GCSE English Literature Study Group 2024-25

This thread is a place you can connect with fellow students who are also studying English Literature at GCSE. Here we offer a space to support each other support as you prepare for your exams/coursework.
Feel free to share any helpful tips, resources, or advice you find along the way, and share any questions you have about the subject.
Help encourage others, celebrate your achievements, or simply vent when things get a bit overwhelming!
Lil serious note - just a reminder please be aware that sharing or requesting copyrighted materials is against our community guidelines, and moving conversations off-site for this purpose is not allowed. Posts violating these rules will be taken down.
To get started, here are a few questions to break the ice:

english is the only subject i cant do. I do eduqas for english, poems im fine bcus i use anki for quotations, it’s just macbeth, Inspector Calls and A christmas carol. I was thinking about just learning grade 9 answers for all themes and characters for all three instead of learning quotations bcus idk how to write them in answer form. Idk what to do but ive got 3 weeks. Pls anyone thats grade 9 help. I’m Predicted 7 7 but im at a 5 6, aiming for 9s.

This thread is a place you can connect with fellow students who are also studying English Literature at GCSE. Here we offer a space to support each other support as you prepare for your exams/coursework.
Feel free to share any helpful tips, resources, or advice you find along the way, and share any questions you have about the subject.
Help encourage others, celebrate your achievements, or simply vent when things get a bit overwhelming!
Lil serious note - just a reminder please be aware that sharing or requesting copyrighted materials is against our community guidelines, and moving conversations off-site for this purpose is not allowed. Posts violating these rules will be taken down.
To get started, here are a few questions to break the ice:

How many quotes should a memorise for poems for a guaranteed 9, bcus im memorising 9-12 quotes for each poem (around 18 poems i think) and then i see people saying they memorise “4 quotes + structure” for each poem.

4 quotes + structure is better as you can memorise detailed analysis more than doing 9 per poem
Remember you still got the other three texts and unseen to revise
If you do power and conflict most likely nature poem like storm on the island or prelude

when talking about structure, you mean like rhyming couplets ect?

Yeah, plus enjambment ( the continuation of a sentence at the end of a line, couplet or a stanza) and also the narrative voice (perspective of story - who is talking), anaphora (repetition), juxtaposition, free verse (no rhyme), alliteration, assonance.
Make sure for each you know how this links to the poem, key themes, the quotes ect.

does anyone do edexcel english and do they know the section A questions from the 2024 paper

How many quotes should a memorise for poems for a guaranteed 9, bcus im memorising 9-12 quotes for each poem (around 18 poems i think) and then i see people saying they memorise “4 quotes + structure” for each poem.

Hey everyone! Hope you're feeling ok about next week's exam
I just wanted to send over the exam chats for Monday's exams if you're not already in them - hopefully they will be handy to chat about specifics in!
AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 1
OCR GCSE English Literature Paper 1
Edexcel GCSE English Literature Paper 1
WJEC GCSE English Literature Unit 1 (Foundation)
WJEC GCSE English Literature Unit 1 (Higher)
Good luck and we're here if you need us
Tagging in everyone who posted in this thread

Hi! I just joined the website, and wanted to find some info and help leading up to the exams next week. I'm taking AQA English Lang and Lit, and wanted to join the exam chat you just posted, except it's not letting me view the page. Can you tell me what I need to do to join the thread? Thank you!

This is my paper 1 english literature practice paper. I do Jekyll and hyde and romeo and Juliet and this is the 2018 paper. This paper got a 60/64
Shakespeare presents relationships between adults and young people in Romeo and Juliet as initially supportive but ultimately unreliable, as, towards the start of the play, adults seem more understanding and supportive of the lovers, but by the end, the adults had betrayed their trust or failed them, ultimately leading to their tragic deaths.
In the extract, the relationship between Juliet and her father appears to be strained because Juliet refuses to marry Paris. Unknowing to Lord Capulet, Juliet had married Romeo Montague, who was from their rival family. Lord Capulet saw this as complete disobedience, which was almost unheard of in Elizabethan England because children were taught to obey their parents. His disobedience worsened his grief (as he had just lost his nephew, Tybalt) and sparked his anger. This is shown when Lord Capulet insults Juliet, calling her ‘you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage! You tallow-face’. The use of tricolon emphasises Lord Capulet’s anger at Juliet for not complying as she was supposed to, while the repetition of ‘you’ emphasises that he is talking to Juliet. His calling her ‘tallow-face’ and a ‘green-sickness carrion’ talks about how pale her complexion is and likens her to rotten flesh, foreshadowing her death later on. It is as if in his anger, he cursed his daughter, which led to the tragedy of her death. However, this is also the only way that Lord Capulet can see to it that Juliet is taken care of when he dies. Especially because Tybalt had just died. If Juliet were left alone to fend for herself, she would die as well because the patriarchal society held women in low regard, ending the Capulet bloodline, which was the nightmare of every high-ranking nobleman. He thought that if he married her off to another man, she would live a comfortable life.
This completely juxtaposes Lord Capulet’s relationship with her in Act 1, Scene 2, where he is reluctant to make Juliet marry Paris at such a young age. This was shown when he said, ‘let two more summers wither in their pride ere we may think her ripe to be a bride’. Here he tells Paris to wait 2 more years so that she is not ‘marred’ because she married ‘too soon’. This shows how caring and concerned Lord Capulet was about his daughter, and while fathers of that time cared about the quality of their daughters as a commodity (or bride), they never cared enough to halt or slow down the sales of their daughters. This distinguishes Lord Capulet from the typical Elizabethan father, painting him in a positive light, which Shakespeare uses to set the stage for his betrayal. The use of the adjective ‘ripe’ compares Juliet to a sweet fruit; however, it also objectifies her, showing that while he cares for her, he still sees her as a commodity that will later be sold off to increase his social status. This shows that the relationship between Juliet and Lord Capulet is mainly contractual.
In the play as a whole, Shakespeare presents the relationship between old and young people as one of genuine love through the relationship between the nurse and Juliet. The nurse is presented as Juliet’s maternal figure who has been taking care of Juliet since she was a ‘babe’. This completely juxtaposes the relationship between Juliet and her mother which is presented as cold and almost non-existent as it wasnt common at the time for mothers to have a close bond with their children because they had only one job which was to produce more children. This contrast is shown when Shakespeare writes ‘I think it best you married with the county…Romeo’s a dishclout to him’ when the nurse was telling Juliet to marry Paris instead of mourning Romeo’s banishment and disobeying her father even though she supported Romeo and Juliet’s relationship. This shows that she is willing to change her alliance if it makes Juliet’s life easier. The nurse’s tone is gentle when she says ‘I think it best you married with the county’ and humorful when she says ‘Romeo’s a dishclout to him’ which suggests that she is trying to let Juliet down nicely. The use of the verb ‘think’ connotes a suggestion which shows that the nurse isn’t forcing her beliefs on Juliet while the use of the superlative adjective ‘best’ suggests that she has Juliet's best interest at heart when she gives her advice. However the nurse’s gentle tone is juxtaposed with Lady Capulet’ curt tone which is shown when Shakespeare writes ‘talk not to me for I’ll not speak’ after Lady Capulet had delivered the message that Juleit was to marry Paris. The use of the phrase ‘I’ll not speak’ suggests that she will not defend Juliet from her father but will leave her to fend for herself out of fear for what Lord Capulet would do to her if she did, painting her as a very selfish mother. This was because women at that time didn’t go against the word of men as it was a very patriarchal society. The use of the phrase ‘talk not’ suggests that Lady Capulet expects juliet to keep quiet and listen to her father Just as she listened to him which was common at the time because daughters were expected to always listen to their fathers.
In the play as a whole, Shakespeare presents the relationship between old and young people, one of guidance through the relationship between Romeo and Juliet and Friar Lawrence. The Friar offers support and gets Romeo and Juliet married in hopes that this will bring peace between the families but he is also part of the reason why they died because he failed to inform Romeo that Juliet want truly dead after she took the poison. The friar’s support for the ‘alliance’ is shown when Shakespeare writes ‘Thy assistant I’ll be ,for this alliance’. The use of the noun ‘assistant’ shows that he is willing to help them while the use of the noun ‘alliance’ suggests that he believes that the families would change from foes to allies and that it will turn the ‘household’s rancour to pure love’. The Elizabethan audience would have been appalled because the Friar who was a holy man was the cause of the death of the lovers because he helped them disobey their parents which was a sin and go against societal norms of the time such as unwavering familial loyalty. However, after Romeo was banished, he was unable to send the letter to Romeo saying that Juliet was not really dead and that it was just a ‘remedy’ to help her prevent her marriage to Paris because of an ‘infectious pestilence’ in ‘Mantua’. The use of the noun ‘remedy’ connotes a cure for an illness which is an irony because instead of providing a cure, he provided a poison. His inability to send the letter to Romeo is shown when Shakespeare writes ‘neglecting it may do much danger’. The use of the noun ‘danger’ foreshadows the death of the ‘star-cross’d lovers’ and shows that he is aware of the consequences of his actions. This shows how Friar's incompetence led to the death of the lovers and how the adults were unreliable to the young people, specifically the lovers.
In conclusion, Shakespeare uses the relationships between Romeo and the Friar and Juliet and the nurse, her mother and her father as initially supportive but ultimately unreliable leading to their tragic demise.
In the novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson creates tension and mystery through the description and the exploration of the character of Hyde and his questionable relationship with Jekyll.
In the extract, Stevenson creates mystery and tension through the pathetic fallacy of the fog, which represents Hyde. This is evident as the fog directs Mr Utterson to ‘the home of Henry Jekyll’s favourite’, Hyde. This is shown when Stevenson writes, ‘the fog lifted a little and showed him a dingy street’. The ‘fog’ represents secrecy, as it blocks views and creates mystery and tension, as the reader cannot see past what Stevenson wants them to see. He uses the Gothic conventions of mystery and setting to terrify the Victorian reader. The personification of this fog that ‘lifted’ and ‘showed’ Utterson the street makes it appear as if the fog, which represents Mr Hyde, wanted to show him the street where there were ‘ragged children’ and ‘many women…passing out’. This would terrify the Victorian readers who were afraid of the lower class corrupting people with their perceived immorality, such as drinking ‘a morning glass’ or having too much at a ‘gin-palace’, causing you to ‘pass(ing) out’. This emphasises the theme of continuous selective secrecy in the play and mirrors how Dr Jekyll wanted his evil indulgences to be kept secret for the sake of his reputation, while Hyde did them out in the open.
In the introduction of the novel, Stevenson creates a picture of the character Hyde as a foreboding character creating tension and mystery though his description. He describes him as ‘something down-right detestable’ after Hyde had ‘trampled’ in the little girl and Enfield was asked to describe him, which suggests that Hyde has the aura of something sinister. In particular, the use of the adjective ‘detestable’ connotes something evil and immoral, which was opposite of the expectations for a Victorian gentleman. He also uses the noun ‘something’ which suggests that there is no specific thing about Hyde that is immoral but that he just gives off a bad vibe. He also says that Hyde is ‘not easy to describe’, which links to his physical characteristics, suggesting that he looks abnormal, which is why he is evil, which links to Lombroso’s theory of criminality because people were suspicious of others who had certain facial features and often linked those features to criminal activities. Stevenson does this to create both fear and an enigma of the character Hyde, making him seem like someone with questionable morals, setting the stage for him before the narrator, Mr Utterson, has even met him.
In the beginning of the novel Stevenson uses Mr Utterson, who is the embodiment of all the values and characteristics of a Victorian gentleman, to describe Hyde. Mr Utterson, our narrator, meets Mr Hyde and more or less confirms Enfield’s description of him. Stevenson describes him as ‘hardly human’, which suggests that he might be a supernatural being, foreshadowing that he was born from Jekyll’s transcendental science. The use of the alliteration emphasises this and links to Enfield’s description of him as ‘not easy to describe’. Stevenson used the Gothic convention of the supernatural to terrify the Victorian reader. Additionally, he describes him as ‘Satan’s signature upon a face’, which once again links to Enfield’s description of Hyde as ‘down-right detestable’ and suggests that just the sight of him assures you that he is immoral. The use of the alliteration in ‘Satan’s signature’ emphasises that the mark of evil is on him, and like an artist, Satan has signed him, emphasising that he belongs to Satan and that he is like an embodiment of Satan on the earth. This would leave the Victorian reader appalled because strong morality was the ideal for any Victorian gentleman. Stevenson does this to solidify the description of Hyde as a sinister character capable of doing evil things such as murdering Sir Danvers Carew later on in the novella. He also preys on the fears of Victorian readers about corruption to create tension around the character Hyde as well as enigma, leaving the reader both afraid and curious about where he came from and what he is exactly.
Towards the end of the novel, Stevenson creates tension and mystery through the incident at the window where Utterson and Enfield saw what they shouldn’t have seen. This is shown when he writes, ‘they saw it but for a glimpse’. The use of the pronoun ‘it’ is very ambiguous and creates mystery about the thing that they saw at that point in the play while the use of the noun ‘glimpse’ suggests that they didn’t see the whole thing but only a small fraction of it which also creates mystery as at that point in the novel they aren’t completely sure about what they saw. Stevenson uses the Gothic conventions of mystery and suspense to prey of the fears of the Victorian reader and to create suspense. Additionally, Stevenson writes that they had ‘horror in their eyes’ which suggest the severity of the ‘glimpse’ that they say and terrifies the victorian reader by making them anxious about the the full picture of what happened. The use of the adjective ‘horror’ describes the level of fear that the ‘two gentlemen’ felt when they saw what happened, while the use of the noun ‘eyes’ suggests that the fear show is pure as the ‘eyes’ can be seen as the window to one’s soul and true emotions. The severity of their fear is further reinforced by their exclaimations ‘God forgive us!’ which suggests that what they have seen was so evil that they need to repent despite only being a spectator to the event. It could also illustrate how they could only find refuge in ‘God’ because what they was was just so terrifying. It also foreshadows that what they saw was not human but the supernatural outcome of Jekyll’s Transcendental science. Stevenson uses the Gothic conventions of the supernatural and storing emotions to create mystery, fear and tension around the incident at the window.
In conclusion, Stevenson uses settings, events and the character Hyde to create mystery and tension throughout the play.
Should I post my paper 2 as well?

woah thanks for sharing this- it's really helpful and welldone on the marks! 😯 if you wouldn't mind sharing paper 2 that would be amazing..

Guys ik thi sounds stupid but just prelearn essay plans and specific quotes that will fit the question nomatter what . when iv prewrriten my essays its the sane quotes and eplanation just differnt reasons as to why dickens or shakespear has done it i can send a plan if anyone is interested