Learning Outcome: By the end of the
lesson we will be able to discuss the
expectations of the examiner for this
module.
• You will complete an exam that lasts for 2
hours and 45 minutes.
• The exam is made up of two sections:
Section A: Unseen section
Section B: Analytical essay on set texts
• This section is worth 40 marks.
• You should spend about an hour on this section.
• You will be expected to select either a piece of
prose or a piece of poetry that you haven’t seen
before and respond to it.
• You will be expected to explore how the writer
uses language, structure and form to create their
meaning.
• This section is worth 60 marks.
• You will select a question to answer based on the texts
that you have studied: ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’,
‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘Rapture’.
• The question will be a comment made by a reader. You
will have to respond to that comment referencing at
least two of the three books that you have studied.
• The question will be based on relationships.
Dr Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in which none of his patients had died or got any
worse. He had attended a surprisingly easy calving, lanced one abscess, extracted a molar,
dosed one lady of easy virtue with Salvarsan, performed an unpleasant but spectacularly
fruitful enema, and had produced a miracle by a feat of medical prestidigitation. He
chuckled to himself, for no doubt this miracle was already being touted as worthy of St
Gerasimos himself. He had gone to old man Stamatis' house, having been summoned to
deal with an earache, and had found himself gazing down into an aural orifice more dank,
be-lichened, and stalagmitic even than the Drogarati cave.
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning
over in my mind ever since.
“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in
this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and
I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve
all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the
victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this
quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly
accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men.
Most of theconfidences were unsought — frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a
hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was
quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in
which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions.
• In what ways are the two texts similar?
• In what ways are the two texts different?
• Which in your opinion is the most engaging
opening?
(AO3)
You might consider in your answer:
The language used
The type of narrator
Relationships with other characters
Description of actions
Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we will
be able to discuss our understanding of the
historical context and consider how this will impact
upon the way in which the text is written. (AO4)
Often referred to as:
• ‘The Roaring Twenties’
• ‘The Golden Age’
• ‘The Jazz Age’
What is the significance of each of these titles?
What do they reveal to us about life in the twenties?
• Refers to a period of economic prosperity
• Refers to developments in technology – television
and film, music, dance, telephones, cars, aviation
and electricity.
• Refers to massive growth of industry and industrial
areas.
• Refers to change in treatment off women –
independence – ‘flapper’
• Refers to change in social interests – rise of the
‘celebrity’
• ‘The Lost Generation’ was a phrase coined by
Gertrude Stein to describe the people who grew
up in the period after World War I.
• Lots of the literature written during this period
depicts characters who have a reckless urge to
seek pleasure as a way to cope with (or
compensate for) the feelings of loss and their
overarching sense of the futility of life.
• Does Fitzgerald focus on the positive or negative aspects of
life?
• Which social groups is he most interested in portraying
within this text?
• What comments is he trying to make about society and
how does he want the reader to feel towards the
characters that he portrays?
• You have 5 min’s to discuss the ways in
which a person can be ‘great’.
Try to come up with at least 5 ideas!
Why do you think the novel is
called The ‘Great’ Gatsby?
Learning Outcome: By the end of the
lesson we will be able to analyse
Fitzgerald’s use of language and
discuss how this reveals character to
the reader (AO2)
What have we learned so far about the way
that the context has affected the way that the
novel is written?
Why do you think the novel is
called The ‘Great’ Gatsby?
For the extract that you are given consider:
• What Fitzgerald is revealing about the
character at the beginning of the novel – and
how this is achieved.
• Using the benefit of hindsight – how does this
extract foreshadow later events?
I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans. Daisy was
my second cousin once removed and I’d known Tom in college. And
just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago.
Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had
been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New
Haven—a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such
an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward
savors of anti-climax.
His family were enormously wealthy—even in college his freedom
with money was a matter for reproach—but now he’d left Chicago
and come east in a fashion that rather took your breath away: for
instance he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest.
It was hard to realize
that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that.
