how do people manage to talk about language, form and structure to the level of band 6?

My teacher liked this, from a question about 'the struggle with God' (it goes on into a bit of AO3 at the end):
The first question has to be what the nature of the ‘struggle’ in each text is. In Faustus there seem to be two struggles: between Faustus and the divine or infernal agents who try to sway him alternately into sin and into repentance, and between the forces of Hell and Heaven. The dual nature of the struggle is encapsulated in Faustus’ response to the Old Man’s plea that he repent – ‘I do repent, and yet I do despair. // Hell strives with grace for conquest in my breast.’ The syntactic parallelism of ‘I do repent’ and ‘I do despair’ suggests just how even-sided Faustus’ struggle is. ‘Conquest’ has connotations of wider warfare between good and evil that are picked up on elsewhere in the text: Marlowe very often describes Lucifer and his crew in terms of military hierarchy and government, with Lucifer himself being ‘Arch-regent and commander of all spirits’, Mephistopheles his ‘minister’, Beelzebub his ‘companion prince’, and Faustus’ soul enlarging his ‘kingdom’. The terminology of nationhood used to describe Lucifer and his realm emphasises the warlike qualities of the struggle between Hell and Heaven: something that was picked up on in the 2011 Globe performance of the play, where the good and bad angels were dressed in military attire, complete with swords. This might be a somewhat clumsy way of making the point, perhaps, especially when compared with the subtler portrayal of the characters in productions where the angels have been represented by Faustus’ internal monologue, like the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1974 production, but it does show just how martially Marlowe’s depiction of the struggle can be read.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 59

NickyJWatkinson

I've found that for both Malfi and Donne essays and Othello essays, recurring imagery is a good way to slip AO2 in - stuff like "goats and monkeys" in Othello, which shows how Iago's influence on Othello is getting stronger because Othello is using animalistic imagery like Iago does, and this quotation is especially good to analyse because you can also make the point that a psychoanalytic critic would see the elision of Iago's words earlier ("were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, as salt as wolves in pride") as further evidence of his effect on Othello. There's also a LOT of black/white hell/heaven and military imagery throughout the play, which you could link to Othello's 'foreignness' and the domestic conflict throughout the play. :smile:

As for Malfi and Donne, our teacher said that anyone can compare quotations which mean the same thing, but if you can find ones with matching imagery and analyse it, that's A* - so things like Donne referring to women as angels or supernatural beings, and Antonio saying that the Duchess' "nights, nay more, her very sleeps, are more in heaven than other ladies' shrifts", can be compared, and you can comment on the specifically Catholic imagery used in both texts. Other ideas for Malfi/Donne - animals, religion, poison, heaven/hell and jewels (my personal favourite: "both th'Indias of spice and mine" -The Sun Rising: India - voyages of discovery, exotic; spice - exciting; mine - gold/jewel mine, comparing women to something valuable/precious, not very useful so you can mention misogynistic/patriarchal views at the time. Then you can contrast that with "you will discover what a wealthy mine I make you lord of" - Duchess to Antonio: "lord" might show that she wants him to control her - again, patriarchal society; "wealthy mine" shows that she is aware that she is valuable and a prize.)
Hope that helps you guys! :biggrin: