English Language Paper 1: key info and resources

Hi folks,

I hope you're having a good rest after a manic couple of weeks. Are you ready to get your revision head back on?

I've already created plenty of resources for revising English Language, so I'm going to put them together in this blogpost (Paper 1) and the next (Paper 2).

First of all, here's the structure and suggested timings for Paper 1:

Your first job is to make sure you know the above information inside out. Know your own battle plan for the timings and remind yourself to highlight key words in the questions as you go. For instance, you might choose a different plan:

1. Read and annotate, then do Q1 (10 mins)
2. Do Q2 (Language) (12 mins)
3. Do Q3 (Structure) (12 mins)
4. Do Q4 (Evaluation) (25 mins) 
5. Do Q5 (Descriptive/narrative writing) (45 minutes)

Tip: I'd consider jotting down a few notes on STRUCTURE as you read:

• What's interesting about the first sentence/paragraph?
• What perspective do we get in each paragraph?
• What shifts take place in the 'journey' of the text?
• Where are the 'key sentences' that give away essential information?
• What patterns can you spot? What ties it together as a coherent whole (e.g. imagery, motif, tone etc.)
• Do internal thoughts contrast with external actions?
• How are characters introduced? Do they contrast with each other?
• What happens at the end? Whay is the final sentence effective? Is there a circular structure? How does the ending contrast with the beginning?

The mock Paper 1 powerpoint we used in class can be found here.

Question-by-question guidance:

These links are to posts from last year - but they're still relevant and accurate:

Q1 - List 4 things (4 marks)
Q2 - Language (8 marks)


Q3 - Structure (8 marks)
Here is a link to AQA's own advice about this question.

Q4 - Evaluation (20 marks)

Q5 - Descriptive/narrative writing (40 marks)
If you liked the DROP, SHIFT, ZOOM method we tried recently, here's an explanation of it. And here's a quick visual recap:

If you search your email inbox for 'DROP SHIFT' you'll find some examples that I sent you back in April. 

Don't forget - there are still some useful sets on Quizlet, especially the 100 words vocab list and its partner set, 100 words (sentence completion).


 
Finally, here is my target list for Paper 1:

I'll do a similar post on Paper 2 in the next day or two.


Let me know if you need anything. 


Mr M 

AIC and Poetry Revision

Hi all,

Here are some final resources to look through prior to Paper 2:

Priestley's methods and message

Act-by-act quotations for each character in An Inspector Calls

An Inspector Calls - Character Lectures (aiming for top grades):

• Mr Birling
• Eric Birling
• Sheila Birling

(You can find links for the other characters alongside the above blogposts)

AIC Essential Quotes

AIC - The Knowledge

AIC Knowledge Organiser

Structuring a response - featuring Mr Birling

AIC on Quizlet

All my AIC blogposts

Context vid:

Poetry: L&R Quotes

In case you missed one: notes on the poems

Poetry plan: Romantic Obsession

Poetry Guide Book

Love and Relationships on Quizlet

All my old poetry posts



Let me know if you need anything!


Mr M

Macbeth: Thoughts on Kingship, Morality... and Trifle!

Hi folks,

In today's lesson, we looked at the idea of 'kingship' (i.e. what makes a good king) but also the idea of what makes a good person. What values are endorsed and celebrated by Shakespeare?

 

We looked at a couple of extracts:

The first is from Act 1 Scene 4, where we see Duncan and Malcolm talking about the old Thane of Cawdor.

The second is from the 'English scene', Act 4 Scene 3, where Malcolm is pretending to be a terrible human being in order to test out Macduff's morality.


A question about kingship might focus on Macbeth's rule as king, but might also get you thinking about how other characters are presented as having 'kingly' qualities.

For more ideas on kingship, see here and here. Or check out this Twitter thread.


For the rest of this post, I want to consider the question of what Shakespeare is saying about what it takes to be a good king and a good person.


