GCSE

ENGLISH LITERATURE
Paper 1 Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel

Monday 13 May 2024 Morning Time allowed: 1 hour 45 minutes

Materials
For this paper you must have:
• an AQA 16-page answer book.

Instructions
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen. Do not use pencil.
• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is 8702/1.
• Answer one question from Section A and one question from Section B.
• You must not use a dictionary.

Information
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
• The maximum mark for this paper is 64.
• AO4 will be assessed in Section A. There are 4 marks available for AO4 in Section A in addition to
30 marks for answering the question. AO4 assesses the following skills: use a range of vocabulary
and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.
• There are 30 marks for Section B.
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There are no questions printed on this page

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SECTION A

Shakespeare Question Page

Macbeth 1 4–5
Romeo and Juliet 2 6
The Tempest 3 7
The Merchant of Venice 4 8
Much Ado About Nothing 5 9
Julius Caesar 6 10

SECTION B

The 19th-century novel Question Page

Robert Louis Stevenson The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll 7 12–13

and Mr. Hyde
Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol 8 14–15
Charles Dickens Great Expectations 9 16–17
Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre 10 18
Mary Shelley Frankenstein 11 19
Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice 12 20
Arthur Conan Doyle The Sign of Four 13 22–23

Turn over for Section A

Section A: Shakespeare

Answer one question from this section on your chosen text.

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Either

0 1 Macbeth
At this point in the play, Macbeth has decided that he is no longer prepared to carry out the plan
to murder King Duncan.

LADY MACBETH Was the hope drunk

Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?
And wakes it now to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time,
5
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
10 Letting I dare not wait upon I would, Like
the poor cat i’th’adage?
MACBETH Prithee, peace.
I dare do all that may become a man; Who
dares do more is none.
15 LADY MACBETH What beast was’t then That
made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man.
And to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place Did
20 then adhere, and yet you would make both.
They have made themselves and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck and know How
tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me: I would,
while it was smiling in my face,
25 Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn As
you have done to this.
MACBETH If we should fail?
LADY MACBETH We fail?
But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And
30
we’ll not fail.

0 1 Starting with this conversation, explore how far Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a strong
female character.

Write about:

• how far Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a strong female character in this
conversation
• how far Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a strong female character in the play as
a whole.
[30 marks]
AO4 [4 marks]

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Turn over for the next question

0 2 Romeo and Juliet

JULIET The clock struck nine when I did send the Nurse; In
half an hour she promised to return.
Perchance she cannot meet him: that’s not so.
O, she is lame! Love’s heralds should be thoughts,
5 Which ten times faster glides than the sun’s beams,
Driving back shadows over low’ring hills; Therefore
do nimble-pinioned doves draw Love, And
therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
Now is the sun upon the highmost hill
10 Of this day’s journey, and from nine till twelve Is
three long hours, yet she is not come.
Had she affections and warm youthful blood,
She would be as swift in motion as a ball; My
words would bandy her to my sweet love,
15 And his to me.
But old folks, many feign as they were dead, Unwieldy,
slow, heavy, and pale as lead.
Enter NURSE [with PETER].
O God, she comes!

0 2

Read the following extract from Act 2 Scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet and then answer the
question that follows.

At this point in the play, Juliet is waiting for the Nurse to return with news from Romeo.

Starting with this speech, explore how Shakespeare presents the difficulties faced by

Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.

Write about:

• how Shakespeare presents the difficulties faced by Juliet in this speech

• how Shakespeare presents the difficulties faced by Juliet in the play as a whole.
[30 marks]
AO4 [4 marks]

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The Tempest
0 3

PROSPERO What, Ariel! My industrious servant Ariel!

Enter ARIEL
ARIEL What would my potent master? Here I am.
PROSPERO Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service
5 Did worthily perform; and I must use you
In such another trick. Go bring the rabble – O’er
whom I give thee power – here, to this place.
Incite them to quick motion, for I must
Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple
10 Some vanity of mine art. It is my promise, And
they expect it from me.
ARIEL Presently?
PROSPERO Ay: with a twink.
ARIEL Before you can say ‘come’ and ‘go’,
15 And breathe twice, and cry ‘so, so’, Each
one tripping on his toe,
Will be here with mop and mow.
Do you love me master? No?
PROSPERO Dearly, my delicate Ariel. Do not approach Till
20 thou dost hear me call.
ARIEL Well; I conceive.

0 3

Read the following extract from Act 4 Scene 1 of The Tempest and then answer the
question that follows.

At this point in the play, Ariel has carried out Prospero’s orders with regard to Alonso and
his followers.

Starting with this conversation, explore how Shakespeare presents the relationship

between Prospero and Ariel in The Tempest.

Write about:

• how Shakespeare presents their relationship in this conversation

• how Shakespeare presents the relationship between Prospero and Ariel in the play as a
whole.
[30 marks]

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AO4 [4 marks]

The Merchant of Venice

0 4

SHYLOCK Signor Antonio, many a time and oft

In the Rialto you have rated me About
my monies and my usances.
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug For
5 suff’rance is the badge of all our tribe. You
call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And
spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own.
Well then, it now appears you need my help.
10 Go to, then, you come to me, and you say,
‘Shylock, we would have monies’ – you say so,
You that did void your rheum upon my beard,
And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur Over
your threshold: monies is your suit.
15 What should I say to you? Should I not say
‘Hath a dog money? Is it possible
A cur can lend three thousand ducats?’ Or
Shall I bend low, and in a bondman’s key, With
bated breath and whisp’ring humbleness, Say
20 this:
‘Fair sir, you spat on me on Wednesday last,
You spurned me such a day, another time
You called me dog: and for these courtesies
I’ll lend you thus much monies.’

0 4

Read the following extract from Act 1 Scene 3 of The Merchant of Venice and then answer
the question that follows.

At this point in the play, Antonio has just asked Shylock to lend him three thousand ducats.

Starting with this speech, explore how far Shakespeare presents Shylock as an isolated

character in The Merchant of Venice.

Write about:

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• how far Shakespeare presents Shylock as an isolated character in this speech

• how far Shakespeare presents Shylock as an isolated character in the play as a whole.
[30 marks]
AO4 [4 marks]

Much Ado About Nothing

0 5

CLAUDIO He hath ta’en th’infection, hold it up.

DON PEDRO Hath she made her affection known to Benedick?
LEONATO No, and swears she never will, that’s her torment.
5 CLAUDIO ’Tis true indeed, so your daughter says: shall I, says she, that
have so oft encountered him with scorn, write to him that I love him?
LEONATO This says she now when she is beginning to write to him, for
she’ll be up twenty times a night, and there will she sit in her smock, till
she have writ a sheet of paper: my daughter tells us all.
10 CLAUDIO Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a pretty jest your
daughter told us of.
LEONATO Oh when she had writ it, and was reading it over, she found
Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet.
CLAUDIO That.
LEONATO Oh she tore the letter into a thousand halfpence, railed at
15 herself, that she should be so immodest to write to one that she
knew would flout her: I measure him, says she, by my own spirit, for I
should flout him, if he writ to me, yea, though I love him I should.
CLAUDIO Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beats her
heart, tears her hair, prays, curses, Oh sweet Benedick, God give me
20 patience.
LEONATO She doth indeed, my daughter says so, and the ecstasy hath
so much overborn her, that my daughter is sometime afeared she will
do a desperate outrage to herself, it is very true.

0 5

Read the following extract from Act 2 Scene 3 of Much Ado About Nothing and then answer
the question that follows.

At this point in the play, Don Pedro and Leonato have begun their plan to trick Benedick into
believing that Beatrice loves him.

Starting with this extract, explore how Shakespeare presents characters tricking and

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deceiving each other in Much Ado About Nothing.

Write about:

• how Shakespeare presents characters tricking and deceiving each other in this extract
• how Shakespeare presents characters tricking and deceiving each other in the play as a
whole.
[30 marks]
AO4 [4 marks]

Julius Caesar
0 6

CASSIUS Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk
under his huge legs and peep about To
find ourselves dishonourable graves.
5 Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars But
in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Brutus and Caesar: what should be in that ‘Caesar’?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
10 Write them together, yours is as fair a name;
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with ’em,
‘Brutus’ will start a spirit as soon as ‘Caesar’. Now
in the names of all the gods at once,
15 Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
When went there by an age since the great flood But
it was famed with more than with one man? When
20 could they say, till now, that talked of Rome, That
her wide walks encompassed but one man?

0 6

Read the following extract from Act 1 Scene 2 of Julius Caesar and then answer the
question that follows.

At this point in the play, Cassius is trying to persuade Brutus to be part of the conspiracy to
kill Caesar.

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Starting with this speech, explore how Shakespeare presents Cassius as a manipulative

character in Julius Caesar.

Write about:

• how Shakespeare presents Cassius as a manipulative character in this speech

• how Shakespeare presents Cassius as a manipulative character in the play as a whole.
[30 marks]
AO4 [4 marks]

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Turn over for the next question

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Section B: The 19th-century novel

Answer one question from this section on your chosen text.

Either

0 7 Robert Louis Stevenson: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Read the following extract from Chapter 2 (Search for Mr Hyde) of The Strange Case
of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and then answer the question that follows.

In this extract, Utterson is alone thinking about Mr Hyde.

That was the amount of information that the lawyer carried back with him to
the great, dark bed on which he tossed to and fro, until the small hours of the
morning began to grow large. It was a night of little ease to his toiling mind,
toiling in mere darkness and besieged by questions.
5 Six o’clock struck on the bells of the church that was so conveniently near to
Mr. Utterson’s dwelling, and still he was digging at the problem. Hitherto it had
touched him on the intellectual side alone; but now his imagination also was
engaged, or rather enslaved; and as he lay and tossed in the gross darkness of
the night and the curtained room, Mr. Enfield’s tale went by before his mind in a
scroll of lighted pictures. He would be aware of the great field of lamps of a
10
nocturnal city; then of the figure of a man walking swiftly; then of a child running
from the doctor’s; and then these met, and that human Juggernaut trod the child
down and passed on regardless of her screams. Or else he would see a room in
a rich house, where his friend lay asleep, dreaming and smiling at his dreams;
and then the door of that room would be opened, the curtains of the bed plucked
15 apart, the sleeper recalled, and lo! there would stand by his side a figure to
whom power was given, and even at that dead hour he must rise and do its
bidding. The figure in these two phases haunted the lawyer all night; and if at
any time he dozed over, it was but to see it glide more stealthily through sleeping
houses, or move the more swiftly and still the more swiftly, even to dizziness,
20 through wider labyrinths of lamplighted city, and at every street corner crush a
child and leave her screaming. And still the figure had no face by which he might
know it; even in his dreams, it had no face, or one that baffled him and melted
before his eyes; and thus it was that there sprang up and grew apace in the
lawyer’s mind a singularly strong, almost an inordinate, curiosity to behold the
25 features of the real Mr. Hyde. If he could but once set eyes on him, he thought
the mystery would lighten and perhaps roll altogether away, as was the habit of
mysterious things when well examined. He might see a reason for his friend’s
strange preference or bondage (call it which you please) and even for the
startling clauses of the will. And at least it would be a face worth seeing: the face
of a man who was without bowels of mercy: a face which had but to show itself to
30 raise up, in the mind of the unimpressionable Enfield, a spirit of enduring hatred.
From that time forward, Mr. Utterson began to haunt the door in the by-street
of shops. In the morning before office hours, at noon when business was plenty
and time scarce, at night under the face of the fogged city moon, by all lights and
at all hours of solitude or concourse, the lawyer was to be found on his chosen
35 post.

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0 7 Starting with this extract, explore how Stevenson creates an atmosphere of fear and

danger in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Write about:

• how Stevenson creates an atmosphere of fear and danger in this extract

• how Stevenson creates an atmosphere of fear and danger in the novel as a whole.
[30 marks]

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or

Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol

In this extract, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge the scene at a
deathbed.

“Ha, ha!” laughed the same woman, when old Joe, producing a flannel bag with
money in it, told out their several gains upon the ground. “This is the end of it, you
see! He frightened every one away from him when he was alive, to profit us when he
5 was dead! Ha, ha, ha!”
“Spirit!” said Scrooge, shuddering from head to foot. “I see, I see. The case of
this unhappy man might be my own. My life tends that way, now. Merciful
Heaven, what is this!”
He recoiled in terror, for the scene had changed, and now he almost touched a
bed: a bare, uncurtained bed: on which, beneath a ragged sheet, there lay a
10 something covered up, which, though it was dumb, announced itself in awful
language.
The room was very dark, too dark to be observed with any accuracy, though
Scrooge glanced round it in obedience to a secret impulse, anxious to know what
kind of room it was. A pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon the bed;
15 and on it, plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of
this man.
Scrooge glanced towards the Phantom. Its steady hand was pointed to the
head. The cover was so carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising of it, the
motion of a finger upon Scrooge’s part, would have disclosed the face. He
20 thought of it, felt how easy it would be to do, and longed to do it; but had no more
power to withdraw the veil than to dismiss the spectre at his side.
Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with
such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion! But of the
loved, revered, and honoured head, thou canst not turn one hair to thy dread
purposes, or make one feature odious. It is not that the hand is heavy and will
25
fall down when released; it is not that the heart and pulse are still; but that the
hand was open, generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and the
pulse a man’s. Strike, Shadow, strike! And see his good deeds springing from
the wound, to sow the world with life immortal!
No voice pronounced these words in Scrooge’s ears, and yet he heard them
30 when he looked upon the bed. He thought, if this man could be raised up now,
what would be his foremost thoughts? Avarice, hard-dealing, griping cares?
They have brought him to a rich end, truly!
He lay, in the dark empty house, with not a man, a woman, or a child, to say that
he was kind to me in this or that, and for the memory of one kind word I will be kind to
35 him. A cat was tearing at the door, and there was a sound of gnawing rats beneath
the hearth-stone. What they wanted in the room of death, and why they were so
restless and disturbed, Scrooge did not dare to think.

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Q: explore how Dickens presents the lessons Scrooge learns about life in A Christmas Carol.
how Dickens presents Scrooge in this extract + life in the novel as a whole. [30
0 9 marks]
Charles Dickens: Great Expectations

Read the following extract from Chapter 17 of Great Expectations and then answer the
question that follows.

In this extract, Pip talks to Biddy about his growing frustration at his position in society.

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or

‘Well, then, understand once for all that I never shall or can be comfortable—or
anything but miserable—there, Biddy!—unless I can lead a very different sort of
life from the life I lead now.’
‘That’s a pity!’ said Biddy, shaking her head with a sorrowful air.
5 Now, I too had so often thought it a pity, that, in the singular kind of quarrel with
myself which I was always carrying on, I was half inclined to shed tears of
vexation and distress when Biddy gave utterance to her sentiment and my own. I
told her she was right, and I knew it was much to be regretted, but still it was not
to be helped.
10 ‘If I could have settled down,’ I said to Biddy, plucking up the short grass within
reach, much as I had once upon a time pulled my feelings out of my hair and
kicked them into the brewery wall: ‘if I could have settled down and been but half
as fond of the forge as I was when I was little, I know it would have been much
better for me. You and I and Joe would have wanted nothing then, and Joe and I
15 would perhaps have gone partners when I was out of my time, and I might even
have grown up to keep company with you, and we might have sat on this very
bank on a fine Sunday, quite different people. I should have been good enough
for you; shouldn’t I, Biddy?’
Biddy sighed as she looked at the ships sailing on, and returned for answer,
‘Yes; I am not over-particular.’ It scarcely sounded flattering, but I knew she
20
meant well.
‘Instead of that,’ said I, plucking up more grass and chewing a blade or two,
‘see how I am going on. Dissatisfied, and uncomfortable, and—what would it
signify to me, being coarse and common, if nobody had told me so?’
Biddy turned her face suddenly towards mine, and looked far more attentively
25 at me than she had looked at the sailing ships.
‘It was neither a very true nor a very polite thing to say,’ she remarked, directing
her eyes to the ships again. ‘Who said it?’
I was disconcerted, for I had broken away without quite seeing where I was
going to. It was not to be shuffled off, now, however, and I answered, ‘The
30 beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham’s, and she’s more beautiful than anybody
ever was, and I admire her dreadfully, and I want to be a gentleman on her
account.’ Having made this lunatic confession, I began to throw my torn-up grass
into the river, as if I had some thoughts of following it.
‘Do you want to be a gentleman, to spite her or to gain her over?’ Biddy quietly
35 asked me, after a pause.
‘I don’t know,’ I moodily answered.

0 9 ‘In Great Expectations, Pip learns to value people more than social class.’

Starting with this extract, explore how far you agree with this view.

Write about:

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• how Dickens presents Pip in this extract

• how far Dickens presents Pip learning to value people more than social class in the
novel as a whole.
[30 marks]

Turn over for the next question

1 0 Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre

‘With me,’ said I, ‘it is fully as much a matter of feeling as of conscience: I must
indulge my feelings; I so seldom have had an opportunity of doing so. Were you
to argue, object, and annoy me for a year, I could not forego the delicious
pleasure of which I have caught a glimpse – that of repaying, in part, a mighty
5 obligation, and winning to myself life-long friends.’
‘You think so now,’ rejoined St John, ‘because you do not know what it is to
possess, nor consequently to enjoy wealth: you cannot form a notion of the
importance twenty thousand pounds would give you; of the place it would enable
you to take in society; of the prospects it would open to you: you cannot –’
10 ‘And you,’ I interrupted, ‘cannot at all imagine the craving I have for fraternal
and sisterly love. I never had a home, I never had brothers or sisters; I must and
will have them now: you are not reluctant to admit me and own me, are you?’
‘Jane, I will be your brother – my sisters will be your sisters – without
stipulating for this sacrifice of your just rights.’
15 ‘Brother? Yes; at the distance of a thousand leagues! Sisters? Yes; slaving
amongst strangers! I, wealthy – gorged with gold I never earned and do not
merit! You, penniless! Famous equality and fraternisation! Close union!
Intimate attachment!’
‘But, Jane, your aspirations after family ties and domestic happiness may be
realised otherwise than by the means you contemplate: you may marry.’
20
‘Nonsense, again! Marry! I don’t want to marry, and never shall marry.’
‘That is saying too much: such hazardous affirmations are a proof of the
excitement under which you labour.’
‘It is not saying too much: I know what I feel, and how averse are my
inclinations to the bare thought of marriage. No one would take me for love; and I
25
will not be regarded in the light of a mere money speculation. And I do not want a
stranger – unsympathising, alien, different from me; I want my kindred: those with
whom I have full fellow-feeling. Say again you will be my brother: when you
uttered the words I was satisfied, happy; repeat them, if you can, repeat them
sincerely.’
30

1 0

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or

Read the following extract from Chapter 33 of Jane Eyre and then answer the question
that follows.

In this extract, Jane has just been told by St John Rivers that she is related to him and his
sisters and is to inherit her uncle’s fortune.

Starting with this extract, explore how far Brontë presents Jane Eyre as a young woman
1 1 searching for somewhere to belong.

Write about:

• how Brontë presents Jane in this extract

• how far Brontë presents Jane as a young woman searching for somewhere to belong in
the novel as a whole.

Mary Shelley: Frankenstein

No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a
hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me
ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into
our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many
5 happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim
the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs. Pursuing these
reflections, I thought, that if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might
in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had
apparently devoted the body to corruption.
10 These thoughts supported my spirits, while I pursued my undertaking with
unremitting ardour. My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had
become emaciated with confinement. Sometimes, on the very brink of certainty, I
failed; yet still I clung to the hope which the next day or the next hour might
realise. One secret which I alone possessed was the hope to which I had
15 dedicated myself; and the moon gazed on my midnight labours, while, with
unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places. Who
shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil, as I dabbled among the unhallowed
damps of the grave, or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay? My
limbs now tremble and my eyes swim with the remembrance; but then a
20 resistless, and almost frantic, impulse urged me forward; I seemed to have lost
all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit. It was indeed but a passing trance
that only made me feel with renewed acuteness so soon as, the unnatural
stimulus ceasing to operate, I had returned to my old habits. I collected bones
from charnel-houses; and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets
25 of the human frame. In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the house,
and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase, I kept my
workshop of filthy creation: my eye-balls were starting from their sockets in
attending to the details of my employment. The dissecting room and the
slaughterhouse furnished many of my materials; and often did my human nature
30 turn with loathing from my occupation, whilst, still urged on by an eagerness
1 1 which perpetually increased, I brought my work near to a conclusion.
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Read the following extract from Chapter 4 of Frankenstein and then answer the question
which follows.

In this extract, Frankenstein describes his commitment to his studies at university.

Starting with this extract, explore how Shelley presents the effects of Frankenstein’s

scientific ambitions on himself and others.

Write about:

1 2 • how Shelley presents Frankenstein in this extract

• how Shelley presents the effects of Frankenstein’s scientific ambitions on himself and
others in the novel as a whole.

Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a

good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first
entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the
5 surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or
other of their daughters.
“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that
Netherfield Park is let at last?”
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
10 “But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all
about it.”
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
“Do you not want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife impatiently.
“You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.” This
15 was invitation enough.
“Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a
young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on
Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it,
that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before
20 Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next
week.”
“What is his name?”
“Bingley.”
“Is he married or single?”
25 “Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five
thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”
“How so? How can it affect them?”
“My dear Mr. Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You
must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.”
“Is that his design in settling here?”
30
“Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall
in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon asTurn over ►
he comes.”
1 2
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or

Read the following extract from Chapter 1 of Pride and Prejudice and then answer the
question that follows.

In this extract, Austen introduces the characters of Mr and Mrs Bennet.

Starting with this extract, explore how Austen presents ideas about marriage in

Pride and Prejudice.

Write about:

• how Austen presents ideas about marriage in this extract

• how Austen presents ideas about marriage in the novel as a whole.

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Turn over for the next question

Turn over ►
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or

1 3 Arthur Conan Doyle: The Sign of Four

Read the following extract from Chapter 2 (The Statement of the Case) of The Sign of Four and
then answer the question that follows.

In this extract, Mary Morstan has just left, having told Holmes and Watson of her problem.

‘Au revoir,’ said our visitor; and with a bright, kindly glance from one to the
other of us, she replaced her pearl-box in her bosom and hurried away.
Standing at the window, I watched her walking briskly down the street until the
5 grey turban and white feather were but a speck in the sombre crowd.
‘What a very attractive woman!’ I exclaimed, turning to my companion.
He had lit his pipe again and was leaning back with drooping eyelids. ‘Is she?’
he said languidly; ‘I did not observe.’
‘You really are an automaton – a calculating machine,’ I cried. ‘There is
10 something positively inhuman in you at times.’ He smiled gently.
‘It is of the first importance,’ he cried, ‘not to allow your judgment to be biased
by personal qualities. A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem. The
emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning. I assure you that the most
winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their
insurance-money, and the most repellent man of my acquaintance is a
15
philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor.’
‘In this case, however –’
‘I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule. Have you ever
had occasion to study character in handwriting? What do you make of this
fellow’s scribble?’
20 ‘It is legible and regular,’ I answered. ‘A man of business habits and some
force of character.’
Holmes shook his head.
‘Look at his long letters,’ he said. ‘They hardly rise above the common herd.
That d might be an a, and that l an e. Men of character always differentiate their
25 long letters, however illegibly they may write. There is vacillation in his k’s and
self-esteem in his capitals. I am going out now. I have some few references to
make. Let me recommend this book – one of the most remarkable ever penned.
It is Winwood Reade’s Martyrdom of Man. I shall be back in an hour.’
I sat in the window with the volume in my hand, but my thoughts were far from
30 the daring speculations of the writer. My mind ran upon our late visitor – her
smiles, the deep rich tones of her voice, the strange mystery which overhung her
life. If she were seventeen at the time of her father’s disappearance she must be
seven-and-twenty now – a sweet age, when youth has lost its self-consciousness
and become a little sobered by experience. So I sat and mused until such
35 dangerous thoughts came into my head that I hurried away to my desk and
plunged furiously into the latest treatise upon pathology. What was I, an army
surgeon with a weak leg and a weaker banking account, that I should dare to
think of such things? She was a unit, a factor – nothing more. If my future were
black, it was better surely to face it like a man than to attempt to brighten it by
40 mere will-o’-the-wisps of the imagination.

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1 3 Starting with this extract, explore how Conan Doyle presents Holmes and Watson as

characters with very different strengths and qualities.

Write about:

• how Conan Doyle presents Holmes and Watson in this extract

• how Conan Doyle presents Holmes and Watson as characters with different strengths
and qualities in the novel as a whole.
[30 marks]

END OF QUESTIONS

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