A-Level AQA English Literature B Help x

So im doing Othello, Tess and Death of a salesman and im really struggling with my essay writing skills in terms of analysis and interpretations that are nuanced but still effective and I feel like I always run out of time in the exam so I really need to focus on the quality of my writing and not quantity. I’d really appreciate the help thanks

Reply 1

grah-

(I have absolutely yapped here, scroll to the bottom response if you want a rough idea of what to include, its not great but i havent revised this in like 2 months)

Hi, I'm currently aiming for a strong 9 at aqa eng lit gcse, I don't do these texts unfortunately, but I hope this will at least guide you a bit :smile:

I think to walk into the exam fully prepared, you need to know how you're going to write your response, and how your texts fit in it. My teacher usually offers a 'structure' where we need to ensure we make sure each point of ours answers "What?", "How?", "Why?", which covers the assessment objectives we'll be marked on our essays.

I'm basically going to try and split this prepared state into the 3 questions.

"What?"
In the mark scheme, I think it's stated you need a "judicious" range of references and quotes. In terms of where in the text, I never memorise the chapter or act/scene, i literally refer to what is actually happening at that exact moment in time and try to give a rough location of it. For example, "when Jekyll is recounting the narrative's events at the end of the novella, he declares that 'my devil had been long caged, he came out roaring'." Notice how I've: 1. embedded my quote in the sentence (it flows with the sentence), 2. I have said what is happening, 3. i have given a rough idea of when this is happening. This is basically your AO1 covered. My teacher calls this a topic sentence, I did this naturally but I remember them telling our class its a clear sign of a higher band response. Aim to deeply analyse 4-6 quotes, and perhaps have 1-4 lingering about which describe an effect of an analysed quote, they don't need to be analysed neccesarily, they just show a good range of quotes so that's even better. Maybe some examiners won't find 4/5 to be enough though.

"How?"
This is your AO2. Only choose to properly memorise quotes that have techniques, so many people I know memorise the weirdest quotes which will probably never be useful for analysis or context or just anything. I like to pick quotes that have 2 techniques, as I usually say the first technique shows __ and the other technique emphasises/re-inforces. Those underlined vocab are the kind of thing you need. It's basically another way of saying again/also, and if you can find this sort of thing a lot in your answers, its likely a sign of a detailed, insightful response. Another option is picking quotes which cover various themes - if you practice analysing the quote in diff ways to suit the differing themes, your answers for that quote in general will be a lot better and more detailed. I remember my first in-class assessment that was on the development of fear, and I literally showed how the other themes cause fear. Following this approach ensures you cover a wide range of the ideas the text has to offer effectively. If you can follow this approach well, finding various interpretations isn't neccesarily needed imo, as your explanations for each theme is basically an interpretation. Just try and find the links between themes, and then it becomes a lot easier to analyse quotes for various things. I literally only analysed 4 or 5 quotes in the test i mentioned earlier and got 30/30, which demonstrates this. I feel as though I could've explained this a lot better but in essence: find the themes and how they link, and practice analysing quotes in terms of the themes (and even better by saying one theme leads to another e.g. mystery -> fear), the interpretations will sort of come to you. I know that some quotes genuinely have differing ways to interpret, so you can always write about that, but if you can either pick one that suits the question the most or combine them, it'll probs save you time. Always identify word class (noun, adverb, etc), and use a wide range of words instead of shows and the typical (think: demonstrates, emphasises, depicts, illustrates, etc) The nuance you mentioned is obviously helpful in identifying higher band responses, but if you can get strong detail in, you should be fine. I feel I haven't covered some things here, but yeah..

"Why?"
This is your context,--

i honestly cba to type bc its late im so sorry but I'll just quickly type an example paragraph:

In Jekyll's reflection of the narrative's events and his actions, situated as a denoument of the novella, he describes Hyde overpowering him, declaring that "my devil had been long caged, he came out roaring". The use of the metaphor "devil" shows how much evil had accumulated within Jekyll, as there is great gravitas surrounding this noun, This is because the noun "devil" referred to an individual that was the opposition of god - a destructive, murderous force. This made a Victorian fear even uttering the word, as it generated this much anxiety around it. The verb "caged" implies Jekyll had attempted to supress his darker desires, which is what an ideal gentleman would do. The verb relates to the idea of enclosures and entrapment of animalistic entities, highlighting the monstrous nature of evil. What should be noted however, is that something trapped does not disappear - rather, it grows in impatience, desire, and greed, and the adjective [is it an adj?] "long" emphasises the great extent to which this malice has grown. The verb "roaring" is an example of this, extending the metaphors of evil and feral rage. This informs the reader of the great consequences of not acknowledging one's bad impulses, such as Jekyll's eventual demise and suicide. This would be quite perplexing to a Victorian readership, as a well-reputed gentleman such as Jekyll would not be expected to have such desires. This would therefore arouse great concern around a Victorian, as Stevenson is implying through this novella that everyone has secrets and unagreeable desires - many just put up a stance to hide this.
Just read my actual response in a past test and it was actually a lot better, so take this example w/ a pinch of salt..

I have essentially just waffled a lot here, so sorry 🙂 if you want have any specific qs, do ask, I'll try my best to help.

OH and don't use chatgpt to find quotes bc it lit makes them up

(I just realised you were asking about analysis and interpretations..)