2023 AQA AS ENGLISH LITERATURE B 7716/1A Paper 1A Literary genres: Drama:
Aspects of tragedy Question Paper & Mark scheme (Merged) June 2023 [VERIFIED]
AS
ENGLISH LITERATURE B
Paper 1A Literary genres: Drama: Aspects of tragedy
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 7716/1A.
• Do all rough work in your answer book. Cross through any work you do not want to be marked.
• You must 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 the connections across the texts you have studied
– explore different interpretations of your texts.
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Section A
Answer one question from this section.
Either
0 1 Othello – William Shakespeare
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 Iago’s villainy
• Othello’s response to Iago’s manipulation
• other relevant aspects of dramatic tragedy.
[25 marks]
IAGO Cassio’s my worthy friend.
My lord, I see you’re moved.
OTHELLO No, not much moved.
I do not think but Desdemona’s honest.
IAGO
Long live she so! And long live you to think so!
OTHELLO
And yet, how nature erring from itself –
IAGO
Ay, there’s the point: as, to be bold with you,
Not to affect many proposèd matches
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,
Whereto we see in all things nature tends,
Foh! One may smell in such a will most rank,
Foul disproportion, thoughts unnatural.
But, pardon me, I do not in position
Distinctly speak of her, though I may fear
Her will, recoiling to her better judgement,
May fall to match you with her country forms,
And happily repent.
OTHELLO Farewell, farewell.
If more thou dost perceive, let me know more.
Set on thy wife to observe. Leave me, Iago.
IAGO
(going) My lord, I take my leave.
OTHELLO
Why did I marry? This honest creature doubtless
Sees and knows more, much more than he unfolds.
IAGO
(returning) My lord, I would I might entreat your honour
To scan this thing no farther. Leave it to time.
Although ’tis fit that Cassio have his place,
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For sure he fills it up with great ability,
Yet, if you please to hold him off awhile,
You shall by that perceive him and his means;
Note if your lady strain his entertainment
With any strong or vehement importunity –
Much will be seen in that. In the meantime,
Let me be thought too busy in my fears,
As worthy cause I have to fear I am,
And hold her free, I do beseech your honour.
OTHELLO
Fear not my government.
IAGO I once more take my leave. Exit
OTHELLO
This fellow’s of exceeding honesty,
And knows all qualities with a learnèd spirit
Of human dealings. If I do prove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,
I’d whistle her off, and let her down the wind
To prey at fortune. Haply, for I am black
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have; or for I am declined
Into the vale of years – yet that’s not much –
She’s gone: I am abused, and my relief
Must be to loathe her. O, curse of marriage!
That we can call these delicate creatures ours
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others’ uses. Yet ’tis the plague of great ones;
Prerogatived are they less than the base.
’Tis destiny unshunnable, like death:
Even then this forkèd plague is fated to us
When we do quicken. Desdemona comes:
Enter Desdemona and Emilia
If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself!
I’ll not believe’t.
(Act 3, Scene 3)
Turn over for the next question
Turn over ►
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or
0 2 King Lear – William Shakespeare
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
• other relevant aspects of dramatic tragedy.
[25 marks]
GLOUCESTER I know that voice.
He falls to his knees
LEAR Ha! Gonerill with a white beard! They flattered me like
a dog and told me I had the white hairs in my beard ere
the black ones were there. To say ‘ay’ and ‘no’ to
everything that I said! ‘Ay’ and ‘no’ too was no good
divinity. When the rain came to wet me once and the wind
to make me chatter; when the thunder would not peace at
my bidding; there I found ’em, there I smelt ’em out. Go
to, they are not men o’their words. They told me I was
everything. ’Tis a lie: I am not ague-proof.
GLOUCESTER
The trick of that voice I do well remember.
Is’t not the King?
LEAR Ay, every inch a king.
When I do stare see how the subject quakes.
I pardon that man’s life. What was thy cause?
Adultery?
Thou shalt not die. Die for adultery? No.
The wren goes to’t, and the small gilded fly
Does lecher in my sight.
Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester’s bastard son
Was kinder to his father than my daughters
Got ’tween the lawful sheets.
To’t, luxury, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers.
Behold yon simpering dame
Whose face between her forks presages snow,
That minces virtue and does shake the head
To hear of pleasure’s name –
The fitchew nor the soilèd horse goes to’t
With a more riotous appetite.
Down from the waist they are centaurs,
Though women all above;
But to the girdle do the gods inherit,
Beneath is all the fiends’ –
There’s hell, there’s darkness, there is the sulphurous
pit – burning, scalding, stench, consumption! Fie, fie,
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