Examiners’ reports 2013

Examiners’ report 2013

EN1021 Explorations in Literature

Advice to candidates on how Examiners calculate marks

It is important that candidates recognise that in all papers, three questions
should be answered in order to get the best possible mark (ensuring that the
rubric for the paper has been followed accordingly).
Examiners follow a simple mathematical formula when awarding a final overall
mark: they give each answer a mark out of 100 (up to three answers only, as
required by the exam paper); they then total all available marks; and finally
they divide the total by three, thus giving an average overall mark.
So, if your first answer is given 57%, your second answer is given 56%, and your
third answer 50%, then the calculation will look like this:
57 + 56 + 50 = 163
163 ÷ 3 = 54.3
Overall mark: 54%
Two good essays and no third essay will always bring the mark down. So, if in
the example above a third answer was not given, the calculation would look
like this:
57 + 56 = 113
113 ÷ 3 = 37.6
Overall mark: 38%
In this case, even if the candidate had written a ‘poor’ third answer getting
a mark of 40% their overall mark would be higher than not attempting an
answer at all:
57 + 56 + 40 = 153
153 ÷ 3 = 51
Overall mark: 51%
Note in the example above how the 40% mark, while low, still enables the
candidate to achieve an overall mark in the Lower Second category, which is
in keeping with their first two marks of 57% and 56%. Not answering a third
question would see the candidate lose considerable marks and drop two
whole classes. It could also mean the difference between a pass and a fail.
Candidates are thus strongly advised to give equal attention across the paper,
plan their time accordingly, and attempt to provide three answers of roughly
the same length and as full as possible. Candidates are also reminded that it
is totally unnecessary to copy out the question again into the answer book;
a question number in the margin is sufficient enough, and this will also save
valuable minutes.

1
EN1021 Explorations in Literature

General remarks
Strong answers in this examination tended to do the following things:
• They were planned, in note form, on a separate sheet which had been
crossed through afterwards.
• They were clearly articulated; shorter sentences were often employed to
good effect, making points clearer and easier to follow. Handwriting was
also legible and clear.
• They directly responded to the question, both in the opening paragraph
and throughout their answer. In order to do this, they made frequent use
of the terms and phrases used in the question, and defined them from the
outset where appropriate.
• Each paragraph began with a clear critical point (e.g. ‘Creon displays
a keen dedication to protecting the state, or polis, throughout the play’),
which was then backed up with appropriate examples from the text (e.g.
‘in his Ship of State speech, Creon describes the state as a ship in a stormy
sea, rocked by the gods, whose course has been righted by his firm hand’).
This point was then evaluated by the candidate (‘in this way, Creon can
be seen to prioritise the importance of the state, perhaps to the extent
that his own family suffers’) and related literary qualities were highlighted
(e.g. ‘Creon’s use of metaphor is key to creating the impression that he
prioritises the state’).
• Each paragraph followed on logically from the preceding one, making
links between the points discussed, either further developing particular
points or presenting a counter-argument). Particularly strong answers
often developed a convincing counter-argument which demonstrated
independent critical distance.
• They referred, when appropriate, to either secondary reading or
contextual sources, demonstrating an awareness of existing scholarly
work on the text in question (e.g. ‘critics, including X, have related Dante’s
representation of Hell to the religious and political context in which he was
writing’).
• They correctly identified examples of literary devices and used correct
terminology to describe them (such as ‘omniscient narration’, ‘simile’,
‘hyperbole’, etc.)
• Overall, and this was a crucial hallmark of a highly graded answer, they
demonstrated an in-depth knowledge of the literary text discussed.
They did so not simply by describing the plot or action that occurs within
it, but by using plenty of specific examples; these were not necessarily
provided as quotations (although in some exemplary cases quotations
were used to good effect), but rather in the delivery of points which in
some way proved close textual scrutiny (e.g. ‘Coleridge’s description of
weather conditions such as mist, snow, and ice heightens the impression
that the ship is isolated in a hostile environment’).
• Particularly strong answers often demonstrated enthusiasm for
and engagement with the text in question; this resulted not only in
knowledgeable analysis, but also in answers which were creative or
imaginative, in which candidates showed confidence in developing their
own interpretations of the material.

