Molly White
A level English Exam
Question 1 – Meanings and Representations
Analyse how Text A uses language to create meanings and representations (25 marks)
Text A is a newspaper article published by the London Evening News in 1918 – a time of
second wave feminism, where the support for women’s rights and values were still being
desperately protested. This article written by Mary Green, describes the attitudes of women
towards one another, it is clearly an attempt to demean the negative proclaims women
displayed to one another at the time. Throughout the written text, Green uses anecdotal
techniques to allow the audience to understand and internalise the issues with the societal
normality of mistreatment between females.
Lexically, throughout the article Green could be seen to be undermining the opinions of
women through the language used. The article states; ‘Miss Katherine Cox has not
exaggerated’, by the author having to reinforce the idea that the women whom she describes
is not exaggerating her views, is almost giving the impression that when a woman does feel
the need to bring an issue to attention that it is usually a dramatic attempt to cause a problem
and shouldn’t be taken seriously. This represents women in an unserious light, where their
opinions and beliefs of an issue are seen as an exaggeration or far fetched from the truth. This
causes the problems that women do face to be seen as inferior as many people don’t identify
them as real life problems. Furthermore, the article is concluded with ‘They are right’ –
referring to men’s assumptions of women and how they react to a problem. This text almost
seems to be coming from a male perspective as women are demeaned for their exaggeration
of minuscule issues, and that men have identified this. Additionally, the concept that
developed from the men of society that ‘women are cats to each other’, which is comparing
women to a vicious and sneaky animal. Cats are seen to be elegant and rich creatures, though
have disloyal and unpredictable behaviour as connotations. According to men, this statement
fully describes the behaviour of women towards each other, which is ironic considering the
era, post war - where women did lack sufficient independence. This represents women in a
way in which they did not characterise desirable traits but instead were viewed as
unpredictable, in the eyes of a male.
Structurally, the article is relatively short but is built up of five paragraphs, consisting of
frequent dialect to correlate with the anecdotal piece embedded through the article. Most
paragraphs begin with short simple sentences including one clause; ‘I give two personal
experiences.’ This sentence structure can seemingly be identified through the text. This may
be due to the fact that the article relates to the ‘rudeness of women to women.’ The short and
brief sentence types may allude to the attitudes and blunt nature of the women – lacking the
correct forms of politeness according to Robin Lakoff, who identifies women with a much
different approach. Further, the lack of sentence complexity may resemble the bluntness of
women during 1918, London.
In terms of grammatical features, the article includes many archaic references and allusions to
the 1900s. During this time, it was extremely common for women to have lower
qualifications and less political jobs within society. ‘V.A.D.s’, clerks and canteens.’
Consequently, they were expected to ‘work hard and long hours’, but still expected to remain
cheerful and joyous. Although the issue for women was not the harshness of their working
, Molly White
hours but the irritation caused by impolite women on the journey home. Furthermore, the
articulation of the conductress in the article’s anecdotal piece can be seen to be obscure for
the stereotypes of women during this time. Ideally, women were expected to prioritise beauty
and glamour while representing themselves as lady like and pristine in the eyes of males.
However, ‘Can’t yer see?’ and ‘Yer luggage, Yer makes me sick’, do not reflect the
expectations people had of women at the time. The language used by these women almost
represent them as educational and less feminine. However, women may have been internally
frustrated with their boundaries within society at the time. While living in a patriarchal
society, these women may not have been able to express their anger very frequently,
especially in the presence of other men. Therefore, being surrounded purely by other
unfamiliar women, being aggressive and impolite may have been expression of their internal
oppression, which could only be released on other women. Leading to men assuming ‘women
are cats to each other.’ Which represents women negatively, however, this was their
displacement of upset that they could not release on any other men due to their inferiority.
In conclusion, text A can be seen as an article that may have been published as an innocent
attempt to bring awareness to the impoliteness of women to each other, although the
undertones within the articles may be imitating the behaviours of women. As their issues are
often considered to be ‘exaggerated’, furthermore, the ending of the article is concluded with
a male perspective of how women behaviour among one another. Referring to them as ‘cats’,
which has connotations of disloyalty or even unpredictable. Furthermore, their identification
with cats may signify their inferiority against men at the time.