He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he
was a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard
mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining, arrogant
eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him
the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not
even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide
the enormous power of that body—he seemed to fill those
glistening boots until he strained the top lacing and you
could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder
moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous
leverage—a cruel body.
His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the
impression
of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of
paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked—and
there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts.
The other girl, Daisy, made an attempt to rise—she
leaned slightly forward with a conscientious expression—
then she laughed, an absurd, charming little laugh, and I
laughed too and came forward into the room.
‘I’m p-paralyzed with happiness.’
She laughed again, as if she said something very witty,
and held my hand for a moment, looking up into my face,
promising that there was no one in the world she so much
wanted to see. That was a way she had. She hinted in a murmur
that the surname of the balancing girl was Baker. (I’ve
heard it said that Daisy’s murmur was only to make people
lean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no less
charming.)
I looked back at my cousin who began to ask me questions
in her low, thrilling voice. It was the kind of voice that
the ear follows up and down as if each speech is an
arrangement
of notes that will never be played again. Her face was
sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a
bright passionate mouth—but there was an excitement in
her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to
forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered ‘Listen,’ a promise
that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since
and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next
hour.
Learning Outcome: By the end of the
lesson we will be able to
demonstrate our understanding of
the characters within written
responses (AO1)
• Where does Nick move from and why?
• What job has he come to do?
• Where does Nick live at the beginning of the
text?
• How does Nick know Daisy and Tom?
• Who else does he meet in the first chapter
and what is his opinion of them?
……a little later I participated in that delayed
Teutonic migration known as the Great War.
I enjoyed the counter-raid so thoroughly that I
came back restless. Instead of being the
warm center of the world the middle-west
now seemed like the ragged edge of the
universe.
Why they came east I don’t know.
They had spent a year in France,
for no particular reason, and then
drifted here and there unrestfully
wherever people played polo and
were rich together.
Introducing Tom and Daisy
For each of the characters, list the adverbs used about
their actions from pgs 12-25
Tom
Daisy
Restlessly
•What impression do you get of each character from the
list attributed to them?
‘Well, she was less than an hour old and
Tom was God knows where. I woke up out
of the ether with an utterly abandoned
feeling and asked the nurse right away if it
was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl,
and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘All
right,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope
she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl
can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.’
By the end of chapter one – what impression do we
have of the relationship between Tom and Daisy
Buchanan?
What do you think that Fitzgerald is trying to say
through his presentation of their relationship?
How does the presentation of their relationship fit/
disagree with what we know about the time period
that the book is set in?
By the end of the lesson we will be able to analyse
the methods used to present the characters of
Daisy and Myrtle and discuss how these methods
reflect the writer’s purpose.
• What is the name of Tom’s mistress?
• What does Tom buy for his mistress?
• Why do they have a disagreement before the
end of Chapter Two?
Connotations of Physical
name
description
Daisy
Myrtle
Relationship Home/Social
with Tom
position
Significant
quotation
But above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust
which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment,
the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T.
J.Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their retinas are one yard
high. They look out of no face but, instead, from a pair of
enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent
nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to
fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank
down himself into eternal blindness or forgot them and moved
away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many
paintless days under sun and rain, brood on
over the solemn dumping ground.
Though I was curious to see her I had no
desire to meet her—but I did. I went up to
New York with Tom on the train one
afternoon and when we stopped by the
ashheaps he jumped to his feet and taking
hold of my elbow literally forced me from
the car.
I have been drunk just twice in my life and
the second time was that afternoon so
everything that happened has a
dim hazy cast over it although until after
eight o’clock the apartment was full of
cheerful sun.
Why does Myrtle
marry George?
How does she feel
towards Tom?
Why does she change
her mind about
George?
How does she feel
about Tom and
Daisy’s relationship?
Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson
we will be able to demonstrate our
understanding of the characters of Gatsby and
Nick through analysis of AO2
• Why is Nick different to the rest of Gatsby’s
guests?
• What are some of the rumours about Gatsby’s
past?
• What is interesting about Gatsby’s library?
• How does Nick finally meet Gatsby?
• What do they discover they have in common?
