AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 1

SOURCE TEXT:
Read the following extract from Act 5 Scene 3 of Macbeth and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the play, Macbeth hears that the English army is approaching and asks the Doctor for a report about Lady Macbeth.

MACBETH
Seyton! – I am sick at heart,
When I behold – Seyton, I say! – this push
Will cheer me ever or disseat me now.
I have lived long enough. My way of life
Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf,
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but in their stead,
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
Seyton!
Enter SEYTON
SEYTON What's your gracious pleasure?
MACBETH What news more?
SEYTON All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported.
MACBETH I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked.
Give me my armour.
SEYTON 'Tis not needed yet.
MACBETH I'll put it on;
Send out more horses; skirr the country round.
Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour.
How does your patient, doctor?
DOCTOR Not so sick, my lord,
As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies
That keep her from her rest.
MACBETH Cure her of that.
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?

QUESTION:
Starting with this conversation, explore how far Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a male character who changes during the play.

Write about:
• how Shakespeare presents Macbeth in this conversation
• how far Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a male character who changes in the play as a whole.

SOURCE TEXT:
Read the following extract from Act 3 Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the play, Juliet reacts to the news that Romeo has killed her cousin Tybalt and so has been banished from Verona.

JULIET Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name,
When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?
But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?
That villain cousin would have killed my husband.
Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring,
Your tributary drops belong to woe,
Which you mistaking offer up to joy.
My husband lives that Tybalt would have slain,
And Tybalt's dead that would have slain my husband:
All this is comfort, wherefore weep I then?
Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death,
That murdered me; I would forget it fain,
But O, it presses to my memory,
Like damnèd guilty deeds to sinners' minds:
'Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banishèd.'
That 'banishèd', that one word 'banishèd',
Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt's death
Was woe enough if it had ended there;
Or if sour woe delights in fellowship,
And needly will be ranked with other griefs,
Why followed not, when she said 'Tybalt's dead',
'Thy father' or 'thy mother', nay, or both,
Which modern lamentation might have moved?
But with a rear-ward following Tybalt's death,
'Romeo is banishèd': to speak that word,
Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
All slain, all dead. 'Romeo is banishèd!'
There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,
In that word's death, no words can that woe sound.

QUESTION:
Starting with this speech, explore how Shakespeare presents Juliet's feelings towards Romeo in Romeo and Juliet.

Write about:
• how Shakespeare presents Juliet's feelings towards Romeo in this speech
• how Shakespeare presents Juliet's feelings towards Romeo in the play as a whole.

SOURCE TEXT:
Read the following extract from Act 1 Scene 2 of The Tempest and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the play, Ariel has completed various tasks for Prospero and there is now some disagreement about Ariel being given more work to do.

PROSPERO
Ariel, thy charge
Exactly is performed; but there's more work.
What is the time o'th'day?
ARIEL
Past the mid-season.
PROSPERO At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and now
Must by us both be spent most preciously.
ARIEL Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains,
Let me remember thee what thou hast promised,
Which is not yet performed me.
PROSPERO
How now? Moody?
What is't thou canst demand?
ARIEL
My liberty.
PROSPERO Before the time be out? No more.
ARIEL
I prithee,
Remember I have done thee worthy service,
Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, served
Without or grudge or grumblings. Thou didst promise
To bate me a full year.
PROSPERO
Dost thou forget
From what a torment I did free thee?
ARIEL
No.
PROSPERO Thou dost! And think'st it much to tread the ooze
Of the salt deep,
To run upon the sharp wind of the north,
To do me business in the veins o'th'earth
When it is baked with frost.
ARIEL
I do not, sir.
PROSPERO Thou liest, malignant thing. Hast thou forgot
The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy
Was grown into a hoop? Hast thou forgot her?
ARIEL No, sir.
PROSPERO Thou hast. Where was she born? Speak. Tell me.

QUESTION:
Starting with this conversation, explore how far Shakespeare presents Prospero as a good master in The Tempest.

Write about:
• how far Shakespeare presents Prospero as a good master in this conversation
• how far Shakespeare presents Prospero as a good master in the play as a whole.

SOURCE TEXT:
Read the following extract from Act 1 Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the play, Bassanio explains to Antonio that he is in debt and has been foolish with his money.

BASSANIO To you, Antonio,
I owe the most in money and in love,
And from your love I have a warranty
To unburden all my plots and purposes
How to get clear of all the debts I owe.
ANTONIO I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it,
And if it stand as you yourself still do
Within the eye of honour, be assured
My purse, my person, my extremest means
Lie all unlocked to your occasions.
BASSANIO In my schooldays, when I had lost one shaft,
I shot his fellow of the selfsame flight
The selfsame way, with more advisèd watch
To find the other forth; and by adventuring both
I oft found both. I urge this childhood proof
Because what follows is pure innocence.
I owe you much, and like a wilful youth
That which I owe is lost; but if you please
To shoot another arrow that self way
Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,
As I will watch the aim, or to find both
Or bring your latter hazard back again
And thankfully rest debtor for the first.
ANTONIO You know me well, and herein spend but time
To wind about my love with circumstance;
And out of doubt you do me now more wrong
In making question of my uttermost
Than if you had made waste of all I have.
Then do but say to me what I should do
That in your knowledge may by me be done,
And I am prest unto it: therefore, speak.

QUESTION:
Starting with this conversation, explore how Shakespeare presents ideas about loyalty in The Merchant of Venice.

Write about:
• how Shakespeare presents the loyalty between Antonio and Bassanio in this conversation
• how Shakespeare presents ideas about loyalty in the play as a whole.

SOURCE TEXT:
Read the following extract from Act 2 Scene 1 of Much Ado About Nothing and then answer the question that follows.

At this point in the play, Beatrice and Hero have been discussing their idea of a perfect man. This leads to a conversation about whether or not Beatrice will ever get a husband.

BEATRICE With a good leg and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in his purse, such a man would win any woman in the world if a could get her good will.
LEONATO By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.
ANTONIO In faith, she's too curst.
BEATRICE Too curst is more than curst, I shall lessen God's sending that way: for it is said, God sends a curst cow short horns, but to a cow too curst, he sends none.
LEONATO So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns.
BEATRICE Just, if he send me no husband, for the which blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening: Lord, I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face, I had rather lie in the woollen!
LEONATO You may light on a husband that hath no beard.
BEATRICE What should I do with him – dress him in my apparel and make him my waiting gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth: and he that hath no beard is less than a man: and he that is more than a youth, is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him: therefore I will even take sixpence in earnest of the bearward, and lead his apes into hell.
LEONATO Well then, go you into hell.
BEATRICE No, but to the gate, and there will the devil meet me like an old cuckold with horns on his head, and say, get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven, here's no place for you maids. So deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter: for the heavens, he shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we, as merry as the day is long.

QUESTION:
Starting with this conversation, explore how far Shakespeare presents Beatrice as an independent female character in Much Ado About Nothing.

Write about:
• how far Shakespeare presents Beatrice as an independent female character in this conversation
• how far Shakespeare presents Beatrice as an independent female character in the play as a whole.