What qualities does a good king possess?

At the start of the play, Macbeth is seen as a virtuous, 'valiant', 'brave' and 'noble' leader. Surely this makes him potential king material?

But Macbeth himself recognises in Duncan the virtues that make him a good king: he is 'meek' (i.e. humble and in touch with the common man) and 'clear in his great office'. (1.7) Once he has killed him, he immediately regrets it.

Later, when Malcolm describes himself as full of 'lust' and 'vice', he lists the kingly qualities that he claims to lack:

But I have none: the king-becoming graces,
As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
I have no relish of them, but abound
In the division of each several crime,
Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,
Uproar the universal peace, confound
All unity on earth.


This list of qualities might make us think of Macbeth's crimes. The words 'temperance' and 'stableness' here also make us think of Macbeth's inferiority complex when it comes to Banquo, who he says has a 'dauntless temper of the mind' and a 'royalty of nature.' 

Consider also the imagery of clothes. Macbeth asks the witches: 'why do you dress me in borrowed robes'. He doesn't feel fit to wear that title. This is later echoed by Angus in 5.2: 'Now does he feel his title hand loose about him, like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief.' This imagery suggests that Macbeth is not fit to wear these robes.

This links to the idea of the Great Chain of Being and the Divine Right of Kings. By murdering Duncan, Macbeth has challenged God's order - which leads to disorder and chaos in nature.

So, what kind of person makes the right kind of king? Whoever God decides is the answer.

In the end, there is not much difference between the 'kingship' question and the question of what makes an honourable, good person. We noticed this pattern today:



Oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence.                                             Banquo, 1.3

he died (The Thane of Cawdor)
As one that had been studied in his death
To throw away the dearest thing he owed,
As 'twere a careless trifle.                                           Malcolm, 1.4


...mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,
To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!       Macbeth, 3.1


Nought's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without content.                   Lady Macbeth, 3.2


All of these quotes suggest the same thing: power, titles, the crown - they're all 'trifles'. They're not important and not the key to happiness and 'content'.

On the other hand, the soul is a real 'jewel'; it is of 'deepest consequence'.


So, what is Shakespeare saying? Don't value titles, gold, power. Value your soul. Value your virtues and your honour and reputation.

Macbeth  had 'golden opinions' and he tried to convince Lady Macbeth that they were as good as a golden crown. The above quotations show that what the Macbeths 'threw away' was far more valuable that what they gained.

A true king is honourable, just, virtuous, generous. A bad king is power-hungry, corrupt, ruthless, and a tyrant.

Simple, eh?  Perhaps not. These ideas fit into the 'providential reading' of Macbeth. Many modern critics think that all of the characters are equivocators and all are just as capable of doing what Macbeth did. For instance, is Duncan a fair and righteous king? Or is he another Machiavellian political manipulator who rewards Macbeth with praise while denying him his rightful shot at the crown - giving it to his less deserving son? That's up to you!



This is non-essential, but if you want one last thing to think about, check out these critical views on Macbeth:






 
Good luck!


Mr M

Bildungsroman: a recap

Hi,

It's probably the easiest and most useful way of getting into context when writing about Great Expectations. If you get a question about Pip - or a question where Pip is important - then you've got to mention the literary context of bildungsroman.







Here's a reminder of what it is:

 

 

Now think of Pip.

At the start of the novel, the marshes and the forge are all he knows. The symbolic 'horizontal lines' that he sees as the horizon in Chapter 1 represent his limited expectations and his bleak prospects.

When he goes to Satis House, everything changes. His horizons suddenly expand. But he also starts to feel 'coarse and common'. He is no longer content to be a blacksmith. This loss of identity leads his on a quest to improve himself and make himself worthy of Estella.

He makes lots of mistakes along the way. He becomes a bit of a snob, he rejects Joe, he gets into debt; in the the middle chapters, he faces humiliation after humiliation. These are all part and parcel of the learning process of bildungsroman.

