Includes list of all past questions for Edexcel English A Level Paper 2, comparing 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' and 'Mrs Dalloway. Includes essay plans on: romantic relationships/marriage, women's experiences of love, time, setting, isolation/loneliness, female agency/autonomy, identity, disappointm...
2023: characters who help others OR use of setting
Potential ones:
Romantic relationships / marriage
● Equated with death and female entrapment.
○ Tess loses her autonomy to Alec, Clarissa represses her identity, Sally loses her vitality, and Rezia
becomes lonely. There is also a prospect of Elizabeth facing a similar fate to her mother.
● Disconnection between marriage and love causes conflicts in both texts.
○ Peter and Clarissa’s compatibility in love but not in marriage causes both of them to struggle with regret,
disappointment and jealousy in later life.
○ Tess’ marriage to Alec is entirely out of necessity, and came about from a debt she was forced into by
Alec’s financial aid to the Durbeyfields.
● Marriage requires women to sacrifice their identity and autonomy for security, and is often portrayed as
transactional, revealing a patriarchal disregard for women’s happiness in both texts.
○ Both Angel and Alec attempt to mould Tess into someone she is not.
○ ‘For there’s nothing in the world so bad for some women as marriage’, Mrs Dalloway, p44.
Women’s experiences of love
Thesis: Love is a sacrifice for women in both texts, thus entwining their experiences of it with that of loss and death.
● Undermined by societal expectations. In ‘Tess’, her ostracisation is at the fault of male treatment. In ‘Dalloway’,
women have much more agency over their love lives, yet still struggle with the need for acceptance.
○ Angel’s rejection of Tess for her sexual impurity is arguably the most significant component in her downfall.
○ Consequently, she is forced into marriage with Alec for the sake of her family.
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