• What happens at the end of the chapter?
Why is the
simile used
here?
What is the
significance
of this
reference?
A reminder
of Gatsby’s
opulent and
reckless
lifestyle
Write a paragraph, using quotations to support,
that demonstrates your understanding of the
two characters relationship.
(AO2)
What do
we mean
by
evaluate?
What do we mean by
analyse?
Grade
C
Able to make comments regarding the language/structure
and form of the text – referring to the text within written
responses.
B
Quotations followed by reference to the writer – the
techniques that they employ within language/structure/form
and the effect that this has upon the reader.
A
Quotations followed by a reference to the writer and
comments on whether the writer achieved their
aim/successful in their purpose.
He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly.
It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in
it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or
seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and then
concentrated on YOU with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It
understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed
in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it
had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to
convey. Precisely at that point it vanished—and I was looking at an
elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate
formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time before he
introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking his
words with care.
He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly.
It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in
it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or
seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and then
concentrated on YOU with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It
understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed
in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it
had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to
convey. Precisely at that point it vanished—and I was looking at an
elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate
formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time before he
introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking his
words with care.
Remember!
Make a point
Support it with evidence from the text
Analyse the quotation using terminology
Evaluate whether the writer has achieved his
purpose.
Within chapter three the narrator describes the first time that
he meets Gatsby. As such, the way in which the relationship is
presented within this chapter may not necessarily be indicative
of the relationship between the two characters within the text
as a whole.
It is also significant to consider that Fitzgerald positions Nick’s
narrative as being written many years after this meeting; the
way that it is written may convey attitudes that Nick has not
actually experienced or realised at the time but later attaches to
this meeting.
Lastly, before considering the presentation of the relationship
within this chapter, it is also important to consider what
Fitzgerald’s wider purpose is within the text. He presents the
character of Nick as an author who is re-telling tales of his
‘younger years’ which he has already disclosed to the reader
were of great significance.
• How has the lexis within Chapter Three revealed
more to us about the character of Gatsby?
• Through Nick’s description of Gatsby what do we
learn about him?
• How does the way that the chapter is structured
impact on our understanding of their relationship?
Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we
will be able to demonstrate personal
interpretations of the relationship between Nick
and Jordan by focusing on AO2
“Reading over what I have written so far , I see I
have given the impression that the events of
three nights over several weeks apart were all
that absorbed me. On the contrary, they were
merely casual events in a crowded summer,
and, until much later, they absorbed me infinitely
less than my personal affairs.”
“Reading over what I have written so far , I see I
have given the impression that the events of
three nights over several weeks apart were all
that absorbed me. On the contrary, they were
merely casual events in a crowded summer,
and, until much later, they absorbed me infinitely
less than my personal affairs.”
As the ‘storyteller’ Nick
understands that the way
that the reader perceives
the events is directly
related to how he
chooses to present them
Nick recognises that these events
are only significant through the
benefit of hindsight and because
he is putting the pieces of the
story together.
“For a while I lost sight of Jordan Baker, and then in
midsummer I found her again.
Key theme in the text – reminds us
of the difference between perception
and reality
Suggestion of his
ownership or control of
Jordan
• Select from the quotations that we have
collected and analysed in order to write a
PEAL paragraph.
• How do we as readers respond to the
relationship between Nick and Jordan at this
point in the text?
• Firstly , you will need to consider how you feel
about them as a couple – does it appear to be
a positive or a negative relationship?
• Does their relationship improve either
individual at this point?
• What do you think Fitzgerald is trying to say
through their relationship?
• Is their relationship indicative of the time
period?
Learning Outcome: By the end of the
lesson we will be able to
“On Sunday Morning while church bells
rang in the villages alongshore, the world
and its mistress returned to Gatsby’s house
and twinkled hilariously on his lawn.”
1. Identify the most significant words in this chapter –
what is the significance of their
connotations/denotations? How does the reader
respond?
2. Why does Fitzgerald structure Chapter four to begin
with this quotation?
• Find a quote that describes Gatsby’s car. Why
is this a significant quotation?
