Official June 2024 AQA A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE B 7717/1A Paper 1A Literary genres: Aspects of tragedy Merged Question Paper + Mark Scheme Ace your Mocks!!! IB/G/Jun24/G4007/E3 7717/1A Friday 24 May 2024 Morning Time allowed: 2 hours 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 7717/1A. • Answer one question from Section A, one question from Section B and one question from Section C. • You may answer on the same Shakespeare play in Sections A and B. • For Section C, you must write about one drama text and one further 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. A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE B Paper 1A Literary genres: Aspects of tragedy 2 IB/G/Jun24/7717/1A Section A Answer one question in this section. Either 0 1 Othello – William Shakespeare Read the extract below and then answer the question. Explore the significance of this extract in relation to the tragedy of the play as a whole. Remember to include in your answer relevant analysis of Shakespeare’s dramatic methods. [25 marks] DESDEMONA ’Tis meet I should be used so, very meet. How have I been behaved, that he might stick The smallest opinion on my least misuse? Enter Emilia and Iago IAGO What is your pleasure, madam? How is’t with you? DESDEMONA I cannot tell: those that do teach young babes Do it with gentle means and easy tasks: He might have chid me so, for, in good faith, I am a child to chiding. IAGO What is the matter, lady? EMILIA Alas, Iago, my lord hath so bewhored her, Thrown such despite and heavy terms upon her As true heart cannot bear. DESDEMONA Am I that name, Iago? IAGO What name, fair lady? DESDEMONA Such as she said my lord did say I was. EMILIA He called her whore: a beggar in his drink Could not have laid such terms upon his callet. IAGO Why did he so? DESDEMONA I do not know: I am sure I am none such. IAGO Do not weep, do not weep. Alas the day! EMILIA Hath she forsook so many noble matches, Her father, and her country, all her friends, To be called whore? Would it not make one weep? 3 IB/G/Jun24/7717/1A Turn over ► DESDEMONA It is my wretched fortune. IAGO Beshrew him for’t! How comes this trick upon him? DESDEMONA Nay, heaven doth know. EMILIA I will be hanged if some eternal villain, Some busy and insinuating rogue, Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, Have not devised this slander; I’ll be hanged else. IAGO Fie, there is no such man! It is impossible. DESDEMONA If any such there be, heaven pardon him. EMILIA A halter pardon him and hell gnaw his bones! Why should he call her whore? Who keeps her company? What place, what time, what form, what likelihood? The Moor’s abused by some most villainous knave, Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow. O heaven, that such companions thou’dst unfold, And put in every honest hand a whip To lash the rascals naked through the world, Even from the east to th’west! IAGO Speak within door. EMILIA O fie upon them! Some such squire he was That turned your wit the seamy side without And made you to suspect me with the Moor. (Act 4, Scene 2) Turn over for the next question 4 IB/G/Jun24/7717/1A or 0 2 King Lear – William Shakespeare Read the extract below and then answer the question. Explore the significance of this extract in relation to the tragedy of the play as a whole. Remember to include in your answer relevant analysis of Shakespeare’s dramatic methods. [25 marks] (Act 1, Scene 3) Enter Gonerill and Oswald, her steward GONERILL Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his Fool? OSWARD Ay, madam. GONERILL By day and night he wrongs me; every hour He flashes into one gross crime or other That sets us all at odds. I’ll not endure it! His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us On every trifle. When he returns from hunting I will not speak with him. Say I am sick. If you come slack of former services You shall do well; the fault of it I’ll answer. OSWARD He’s coming, madam; I hear him. GONERILL Put on what weary negligence you please, You and your fellows. I’d have it come to question. If he distaste it let him to my sister, Whose mind and mine I know in that are one, Not to be overruled. Idle old man, That still would manage those authorities That he hath given away! Now, by my life, Old fools are babes again, and must be used With checks, as flatteries, when they are seen abused. Remember what I have said. OSWARD Well, madam. GONERILL And let his knights have colder looks among you. What grows of it, no matter. Advise your fellows so. I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall, That I may speak. I’ll write straight to my sister To hold my very course. Prepare for dinner. Exeunt (Act 1, Scene 4) Enter Kent in disguise KENT If but as well I other accents borrow That can my speech diffuse, my good intent May carry through itself to that full issue For which I razed my likeness. Now, banished Kent, 5 IB/G/Jun24/7717/1A Turn over ► If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemned, So may it come thy master whom thou lovest Shall find thee full of labours. Horns within. Enter Lear and Knights LEAR Let me not stay a jot for dinner! Go, get it ready! Exit First Knight How now? What art thou? KENT A man, sir. LEAR What dost thou profess? What wouldst thou with us? KENT I do profess to be no less than I seem: to serve him truly that will put me in trust, to love him that is honest, to converse with him that is wise and says little, to fear judgement, to fight when I cannot choose, and to eat no fish. LEAR What art thou? KENT A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the King. (Act 1, Scenes 3–4) Turn over for Section B 6 IB/G/Jun24/7717/1A Section B Answer one question in this section. Either 0 3 Othello – William Shakespeare ‘Othello is a tragic lover undone more by the intensity of his love than by the plotting of Iago.’ To what extent do you agree with this view? Remember to include in your answer relevant comment on Shakespeare’s dramatic methods. [25 marks] or 0 4 Othello – William Shakespeare ‘Iago’s ability to adapt his skills to ensnare his various victims is as impressive as it is terrifying.’ To what extent do you agree with this view? Remember to include in your answer relevant comment on Shakespeare’s dramatic methods. [25 marks] or 0 5 King Lear – William Shakespeare ‘In King Lear, Britain is itself a victim: a divided country that is damaged beyond repair.’ To what extent do you agree with this view? Remember to include in your answer relevant comment on Shakespeare’s dramatic methods. [25 marks] or 0 6 King Lear – William Shakespeare Explore the significance of ‘nothing’ to the tragedy of King Lear. Remember to include in your answer relevant comment on Shakespeare’s dramatic methods. [25 marks