Love through the ages: Specimen question commentary

This resource explains how a question taken from the specimen assessment material addresses the assessment objectives, with some suggestions of how the task might be approached. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every point that could be made but it gives teachers and students some guidance that will support their work on this paper.

Sample question

'Women characters are presented primarily as those who suffer and endure.'

By comparing two prose texts, explore the extent to which you agree with this statement.

How the question meets the Assessment Objectives

In this question, as throughout the paper, the assessment objectives are all assessed. As a result, all the key words in the question should be addressed, indicating either focus (women characters, presented primarily, suffer and endure) or direction (by comparing two texts, explore the extent).

AO1 is tested through the way the students organise their writing and express their ideas as they are comparing the presentation of women characters in their prose texts. Students will need to use coherent, accurate written expression in their answer in order to compare efficiently and in doing so will use appropriate concepts and terminology.

AO2 is signalled by the word 'presented' in the requirement for students to explore the extent to which women are presented as the prime sufferers in their texts, and therefore to show how the writers' methods open up meanings about suffering and endurance. Students should illustrate their answers with relevant textual detail wherever possible – with quotations and other close reference – to support the points in their comparison and discussion.

AO3 is addressed when students engage with the literary representation of women and so with contexts of gender and how these can reflect different social, cultural and historical contexts. In exploring the nature of women's suffering and endurance in their two texts, students will engage not only with the specific context of Love through the ages, but also with the contexts of when texts were written and of reader response.

To address AO4 students will make comparisons between their two chosen texts, as directed in the question, and will connect to a wider awareness of the literary representation of women's suffering or endurance for love as (a)typical of the prose genre or of the historical period in which the text is set.

AO5 will be addressed when students consider the extent to which they agree/disagree with the statement in their two chosen texts; they will engage with different interpretations and show an understanding that through comparison different meanings can be opened up.  

Possible content

[The exemplar scripts here use F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby and Jonathan Coe, The Rotters' Club as the prose texts for comparison. The Rotters' Club appears on the AS set text list only so, if co-teaching, A-level students could use this prose text in the NEA along with a pre-1900 text of their choice. The specific guidance below gives examples only from those two texts.]

This is an open book examination therefore candidates are expected to quote appropriately and accurately from their chosen texts. Students will address AO2 if they focus on any of the following:

• narrative voice and point of view. Nick as narrator in The Great Gatsby: does a male point of view privilege Gatsby's suffering over Daisy's? Multiple narrators in The Rotters' Club offer various viewpoints but the novel ends with Benjamin, as main protagonist, who offers a distinctly male point of view on young love
• narrative structure. Nick constructs his version of Gatsby's story from various sources (his own memory, details recalled by Gatsby, Jordan Baker, Gatsby's father) until the image of the lovesick young soldier is unravelled and the extent of Gatsby's suffering and endurance, as opposed to Daisy's, is questionable; Use of time shifts, inset narratives, shifts of viewpoint in The Rotters' Club enable the suffering and endurance of women characters (and of male characters) to be considered in various contexts; The Great Gatsby ends in the tragic death of Gatsby and George whereas by the end of The Rotters' Club many of the characters have suffered, endured and survived (Gatsby loses Daisy again but Benjamin wins Cicely after a rollercoaster relationship)
• the delineation and presentation of character. Gatsby is revealed initially through gossip and reputation so that the image of a lovesick, naïve young man surprises us when we meet him; this image is then deconstructed as Gatsby's dream of winning Daisy unravels; Daisy is presented as a shallow and materialistic character who does not care (and so does not suffer?) as a possible metaphor for the shallowness of 1920s materialism in the boom period. Benjamin's narrative traces his endurance as he worships Cicely from afar and finally wins her (his 36-page-long sentence at the end of the novel recounts this story and reveals his naivety); we only understand Cicely's character through Benjamin's eyes so the extent of her endurance (if any) is unknown
• the use of dialogue and of indirect speech. Miles Plumb's seduction of Barbara with words 'plucked straight out of Casanova's pocket-book', which results in Sam's humiliation and suffering
• the description of settings. Gatsby's 'huge, incoherent failure of a house' symbolises the extent to which he has suffered and endured in his pursuit of Daisy
• ways of influencing the reader's response to character and incident. For example, the use of metaphor: the green light which lights the way to Daisy and so represents Gatsby's hopes and dreams of winning her back; the colloquial tone in The Rotters' Club which exaggerates the emotions of characters and everyday events; the use of the weather to reflect emotions at key points in The Great Gatsby.

To address AO3 students might explore: the suffering and enduring of women characters who desire a relationship (Myrtle suffers because she wants a permanent relationship with Tom to escape her poor situation and loses her life as a consequence; if Daisy suffers because of her love for Gatsby, she survives because of a greater love of the luxuries life with Tom can offer; Lois suffers the death of Malcolm just as they were about to start a life together; Miriam suffers because Bill won't leave his wife for her and mysteriously disappears) or those who are already within a relationship (Daisy suffers the indignity of Tom's affairs but chooses not to challenge his behaviour because of the moneyed lifestyle he can offer her; Irene suffers the consequences of Bill's infidelity and eventually leaves him); the nature and impact of social, cultural and historical aspects of the different time periods in which the texts were written. (Women in the 1920s tolerating unhappy marriages and shown as unable to escape (Myrtle and Daisy); women in the 1970s openly rejecting the bored housewife stereotype and entering into more fulfilling extra-marital relationships (e.g.Barbara). Students need to take account of the representation of women in American literature of the 1920s as opposed to in English literature set in the 1970s.

AO4 will be addressed when students compare the presentation of women characters as suffering and enduring in their two texts, thereby connecting with the representation of one of the central issues of the literature of Love through the ages. They could cite examples of changing ideas about the nature of love and about the suffering and enduring of women characters which might be experienced. They should, however, concentrate on the differences and similarities noted between their two chosen texts and attempt to make valid comparisons at all significant stages of their answers, as directed in the question. Comparisons between The Great Gatsby and The Rotters' Club might include:

• both texts are written predominantly from a male character's point of view, which may affect the reliability of the presentation of women's suffering and endurance.
• both texts present women as suffering and enduring but arguably no more than (or perhaps even less than) male characters.

The criteria of AO5 are met if students are able to show that they have fully 'compared the presentation of women characters as primarily those who suffer and endure' in their chosen texts. They should be ready to initiate and manage interpretations around the nature and possible forms of women suffering and enduring as expressed in those texts (unsuitable relationships, the ability to survive and show fortitude or to tolerate unpleasant aspects of life, physical or mental suffering, suffering in silence) and to evaluate the extent to which it can be argued that men suffer as much as women (Gatsby and George in The Great Gatsby; Benjamin and Sam Chase in The Rotters' Club).

Other aspects of love which can be explored in The Great Gatsby

• True love: the novel questions whether anyone is really in love e.g: is Gatsby in love with Daisy or with a dream of Daisy? Is Daisy merely flattered by Gatsby's attention and seduced by his new-found wealth? Tom and Daisy both have extra-marital affairs but stick together because of their love of money and a luxurious lifestyle rather than of each other.
• Love and loss: Gatsby loses Daisy to Tom twice; George loses Myrtle to Tom and then they both lose Myrtle upon her death.
• Obsession: Being with Daisy becomes Gatsby's key motivation to be rich; when she doesn't wait for him and instead marries Tom, Gatsby becomes obsessed with winning Daisy back; Gatsby's blind obsession with Daisy will not allow him to see that he has created an idealistic version of her which she cannot live up to.
• Extramarital affairs: Tom's hypocrisy that he has a history of extramarital affairs, including a current affair with Myrtle, and yet is outraged at the thought of Daisy having an affair with Gatsby; George's discovery of Myrtle's infidelity leads to the final tragedy of the novel.
• Class issues: Gatsby's dream of loving Daisy is doomed because of the difference in their relative social statuses; Gatsby resorts to crime to create a lifestyle that will impress Daisy but her discovery of this criminal activity ironically reminds her of his lower class status; Tom's treatment of Myrtle when he breaks her nose shows contempt for lower class women; Tom and George are contrasted, the former shown as rich but immoral, the latter poor but morally upright and it is Tom who Myrtle desires.
• Unrequited love: both Gatsby and George love and idealise women who are in love with Tom, which in the end leads to their demise.
• Familial love: Daisy's indifference to her own daughter; Gatsby's father's pride at his son's achievements.
• Truth and deception: Gatsby creates a false persona for himself in order to win Daisy – the revelation of his past in Chapter 4 dispels the positive image of Gatsby as a lovesick, young soldier; Jordan Baker's dishonesty colours Nick's attraction to her vivacity and sophistication; Gatsby takes the blame for Myrtles' death to protect Daisy, which leads to his mistaken identity as Myrtle's lover and so to his death.

Other aspects of love which can be explored in The Rotters' Club

• Love and loss: Lois' successful search for love through the personal columns is tragically rewarded, at the point of romantic bliss, by Malcolm's death; Miriam's loss of dignity in her affair with Bill which sees him return to his wife and sees Miriam disappear; on/off relationships of Barbara Chase and Miles Plumb and of Benjamin and Cicely.
• Love through the generations: the confusion of the adolescents as they embark on their first forays into sex and romance contrasted with their parents' extramarital affairs.
• First love: adolescent crushes e.g. Claire has a crush on Benjamin, Doug has a crush on Claire; Cicely as the love of Benjamin's life (told from the point of view of Benjamin in his lengthy, naïve rant on first love in the closing chapter).
• Absurdity of love: the absurd wooing of Barbara by her son's Art teacher, Miles Plum, through his ridiculously pretentious romantic phrasing; Sam's absurd attempts to win his wife Barbara back by enlarging his vocabulary; the self-seriousness with which the adolescents deal with love and sex e.g. Benjamin's notion that 'forty seconds' of sex with Jennifer in a wardrobe constitutes 'the beginning of something very special'; the juxtaposition in the novel of adolescent angst with compelling national events e.g. the IRA pub bombings and the British Leyland strikes.
• Class issues: Sam's humiliation at his lack of education in the face of the highly literate Miles Plumb; Doug becoming enamoured with the upper classes after a one-night stand with Ffion.
• Unrequited love: numerous instances throughout the novel which result in different outcomes e.g. Miriam loves Bill Anderton but he refuses to leave his wife, which leads to Miriam's mysterious disappearance; Benjamin's love from afar of Cicely, which causes him heartache and appears doomed until the end of the novel.
• Familial love: the effect of the parents' extramarital affairs on their children e.g. Claire's preoccupation with her sister Miriam's disappearance which affects her behaviour towards Doug; Benjamin's care for his sister Lois during her hospitalisation, following the pub bombing.

This resource is part of the Love through the ages resource package.