AQA English Literature 'Love Through the Ages' help

Hi, I'm in Y13. The exam for paper 1 is on the 14th. Does anyone have any good resources or their own notes or analysis of marriage or passion in The Great Gatsby and Pre-1900s poetry?
On relationships between women in Othello?
I've looked in my revision booklet and on some online resources, but the amount they talk about for these themes is very limited, not really something you could write an essay on.
Any help is really appreciated! Thank you!

Hii, I do the exact same paper on the 14th!
A resource I used to get high marks (usually 18-22 marks on each question) is Jen Chan on Youtube. She deeply analyses both Othello and Gatsby - including contexts. I also use ChatGBT to make vague connections between Gatsby & poetry and expand upon it by myself.
As repetitive as it sounds, making plans for literally any question is so helpful, especially questions that will make a bunch of students wet themselves like a Roderigo or Cassio question. You don't reaaaaally have to write them up if you cba but it's also helpful if you really struggle with the question so then you have practice for it and the worst case scenario happens during the exam with a poopie question.
An Othello quote I LOVE that not many people use is with Cassio and Bianca where Cassio loses his job and he uses anaphora with the repetition of "reputation" - whereas Bianca discovering that Cassio is injured repeats "Cassio" (both 3x in their respective quotes). This compares their loyalty, reputation, priorities and societal expectations based on gender so it can be applied to a bunch of questions. Plus not many students use it so it's seen as original.
Any other questions, I'd be happy to help!! You got this man!!

That average is insanely good, good job!!
I also hated Gatsby when I first started, but your comparison is great! However I wouldn't really argue that Gatsby has an emotional attachment to Daisy, I would more say it's the emotional attachment to what she represents (and how he was first attracted to her house rather than her). So you could say Fitzgerald is critical on how marriage is emotionally void, and how romance in general is too because none of the characters have a pure and true connection - only a superficial one (Tom and Daisy's "natural air of intimacy" and how Gatsby felt "married to her" after having sex).
I have no clue if this even makes sense haha, I've been doing practice questions all morning so my heads kind of fried. But I wouldn't say it's a stretch, if anything it's a really good analysis and original view!

It does make sense, and that's a good point, I always forget to mention that I do not think Gatsby is emotionally attached to Daisy but rather to everything she represents to him. I love using the part when she 'vanished into her rich house' as a means that that is the last image that Gatsby has of her, an image that encapsulates all that he desires.
I like the connection to Fitzgerald and critiquing marriage as emotionally void. I was thinking this could link to The Garden of Love, the critique of the institution, the repression of love and desire, particularly with the graves where the flowers were supposed to be and binding with briars [my] joys and desires. I think there could be potential, especially when linking Victorian and 1920s outlook in marriage as transactional rather than based on love.
I genuinely prefer paper 2.

That's actually a really good point. I think with the Garden of Love Blake comments on the loss of innocence and passion, how the institution ruins the natural order. Maybe idealising of memories would link well to Gatsby's obsession and idealisation of the past, particularly in the way it feeds his desire and attachment to the pursuit of the American Dream.
I actually like Thomas Hardy's poems, I don't always get to use them(I use The Ruined Maid when I can), I think At Ann Inn can also mark the institution oppressing individuals, the way marriage interferes with real love(or objects of desire as in Gatsby), in a similar way with Hardy and Florence Henniker.
I have only recently started to like using TGoL. I mean Whoso list would work, similar concept as at an inn, and ae fond kiss.
I've been looking over passion for a while so my train if thought is not exactly on the theme of marriage, it wouldn't be too bad a question tbh.

What questions do you think are likely to come up? I've been going over marriage, passion, different experiences of live, separation, and time for Gatsby.
I think Othello is very likely to be relationships between women, if not it could be Cassio and Bianca, they've done Iago 3 years in a row, but there's every chance they could do him again, but I think they done as much as they with his character for now.
I actually quite like using Non Sum Qualis for adultery ('bought red mouth', 'I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.'), the ode form is also great to explore as an irony. You can also link it to Victorian decadence (I like talking about the Victorian context, I've read quite the fair bit of Victorian literature, I quite like the time period for context).
I actually haven't thought about The Garden of Love for a while, but recently I've gone over it, the religious imagery, the critique of the institution, the suffocation of love and desire, I think it can link really well.
I hear many people use Whoso and Sonnet 116, I try to avoid Sonnet 116 if I can help it, 1 Shakespeare peace is enough for me 😅. Not many people I know do At An Inn though.

Ooh, I haven't thought about loss of love, but that seems like a good theme to go for. I am absolutely hoping one of the options will be a good one. I have been going over the question about how the writers use the endings of their texts to present ideas about love for the last 2 years in hopes to prepare for the worst, if anything like that came up I genuinely don't know how I'd react.
I feel like they've focused on Iago so much I'd hate to write about him. Jealousy being a central theme and never being asked is actually really suspicious, they haven't asked a theme question in a while, if it isn't about women or characters it has so much potential to be a question. I should probably make a plan for that.
I'm think of doing an entire paper mock just before, I could actually have a go at writing an essay for love and loyalty.
I've gotten better with unseen poetry, but it is such a liability. Though I think celebration of love or something about love an happiness could come up, it has been a while since they did anything about happiness and love (I've got an entire spreadsheet of the questions to track the trend, it looks like it could be the theme, unless they just do something random like with the 2021 and significance of the rose.
I'm going to study biology. My subject choices are really random. If I didn't do bio I would have probably gone for lit. I picked it since I liked lit at GCSE and just love reading in general. What about you?