2
 Examiners’ reports 2013

Weaker answers tended to do the following:

• They were not planned, and in some cases this had a negative impact on
the structure of the essay. Taking a few minutes in the examination to plan
your answer – even simply in bullet point form – is likely to help you make
the best use of the remaining time. A well-organised, full and illustrative
answer will gain higher marks.
• They were either illegible or poorly articulated to the extent that the
argument was either difficult or impossible to follow.
• They simply duplicated material from the subject guide, without
demonstrating an ability for independent thinking.
• They described the text rather than analysing it. Description is often
helpful to demonstrate your knowledge and can be used effectively to
draw attention to relevant elements of the plots of characters, but it should
always be relevant to the question and your argument. Candidates who
included description of irrelevant material often produced answers which
lacked a clear purpose or structure, and which, as a result, failed to fully
answer the question.
• They described the author’s life and/or the context in which they were
writing in an unnecessary amount of detail. Candidates should aim to
critically evaluate how much of this information will allow them to answer
the question effectively, as the expected focus of answers for this course
will always be the literary text itself.
• They made points which were not supported by any evidence from the
primary text. Whether or not the points made were accurate, this resulted
in a weaker argument. In some cases, where answers were particularly
general, the Examiners suspected that the texts themselves had not
been read, and that candidates were relying on summaries of plots and
characters from secondary sources.
• They showed limited knowledge of the syllabus, and used texts from
outside the prescribed curriculum. This happened most often in Section C
answers which do not specify which texts are to be used.
• They failed to identify relevant literary devices and demonstrate
knowledge of appropriate terminology.
• They showed little or no knowledge of context or secondary reading,
thus ignoring crucial elements of the development of the literary canon
and the reception of the texts since their production.
In short, strong answers drew on detailed and specific knowledge of the
text to provide a clearly structured and articulated answer which responded
directly to the question. Weaker answers were lacking in structure and
clarity, were often descriptive rather than analytical, and failed to make the
content relevant to the question posed. Examiners look for the application of
knowledge and evidence of the ability to interpret the texts, not simply a basic
knowledge of the plot and characters.

3
EN1021 Explorations in Literature

Comments on specific questions

Section A
Answer ONE question.

Question 1
Discuss the interplay between truth and falsehood in Homer’s Odyssey.
This was a popular question with candidates. Those who scored higher marks
not only provided discussion of examples of both truth and falsehood, but
also paid due attention to the idea of ‘interplay’ as stated in the question. (For
example, in describing Odysseus’s dealings with the Cyclops, strong answers
would evaluate both his lie – that he is ‘nobody’ – and his later proclamation
of his real name, and consider the implications of this for his characterisation
in the epic). Stronger answers often demonstrated an understanding of how
examples of truth and falsehood allowed for progression or delay of the
journeys undertaken by the characters and, more broadly, how they drove the
narrative forward. Thus the best answers for this question, in general, related
specific examples to larger themes or elements of the text as a whole.

Question 2
How far, if at all, does Antigone by Sophocles resolve the questions it poses about the relation of
the individual to the state?
Due to the significance attributed to the relationship between the individual
and the state for the society in which the text was produced, some contextual
discussion, including use of relevant terms such as oikos and polis, was
often included in highly graded essays on this play. The highest marks were
awarded to candidates who highlighted at an early stage what they felt
were the questions posed by the play, and then dedicated their attention to
evaluating how conclusively it answers them throughout their answers and in
their conclusions. Some recognition of the ambivalence of the text was often
a hallmark of excellent answers. Weaker answers tended to simply describe
how the play presents the state and the individual in general terms without
specifying questions posed or the extent to which they are answered overall.

Question 3
Investigate the relationship between transformation and desire in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
This question was not tackled by many candidates, but there were some
strong answers produced by those who took the opportunity to focus
on carefully selected passages/episodes from the poem. The best grades
were awarded to answers which included several different examples of the
relationship between transformation and desire (e.g. the transformation of a
character which allowed them to fulfil their desires, in addition to an instance
of a character whose desire led them to an act for which they were punished
with transformation). Attention to Ovid’s literary rendering of the notion of
‘metamorphosis’ was also a notable component of exemplary answers.

