A-level
ENGLISH LITERATURE B
Paper 1A Literary genres: Aspects of tragedy
Wednesday 14 May 2025 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
7717/1A
, 2
Section A
Answer one question in this section.
Either
0 1 Othello – William Shakespeare
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 marks]
Exeunt Othello, Lodovico, and attendants
EMILIA
How goes it now? He looks gentler than he did.
DESDEMONA
He says he will return incontinent.
He hath commanded me to go to bed,
And bade me to dismiss you.
EMILIA Dismiss me?
DESDEMONA
It was his bidding: therefore, good Emilia,
Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu.
We must not now displease him.
EMILIA
I would you had never seen him.
DESDEMONA
So would not I: my love doth so approve him
That even his stubbornness, his cheeks, his frowns –
Prithee, unpin me – have grace and favour in them.
EMILIA
I have laid those sheets, you bade me, on the bed.
DESDEMONA
All’s one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds!
If I do die before thee, prithee shroud me
In one of those same sheets.
EMILIA Come, come, you talk.
DESDEMONA
My mother had a maid called Barbary:
She was in love: and he she loved proved mad
And did forsake her. She had a song of willow;
An old thing ’twas; but it expressed her fortune,
And she died singing it. That song tonight
Will not go from my mind: I have much to do
But to go hang my head all at one side,
And sing it like poor Barbary – prithee, dispatch.
IB/G/Jun25/7717/1A
, 3
EMILIA
Shall I go fetch your night-gown?
DESDEMONA No, unpin me here.
This Lodovico is a proper man.
EMILIA
A very handsome man.
DESDEMONA He speaks well.
EMILIA I know a lady in Venice would have walked bare-
foot to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.
DESDEMONA (sings)
The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow;
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow;
The fresh streams ran by her and murmured her
moans;
Sing willow, willow, willow;
Her salt tears fell from her and softened the stones –
(She speaks)
Lay by these.
(She sings)
Sing willow, willow, willow –
(She speaks)
Prithee hie thee; he’ll come anon.
(She sings)
Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve –
(She speaks)
Nay, that’s not next. Hark, who is’t that knocks?
EMILIA It’s the wind.
DESDEMONA (sings)
I called my love false love, but what said he then?
Sing willow, willow, willow:
If I court moe women, you’ll couch with moe men.
(She speaks)
So get thee gone; good night. Mine eyes do itch:
Does that bode weeping?
EMILIA ’Tis neither here nor there.
(Act 4, Scene 3)
Turn over for the next question
Turn over ►
IB/G/Jun25/7717/1A
, 4
or
0 2 King Lear – William Shakespeare
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 marks]
LEAR (to Gonerill)
Detested kite, thou liest!
My train are men of choice and rarest parts,
That all particulars of duty know
And in the most exact regard support
The worships of their name. O most small fault,
How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show!
Which, like an engine, wrenched my frame of nature
From the fixed place, drew from my heart all love,
And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear!
Beat at this gate that let thy folly in
(he strikes his head)
And thy dear judgement out! Go, go, my people.
Exeunt Kent and Knights
ALBANY
My lord, I am guiltless as I am ignorant
Of what hath moved you.
LEAR It may be so, my lord.
He kneels
Hear, Nature, hear! Dear goddess, hear!
Suspend thy purpose if thou didst intend
To make this creature fruitful.
Into her womb convey sterility,
Dry up in her the organs of increase,
And from her derogate body never spring
A babe to honour her. If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her.
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,
Turn all her mother’s pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child! Away, away! Exit
ALBANY
Now gods that we adore, whereof comes this?
GONERILL
Never afflict yourself to know more of it;
But let his disposition have that scope
As dotage gives it.
IB/G/Jun25/7717/1A
ENGLISH LITERATURE B
Paper 1A Literary genres: Aspects of tragedy
Wednesday 14 May 2025 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
7717/1A
, 2
Section A
Answer one question in this section.
Either
0 1 Othello – William Shakespeare
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 marks]
Exeunt Othello, Lodovico, and attendants
EMILIA
How goes it now? He looks gentler than he did.
DESDEMONA
He says he will return incontinent.
He hath commanded me to go to bed,
And bade me to dismiss you.
EMILIA Dismiss me?
DESDEMONA
It was his bidding: therefore, good Emilia,
Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu.
We must not now displease him.
EMILIA
I would you had never seen him.
DESDEMONA
So would not I: my love doth so approve him
That even his stubbornness, his cheeks, his frowns –
Prithee, unpin me – have grace and favour in them.
EMILIA
I have laid those sheets, you bade me, on the bed.
DESDEMONA
All’s one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds!
If I do die before thee, prithee shroud me
In one of those same sheets.
EMILIA Come, come, you talk.
DESDEMONA
My mother had a maid called Barbary:
She was in love: and he she loved proved mad
And did forsake her. She had a song of willow;
An old thing ’twas; but it expressed her fortune,
And she died singing it. That song tonight
Will not go from my mind: I have much to do
But to go hang my head all at one side,
And sing it like poor Barbary – prithee, dispatch.
IB/G/Jun25/7717/1A
, 3
EMILIA
Shall I go fetch your night-gown?
DESDEMONA No, unpin me here.
This Lodovico is a proper man.
EMILIA
A very handsome man.
DESDEMONA He speaks well.
EMILIA I know a lady in Venice would have walked bare-
foot to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.
DESDEMONA (sings)
The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow;
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow;
The fresh streams ran by her and murmured her
moans;
Sing willow, willow, willow;
Her salt tears fell from her and softened the stones –
(She speaks)
Lay by these.
(She sings)
Sing willow, willow, willow –
(She speaks)
Prithee hie thee; he’ll come anon.
(She sings)
Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve –
(She speaks)
Nay, that’s not next. Hark, who is’t that knocks?
EMILIA It’s the wind.
DESDEMONA (sings)
I called my love false love, but what said he then?
Sing willow, willow, willow:
If I court moe women, you’ll couch with moe men.
(She speaks)
So get thee gone; good night. Mine eyes do itch:
Does that bode weeping?
EMILIA ’Tis neither here nor there.
(Act 4, Scene 3)
Turn over for the next question
Turn over ►
IB/G/Jun25/7717/1A
, 4
or
0 2 King Lear – William Shakespeare
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 marks]
LEAR (to Gonerill)
Detested kite, thou liest!
My train are men of choice and rarest parts,
That all particulars of duty know
And in the most exact regard support
The worships of their name. O most small fault,
How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show!
Which, like an engine, wrenched my frame of nature
From the fixed place, drew from my heart all love,
And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear!
Beat at this gate that let thy folly in
(he strikes his head)
And thy dear judgement out! Go, go, my people.
Exeunt Kent and Knights
ALBANY
My lord, I am guiltless as I am ignorant
Of what hath moved you.
LEAR It may be so, my lord.
He kneels
Hear, Nature, hear! Dear goddess, hear!
Suspend thy purpose if thou didst intend
To make this creature fruitful.
Into her womb convey sterility,
Dry up in her the organs of increase,
And from her derogate body never spring
A babe to honour her. If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her.
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,
Turn all her mother’s pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child! Away, away! Exit
ALBANY
Now gods that we adore, whereof comes this?
GONERILL
Never afflict yourself to know more of it;
But let his disposition have that scope
As dotage gives it.
IB/G/Jun25/7717/1A
