GCE A2 LEVEL Exemplifying Examination Performance English Literature

GCE A2 LEVEL Exemplifying Examination Performance English Literature For first teaching from September 2008 This is an exemplification of candidates performance in A2 examinations (Summer Series 2010) to support the teaching and learning of the English Literature specification A2 1: Ibsen A Doll s House Osborne Look Back in Anger

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EXEMPLIFYING EXAMINATION PERFORMANCE A2 English Literature Introduction These materials illustrate aspects of performance from the 2010 summer A2 examination series of CCEA s revised GCE Specification in English Literature. Students grade A responses are reproduced as written in the examination. They are accompanied by commentaries written by senior examiners. The commentaries draw attention to the strengths of the students responses and indicate, where appropriate, how improvements could be made. The materials exemplify the standard for the lifetime of the specification. It is intended that they should provide a benchmark of candidate performance and help teachers and students to raise standards. The texts included for exemplification are dependent on the questions chosen by candidates in the summer 2010 examination series. For further details of our support package, please visit our website at www.ccea.org.uk Best wishes Majella Corrigan Education Manager, English Language, English Literature and English Email: mcorrigan@ccea.org.uk Telephone: 028 9026 1200 (ext. 2200) CCEA EXEMPLIFYING EXAMINATION PERFORMANCE 3

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A2 1 (AL211/2): Section B: The Study of Drama: Drama of Social Realism Ibsen A Doll s House Osborne Look Back in Anger CCEA EXEMPLIFYING EXAMINATION PERFORMANCE 5

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A2 Unit 1 English Literature Q3 Jimmy Porter more accurately reflects the attitudes and values of society in the 1950s than Torvald Helmer does of society in the 1890s. By comparing and contrasting appropriately selected parts of the two plays, show how far you would agree with the view expressed above. Your argument should include relevant comments on each writer s dramatic methods and relevant external contextual material on society in the 1950s and in the 1890s. Student s response Torvald Helmer is as much trapped in his social role as a husband in the 1890 s as Nora is as the perfect bourgeois wife. The play normally justifies Nora as the chief victim, but we too have to consider Helmer s position as the dominant husband of a marriage in the 19th Century. Jimmy from Look Back in Anger is very accurate to the attitudes and values of society in 1950 s, but it is hard to see him as a victim because of his boisterous behaviour. From researching the two plays I have noted that both men are extremely insecure. I feel that Torvald Helmer however represents the attitudes and values more so than Jimmy Porter. Torvald Helmer s insecurity is key to the 1890 s and his role in life. Torvald is the marriages dominant partner, out earning the money for his beautiful home and happy family, however it is so much more than this. Just before Helmer s new appointment he cannot have any public humiliation that would embaress him in society. This was crucial in the 1890 s in a world where it is an eclusively male society, with laws made for men and judges who access female conduct from a male standpoint. Helmer is solely concerned with himself and doesn t think about how he is supressing his wife. With concerns to language, Torvald asserts the views and values of 1890 s society by speaking to her in diminutive and patronising way, labelling her as little with almost every term he belittles her as a skylark squirrel spendthrift, she almost becomes an object to him. His happiness revolves around being superior, which he practices by maintaining all financial control in the house. Nora has to ask for money for the Christmas presents at the beginning and every other time during the play. Even within the staging and comfort of the Helmer s home it is decorated and maintained with Helmer s tastes and dislikes. His masculine and superior partner in their partnership is highlighted by the strict rules and regulations set down by Torvald such as prohibiting the macaroons and keeping the doors to his study locked insuring Nora never enters. She is described cautiously listening at the door or rubbing crumbs from her mouth hiding that she has forbidden Helmer s rules. Their marriage is like that of an adult and a child where Nora has simply been transferred from papa s hands to Helmer s. I believe that yes, Jimmy Porter represents the attitudes and values of society in 1950 s but on fewer levels than that of Torvald. Jimmy shows the literary mood of The Angry Young Man and he speaks about things that many of the audience understand, but this is about the society. His mood links to that general feeling of disenchantment which was undeniable in the 1950 s after the war. The fact that the labour government were doing nothing to improve the political and social fabric of life and Britains loss of imperial presence over seas. However in the bulk of the play, which is cyclical in structure and repetitive the time is spent in the home; the apartment they own, and although Jimmy shows this angry mode I don t feel that his relationship with his wife captures the attitudes and values of the time. It is an undeniable hatred he feels for his wife s establishment background, that I feel was not common to the 1950 s. His abuse which she passively accepts is unbelievable, from burning her with the iron and wishing that her unborn baby baby dies. His resentment for his wife is not due to the political and social attitudes and values of the time, but is instead a deep and complicated mechanism which deals with his own insecurities. CCEA EXEMPLIFYING EXAMINATION PERFORMANCE 7