In the end, Pip is able to move on from the haunting presence of Miss Havisham and Satis House, and he's forced to let go of any hope of being with Estella. He recognises Joe as a 'gentle Christian man', he recognises that Joe is more worthy of Biddy's hand, and he accepts a job. He accepts his limitations and his place in the world. He learns, from Herbert's example, the virtues of hard work and 'looking about you' for an opportunity - and gets over the idea that some benefactor can make his dreams come true. By the end, he redeems himself - and perhaps he earns the half-chance of happiness with Estella - if that is what Dickens suggests at the end.


Hope this helps,


Mr M

Miss Havisham: Conclusions and Notes

Hi,

There are plenty of places where you can get a character analysis of Miss Havisham. Try here or here or here or here, for example.

I'm going to give you my interpretations/conclusions to answer the question: what does Miss Havisham represent in Great Expectations?

Here are my final thoughts on Miss Havisham:

1) She's not a realistic character, but a symbol. She is the wicked witch of this dark, inverted fairy tale. She wears one shoe like some kind of twisted Cinderella. But this Cinderella doesn't get her fairytale reversal of fortune. She can be seen as a nightmarish representation of where thwarted expectations and obsessive love can take you. Her situation is an extreme version of Pip's own in many ways. They both lose their fortune to some extent, they are both rejected by the one they love, and they both pine away in a state of stasis instead of moving on with their lives. In terms of bildungsroman, Pip has to learn about the true nature of happiness, love, friendship and what it takes to be a gentle Christian man. He has to do this to avoid Miss Havisham's fate: despair, depression and decay. In the end, he manages it. One he has symbolically 'closed with her' during the fire scene in chapter 49, he is free to move on with his life: accepting Magwitch, accepting his new situation in life, and seeking his own fortune in a similar manner to Herbert. Miss Havisham represents a grotesque, destructive, obsessive and self-loathing part of Pip's psyche which has to be destroyed for him to develop.

2) Miss Havisham can also be seen as a caricatured representation of the status of women in the 19th century (context alert!). She has inherited wealth, land and power - and yet her whole life is defined by her failure to get married. In a society where wealthy women cannot work, where their only aim and ambition is a good marriage (see Jane Austen), Miss Havisham's story shows what can happen in a patriarchal world if a woman's limited choices go wrong.

3) Consider the name:

Unlike Pip and Estella, Miss Havisham's name is rather ambiguous. It might make us think have a shame. Certainly, Miss Havisham's character partly hides herself away out of shame about her failure to marry. This also explains her loathing of her family - the ones who might judge her for her mistakes. 

More interestingly though, it might make us think have a sham. A sham is something fake. When Estella first arrives in London, she calls Miss Havisham an 'imposter'. What does she mean by this? Perhaps she means that Miss Havisham is putting on an act? Or that her apparent care and concern for Estella is a pretence? Certainly, she knows that Pip believes her to be his benefactor and, as she admits, she let him 'go on'. Later, she admits that her original intent in adopting Estella was to protect her by stealing her heart away and 'putting ice in its place', but in the end she uses her beauty as a weapon against men. This part of her plan backfires when Estella is made to suffer at the hands of Bentley Drummle.


I hope this helps. I'll try to put together a list of essential quotes tomorrow.

 
The BBC Bitesize revision notes on Great Expectations can be found here.   
The BBC Bitesize revision notes on Macbeth can be found here. 



Mr M

Macbeth and the theme of TRUTH

Hi again,

There are various themes in Macbeth which I've put under the banner of 'Truth'. They are:

• Truth vs Deception
• Appearance vs Reality
• Equivocation (where the truth is unclear)
• Goodness/Honour/Honesty vs Evil/Dishonour/Lies 

These issues are, of course, connected to morality and can lead to an interpretation of Macbeth as a didactic (intended to teach a lesson) play about good and evil. All tragedies have this didactic element - we are meant to learn from the tragic hero's mistakes.

