AQA
A-level
ENGLISH LITERATURE A
7712/1
Paper 1 Love through the ages
Version: 1.0 Final
,A-level
ENGLISH LITERATURE A
Paper 1 Love through the ages
Wednesday 24 May 2023 Afternoon Time allowed: 3 hours
Materials
For this paper you must have:
• an AQA 12-page answer book
• a copy of each of the set texts you have studied for Section C. These texts must not be
annotated and must not contain additional notes or materials.
Instructions
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is 7712/1.
• In Section A you will answer one question about a Shakespeare play.
• In Section B you will answer the one question about unseen poetry.
• In Section C you will answer one question about two texts: one poetry text and one prose 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.
IB/H/Jun23/E9 7712/1
, 2
Section A: Shakespeare
Answer one question in this section.
Either
0 1 Othello – William Shakespeare
‘In Othello, the bond between Othello and Iago is stronger than the love between Othello
and Desdemona.’
In the light of this view, discuss how Shakespeare presents the relationship between
Othello and Iago in this extract and elsewhere in the play.
[25 marks]
IAGO
There are a kind of men so loose of soul
That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs:
One of this kind is Cassio.
In sleep I heard him say: ‘Sweet Desdemona,
Let us be wary, let us hide our loves’;
And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand,
Cry ‘O sweet creature!’ and then kiss me hard,
As if he plucked up kisses by the roots,
That grew upon my lips; then laid his leg
Over my thigh, and sighed and kissed, and then
Cried ‘Cursèd fate that gave thee to the Moor!’
OTHELLO
O monstrous! Monstrous!
IAGO Nay, this was but his dream.
OTHELLO
But this denoted a foregone conclusion.
IAGO
’Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream:
And this may help to thicken other proofs
That do demonstrate thinly.
OTHELLO I’ll tear her all to pieces!
IAGO
Nay, but be wise: yet we see nothing done,
She may be honest yet. Tell me but this:
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief,
Spotted with strawberries, in your wife’s hand?
OTHELLO
I gave her such a one: ’twas my first gift.
IAGO
I know not that: but such a handkerchief –
I am sure it was your wife’s – did I today
See Cassio wipe his beard with.
OTHELLO If it be that –
IAGO
If it be that, or any that was hers,
It speaks against her with the other proofs.
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, 3
OTHELLO
O, that the slave had forty thousand lives!
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge.
Now do I see ’tis true. Look here, Iago –
All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven:
’Tis gone.
Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!
Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
For ’tis of aspics’ tongues!
IAGO Yet be content.
OTHELLO
O, blood, blood, blood!
IAGO
Patience, I say: your mind perhaps may change.
OTHELLO
Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic sea,
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne’er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontic and the Hellespont,
Even so my bloody thoughts with violent pace
Shall ne’er look back, ne’er ebb to humble love,
Till that a capable and wide revenge
Swallow them up. Now, by yond marble heaven,
In the due reverence of a sacred vow
I here engage my words.
He kneels
IAGO Do not rise yet.
He kneels
Witness you ever-burning lights above,
You elements, that clip us round about,
Witness that here Iago doth give up
The execution of his wit, hands, heart,
To wronged Othello’s service. Let him command,
And to obey shall be in me remorse,
What bloody business ever.
They rise
OTHELLO I greet thy love,
Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous;
And will upon the instant put thee to’t.
Within these three days let me hear thee say
That Cassio’s not alive.
IAGO My friend is dead;
’Tis done at your request. But let her live.
OTHELLO
Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her, damn her!
Come go with me apart. I will withdraw
To furnish me with some swift means of death
For the fair devil. Now art thou my Lieutenant.
IAGO
I am your own for ever.
(Act 3, Scene 3)
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IB/H/Jun23/7712/1