I should definitely do an ending or beginning practice essay or plan because that would be such a stinker in the exam for both Othello & Gatsby. Doing a mock is actually a good shout, I think I might do it in my 3hr free tomorrow to get my speed down so if you do it too then good luck!!
I think the fact that they haven't done a theme is also really suspicious but then again how many themes can they ask?? Jealousy, war, gender and revenge but in that is so broad that I think that they wouldn't want it to be that 'easy'. Your spreadsheet is such a good idea icl, especially for unseen with the happiness question being a contender because I also feel like they're so pessimistic in the unseen part. I remember doing a practice unseen one in class where they focused the question on botanical imagery and that hurt my soul so bad, I really hope it's not that specific.
Biology sounds cool though, and it has sm pathways! I'm doing criminology at Durham, but like you I would've picked lit but there's no careers really that aren't teaching and I'm not built for that as much as I would've preferred to do lit.

I haven't even though about beginnings, though what could be said about them, unless you look at Nick's portrayal of Gatsby. Though I guess it could invite discussion with where you decide the text begins, it could be the literal begining, or it could be the begining of Gatsby's story itself.
I definitely need to do a mock, I don't know if I'll get any feedback on them, but it's still good practice.
I mean themes are very limited. But they done worship and hate, love and loyalty, so I guess they could do jealousy, but when they pick a character at least they give you a bit of help with the direction of the argument.
Honestly I think they have been so pessimistic, I hope they do something more positive, it doesn't all have to be so morbid. Also, botanical imagery?? I think I might just break down if I saw that.
I think lit could be an interesting subject, but I have no interest in teaching children. I love reading, but I also want a job, one that doesn't involve children, some of them can be nice, just not any that I have encountered. I actually find disease pathology and drug discovery interesting. Criminology sounds interesting, what do you do in it?

I 100% agre with the first statement. If it did happen I pray to whoever is up there that the second question is a good one. These things genuinely terrify me, but some people really do well on these papers otherwise the grade boundaries would not be so high, which is all the more concerning.
Definitely, a character question is better than a theme. I struggle with questions when they invite a debate an I just come up with so many points, there's 1 hour to write that essay.
I go to a sixth form so I've seen plenty of children in the hallways to know I will not go into teaching lower school. A while ago I entertained the idea of teaching A level or uni, that wouldn't be the worst, but I feel there is so much more potential in the industry compared to the education system, whatever they are doing there is not working.
Disease pathology is basically studying the essential nature of disease and how they are caused, develop and the effect they have. Drug discovery basically focuses on the development of new drugs to combat disease. I wouldn't mind going into vaccine research, I did an EPQ on mandating vaccinations particularly concerning tuberculosis, one of my favourite things to have talked about.
That does sound quite interesting. I'm assuming you study psychology as well?
I think it's a really cool subject, I love the study of people.Is there anything in particular you'd want to specialise in in the field if you don't mind me asking?

It would definitely be something great to talk about. I did a predicted question a few days ago it said something about all the three women being wronged by their men, and then how does Shakespeare presents the relationship between Emilia and Desdemona. I'm ngl I was a little disappointed that the question limited it to the two women, especially when the quote talked about Bianca, I would have loved to write about her, though I didn't know what I would say about her without derailing the argument.
Yeah I don't particularly like going to lessons when there are a bunch of children everywhere, I think it's the fact they scream like they are being sacrificed that is worse than them saying random nonsense.
Exactly, I enjoy reading, analysing words and people within them, understanding a story to its core from every angle, but to teach it feels like an injustice, you cannot just condense something so complex and beautiful into "Explore how Shakespeare presents Macbeth as violent" (granted I don't really care how they teach Shakespeare, the only play I ever liked was Hamlet. Othello is nice but the only quote I really like from it, as weird as it is, is "speak for my heart is full").
I absolutely loved my EPQ (more than my NEA anyway, I compared Picture if Dorian Grey to Sons and Lovers, the only thing I learnt from that is to never read D.H Lawrence again).
I always find it intriguing when people can read others really well, I literally cannot, probably because I do not hang around people that much.
I love knowing how life functions, I live knowing the architecture of life if you will. I find myself always asking why living beings do what they do, whenever I do something in school and get told you do not need to know that for the exam I find myself wanting to know more. I want to understand life as best as I can. To be honest I also love knowing how diseases work and how to best prevent them, how to improve the living condition and help people or animals live as best as they can. I don't know if this made sense, but basically I'm just a curious person with a hyper fixation on anything biological.

Exactly. I feel she is always overlooked. I made up my own question, literally discuss how Shakespeare presents women in the play, that way I can talk about them all.
The isolation point, love that. Since it's a predicted question there is no mark scheme, I wouldn't say it is a stretch. Thinking about it I think I could rework that essay, like I talked about Desdemona and basically how she is paradoxical, how Emilia and Desdemona are both similar and different which is how they form an intimate bond, but I would have loved to bring in Bianca, at least to talk about how she has been isolated by everyone, even the women turn on her.
I don't know what it is about Shakespeare that I don't like (I don't like Gatsby more, but that's because the women are presented as limited and shallow, whether intentional or not. Everything in that book is superficial and flat, even Gatsby's love, if you can call it that is tainted by pursuit of wealth). Maybe he's just not a writer for me, I do like the proto feminist part about him though. I probably need to read or watch more of his work, I've only read Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. I've focused so much on 1800s literature, it's one of my favourite periods, it's a cliche but I love Austen's work.
What did you do your NEA about? I did mine on parental influences on the protagonists.
I actually quite like Importance of Being Earnest, I found it quite humourous. Though I think I'm glad I analysed his novel not a play. What did you hate about it?
That is such a philosophical way of putting it, I don't know if you can ever come to know why life is, but I would definitely love to come close to it (that'll probably never happen, but a girl can dream).