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AQA English Literature
1 hour 45 minutes · 64 marks · 40% of GCSE
You will study one Shakespeare play. The most commonly taught are Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet.
A Scottish general is driven to regicide by ambition and supernatural prophecy. Explores themes of ambition, guilt, the supernatural, and masculinity.
Exam tip: The extract is usually a pivotal moment (e.g. dagger soliloquy, banquet scene). Always link the extract to the wider play in your essay.
Two young lovers from feuding families in Verona. Explores love, fate, conflict, and the destructive nature of prejudice.
Exam tip: Focus on how Shakespeare uses dramatic irony - the audience knows the lovers are doomed from the Prologue.
Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, uses magic to shipwreck his enemies on his island. Explores power, colonialism, forgiveness, and the nature of art.
Exam tip: Consider the play as Shakespeare's farewell to theatre. Prospero's epilogue is often read as Shakespeare addressing the audience directly.
A comedy of wit and deception in Messina. Beatrice and Benedick's sharp banter contrasts with Hero and Claudio's conventional romance.
Exam tip: Gender politics are central. Explore how Hero is silenced while Beatrice challenges patriarchal norms.
Antonio borrows money from Shylock to help Bassanio. The bond of a pound of flesh creates a crisis that raises questions about justice, mercy, and prejudice.
Exam tip: Shylock's 'Hath not a Jew eyes?' speech is crucial. Consider whether the play endorses or challenges antisemitism.
The assassination of Caesar and its aftermath. Brutus struggles between personal friendship and political duty.
Exam tip: Compare Brutus's and Antony's funeral speeches - they demonstrate Shakespeare's understanding of rhetoric and persuasion.
You will study one novel. A Christmas Carol and Jekyll and Hyde are by far the most popular choices.
Charles Dickens (1843)
Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve who show him his past, present, and possible future. A moral tale about redemption and social responsibility.
Exam tip: Dickens wrote this as social commentary. Always link to Victorian poverty, the Poor Law, and Malthusian economics.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
A London lawyer investigates the connection between the respectable Dr Jekyll and the sinister Mr Hyde. A novella exploring duality, repression, and Victorian hypocrisy.
Exam tip: Structure is key - the novella withholds information from the reader, mirroring how Victorian society conceals uncomfortable truths.
Charles Dickens (1861)
Pip's journey from a blacksmith's apprentice to a London gentleman, funded by a mysterious benefactor. Explores class, ambition, and moral growth.
Exam tip: Pip is an unreliable first-person narrator. His attitudes change throughout the novel, so consider which 'version' of Pip is narrating.
Mary Shelley (1818)
Victor Frankenstein creates a living creature from dead matter, then abandons it. The creature's suffering raises questions about responsibility and what makes us human.
Exam tip: The nested narrative structure (Walton > Victor > Creature) means every story is filtered through another narrator. Question reliability.
Jane Austen (1813)
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy overcome their respective pride and prejudice to find love. A sharp social comedy about class, marriage, and moral judgement.
Exam tip: Austen uses free indirect discourse - the narrator blends with Elizabeth's thoughts. This creates irony when Elizabeth's judgements are wrong.
Arthur Conan Doyle (1890)
Sherlock Holmes investigates the disappearance of a father, a secret pact, and a stolen treasure from India. Explores empire, reason, and justice.
Exam tip: Consider the colonial context carefully. The treasure from India and the portrayal of Tonga reflect Victorian attitudes to empire.
Charlotte Bronte (1847)
An orphaned governess finds love and independence. Jane's journey challenges Victorian expectations of women, class, and morality.
Exam tip: Jane directly addresses the reader ('Reader, I married him'). This creates intimacy and positions the reader as confidant.
Both sections give you an extract and ask you to write about it and the wider text. Here is a reliable approach:
Use the PETAL structure for each paragraph:
Point
Make a clear point that directly answers the question.
Evidence
Embed a short, relevant quotation from the text.
Technique
Identify the literary technique used (metaphor, symbolism, etc.).
Analysis
Explain the effect on the reader and what it reveals about character/theme.
Link
Link to context, another part of the text, or back to the question.
"Shakespeare presents Macbeth's guilt as overwhelming and inescapable. In the extract, Macbeth sees a ‘dagger of the mind,’ a hallucination that Shakespeare uses as a visual metaphor for his tortured conscience. The adjective ‘fatal’ is deliberately ambiguous - it suggests both that the dagger will cause death and that Macbeth's fate is sealed. A Jacobean audience, who believed in divine retribution, would see this as a warning from God that Macbeth's crime will not go unpunished."