• Find a quote that shows how Nick feels
towards Gatsby. Has his opinion changed or is
it the same from the previous chapter?
• Find a quote that shows Gatsby’s view of the
war. Using inference – consider what his
speech shows us his opinion is.
A dead man passed us in a hearse heaped with
blooms,followed by two carriages with drawn blinds
and by more cheerful carriages for friends. The
friends looked out at us with the tragic eyes and short
upper lips of south-eastern Europe, and I was glad
that the sight of Gatsby’s splendid car was included in
their somber holiday. As we crossed Blackwell’s Island
a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in
which sat three modish Negroes, two bucks and a girl.
I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled
toward us in haughty rivalry.
‘Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this
bridge,’ I thought; ‘anything at all….’ Even Gatsby
could happen, without any particular wonder.
Read through the section on Wolfshiem. (Pages 7580)
• How does Nick feel towards him? Look for example
at the way he describes his physical appearance,
his reactions to what he says etc.
• What happens in the story that Wolfshiem tells to
Nick and Gatsby? Why is this significant? What
does it reveal about him as a character?
• What is Gatsby’s opinion of Wolfshiem?
‘Look here, old sport,’ said Gatsby, leaning toward me,
‘I’m afraid I made you a little angry this morning in the car.’
There was the smile again, but this time I held out against it.
‘I don’t like mysteries,’ I answered. ‘And I don’t understand
why you won’t come out frankly and tell me what you want.
Why has it all got to come through Miss Baker?’
‘Oh, it’s nothing underhand,’ he assured me. ‘Miss Baker’s a
great sportswoman, you know, and she’d never do anything
that wasn’t all right.’
Suddenly he looked at his watch, jumped up and hurried
from the room leaving me with Mr. Wolfshiem at the table.
‘He has to telephone,’ said Mr. Wolfshiem, following him
with his eyes. ‘Fine fellow, isn’t he? Handsome to look at
and a perfect gentleman.’
Learning Outcome: By the end of the
lesson we will be able to identify and
comment on features of the text for
AO2 and A04.
• What does the extract reveal to us about the
characters of Daisy, Tom or Jordan?
• What is significant about the type of language
being used? What effect does it have upon the
reader? What is significant about the structure?
• How has the context influenced the
attitudes/events/language of the extract? What
does the extract reveal to us about the context?
Because it seemed
romantic to me I have
remembered it ever
since.
His name was Jay Gatsby and I didn’t
lay eyes on him again for over four
years- even after I’d met him I didn’t
realise he was the same man.
I found her lying on her
bed as lovely as a June
night in her flowered dress
– and drunk as a monkey
She wouldn’t let go of the
letter…and only let me leave
it when it was coming to
pieces like snow
They moved with a fast crowd, all of
them young and rich and wild, but she
came out with an absolutely perfect
reputation.
The girl who was with him got into the
papers too because her arm was broken –
she was one of the chambermaids in the
Santa Barbara Hotel
This is also a useful
quotation for the
discussion of
structure AO2
• Consider significance of the word PAST – how
in general is it relevant to the novel ‘The Great
Gatsby’ in general?
• What is the significance of the word ‘
CREATES’ – again what points do you need to
consider?
• In your introduction you need to address the
theme of the past within the book as a whole
– what you believe the author’s purpose is in
developing this theme.
• Do the same for the word ‘create’
• Then focus on the specific chapter that the
question has asked you to focus on.
Remember – even though the wording of the
question doesn’t refer to it you must look at:
• How the language does/doesn’t support the idea
that the past creates the present.
• How the structure of the text as a whole and the
interior structure of Chapter four does/doesn’t
support the idea that the past creates the present.
• How the context does/doesn’t support the idea
that the past creates the present.
• You are going to create your plan.
• Write yourself one sentence first of all that sums up
your belief – whether the past does or doesn’t
create the future. Your whole argument will be built
on this.
• Plan the range of points that you are going to make
– ensure within your plan you have points to cover
both AO2 and AO4
Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson we
will be able to identify significant features of
language to improve our understanding of
characters and specific events in the text
(AO2)
• Nick arranges for Gatsby and Daisy to meet.
