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Othello ccea english a level

I just sat the exam and i honestly cannot stop thinking about how bad of a question it was, how else did everyone find it? I am quite stressed out as I think my argument was incoherent and I didn’t make reference to any reoccurring motifs:frown:
Original post by faeim789
I just sat the exam and i honestly cannot stop thinking about how bad of a question it was, how else did everyone find it? I am quite stressed out as I think my argument was incoherent and I didn’t make reference to any reoccurring motifs:frown:

Hi I sat the othello exam as well. It was a difficult question. What way did you argue did you support the question or flip it?
Reply 2
Original post by evaoneill10
Hi I sat the othello exam as well. It was a difficult question. What way did you argue did you support the question or flip it?


I argued that at first a typical aristotelian tragic hero must be of noble birth and fall from prosperity to adversity in order to evoke an emphasised cathartic reaction at the end of the play. So at first I agreed with the statement saying that he is noble as his rank within Venetian society ennobles him and that his military exploits ennobled him in the eyes of both Desdemona and the audience, but because of racial stereotyping by Iago, his noble rank is diminished as he is not of noble birth. I then went onto say how if he was a noble man then he wouldn’t have such insecurity over his sense of honour etc and then i concluded that within the denouement of the play, our catharsis is limited because Othello was not of a noble birth to begin with and didn’t fall from such a high position therefore, I only agreed with the question to a certain extent :smile:
Reply 3
Original post by evaoneill10
Hi I sat the othello exam as well. It was a difficult question. What way did you argue did you support the question or flip it?


But also, I feel as if that question and the extract we were given was just actually terrible. My argument within the exam was very incoherent as I was panicking a lot but what about yourself? How did you argue it?
Original post by faeim789
But also, I feel as if that question and the extract we were given was just actually terrible. My argument within the exam was very incoherent as I was panicking a lot but what about yourself? How did you argue it?

I basically argued against it cause I talked about the downfall of the marriage and how othello continuously had to affirm his innocence in regard to his marriage with desdemona so I was practically saying he wasn’t noble enough. I feel like my arguments were loose but hopefully if everyone found it hard then grade boundaries will be okay!
Original post by evaoneill10
I basically argued against it cause I talked about the downfall of the marriage and how othello continuously had to affirm his innocence in regard to his marriage with desdemona so I was practically saying he wasn’t noble enough. I feel like my arguments were loose but hopefully if everyone found it hard then grade boundaries will be okay!

It was a hard question to form stable arguments for and I feel like i was waffling quite a bit.
Reply 6
Original post by evaoneill10
It was a hard question to form stable arguments for and I feel like i was waffling quite a bit.


no same my entire third and fourth point were so incoherent because i started panicking😭 it’s so annoying that the people who did king lear got such a good, simple question. Do you think that will effect the grade boundaries? because that would be so unfair
Original post by faeim789
no same my entire third and fourth point were so incoherent because i started panicking😭 it’s so annoying that the people who did king lear got such a good, simple question. Do you think that will effect the grade boundaries? because that would be so unfair

I know I have thought about that! Hopefully if they recognise that possibly the Othello marks were not as high as King Lear then they may make it fair to us but i’m not sure

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