AQA A Level English Literature B: Paper 1 (Tragedy) – Section A (Othello)

These practice questions are designed to help students prepare for the first section of the tragedy paper in 2022. AQA have announced that for students studying Othello in this year the focus of this section of the exam will be Act 1. Top tips for this question: Read the extract below and then answer the question. Explore the significance of this extract in relation to the tragedy of the play as a whole. Remember to include in your answer relevant analysis of Shakespeare’s dramatic methods. [25] - Read the extract carefully. Consider which section of Act 1 it is drawn from, what has already taken place, and what happens immediately after the extract. - Read the extract again, this time with a pen in hand. Underline any rich phrases which will help you to answer the question. - Plan your answer by working chronologically through the extract: o What aspects of tragedy are evident at the beginning? o What aspects of tragedy are evident/developed in the central section? o What aspects of tragedy are evident/developed in the ending? - Then consider how you might link these aspects to other relevant sections of the play. - The command word in the question is explore, so reflect on a range of possible meanings and how the extract might open up debate (for example, if writing about Iago, does the extract allow you to consider debate around his potential “motiveless malignity”?). - The question reminds you to include “relevant analysis of Shakespeare’s dramatic methods”. This means you need to balance your exploration of aspects of tragedy with analysis that supports your ideas. This analysis can encompass a range of techniques – such as zooming in on a word, considering a motif used throughout the play, or reflecting on the staging of the scene and its place within the play’s dramatic structure. AQA A Level English Literature B: Paper 1 (Tragedy) – Section A (Othello) 1. Read the extract below and then answer the question. Explore the significance of this extract in relation to the tragedy of the play as a whole. Remember to include in your answer relevant analysis of Shakespeare’s dramatic methods. [25] Venice. A street. Enter RODERIGO and IAGO RODERIGO Tush! never tell me; I take it much unkindly That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this. IAGO 'Sblood, but you will not hear me: If ever I did dream of such a matter, Abhor me. RODERIGO Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate. IAGO Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city, In personal suit to make me his lieutenant, Off-capp'd to him: and, by the faith of man, I know my price, I am worth no worse a place: But he; as loving his own pride and purposes, Evades them, with a bombast circumstance Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war; And, in conclusion, Nonsuits my mediators; for, 'Certes,' says he, 'I have already chose my officer.' And what was he? Forsooth, a great arithmetician, One Michael Cassio, a Florentine, A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife; That never set a squadron in the field, Nor the division of a battle knows More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric, Wherein the toged consuls can propose As masterly as he: mere prattle, without practise, Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election: And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof At Rhodes, at Cyprus and on other grounds Christian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and calm'd By debitor and creditor: this counter-caster, He, in good time, must his lieutenant be, And I--God bless the mark!--his Moorship's ancient. RODERIGO By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman. IAGO Why, there's no remedy; 'tis the curse of service, Preferment goes by letter and affection, And not by old gradation, where each second Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself, Whether I in any just term am affined To love the Moor. RODERIGO I would not follow him then. IAGO O, sir, content you; I follow him to serve my turn upon him: We cannot all be masters, nor all masters Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave, That, doting on his own obsequious bondage, Wears out his time, much like his master's ass, For nought but provender, and when he's old, cashier'd: Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty, Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves, And, throwing but shows of service on their lords, Do well thrive by them and when they have lined their coats Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul; And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir, It is as sure as you are Roderigo, Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago: In following him, I follow but myself; Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty, But seeming so, for my peculiar end: For when my outward action doth demonstrate The native act and figure of my heart In compliment extern, 'tis not long after But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve For daws to peck at: I am not what I am. (Act 1 Scene 1) 2. Read the extract below and then answer the question. Explore the significance of this extract in relation to the tragedy of the play as a whole. Remember to include in your answer relevant analysis of Shakespeare’s dramatic methods. [25] IAGO Call up her father, Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight, Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen, And, though he in a fertile climate dwell, Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy, Yet throw such changes of vexation on't, As it may lose some colour. RODERIGO Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud. IAGO Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell As when, by night and negligence, the fire Is spied in populous cities. RODERIGO What, ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho! IAGO Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves! Look to your house, your daughter and your bags! Thieves! thieves! BRABANTIO appears above, at a window BRABANTIO What is the reason of this terrible summons? What is the matter there? RODERIGO Signior, is all your family within? IAGO Are your doors lock'd? BRABANTIO Why, wherefore ask you this? IAGO 'Zounds, sir, you're robb'd; for shame, put on your gown; Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul; Even now, now, very now, an old black ram Is topping your white ewe. Arise, arise; Awake the snorting citizens with the bell, Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you: Arise, I say.