A level English Exam
Question 1 – Meanings and Representations
Analyse how Text A uses language to create meanings and representations (25 marks)
Text A is a newspaper article published by the London Evening News in 1918 – a time of
second wave feminism, where the support for women’s rights and values were still being
desperately protested. This article written by Mary Green, describes the attitudes of women
towards one another, it is clearly an attempt to demean the negative proclaims women
displayed to one another at the time. Throughout the written text, Green uses anecdotal
techniques to allow the audience to understand and internalise the issues with the societal
normality of mistreatment between females.
Lexically, throughout the article Green could be seen to be undermining the opinions of
women through the language used. The article states; ‘Miss Katherine Cox has not
exaggerated’, by the author having to reinforce the idea that the women whom she describes
is not exaggerating her views, is almost giving the impression that when a woman does feel
the need to bring an issue to attention that it is usually a dramatic attempt to cause a problem
and shouldn’t be taken seriously. This represents women in an unserious light, where their
opinions and beliefs of an issue are seen as an exaggeration or far fetched from the truth. This
causes the problems that women do face to be seen as inferior as many people don’t identify
them as real life problems. Furthermore, the article is concluded with ‘They are right’ –
referring to men’s assumptions of women and how they react to a problem. This text almost
seems to be coming from a male perspective as women are demeaned for their exaggeration
of minuscule issues, and that men have identified this. Additionally, the concept that
developed from the men of society that ‘women are cats to each other’, which is comparing
women to a vicious and sneaky animal. Cats are seen to be elegant and rich creatures, though
have disloyal and unpredictable behaviour as connotations. According to men, this statement
fully describes the behaviour of women towards each other, which is ironic considering the
era, post war - where women did lack sufficient independence. This represents women in a
way in which they did not characterise desirable traits but instead were viewed as
unpredictable, in the eyes of a male.
Structurally, the article is relatively short but is built up of five paragraphs, consisting of
frequent dialect to correlate with the anecdotal piece embedded through the article. Most
paragraphs begin with short simple sentences including one clause; ‘I give two personal
experiences.’ This sentence structure can seemingly be identified through the text. This may
be due to the fact that the article relates to the ‘rudeness of women to women.’ The short and
brief sentence types may allude to the attitudes and blunt nature of the women – lacking the
correct forms of politeness according to Robin Lakoff, who identifies women with a much
different approach. Further, the lack of sentence complexity may resemble the bluntness of
women during 1918, London.
In terms of grammatical features, the article includes many archaic references and allusions to
the 1900s. During this time, it was extremely common for women to have lower
qualifications and less political jobs within society. ‘V.A.D.s’, clerks and canteens.’
Consequently, they were expected to ‘work hard and long hours’, but still expected to remain
cheerful and joyous. Although the issue for women was not the harshness of their working
, Molly White
hours but the irritation caused by impolite women on the journey home. Furthermore, the
articulation of the conductress in the article’s anecdotal piece can be seen to be obscure for
the stereotypes of women during this time. Ideally, women were expected to prioritise beauty
and glamour while representing themselves as lady like and pristine in the eyes of males.
However, ‘Can’t yer see?’ and ‘Yer luggage, Yer makes me sick’, do not reflect the
expectations people had of women at the time. The language used by these women almost
represent them as educational and less feminine. However, women may have been internally
frustrated with their boundaries within society at the time. While living in a patriarchal
society, these women may not have been able to express their anger very frequently,
especially in the presence of other men. Therefore, being surrounded purely by other
unfamiliar women, being aggressive and impolite may have been expression of their internal
oppression, which could only be released on other women. Leading to men assuming ‘women
are cats to each other.’ Which represents women negatively, however, this was their
displacement of upset that they could not release on any other men due to their inferiority.
In conclusion, text A can be seen as an article that may have been published as an innocent
attempt to bring awareness to the impoliteness of women to each other, although the
undertones within the articles may be imitating the behaviours of women. As their issues are
often considered to be ‘exaggerated’, furthermore, the ending of the article is concluded with
a male perspective of how women behaviour among one another. Referring to them as ‘cats’,
which has connotations of disloyalty or even unpredictable. Furthermore, their identification
with cats may signify their inferiority against men at the time.