Question 4
Discuss how emotion conflicts with or reinforces moral judgement in Dante’s Inferno.
The best answers to this question were consistently specific about whose
emotions and moral judgements they were referring to, drawing clear
distinctions between Dante the pilgrim, Dante the poet, and the reader. They
often included some contextual detail which allowed them to indicate the
significance of these distinctions. Strong answers included a good number
4
 Examiners’ reports 2013

of illustrative examples of emotional reactions, allowing a demonstration of

knowledge that could convincingly support a strong argument for either
conflict or reinforcement. Common among weaker answers was a tendency to
ignore either conflict or reinforcement and simply list examples of emotional
reaction and moral judgement without interpreting the connection between
the two.

Question 5
Explore the significance of gender and/or authority in Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale.
Many candidates answered this question, and the resulting essays were of
varied quality. Notable scripts made it clear from the outset whether their
answer would consider both gender and authority or one of these themes,
and, in the case of the former, made a clear statement about how they
considered issues of gender and authority were related to one another. They
also made use of both the Prologue and the Tale in some detail, whereas
less convincing answers either only mentioned the Tale as an aside or failed
to mention it at all. The most successful essays overall made a clear and
compelling argument concerning the precise nature of the significance of
either or both themes, rather than simply giving examples related to them.

Question 6
Consider the nature and treatment of the quest in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Some candidates opted to simply provide a description of the quest that takes
place in the text and failed to fully analyse it. More general/open questions
such as these should be seen as an opportunity to develop an argument, in
this case one which specifically comments on the nature of this quest and how
the theme in itself is treated by the author, rather than simply reproduce the
plot. Thus the most successful answers to this question balanced description
with interpretation, and demonstrated some knowledge of the development
of the idea of the quest more broadly across the literary canon.

Question 7
Investigate the tensions or conflicts between generations in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
This was a very popular question, and answers differed considerably in quality.
In many of the best answers, candidates included discussion of a broad range
of characters and relationships, both in and beyond Prince Hamlet’s immediate
family, and drew clear conclusions from the these examples regarding the
play’s overall representation of generational conflict or tension. Several weaker
answers focused almost exclusively on Hamlet’s relationship with his mother
as an example of the Oedipus complex, often without clearly defining this
theory or recognising that its author (Freud) was writing many years after the
play itself was composed. Although an answer that focused primarily on one
relationship could, with appropriate handling and detail, hypothetically be
strong overall, in most cases such attempts fell short.

Question 8
‘The metaphysical poets were men of learning, and, to show their learning was their whole
endeavour’ (SAMUEL JOHNSON). Discuss the poetry of any one metaphysical poet in the light of
this statement.
Fewer candidates chose to answer this question. Although there were some
excellent answers from some candidates, the weaker ones shared the same
characteristics: they failed to focus on the work of one poet, and responded
more generally to the quotation as a statement about metaphysical poetry as
a movement. They failed to make an argument regarding whether or not the

5
EN1021 Explorations in Literature

quote was fully justified in light of the examples discussed. Those candidates
who made detailed use of one poet’s work in order to provide such an
argument received the highest marks.
Question 9
‘Nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence of the character of Satan’ (PERCY BYSSHE
SHELLEY). To what extent does this statement reflect your view of the first two books of Paradise
Lost?
This was a relatively popular question, and the majority of candidates did pay
adequate attention to the extent to which their own opinions were reflected
in the quotation. The strongest answers included detailed examples of both
Satan’s magnificence and energy (energy was often neglected in weaker
answers), and also considered alternative readings of his character. In many
cases this was guided by reference to appropriate secondary material, for
example William Blake’s argument that Milton was ‘of the Devil’s party’, and
subsequent discussions in relevant criticism.

Question 10
In what ways is Pope’s The Rape of the Lock a mock-heroic poem?
This was another popular question, for which candidates overall demonstrated
a reasonable knowledge of the poem’s plot and displayed some familiarity
with epic traditions and changing depictions of the ‘hero’. There was a
tendency to discuss the poem more generally as a ‘mock-epic’ without clearly
differentiating this term from ‘mock-heroism’ as specified by the question.
The best answers, while frequently including some discussion of the epic
form, also dedicated appropriate attention to mock-heroism in some detail,
and complemented this with examples of representations of heroes in earlier
literature.

Question 11
In Fielding’s Joseph Andrews, does the ironic presentation of the characters undermine the novel’s
moral message?
Some candidates who tackled this question failed to state clearly from the
outset what they perceived the novel’s moral message to be, resulting in
rather vague answers. In instances when this issue was fully explored in the
introduction to the essay, and candidates also accurately isolated examples of
irony (and explained precisely how/in what way these were ironic), some high
calibre answers were produced.

