AS ENGLISH
AQA
AS
ENGLISH LITERATURE A
Paper 1 Love through the ages: Shakespeare and
poetry
Thursday 18 May 2023 Morning Time allowed: 1 hour 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
7711/1.
Do all rough work in your answer book. Cross through any work you do not want to be
marked.
Answer one question from Section A and one question from Section B.
Information
The maximum mark for this paper is 50.
The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
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.
IB/H/Jun23/
E6
7711/1
,AS ENGLISH
IB/H/Jun23/
E6
7711/1
, 2
Section A: Shakespeare
Answer one question from this section.
Either
0 1
Othello – William Shakespeare
Read the extract from Othello, provided below, and respond to the following:
How does Shakespeare present aspects of love in this extract?
Examine the view that, in this extract and elsewhere in the play,
Shakespeare presents Iago as a character whose intelligence makes us like
him rather than condemn him.
[25 marks]
IAGO Come on, come on: you are pictures out of
doors, bells in your parlours, wild-cats in your
kitchens, saints in your injuries, devils being
offended, players in your housewifery, and
housewives in your beds.
DESDEMONA
O, fie upon thee, slanderer!
IAGO
Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk:
You rise to play and go to bed to work.
EMILIA
You shall not write my praise.
IAGO No, let me not.
DESDEMONA
What wouldst thou write of me, if thou
shouldst praise me?
IAGO
O, gentle lady, do not put me
to’t, For I am nothing if not
critical.
DESDEMONA
Come on, assay. There’s one gone to the harbour?
IAGO
Ay, madam.
DESDEMONA
(aside) I am not merry, but I do
beguile The thing I am by
seeming otherwise. Come, how
wouldst thou praise me?
IAGO
I am about it, but indeed my invention
Comes from my pate as birdlime does from
frieze – It plucks out brains and all. But my
muse labours, And thus she is delivered.
If she be fair and wise, fairness
and wit, The one’s for use, the
other useth it.
DESDEMONA
Well praised! How if she be black and witty?
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