AQA A-level English Literature B Paper 1 - 14th May 2025 [Exam Chat]

The willow song as the Othello extract really threw me off😭I loved the section C errors in judgment for Keats and salesman and the Othello essay on murder and killing was meh

ikk i feel like it was the worst part of the willow song like i was waiting for Emilia's feminist rant

The willow song as the Othello extract really threw me off😭I loved the section C errors in judgment for Keats and salesman and the Othello essay on murder and killing was meh

god i struggled with that othello extract... and seeriously... the section b ones? MURDER AND KILLING OR EMOTIONAL EXTREMES????? wtf😭 i think i did alright on section c comparing tess and death of a salesman but not my best work honestly i was hoping for a villain question ughghhhhh i hated it the willow song extract was dire i mean holy ****

yeah like we literally opened the paper and I just felt the mutual sense of "are we being fr aqa 😭" I spent too much time pulling apart anything i could out of that extract then wrote the worst section B about his "moderation" was it?? I found it almost impossible to use any methods other than a few stage directions and entrances/exits. But i feel like I've studied Othello in depth for 2 years to write the most odd, niche essays about irrelevant parts of the play/ themes. It was so hard to build arguments and I just hope my essays actually make sense because tbh I didnt have time to read them back.

I'm glad everyone agrees this paper was awful, I think it's the worst paper since 2020 since that's the oldest past paper I can find. Section B I went outside the box and said murder wasn't significant because that's the only way I could find to be perceptive and my families question was a MESS

Doesn't that seem counter-intuitive given that the entire plot drives towards their deaths resulting from a tragic downfall. How would you argue that? Genuinely curious.

i did a similar thing actually! i did how iago’s manipulations are maybe more significant than the killings themselves because it’s his manipulations that lead to them 🤷*♀️🤷*♀️ i really dk tho i feel like i might have just written myself into a bit of a mess 😭😭

I don't want to worry you and I understand your intent but surely you need to differentiate between killings and murder. To kill something is a neutral term as you simply take something's life whilst murder is an unlawful, premeditated killing with malicious intent. (e.g. Othello believes he is killing Desdemona as an act of justice as "she must die or else she'll betray more men" but in actuality he murders her as the audience is aware of her innocence and the tragedy in her death- her death has an emotional weight). Realistically, killing doesn't occur as Desdemona, Emilia and Roderigo are all murdered. However, you could debate if Othello kills himself or murders himself and if Roderigo is killed because their is no emotional weight to his death. Ultimately, the question is specifically worded to make the differentiation. You could argue that killings are insignificant as Shakespeare focuses on the morality buried within murder (he emphasises that the true tragedy lies not in death itself, but in the unjust, emotionally driven, and deceit-fueled acts of murder at the hands of Iago's machinations). Overall it's an interesting debate to be had I was just confused to this approach as arguing that killing and murder is insignificant means that Shakespeare conducted them for no reason? Hence the approach being counter-intuitive, no matter the argument there is still a massive, gaping hole in the middle of it.

holy **** 😭 kinda freaking out now icl i feel like i’ve completely ****ed up my entire exam 🥲🥲

If it offers you any comfort I forgot to speak about Keats in section C so I'm limited to band 4. I guess we both made silly mistakes. (Btw I went for the other question in section B as I found it a much easier question to answer). You've still got paper 2 and your NEA so don't worry about it at all.

What did you write about for that other question for section B? The one about Othello and feelings everything deeply. Sorry, I literally forgot how it was worded 🥲

The question was "Othello has no moderation: he loves and hates with the full force of his emotions". I agreed with the question, my thesis was premised on the idea that he feels with the full force of his emotions as a mechanism of self-preservation which is why he has no moderation. In using his emotions as a navigator to experience the world he can ignore his insecurity buried within his racial identity- as a result of himself and society. My paragraphs went a little like:
1) How and why he loves Desdemona with the full force of his emotions.
2) How and why he 'loves' (trusts) Iago with the full force of his emotions.
3) How and why he hates Desdemona with the full force of his emotions.
4) How and why he hates himself with the full force of his emotions (which he again buries within Iago).

holy **** 😭 kinda freaking out now icl i feel like i’ve completely ****ed up my entire exam 🥲🥲

The question was "Othello has no moderation: he loves and hates with the full force of his emotions". I agreed with the question, my thesis was premised on the idea that he feels with the full force of his emotions as a mechanism of self-preservation which is why he has no moderation. In using his emotions as a navigator to experience the world he can ignore his insecurity buried within his racial identity- as a result of himself and society. My paragraphs went a little like:
1) How and why he loves Desdemona with the full force of his emotions.
2) How and why he 'loves' (trusts) Iago with the full force of his emotions.
3) How and why he hates Desdemona with the full force of his emotions.
4) How and why he hates himself with the full force of his emotions (which he again buries within Iago).