• Gatsby tells Nick that he made his money in
three years.
• Gatsby gives Nick and Daisy a guided tour of
his house.
• The reader gains a greater understanding of
Gatsby and Daisy’s shared history.
What does this comment suggest about the appearance of
Gatsby’s house?
What comment could be made when linking to old money/new
money?
Create a detailed revision sheet based on the section
that you have been given.
• Select up to three quotes for each character that is
particularly significant in revealing how they feel.
• What do you notice about the language of the
extract that you have been given?
• Are there any particular semantic fields attributed
to one character? Positive/negative connotations?
Style or tone of language to describe them? Use of
figurative language? Which verbs, adverbs and
adjectives are used to describe them?
• Pages 88-90 ( I called up Daisy next morning
and invited her to come to tea) Taea, Liam,
George
• Pages 90-92 (was standing in a puddle of
water) Nathan and Elle
• Pages 92-95 (he raised his hand to stop my
words) Sam and Shamik
• Pages 95- 97 Louis and Josh
• Pages 98-100 Saffron and Sammy
• Pages 101-103
Daisy and Tom looked at each other for a moment in
silence.
‘Is she from New York?’ I asked quickly.
‘From Louisville. Our white girlhood was passed
together there. Our beautiful white——‘
‘Did you give Nick a little heart to heart talk on the
veranda? ’demanded Tom suddenly.
‘Did I?’ She looked at me. ‘I can’t seem to remember,
but Ithink we talked about the Nordic race. Yes, I’m
sure we did. It sort of crept up on us and first thing
you know——‘
‘Don’t believe everything you hear, Nick,’ he advised
me.
Learning Outcome: By the end of the
lesson we will be able to
I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and
investment securities and they stood on my shelf in red and
gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold
the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and
Maecenas knew. And I had the high intention of reading many
other books besides. I was rather literary in college—one year
I wrote a series of very solemn and obvious editorials for the
‘Yale News’—and now I was going to bring back all such
things into my life and become again that most limited
of all specialists, the ‘well-rounded man.’
Learning Outcome: By the end of the
lesson we will be able to
• About the module?
• About the way that it is assessed?
• About the texts that we are studying?
The novel is set in a real place, set in the Second
World War, with numerous Point of View
Narrators – several of whom are real.
• What problems does this pose for the writer?
• What problems does this pose for the reader?
• What was the expectation of Greek women and
how were they treated during this period?
(1941+)
• Who was Metaxas and what is his significance in
Greek history?
• Who was Mussolini and what did he believe in?
What was his significance in the war in Greece?
• How did the Nazi’s become involved in the war in
Greece?
• Who are the real Corelli, Weber and St
Gerasimos?
Why begin a
novel with a
poem?
Down some cold field in a world outspoken
the young men are walking together, slim and tall,
and though they laugh to one another, silence is not broken;
there is no sound however clear they call.
They are speaking together of what they loved in vain here,
but the air is too thin to carry the things they say.
They were young and golden, but they came on pain here,
and their youth is age now, their gold is grey.
Yet their hearts are not changed, and they cry to one another,
'What have they done with the lives we laid aside?
Are they young with our youth, gold with our gold, my brother?
Do they smile in the face of death, because we died?'
Down some cold field in a world uncharted
the young seek each other with questioning eyes.
They question each other, the young, the golden hearted,
of the world that they were robbed of in their quiet paradise.
What are the
attitudes
towards war in
this poem?
What tone does
this establish
before the
novel begins?
His daughter
His neighbours
The island of Cephallonia
• Make sure you include in your notes the
methods used by de Bernieres to shape our
opinion of the Doctor at this early stage of the
text.
• What impression does de Bernieres create of
Mussolini in Chapter Two?
• Why do you think the chapter on Mussolini is
positioned here in Chapter Two?
• What do we learn about the historical context
through ‘The Duce’? Why does de Bernieres
choose to tell us through Mussolini’s voice?