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B720U10-1 S16-B720U10-1

ENGLISH LITERATURE – Component 1

Prose

A.M. FRIDAY, 20 May 2016

2 hours

B720U101
01
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
In addition to this examination paper, you will need:
• a WJEC pink answer booklet which has been specifically designed for this examination paper.
No other answer booklet should be used. Should you run out of space, use a standard 4-page
continuation booklet.

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
Answer one Question in Section A and one Question in Section B.
Write your answers in the separate answer book provided.

INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES

Section A carries 60 marks and Section B carries 40 marks.
The number of marks is given in brackets at the end of each question or part-question.
You are advised to spend approximately one hour and 10 minutes on Section A (20 minutes on
part (i) and 50 minutes on part (ii)) and approximately 50 minutes on Section B.
You are reminded that assessment will take into account the quality of written communication used
in your answers.

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Section A: Prose fiction pre-1900 (closed book)

Answer one question in this section. Each question is in two parts.

In both part (i) and part (ii) you are required to analyse how meanings are shaped. In part (ii) you
are also required to:
• show wider knowledge and understanding of the prose text you have studied
• take account of relevant contexts and different interpretations which have informed your reading

Either,
Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics)

0 1 Read the extract below and answer the questions which follow.

“Engaged to Mr. Edward Ferrars! — I confess myself so totally surprised at what you tell
me, that really — I beg your pardon; but surely there must be some mistake of person or
name. We cannot mean the same Mr. Ferrars.”
“We can mean no other,” cried Lucy smiling. “Mr. Edward Ferrars, the eldest son of Mrs.
Ferrars of Park-street, and brother of your sister-in-law, Mrs. John Dashwood, is the
person I mean; you must allow that I am not likely to be deceived, as to the name of the
man on who all my happiness depends.”
“It is strange,” replied Elinor in a most painful perplexity, “that I should never have heard
him even mention your name.”
“No; considering our situation, it was not strange. Our first care has been to keep the
matter secret.— You knew nothing of me, or my family, and therefore there could be no
occasion for ever mentioning my name to you, and as he was always particularly afraid
of his sister’s suspecting any thing, that was reason enough for his not mentioning it.”
She was silent. — Elinor’s security sunk; but her self command did not sink with it.
“Four years you have been engaged,” said she with a firm voice.
“Yes; and heaven knows how much longer we may have to wait. Poor Edward! It puts
him quite out of heart.” Then taking a small miniature from her pocket, she added, “To
prevent the possibility of a mistake, be so good as to look at this face. It does not do him
justice to be sure, but yet I think you cannot be deceived as to the person it was drew
for. — I have had it above these three years.”
She put it into her hands as she spoke, and when Elinor saw the painting, whatever other
doubts her fear of a too hasty decision, or her wish of detecting falsehood might suffer
to linger in her mind, she could have none of its being Edward’s face. She returned it
almost instantly, acknowledging the likeness.
“I have never been able,” continued Lucy, “to give him my picture in return, which I am
very much vexed at, for he has been always so anxious to get it! But I am determined to
set for it the very first opportunity.”
“You are quite in the right,” replied Elinor calmly. They then proceeded a few paces in
silence. Lucy spoke first.
“I am sure,” said she, “I have no doubt in the world of your faithfully keeping this secret,
because you must know of what importance it is to us, not to have it reach his mother;
for she would never approve of it, I dare say. I shall have no fortune, and I fancy she is
an exceeding proud woman.”

(i) Examine Austen’s presentation of the character of Lucy Steele in this extract. [20]

(ii) With close reference to at least two other parts of the novel, how far would you
agree with the view that “In Sense and Sensibility, status and money always govern
love”? [40]
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Or,
Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics)

0 2 Read the extract below and answer the questions which follow.