Section B
Answer ONE question.

Question 12
Discuss the use of the supernatural in Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
This was a noticeably popular selection question, with a very varied range
of answers as a result. Providing a specific explanation of how the term
‘supernatural’ was being interpreted for the purposes of the exploration was
a hallmark of the best answers here, as was attention given to Coleridge’s
descriptive language and the provision of clear examples of how the elements
and creatures he presents to the reader can be seen as supernatural in some
way. The answers that received lower grades were often lacking in either
a definition of the supernatural (this was frequently assumed obvious but
applied too generally) or in sufficient evidence of knowledge of the primary
text.

6
 Examiners’ reports 2013

Question 13
Show how Austen’s Emma explores the workings of a small community.
There were excellent answers from some candidates, many of whom balanced
their readings of the novel itself with some appropriate discussion of the
author’s society, demonstrating how Highbury could be interpreted as a
microcosm of upper class English life in the nineteenth century. Weaker
answers to this question tended to simply describe Highbury and the
characters that inhabit it in Austen’s novel. Although, due to rather general
instructions given, this did constitute a basic response to the question, such
answers tended to lack direction and failed to demonstrate sufficient evidence
of analytical ability.

Question 14
Explore the theme of the journey in Dickens’s Great Expectations.
This was a popular question, and most candidates identified the central
journey taken in the novel as the coming-of-age of its protagonist, Pip.
Due perhaps, again, to the more general nature of the instructions, some
candidates took the decision to describe the progression of the plot and
Pip’s growth without analysing the material discussed. The best answers to
the question took a critical approach to the idea of the ‘journey’ as a trope
in literature, and discussed both geographical movement and character
development beyond the basic example of Pip’s stages of growth from infancy
to manhood.

Question 15
Describe the relationship between the artist and society in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Man.
Some consideration of literary modernism in relation to the question of the
role of the artist and/or writer in society complemented some of the best
answers on this text. This broader view allowed candidates to link the novel
to its context as well as to fully explore the implications of the relationship
between its protagonist and his world. Successful answers also defined how
‘society’ was being defined for the purposes of the essay, often taking into
account religious, political and class-oriented considerations as well as purely
‘social’ conventions.

Question 16
Investigate how evolution reinforces or undermines established class and/or gender hierarchies in
August Strindberg’s Miss Julie.
Exemplary answers to this question (as with question 5 on The Wife of Bath in
Section A) took the time to specify clearly how they were responding to the
question by highlighting whether they would focus on gender, authority or
both. They also demonstrated, either with an initial definition, or through their
analysis, a clear understanding of the terms ‘hierarchy’ and ‘evolution’. This
was missing from some weaker answers, which tended to provide a general
discussion of class and gender, often aiming to demonstrate Strindberg’s
perceived misogyny rather than answering the question concerning
reinforcement or undermining of hierarchies. The best answers were able
to explain the relationship between the idea of evolution and the social
Darwinism that permeates the play and which was a significant influence on
many of Strindberg’s contemporaries.

7
EN1021 Explorations in Literature

Question 17
Discuss the ways in which Hardy’s Jude the Obscure adapts the principles of tragedy to modern
conditions.
The most successful answers to this question provided a clear summary of
the main principles of tragedy, for example the role of fate and the hamartia
or hubris of a protagonist, before embarking on textual analysis of the novel
itself. Exemplary responses included some discussion of the origins and
emergence of the tragic form in relation to specific primary or secondary
texts, in particular drawing on Greek tragedy to ground their explanations.
In moving on to examine how Hardy adapts these, candidates who clarified
exactly how the particular tragic principle in question had evolved as a result
of the ‘modern conditions’ of the time of writing were often most successful. In
some weaker examples, candidates tended to simply describe the unfortunate
life of the novel’s protagonists, taking for granted that ‘tragedy’ simply implies
a story with a sad ending.

