OCR A Level English Literature Comparative and contextual study June 2019 question paper H472/02

In your answer to Question 2, you must compare at least two texts from the following list. At least one of these must be taken from the two texts given at the top of the list in bold type.

F Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby

‘Characters in American literature often seek a fresh start.’

By comparing The Great Gatsby with at least one other text prescribed for this topic, discuss

how far you agree with this view.

John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath

‘American literature often celebrates the ordinary human being.’

By comparing The Grapes of Wrath with at least one other text prescribed for this topic,

discuss how far you agree with this view.

‘Much American literature explores the changing, restless nature of society.’

By comparing at least two texts prescribed for this topic, discuss how far you have found this to be the case.

In your answer you must include discussion of either The Great Gatsby and/or The Grapes

of Wrath.

The Gothic

Answer Question 3.

Then answer one question from 4(a), 4(b) or 4(c). You should spend 1 hour and 15 minutes on each question.

3 Write a critical appreciation of this passage, relating your discussion to your reading of the Gothic.

Dark, autumnal, and gloomy was the hour; the winds whistled hollow, and
over the expanse of heaven was spread an unvarying sombreness of vapour:
nothing was heard save the melancholy shriekings of the night-bird, which,
soaring on the evening blast, broke the stillness of the scene, interrupting the
meditations of frenzied enthusiasm; mingled with the sighing of the wind, which
swept in languid and varying cadence amidst the leafless boughs.
Ah! of whom shall the poor outcast wanderer demand protection? Far, far
has she wandered. The vice and unkindness of the world hath torn her tender
heart. In whose bosom shall she repose the secret of her sufferings? Who
will listen with pity to the narrative of her woe, and heal the wounds which the
selfish unkindness of man hath made, and then sent her with them, unbound,
on the wide and pitiless world? Lives there one whose confidence the sufferer
might seek?
Cold and dreary was the night: November’s blast had chilled the air. Is the
blast so pitiless as ingratitude and selfishness? Ah, no! thought the wanderer;
it is unkind indeed, but not so unkind as that. Poor Eloise de St. Irvyne!
many, many are in thy situation; but few have a heart so full of sensibility and
excellence for the demoniac malice of man to deform, and then glut itself with
hellish pleasure in the conviction of having ravaged the most lovely of the works
of their Creator. She gazed upon the sky: the moon had just risen; its full orb
was occasionally shaded by a passing cloud: it rose from behind the turrets of
le Chateau de St. Irvyne. The poor girl raised her eyes towards it, streaming
with tears: she scarce could recognise the once-loved building. She thanked
God for permitting her again to behold it; and hastened on with steps tottering
from fatigue, yet nerved with the sanguineness¹ of anticipation.
25
Yes, St. Irvyne was the same as when she had left it five years ago. The
same ivy mantled the western tower; the same jasmine which bloomed so
luxuriantly when she left it, was still there, though leafless from the season.
Thus was it with poor Eloise: she had left St. Irvyne, blooming, and caressed
by every one; she returned to it pale, downcast, and friendless. The jasmine
encircled the twisted pillars which supported the portal. Alas! whose assistance
had prevented Eloise from sinking to the earth?--no one’s. She knocked at the
door--it was opened, and an instant’s space beheld her in the arms of a beloved
sister. Needless were it to describe the mutual pleasure, needless to describe
the delight, of recognition; suffice it to say, that Eloise once more enjoyed the
society of her dearest friend; and, in the happiness of her society, forgot the
horrors which had preceded her return to St. Irvyne.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, St Irvyne (1811)

₁   : optimism
sanguineness

In your answer to Question 4, you must compare at least two texts from the following list. At least one of these must be taken from the two texts given at the top of the list in bold type.

*Candidates writing about The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories should select material from the whole text.

Either

Bram Stoker: Dracula

‘The most fascinating characters in Gothic literature are its villains.’

Consider how far you agree with this statement by comparing Dracula with at least one other

text prescribed for this topic.

Angela Carter: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories*

‘Gothic writing depends on the use of traditional images and stories.’

By comparing The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories* with at least one other text prescribed

for this topic, discuss how far you agree with this view.

‘Supernatural events and effects are key features of Gothic writing.’

Compare ways in which such features are presented in at least two texts prescribed for this topic.

In your answer you must include discussion of either Dracula and/or The Bloody Chamber

and Other Stories *.

Dystopia

Answer Question 5.

Then answer one question from 6(a), 6(b) or 6(c). You should spend 1 hour and 15 minutes on each question.

5 Write a critical appreciation of this passage, relating your discussion to your reading of dystopian

literature.

The following passage is taken from a novel in which ‘self-barers’ (people who talk or write about themselves in the first person) are persecuted.

R Silverberg, 'A Time of Changes', pp384-385, TOR Books, 1971. Item removed due to third party copyright restrictions.