A2 Unit 1 English Literature Jimmy s insecurity is that he has no road back to his working class life, he has been educated out of it, and his resentment is through watching his father die at a young age and his mother s infidelity. Jimmy s problem is that he needs to test the loyalty s of anyone who tries to enter into his life in order to avoid the hurt from his past. He describes that he knows more about hatred, death and love when he was twelve years old than Alison will ever know. This is his personal problem and cannot be mistaken solely to be the general feeling of the 1950 s. Torvald reflects accurately how all men feel, and shows the views of the given time. He mirrors mens attitude that men are concerned with the economic matters of the house and have no impact on the childs moral development. He shows the patronising view of men in the 1890 s when he tells Nora at the end of the play that she has no real idea how society works These however shocking stereotypes are common to the 1890 s and show how things change through Woman s Liberation. In Torvald s marriage which we see over a period of 60 hours in an intense Three acts, rather than the customary Five, I feel he more accurately shows the views of his given society and how other marriages and men treat their wives. I feel that Jimmy s treatment of Alison doesn t show the values and attitudes in a marriage of his time, but he gives an idea into the general mood of the time; this disenchantment. Both Ibsen and Osborne are able to create social realism a drama that their audience are able to appreciate as the situations are not as dramatic as Romanticism, Osborne s kitchen sink drama shows a period of history where There weren t any Good brave causes left. Jimmy feels strongly that their are no beliefs, no convictions and that people accept anything without questioning, he wants something to change anything. I do think because of Jimmy s past he feels sorry for himself, this is why he is so angry, his lack of enthusiasm and no positive future aim, couldn t represent all of society s attitudes at that time. He just gives up and in a world where he has no enemy what is left to tear up everything around him and ultimately those he loves? He is university educated and makes several references to current affairs and political and social zeitgeist, so why doesn t he push himself? Rather than maintaining an income from a sweet stall. This lack of enthusiasm was not a common problem of attitudes of that time, but instead this is due to Jimmy s character, he just maintains this in his personality. Both wives are seen in the domestic sphere, Nora more so reflects her society as mothers and daughters are not really individuals their ethical imperetives are seen directly in the home. This is because of the attitudes and values that Torvald s society represent; this is why she s been diminished to this. Torvald s attacks on his wife are appartly affectionate and playful, but he is unknowingly showing the stereotypes and society of that time. She is made to be an object of sexual desire and beauty. Whereas Allison is not shown like this. Torvald, after, watching her dancing The Tarentella takes her from the party in order to fulfill his desires, Jimmy however describes Alison s sexual experiences like a python Alison is not an object objectifying society, like how Nora is. Alison just is quiet enough to accept her abuse. Torvald s dream and happiness is maintained through his dominance, and at the end when he finds out about Nora taking a loan and the risk of embaressment in his society is more important than his wife. Jimmy s happiness revolves around his hatred for his wife, that someday at the end when she loses her child she is now a human being in the pit this reasoning is not due to society s attitudes and values, but revolves around Jimmy s personal hatred for Alison s family. His attacks on woman represent his his own feelings about women, whereas. Helmer s speak for his whole society. Helmer s attituds to even Mrs Linde where he tells her to leave the home as it is for mothers represents the view of society that a woman working should not have children. It is the fact that Helmer s behaviour show attitudes and values of the 1890 s whereas I feel that Jimmy s is on a more personal level due to his own past. His mood may show the disenchantment of his generation but his behaviour shows his personality and past which is not common to everyones attitudes and values and that time. 8 CCEA EXEMPLIFYING EXAMINATION PERFORMANCE

Examiner s Comments AO4: Includes relevant external social context on both nineteenth century Norwegian society and Britian in the 1950 s. Uses contextual information effectively in pursuing an argument. AO3: Keeps key terms in view. Maintains comparative discussion, arguing that Helmer is representative of his society s attitudes and values but that Jimmy is dealing with his own insecurities. AO2: Refers to Helmer s language, staging, cyclical structure, use of stereotypical characterisation. Comments on methods effectively related to key terms. Suggestions for development: Argument is self-contradictory when candidate asserts that Jimmy s treatment of Alison doesn t show the values and attitudes in a marriage of his time, but he gives an idea in to the general mood of the time; this disenchantment. Focus skips from Helmer and Jimmy to their wives towards end of essay. CCEA EXEMPLIFYING EXAMINATION PERFORMANCE 9

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