Question 18
Discuss the ways in which Eliot’s poetry might be regarded as revolutionary.
Very few candidates answered this question, but even with few examples to
draw from, it is clear that the most successful responses contained a balance
of close and contextual reading, demonstrating both detailed knowledge of
the texts themselves and a familiarity with what would have been considered
‘revolutionary’ in Eliot’s time (certainly in literary terms but perhaps also
social and political factors). Although there is no fixed number of poems a
candidate should include in their analysis, it is likely that a strong answer will
demonstrate knowledge of more than one, and will deal with each example
mentioned in enough detail to make a conclusive point.

Question 19
Discuss Beckett’s use of pairs, doubling or binary oppositions in Waiting for Godot.
This question demands that candidates recognise the potential significance
of Beckett’s use of pairs, doubles, or binary oppositions in the play, while
maintaining awareness of its frequent and often essential ambiguity, and the
philosophical and contextual significance of this ambiguity. Strong answers
used a range of examples, including dialogue from the text, Beckett’s stage
directions and the form of the play itself. Appropriate reference to theoretical
or philosophical concepts, such as existentialism, was also a hallmark of some
of the essays that achieved the highest grades for answers to this question.

Question 20
‘Let us not take it for granted that life exists more fully in what is commonly thought big than in
what is commonly thought small’ (VIRGINIA WOOLF). Discuss Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway in the light of
this statement.
This question required candidates to make their own decisions about what
might constitute ‘big’ and ‘small’, both in the novel and more generally in life
itself. Given the preoccupation of literary modernists with the way the world is
perceived by the individual, the best answers to this question both recognised
the fundamentally subjective nature of ‘bigness’ or ‘smallness’ in the examples
they gave, and identified a connection between these issues and the time in
which Woolf was writing. They also considered how Woolf’s literary style may
impact on the interpretation of events and characters, including such devices
as stream-of-consciousness narration.

8
 Examiners’ reports 2013

Question 21
The Hearing Trumpet ‘is a book about profound disconnection; at its centre are people unable to
hear each other, or unwilling to’ (ALI SMITH). To what extent does this statement reflect your own
view of Carrington’s novel?
Few candidates tackled this novel in the examination, but there were some
very creative responses to this question from those who did. Exemplary
answers interpreted the ideas of ‘hearing’ and ‘disconnection’ broadly,
rather than completely literally, often allowing candidates to make original
and sophisticated points about the relationships between characters and
how the kind of society we see in the novel relates to the ‘real’ world. Some
candidates spent rather too much of the essay expressing their views of the
text in comparison to those of Smith in the quotation without maintaining the
objectivity essential to sound degree-level work. As such, the best answers
provided evidence from the primary source to defend their positions and give
weight to their personal opinions.

Question 22
How do the varied forms of poetry and prose that Margaret Atwood employs in The Penelopiad
relate to the epic tradition?
Good answers to this question included close consideration of the literary
devices and narrative techniques employed by Atwood in her re-creation of
the epic tale, and clearly highlighted examples from Homer’s Odyssey and
other relevant texts in order to track the origin and development of the literary
form throughout the progression of the canon. Some answers were let down
by a more descriptive approach that failed to draw clear points of connection
or difference between the contemporary retelling and the original tale it
subverts.

Section C
Answer ONE question. Your answer in this section should refer to TWO texts,
EACH by a DIFFERENT author.

Question 23
Discuss the nature and treatment of one of the following in any two works by different authors:
hospitality; domestic life; education.
Each of these themes was made to work well in relation to particular course
texts. The Odyssey was frequently used effectively to discuss epic treatment
of hospitality, allowing candidates to demonstrate knowledge of the rituals
associated with travel and visiting in Homer’s time. Some candidates drew
fruitful comparisons with other works, such as Austen’s Emma, in which
hospitality plays a significant role in maintaining the social hierarchy. Both
texts were also used to exemplify the nature of domestic life; other popular
choices for this theme included Jude the Obscure, Miss Julie and Mrs Dalloway.
The best answers highlighted the changing depiction of domestic life across
time and genre, dedicating more-or-less equal attention to both texts
selected. Jude the Obscure was a popular choice of texts for the ‘education’
option, as were Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist, Dante’s Inferno and Dickens’ Great
Expectations. This selection allowed candidates to focus on the education of
the central protagonists and compare the different types of education they
experience on their respective journeys, as well as to draw attention to the
authors’ critiques of the education policies and practices of their times.

9
EN1021 Explorations in Literature

Question 24
Compare and contrast versions of heroism in any two texts by different authors.
Again The Odyssey was a popular choice for this question, and several
candidates also made use of a comparison to Atwood’s Penelopiad to
problematise the notion that Odysseus is really a ‘heroic’ figure. The best of
such answers clearly indicated the ways in which what constitutes heroism
has evolved over time, and directly compared examples from the original
epic with corresponding retellings in The Penelopiad. The figure of Satan, as
unlikely hero of the first two books of Paradise Lost, and Antigone, as an early
example of a strong female character with valiant and admirable traits, were
also selected for comparison by some candidates to good effect. Regardless of
the texts selected, exemplary answers dedicated some attention to how the
characters discussed either maintained or disrupted the traditional notion of
the hero, and to what ends. As is generally the case with ‘compare and contrast’
questions, the most effective responses used examples that allowed them to
make distinctions between different forms of heroism, thus complicating the
notion that this is a fixed concept.

Question 25
Explore the significance of masculinity with reference to any two texts by different authors.
Several answers to this question compared the Knights from Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight, The Wife of Bath’s Tale and The Rape of the Lock. This allowed
candidates to explore an early representation of masculinity as chivalric
gentility (and in some cases the mocking of this in Pope’s satire). In some
cases this worked effectively, but in others a notably different representation
of masculinity, perhaps from a later period, would have allowed for a broader
comparative argument to emerge. Some candidates examined texts where
protagonists fail to exhibit traditionally ‘masculine’ characteristics, or blur
the normative lines between the genders (e.g. in relation to Carrington’s The
Hearing Trumpet or Atwood’s depiction of Odysseus in The Penelopiad). Again,
the latter was also compared successfully by some candidates to the original
Homeric figure, a selection which worked best if the same events from both
texts were considered in detail.

Question 26
Consider the nature and treatment of one of the following in any two texts by different authors:
relationships between parents and children; fate; life after death.
As with question 23, all three options listed allowed candidates to make use
of a variety of course texts. Hamlet was the most commonly used example for
a discussion of relations between children and parents, and strong answers
considered the conflicts and tensions between Hamlet and his parents, and
Ophelia and her father. Here again Emma was used to good effect, with a
focus on demonstrating how the protagonist’s fondness for her father, and
his protectiveness of her, plays a role in her decision-making and ultimate
destiny in the novel. Antigone, Waiting for Godot, Miss Julie, Hamlet and Jude the
Obscure were variously brought together by candidates discussing the notion
of fate, and the best of these often drew on the relationship between fate and
tragedy. Life after death was a less popular choice here, but some candidates
who worked on this option again made good use of Antigone, Hamlet and
Waiting for Godot in order to answer this question, producing some original
and creative interpretive comparisons. Others compared Milton’s and Dante’s
visions of Hell, which allowed them to comment on the geographical and
aesthetic side of ‘life after death’, as did discussion of Atwood’s Penelopiad.

10
 Examiners’ reports 2013

Question 27
Compare and contrast versions of conflict in any two texts by different authors.
This question demanded that candidates were as specific as possible about
how their examples constituted a form of conflict. In some cases, this concept
was handled rather vaguely, and the answers seemed to be attempting to
force examples to work when they were in fact only loosely related to the
central issue. That the question could be answered very successfully was
evident in some insightful comparisons of Hamlet, Antigone and Miss Julie, in
which conflict between the characters was made the focus of the answers.
Others also effectively compared conflict between mortals and immortals in
texts such as The Odyssey and Metamorphoses, and conflicting approaches to
life (e.g. Vladimir and Estragon’s, and Hamlet’s meditations on whether to live
or die). The more creative scripts on this question showed evidence of lateral
and critical thinking, and successfully and compellingly brought together
some unlikely texts.

Question 28
Discuss the influence of one text studied for this course on one other text by a different author.
The most common answer to this question examined the influence of Homer’s
Odyssey on the creation of Atwood’s Penelopiad. Although some of the points
made about this tended to be rather obvious and overly concerned with
plot, exemplary answers considered issues of form and the authors’ uses of
various literary devices and tropes. A few other texts were also considered (the
influence of Dante on Milton, for example), but there were fewer examples
of creative interpretations than were found in responses to question 27. For
a question such as this, candidates would do well to think beyond the more
obvious choices and take into account the full range of possible areas of
influence (including form and narrative devices as well as the handling of a
particular theme).

11