Robert Silverberg, A Time of Changes (1971)

In your answer to Question 6, you must compare at least two texts from the following list. At least one of these must be taken from the two texts given at the top of the list in bold type.

George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four

‘Dystopian writing often involves elaborate systems of surveillance.’

By comparing Nineteen Eighty-Four with at least one other text prescribed for this topic,

discuss how far you agree with this view.

Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale

‘The quality of human endurance is central to dystopian fiction.’

By comparing The Handmaid’s Tale with at least one other text prescribed for this topic,

discuss how far you agree with this view.

‘Dystopian regimes spend much time and effort on the process of indoctrination.’

By comparing at least two texts prescribed for this topic, explore how far you agree with this view.

In your answer you must include discussion of either Nineteen Eighty-Four and/or The

Handmaid’s Tale.

Women in Literature

Answer Question 7.

Then answer one question from 8(a), 8(b) or 8(c). You should spend 1 hour and 15 minutes on each question.

7 Write a critical appreciation of this passage, relating your discussion to your reading concerning

Women in Literature.

In the following passage, Adolphus Crosbie has just married Lady Alexandrina de Courcy and compares her with Lilian Dale, to whom he was once engaged.

By the proper administration of a light bribe Crosbie secured for himself and his wife a compartment in the railway carriage to themselves. And as he seated himself opposite to Alexandrina, having properly tucked her up with all her bright-coloured trappings, he remembered that he had never in truth been alone with her before. He had danced with her frequently, and been left with her for a few minutes between the figures. He had flirted with her in crowded drawing-rooms, and had once found a moment at Courcy Castle to tell her that he was willing to marry her in spite of his engagement with Lilian Dale. But he had never walked with her for hours together as he had walked with Lily. He had never talked to her about government, and politics, and books, nor had she talked to him of poetry, of religion, and of the little duties and comforts of life. He had known the Lady Alexandrina for the last six or seven years; but he had never known her – perhaps never would know her – as he had learned to know Lily Dale within the space of two months.
And now that she was his wife, what was he to say to her? They two had commenced a partnership which was to make of them for the remaining term of their lives one body and one flesh. They were to be all-in-all to each other. But how was he to begin this all-in-all partnership? Had the priest, with his blessing, done it so sufficiently that no other doing on Crosbie’s own part was necessary? There she was, opposite to him, his very actual wife – bone of his bone; and what was he to say to her? As he settled himself on his seat, taking over his own knees a part of a fine fur rug trimmed with scarlet, with which he had covered her other mufflings, he bethought himself how much easier it would have been to talk to Lily. And Lily would have been ready with all her ears, and all her mind, and all her wit, to enter quickly upon whatever thoughts had occurred to him. In that respect Lily would have been a wife indeed – a wife that would have transferred herself with quick mental activity into her husband’s mental sphere. Had he begun about his office Lily would have been ready for him, but Alexandrina had never yet asked him a single question about his official life. Had he been prepared with a plan for tomorrow’s happiness Lily would have taken it up eagerly, but Alexandrina never cared for such trifles.
‘Are you quite comfortable?’ he said, at last.
‘Oh, yes, quite, thank you. By-the-by, what did you do with my dressing-case?’
And that question she did ask with some energy.
‘It is under you. You can have it as a foot-stool if you like it.’
‘Oh, no; I should scratch it. I was afraid that if Hannah had it, it might be lost.’ Then again there was silence, and Crosbie again considered as to what he would next say to his wife.

Anthony Trollope, The Small House at Allington (1864)

In your answer to Question 8, you must compare at least two texts from the following list. At least one of these must be taken from the two texts given at the top of the list in bold type.

Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility

‘Rather than making things happen, female characters in literature tend to be observers.’

By comparing Sense and Sensibility with at least one other text prescribed for this topic,

discuss how far you have found this to be the case.

Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway

‘The contrast of age and youth is a key element in the presentation of female characters in literature.’

By comparing Mrs Dalloway with at least one other text prescribed for this topic, discuss how

far you agree with this view.

‘Motherhood is central to literature by and about women.’

By comparing at least two texts prescribed for this topic, explore how far you agree with this claim.

In your answer you must include discussion of either Sense and Sensibility and/or Mrs

Dalloway.

In your answer to Question 10, you must compare at least two texts from the following list. At least one of these must be taken from the two texts given at the top of the list in bold type.

Henry Roth: Call it Sleep

‘The search for identity is central to literature about immigration.’

By comparing Call it Sleep with at least one other text prescribed for this topic, discuss how

far you agree with this view.

Mohsin Hamid: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

‘The literature of immigration does not focus just on the experience of the immigrant; the response of the host nation is presented too.’

By comparing The Reluctant Fundamentalist with at least one other text prescribed for this

topic, discuss how far you agree with this view.

‘Immigrants in literature frequently express disappointment and frustration.’

By comparing at least two texts prescribed for this topic, discuss how far you agree with this view.

In your answer you must include discussion of either Call it Sleep and/or The Reluctant

Fundamentalist.