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A bank of exam questions for A LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE ON KING LEAR
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A bank of exam questions on King Lear for English A LEVEL
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A LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATUREKing Lear – William Shakespeare
Extract from an Examiners Report
“Holistic marking enables responses to be assessed as organic whole texts in themselves.
Assessment objectives are not tracked in the marking or reported on separately in summative
comments. This enables the genuine inter-relatedness of assessment objectives to be respected.
The advice to students is to concentrate on answering the question set and let the assessment
objectives look after themselves.”
You may be asked to discuss the following when it comes to characters:
King Lear:
a tragic hero? (does he recognise his flaws and gain self-knowledge?)
his nobility (is he a good man? / strengths & weaknesses / virtues & flaws)
his relationship with his daughters & treatment of / by them
the extent to which he is responsible for the tragedy which occurs
our level of sympathy for him
Gloucester:
his nobility / is he a good man? / strengths and weaknesses / virtues and
flaws
our level of sympathy for him
his relationship with his sons & treatment of / by them
his dramatic function in the play
Lear & Gloucester:
how and why their stories mirror each other
the extent to which they bring about their own downfall
our level of sympathy for them
Cordelia:
too good to be true or a believable character?
virtues and flaws / our level of sympathy for her
, dramatic function in the play?
Goneril and Regan:
treatment of their father
extent to which they present a very negative view of women
Edmund:
an admirable villain? or a sociopath?
Edmund and Edgar:
contrast in their characters and personalities
Kent and The Fool
dramatic function and believability
All characters:
contrast the extremes of good and evil presented in the characters in the
play
the play is very pessimistic about human nature
the play is very pessimistic about human relationships / family / parent –
child dynamics
1. Explore the significance of aspects of dramatic tragedy in the following passage* in relation
to the play as a whole. You should consider the following in your answer:
• the presentation of Lear
• the contrasts between the three daughters
• stage directions
• other relevant aspects of dramatic tragedy.
*…the “which of you shall we say doth love us most?” speech.
2. ‘Despite the cruel treatment Gloucester suffers, his moral awakening is uplifting and
enduring.’ To what extent do you agree with this view? Remember to include in your answer
relevant comment on Shakespeare’s dramatic methods.
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