AQA A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE B RATING Paper 1A Literary genres: Aspects of tragedy MAY 2023

AQA A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE B Paper 1A Literary genres: Aspects of tragedy Wednesday 24 May 2023 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes Materials For this paper you must have: • an AQA 12-page answer book. Instructions • Use black ink or black ball-point pen. • Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is 7717/1A. • Answer one question from Section A, one question from Section B and one question from Section C. • You may answer on the same Shakespeare play in Sections A and B. • For Section C, you must write about one drama text and one further text, one of which must be written pre-1900. • Do all rough work in your answer book. Cross through any work you do not want to be marked. Information • The marks for questions are shown in brackets. • The maximum mark for this paper is 75. • You will be marked on your ability to: – use good English – organise information clearly – use specialist vocabulary where appropriate. • In your response you need to: – analyse carefully the writers’ methods – explore the contexts of the texts you are writing about – explore connections across the texts you have studied – explore different interpretations of your texts. 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] 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 followed. 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 naught but provender, and when he’s old – cashiered! Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are Who, trimmed 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. RODERIGO What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe If he can carry’t thus! 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 chances 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! Signor Brabantio, ho! IAGO Awake! What, ho, Brabantio! Thieves, thieves! Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags! Thieves, thieves! Enter Brabantio above, at a window (Act 1, Scene 1) Turn over for the next question Turn over ► or 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] KENT Good my liege – LEAR Peace, Kent! Come not between the dragon and his wrath. I loved her most, and thought to set my rest On her kind nursery. (To Cordelia) Hence and avoid my sight! – So be my grave my peace as here I give Her father’s heart from her. Call France! Who stirs? Call Burgundy! Cornwall and Albany, With my two daughters’ dowers digest the third. Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her. I do invest you jointly with my power, Pre-eminence, and all the large effects That troop with majesty. Ourself by monthly course, With reservation of an hundred knights, By you to be sustained, shall our abode Make with you by due turn. Only we shall retain The name and all th’addition to a king; the sway, Revenue, execution of the rest, Beloved sons, be yours; which to confirm, This coronet part between you. KENT Royal Lear, Whom I have ever honoured as my king, Loved as my father, as my master followed, As my great patron thought on in my prayers – LEAR The bow is bent and drawn; make from the shaft. KENT Let it fall rather, though the fork invade The region of my heart. Be Kent unmannerly When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man? Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour’s bound When majesty stoops to folly. Reserve thy state, And in thy best consideration check This hideous rashness. Answer my life my judgement, Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least, Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sounds