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AQA English Lit Romeo and Juliet and Christmas Carol

Just wondering, what other people thought about these questions. The fact that AQA used Sampson and Gregory, characters that only appeared once in the play overall which was near the beginning of the play is laughable. There was so many other characters that we could've answered a question on or a theme but nooo.

Reply 1

ht8118

For romeo and juliet is it okay to say the aggression was presented between lord caplet and juliet? Instead of actually saying aggression is presented as e.g. dangerous.

Reply 2

XxM3GxX

Original post by ht8118

For romeo and juliet is it okay to say the aggression was presented between lord caplet and juliet? Instead of actually saying aggression is presented as e.g. dangerous.

Don't worry I did that. I basically said about how he refers to her as a possession; when she refuses to marry Paris, Capulet says that he will throw he out on the streets and will never acknowledge her nor will she keep the family name.

Reply 3

haseebj49

Original post by ht8118

For romeo and juliet is it okay to say the aggression was presented between lord caplet and juliet? Instead of actually saying aggression is presented as e.g. dangerous.

I wrote about aggression when...
Tybalt dies
Lord Capulet and Juliet argue
The servants Sampson and Gregory argue
and Tybalt entrance to the same scene.
A few quotes here and there so I don't think it went too bad. :smile:

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 4

XxM3GxX

Original post by haseeb_jarral786

I sort of wrote about the stuff you have listed. To be honest it seemed like the scene they picked was too simplistic, there was only a few things you could talk about from the extract. And then gathering ideas regarding aggression. I wish it was to do with a theme or a certain character, I have mixed feelings about that question.

Reply 5

haseebj49

Original post by XxM3GxX

How did the Christmas carol question go? I thought it was harsh of them to include the same stuff as the mock as no one prepared for it...

Reply 6

username2953756

I didn't know what to talk about for A Christmas Carol so I just said that the Cratchit family don't need money to be happy and they're rich in love and happiness as opposed to money. I also said how Dickens also experienced poverty when he was growing up and yeah what did everyone else put?

Reply 7

chicken123456789

Original post by joeyfrazier

in the extract said they were embarrassed about poverty when they "blushed" at the pudding, tiny tim was withered and little which shows poverty, however they were also still happy which shows they aren't struggling that much.

For the rest of the extract only did 2 paragraphs on how the cratchit's describe scrooge as a "dark shadow" over them and how they are denied "opportunities of innocent enjoyment"

then basically linked all of those to how dickens was a socialist and the upper classes neglected the poor

Reply 8

XxM3GxX

Original post by haseeb_jarral786

How did the Christmas carol question go? I thought it was harsh of them to include the same stuff as the mock as no one prepared for it...

I agree, I thought it was very harsh. I talked about how they were rich in love and happiness as a family. Also how the Crachit family represents Dickens and his life when he was younger. I added how the Crachit family was still respectful of Scrooge although he was never nice to Bob until the latter part of the play. Also threw in a few points about Scrooge and how he contrasts to the family, 'solitary as an oyster' and 'hard and sharp as flint'. I also added futher context and talked about Scrooge talking about the poor 'decrease the surplus population" which related to the Malthusian theory of overpopulation. To be honest I feel like I didn't do as well as I could have done, I didn't know how to answer the question really... How about you?

Reply 9

XxM3GxX

Original post by joeyfrazier

I talked about how they were rich in love and happiness as a family. Also how the Crachit family represents Dickens and his life when he was younger. I added how the Crachit family was still respectful of Scrooge although he was never nice to Bob until the latter part of the play. Also threw in a few points about Scrooge and how he contrasts to the family, 'solitary as an oyster' and 'hard and sharp as flint'. I also added futher context and talked about Scrooge talking about the poor 'decrease the surplus population" which related to the Malthusian theory of overpopulation. I also threw in about classes as well as the theme of transformation as the Crachit family did have an influence on Scrooges transformation (mainly Tiny Tim). I feel like I wrote a bunch of nonsense really, I don't think I done well.