Here's a reminder about the 'providential' reading of the play:

According to this interpretation, the purpose of the play is to teach us about good and evil. We might see Banquo and Macduff as foils for Macbeth in this sense. They are there to show us how to act. They could be said to represent goodness. For example, in 1.3, Banquo's response to the witches is more sceptical, more measured and more careful:

Oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths, 
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's 
In deepest consequence.              (Act 1 Scene 3)

Here, Banquo recognises the power offered by the witches as 'honest trifles', far less important that the 'deepest consequence' of committing a sin and going to hell.

He is, of course, correct. He's describing equivocation - and the witches do turn out to be equivocators. Banquo sees this immediately, but it takes Macbeth much longer.

In Act 3 Scene 1, he considers the possibility of his having given away his soul for nothing:


For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind;
For them, the gracious Duncan have I murdered,
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace,
Only for them, and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,
To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings.

His 'eternal jewel' (his soul) has been given to the 'common enemy' (the devil). Macbeth here accepts this moral truth, which Banquo had the 'wisdom' to realise at the start.

But Macbeth represses this idea, trusting in fate rather than morality:

Rather than so, come Fate into the list, / And champion me to th'utterance. 

He chooses to blindly put his trust in the witches. In the end, he sounds foolish when he finally accepts that this was a mistake in Act 5 Scene 5:

I pull in resolution and begin

To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend

That lies like truth. 

Of course, the modern reading of the play (see above) is more unsettling and nihilistic. It puts forward the idea that everybody equivocates and that Macbeth's crime and eventual death do not change that.

A great discussion on this subject comes in the great scene with Lady Macduff and her son:

Son

What is a traitor?

LADY MACDUFF

Why, one that swears and lies.

Son

And be all traitors that do so?

LADY MACDUFF

Every one that does so is a traitor, and must be hanged.

Son

And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?

LADY MACDUFF

Every one.

Son

Who must hang them?

LADY MACDUFF

Why, the honest men.

Son  

Then the liars and swearers are fools,
for there are liars and swearers enough to beat
the honest men and hang up them.

Consider the last part of this extract. Here, the innocent son sees liars and equivocators everywhere. Macbeth's crime has not caused Scotland to become sick - it was sick already. Perhaps Macbeth's crime was a result of this moral sickness.

When the murderers arrive moments later, Lady Macduff seems to concur:

I have done no harm. But I remember now
I am in this earthly world; where to do harm
Is often laudable, to do good sometime
Accounted dangerous folly. 

When, at the end, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are dead, truth doesn't return. Malcolm describes them as 'this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen' which doesn't do justice to the complexity of these characters. This is propaganda designed to legitimise his claim to the throne. Malcolm himself has equivocated and lied during the play. He ends it by offering up earldoms and prizes to those that were loyal to him, just as Macbeth did. 

Remember, Macbeth is full of equivocation from beginning to end. As the witches say:  

Fair is foul and foul is fair.

It is also full of hallucinations, confusion and unnatural omens. All of these motifs plug into the theme of TRUTH.

There is a lot of good stuff on this theme out there:

• This is a great article on equivocation, including its importance in 1605-6. 
• There's more on appearance and reality on the BBC Bitesize site.
• This vid
• Check out all of these APPEARANCE/REALITY quotes! They're everywhere!

I hope this helps. I might knock together a Quizlet set on this theme later. For now, I'm done. Is the Royal Wedding stuff done yet?

Mr M

Somebody asked me about the possibility of a witches question yesterday. Check this out.

Context: Great Expectations and Macbeth

Hi folks,

Remember, according to AQA, if you're answering the question (by really focusing on the key word(s)) then you're doing context. However, here's a reminder of some of the contexts that might be relevant (click to enlarge):

 

Great Expectations - Themes/Motifs

Hi all,

This is overdue, but here are your theme/motif posters on Great Expectations.