‘You know this place, Mason,’ said our guide; ‘she bit and stabbed you here.’
He lifted the hangings from the wall, uncovering the second door: this, too, he opened.
In a room without a window, there burnt a fire, guarded by a high and strong fender, and
a lamp suspended from the ceiling by a chain. Grace Poole bent over the fire, apparently
cooking something in a saucepan. In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a
figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one
could not, at first sight, tell: it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled
like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark,
grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face.
‘Good-morrow, Mrs Poole!’ said Mr Rochester. ‘How are you? and how is your charge
to-day?’
‘We’re tolerable, sir, I thank you,’ replied Grace, lifting the boiling mess carefully on to the
hob: ‘rather snappish, but not ’rageous.’
A fierce cry seemed to give the lie to her favourable report: the clothed hyena rose up,
and stood tall on its hind-feet.
‘Ah! sir, she sees you!’ exclaimed Grace: ‘you’d better not stay.’
‘Only a few moments, Grace: you must allow me a few moments.’

B720U101
‘Take care then, sir! — for God’s sake, take care!’

03
The maniac bellowed: she parted her shaggy locks from her visage, and gazed wildly
at her visitors. I recognised well that purple face – those bloated features. Mrs Poole
advanced.
‘Keep out of the way,’ said Mr Rochester, thrusting her aside: ‘she has no knife now, I
suppose? and I’m on my guard.’
‘One never knows what she has, sir: she is so cunning: it is not in mortal discretion to
fathom her craft.’
‘We had better leave her,’ whispered Mason.
‘Go to the devil!’ was his brother-in-law’s recommendation.
‘’Ware!’ cried Grace. The three gentlemen retreated simultaneously. Mr Rochester flung
me behind him: the lunatic sprang and grappled his throat viciously, and laid her teeth
to his cheek: they struggled. She was a big woman, in stature almost equalling her
husband, and corpulent besides: she showed virile force in the contest – more than
once she almost throttled him, athletic as he was. He could have settled her with a
well-planted blow; but he would not strike: he would only wrestle. At last he mastered
her arms; Grace Poole gave him a cord, and he pinioned them behind her: with more
rope, which was at hand, he bound her to a chair. The operation was performed amidst
the fiercest yells and the most convulsive plunges. Mr Rochester then turned to the
spectators: he looked at them with a smile both acrid and desolate.
‘That is my wife,’ said he.

(i) Examine Brontë’s presentation of the character of Bertha Mason in this extract.
[20]

(ii) Consider the view that “In Jane Eyre, Brontë presents a society where there is no
love without suffering”. In your response, you must refer closely to at least two
other parts of the novel. [40]

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Or,
Elizabeth Gaskell: North and South (Penguin Classics)

0 3 Read the extract below and answer the questions which follow.

‘Leave Helstone, papa! But why?’ [omitted text]

He looked up at her suddenly, and then he said with a slow and enforced calmness:

‘Because I must no longer be a minister in the Church of England.’

Margaret had imagined nothing less than that some of the preferments which her mother
so much desired had befallen her father at last — something that would force him to
leave beautiful, beloved Helstone, and perhaps compel him to go and live in some of
the stately and silent Closes which Margaret had seen from time to time in cathedral
towns. They were grand and imposing places, but if, to go there, it was necessary to
leave Helstone as a home for ever, that would have been a sad, long, lingering pain. But
nothing to the shock she received from Mr Hale’s last speech. What could he mean? It
was all the worse for being so mysterious. The aspect of piteous distress on his face,
almost as imploring a merciful and kind judgement from his child, gave her a sudden
sickening. Could he have become implicated in anything Frederick had done? Frederick
was an outlaw. Had her father, out of a natural love for his son, connived at any —

‘Oh! what is it? do speak, papa! tell me all! Why can you no longer be a clergyman?
Surely, if the bishop were told all we know about Frederick, and the hard, unjust—’

‘It is nothing about Frederick; the bishop would have nothing to do with that. It is all myself.
Margaret, I will tell you about it. I will answer any questions this once, but after tonight
let us never speak of it again. I can meet the consequences of my painful, miserable
doubts; but it is an effort beyond me to speak of what has caused me so much suffering.’

‘Doubts, papa! Doubts as to religion?’ asked Margaret, more shocked than ever.

‘No! not doubts as to religion; not the slightest injury to that.’

He paused. Margaret sighed, as if standing on the verge of some new horror. He began
again, speaking rapidly, as if to get over a set task:

‘You could not understand it all, if I told you — my anxiety, for years past, to know whether
I had any right to hold my living — my efforts to quench my smouldering doubts by the
authority of the Church. Oh! Margaret, how I love the holy Church from which I am to be
shut out!’ He could not go on for a moment or two. Margaret could not tell what to say;
it seemed to her as terribly mysterious as if her father were about to turn Mahometan.

‘I have been reading today of the two thousand who were ejected from their churches,’
— continued Mr Hale, smiling faintly, — ‘trying to steal some of their bravery; but it is of
no use — no use — I cannot help feeling it acutely.’

(i) Examine Gaskell’s presentation of the relationship between Margaret and Mr Hale
in this extract. [20]

(ii) “North and South is primarily a novel of rebellion and dissent.” Discuss this view
with close reference to at least two other parts of the novel. [40]

© WJEC CBAC Ltd. (B720U10-1)

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Or,
Charles Dickens: David Copperfield (Penguin Classics)

0 4 Read the extract below and answer the questions which follow.

The clash and glare of sundry fiery Works upon the river side, arose by night to disturb
everything except the heavy and unbroken smoke that poured out of their chimneys.
Slimy gaps and causeways, winding among old wooden piles, with a sickly substance
clinging to the latter, like green hair, and the rags of last year’s handbills offering rewards
for drowned men fluttering above high-water mark, led down through the ooze and slush
to the ebb tide. There was a story that one of the pits dug for the dead in the time of
the Great Plague was hereabout; and a blighting influence seemed to have proceeded
from it over the whole place. Or else it looked as if it had gradually decomposed into that
nightmare condition, out of the overflowings of the polluted stream.

As if she were a part of the refuse it had cast out, and left to corruption and decay, the
girl we had followed strayed down to the river’s brink, and stood in the midst of this night-
picture, lonely and still, looking at the water.

There were some boats and barges astrand in the mud, and these enabled us to come
within a few yards of her without being seen. I then signed to Mr Peggotty to remain
where he was, and emerged from their shade to speak to her. I did not approach her
solitary figure without trembling; for this gloomy end to her determined walk, and the way
in which she stood, almost within the cavernous shadow of the iron bridge, looking at the
lights crookedly reflected in the strong tide, inspired a dread within me.

I think she was talking to herself. I am sure, although absorbed in gazing at the water,
that her shawl was off her shoulders, and that she was muffling her hands in it, in an
unsettled and bewildered way, more like the action of a sleep-walker than a waking
person. I know, and never can forget, that there was that in her wild manner which gave
me no assurance but that she would sink before my eyes, until I had her arm within my
grasp.

At the same moment I said ‘Martha!’

She uttered a terrified scream, and struggled with me with such strength that I doubt if I
could have held her alone. But a stronger hand than mine was laid upon her; and when
she raised her frightened eyes and saw whose it was, she made but one more effort,
and dropped down between us.

(i) Examine Dickens’s presentation of the setting in this extract. [20]

(ii) With close reference to at least two other parts of the novel, how far would you
agree with the view that “In David Copperfield, Dickens uses location to criticise
society”? [40]

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Or,
Thomas Hardy: The Mayor of Casterbridge (Penguin Classics)

0 5 Read the extract below and answer the questions which follow.

There was a knock at the door; literally, three full knocks and a little one at the end.

“That kind of knock means half-and-half — somebody between gentle and simple,” said
the corn-merchant to himself. “I shouldn’t wonder therefore if it is he.” In a few seconds
surely enough Donald walked in.

Lucetta was full of little fidgets and flutters, which increased Henchard’s suspicions
without affording any special proof of their correctness. He was well-nigh ferocious at
the sense of the queer situation in which he stood towards this woman. One who had
reproached him for deserting her when calumniated, who had urged claims upon his
consideration on that account, who had lived waiting for him, who at the first decent
moment had come to ask him to rectify, by making her his, the false position into which
she had placed herself for his sake: such she had been. And now he sat at her tea-table
eager to gain her attention, and, in his amatory rage, feeling the other man present to be
a villain, just as any young fool of a lover might feel.

They sat stiffly side by side at the darkening table, like some Tuscan painting of the two
disciples supping at Emmaus. Lucetta, forming the third and chief figure, was opposite
them; Elizabeth-Jane, being out of the game, and out of the group, could observe from
afar all things: that there were long spaces of taciturnity, when all exterior circumstance
was subdued to the touch of spoons and china, the click of a heel on the pavement
under the window, the passing of a wheelbarrow or cart, the whistling of the carter, the
gush of water into householders’ buckets at the town-pump opposite; the exchange of
greetings among their neighbours, and the rattle of the yokes by which they carried off
their evening supply.

“More bread-and-butter?” said Lucetta to Henchard and Farfrae equally, holding out
between them a plateful of long slices. Henchard took a slice by one end and Donald
by the other; each feeling certain he was the man meant; neither let go, and the slice
came in two.

“Oh — I am so sorry!” cried Lucetta, with a nervous titter. Farfrae tried to laugh; but he
was too much in love to see the incident in any but a tragic light.

“How ridiculous of all three of them!” said Elizabeth to herself.

(i) Examine Hardy’s presentation of the relationship between Henchard and Farfrae in
this extract. [20]

(ii) How far do you agree with the view that “In The Mayor of Casterbridge, the desire
for respectability inevitably leads to secrecy and deception”? In your response you
must make close reference to at least two other parts of the novel. [40]

© WJEC CBAC Ltd. (B720U10-1)

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Section B: Prose fiction post-1900 (closed book)

Answer one question in this section.

In your response you are required to:

• analyse how meanings are shaped

• take account of relevant contexts and different interpretations which have informed your reading

Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent (Penguin Classics)

Either,

0 6 “In The Secret Agent, Conrad explores a world where no one is loyal to anyone or
anything.” Consider Conrad’s presentation of loyalty in the light of this opinion. [40]

Or,

0 7 Some readers have argued that Winnie Verloc is The Secret Agent’s only true
revolutionary. How far do you agree with this view of the novel? [40]

E.M. Forster: A Room with a View (Penguin Classics)

Or,

0 8 “Places are more than backgrounds; they bring about change.” In the light of this view,
explore Forster’s use of settings in A Room with a View. [40]

Or,

0 9 Some readers argue that Forster’s sympathy is with the social outsiders. In the light of
this view, explore Forster’s presentation of the Emersons. [40]

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Emyr Humphreys: A Toy Epic (Seren)

Or,

1 0 “A Toy Epic challenges the idea that childhood is a time of innocence.” In the light of this
view, discuss Humphreys’s presentation of growing up in A Toy Epic. [40]

Or,

1 1 “In A Toy Epic, home is a place to escape from.” In the light of this view, consider
Humphreys’s use of settings in A Toy Epic. [40]

Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Classics)

Or,

1 2 “Love appears to be absent in all cultures presented in Wide Sargasso Sea.” How far do
you agree with this view? [40]

Or,

1 3 “Wide Sargasso Sea is a story about the struggle to find one’s place in the world.” In the
light of this view, discuss Rhys’s presentation of the theme of identity in Wide Sargasso
Sea. [40]

Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day (Faber)

Or,

1 4 “It is Stevens’s refusal to adapt to the changing world around him which causes him the
most unhappiness.” In the light of this view, consider Ishiguro’s presentation of change
in The Remains of the Day. [40]

Or,

1 5 “Loyalty, both personal and political, is at the heart of Ishiguro’s novel.” How far do you
agree with this view of The Remains of the Day? [40]

END OF PAPER

© WJEC CBAC Ltd. (B720U10-1)