Reply 10

haseebj49

Original post by XxM3GxX

I'm sure you did well :smile:

I went along the same lines and used around 5 quotes all linking to the contrast between Scrooge and the family.
I managed to include my favourite quote: "solemnised it with an undoubted bargain" :u:

even though it didn't have much to do with the topic. I waffled on about Scrooge too much though as that was basically what I had revised.
From the extract, I talked about the happiness of the family and linked it to context saying that Dicken's lost his father when he was imprisoned. Also, Scrooge dislikes Fred and his isolation.
Not much to do with the Cratchit family but it did sort of link together... :smile:

Reply 11

XxM3GxX

Original post by haseeb_jarral786

I'm sure you did well :smile:

I went along the same lines and used around 5 quotes all linking to the contrast between Scrooge and the family.
I managed to include my favourite quote: "solemnised it with an undoubted bargain" :u:

Love the quote! I would've never remembered that :s-smilie:

. I really only revised Scrooge and themes. I'm sure you did great! :biggrin:

Reply 12

haseebj49

Original post by XxM3GxX

Love the quote! I would've never remembered that :s-smilie:

. I really only revised Scrooge and themes. I'm sure you did great! :biggrin:

Thank you. I went into the exam only knowing 10 quotes in total... Seemed to pick the good ones though!

Reply 13

that_guy874

For Romeo & Juliet, I talked about Mercutio and his masculine honour and linked that as more powerful than fate for Romeo when he kills Tybalt.

I also put that male behaviour was presented as crude in the extract because of the innuendos

Reply 14

MChambers

For ACC I made the point of at the end of the extract it says Bob Cratchit 'dreaded that [Tiny Tim] might be taken from him'. 'taken' here has a double meaning - either Tiny Tim's death, or possibly him being taken away literally (as in to a workhouse). This suggests that either possibility is as bad as the other and emphasises the threat/ awfulness of the workhouses. It also makes it more relatable for the upper-middle class audience - Dicken's believed that much of society was simply ignorant, like Scrooge, of the poverty in London and the circumstances of the destitute.

But that was my only good point really loool.

Did anyone else do Macbeth? How did you find it?

Reply 15

Student From TSR

I wrote about:

- The feud where Mercutio and Tybalt die
- Lord Capulet screaming at Juliet
- The extract

(Not in that order lol)

The silly thing is that men weren't aggressive, they just liked defending their name (and so did the women, but they weren't allowed weapons) - just think of Benvolio, he is not aggressive!!

Reply 16

meggo

Romeo and Juliet was just cruel. We were told to expect a question on a main character or theme and none of our mocks have had anything like that, threw a lot of people off in my school when they were faced with male aggression. I don't understand why they didn't make the question on conflict seen as that's actually a theme. At the very least they could have given a better extract then that. What a joke. Think it really says something when there's more to say for elsewhere than in the extract

So much for the first year being easy

Reply 17

aneeka2000

In the Romeo and Juliet question they gave you a scene regarding Sampson and Gregory. Sampson says "my naked weapon" , although he means his sword (as they were amidst a 'fight') , but what he says has a double meaning. I wrote that "my naked weapon" refers to his private parts. The fact that Sampson refers to his private parts as a weapon shows male dominance as he uses this against Gregory who acts as a woman. Gregory says "I fear thee!" (He acts as the woman and pretends that he is scared of Sampson as he is the man and uses his "naked weapon" against women). This links to the patriarchal society during the Elizabethan era because men dominated over women- women had no say in anything and had to act obedient towards men leading to the woman being powerless and fearing men as they had no power.
I wrote that Shakespeare presents this light hearted scene using comical characters to emphasise the extent of male dominance - male dominance is laughed about and to enlighten the audience as the play is filled with dramatic tension as it is inferred by the prologue as they are fated to die
Then I wrote for the rest of the play about lord capulet against Juliet, and romeos aggressive male behaviour killing tybalt and the idea that Romeo shapes his own fate, his aggressive male behaviour creates another barrier between him and Juliet, etc
^ I didn't write it like that obviously I wrote it properly
And for a Christmas carol I looked at the question and I was like ****. Romeo and Juliet i understand so much and with Christmas carol I'm just like wtf
But for acc I wrote in the extract about the direct comparison dickens make as it is stated in the extract a custard cup without a handle but then quickly contrasted with a golden goblet, so dickens did this to emphasise the huge gap between the rich and the poor and I talked about his intentions etc. I wrote about external struggles dickens presents using the cratchit family as a representative of the poor to show how they struggle with their wealth but also internal struggles as bob says something about holding tiny tims hand and wishing he doesn't go or something like that (can't remember the quote). It shows how the cratchit family suffer so much more than what the rich simply think it is and when comparing it to the rest of the novel my mind literally went blank and I had no quotes and I had to paraphrase and describe a scene and I didn't even finish that paragraph or the conclusion. I messed up in acc and bc of that I think I got a 6 :frown: