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I, Being Born a Woman – Edna St. Vincent Millay Candidates may include the following in their answers: the poem recounts an incident in which the speaker reflects on a fleeting sexual attraction to a man, but it could also be about the speaker’s assertion of independence, self-possession, and control over her own desires the title foregrounds the speaker’s gender and identity, highlighting the societal expectations of women and the tension between desire and autonomy the use of lexical choice and imagery of attraction and restraint (‘I love you…yet I shall not’) indicates the speaker’s awareness of passion and her conscious refusal to surrender to it the use of the first-person narrative voice creates immediacy and intimacy, allowing insight into the speaker’s reasoning and emotions repetition and parallelism highlight the tension between desire and self-control, e.g. ‘I love you…yet I shall not’ enjambment and caesura emphasise the reflective and measured tone of th...

Hamlet EITHER 5 ‘In Hamlet, words often fail to express the truth, and silence becomes more revealing.’ In the light of this statement, explore the ways in which Shakespeare presents silence and unspoken meaning in the play. In your answer, you must consider relevant contextual factors. (Total for Question 5 = 25 marks) Hamlet Candidates may refer to the following in their answers: • the significance of silence and unspoken meaning in shaping character relationships and dramatic tension, and the role of performance and staging in making silence expressive, in response to the terms of the task • specific scenes or moments such as Hamlet’s soliloquies; the Ghost’s initial silent appearance; Gertrude’s silence in response to Hamlet’s accusations in the closet scene; Ophelia’s silence and withdrawal before her madness; Claudius’ silent prayer; and the final scene where action replaces speech • ways in which silence is developed through technical means, e.g. pauses, interruptions, broke...

Mark Scheme – Question 1 Re-read La Belle Dame sans Merci and My Last Duchess. Compare how power is shown through relationships in La Belle Dame sans Merci and in My Last Duchess. La Belle Dame sans Merci (AO2) Responses may include: The faery’s child wields power over the knight through her beauty and supernatural charm: he is ‘alone and palely loitering’ after she abandons him. The knight’s vulnerability shows the imbalance of power in the relationship. Repetition of ‘wild eyes’ and the description of her ‘light of foot’ emphasise her dominance over him. The use of the ballad form, with regular rhyme in the second and fourth lines, creates a rhythmic, almost hypnotic effect, reflecting the control the lady has over the knight. Pathetic fallacy highlights the knight’s powerlessness: the ‘sedge has withered’ and ‘no birds sing’ mirror his emotional desolation. The knight’s dream of other ‘pale kings’ and ‘princes’ suggests a history of men powerless before her, reinf...

Blessing (AO2) Responses may include: the poem opens with a vivid depiction of a harsh, dry environment: ‘The skin cracks like a pod’ conveys how scarcity and heat shape human life. metaphors and similes bring the environment to life: water is described as a ‘rush of fortune’ and a ‘blessing’, showing the environment’s transformative power. sensory imagery engages the reader: visual (‘silver crashes’), tactile (‘skin cracks’), auditory (‘the voice of a kindly god’). contrasts highlight human reliance on the environment: the harsh, dry conditions versus the sudden joy brought by water. enjambment and irregular line lengths mirror unpredictability and the rush of water, echoing human reaction. repetition (‘blessing, the voice of a kindly god’) emphasises the overwhelming power of natural forces. the shift in tone from hardship to celebration shows the immediate effect of the environment on human life. free verse reflects the untamed, uncontrolled nature of the e...

SECTION B – Reading and Writing Answer the question in this section. You should spend 1 hour on this section. Use ideas from BOTH Text One and Text Two in the Source Booklet to answer this question. 8 Write a letter to a friend on the topic of choosing and caring for a pet responsibly. You should include: the benefits and joys of owning a pet the responsibilities and challenges of pet ownership advice for how to make the right choice for your lifestyle Think carefully about the purpose of your letter and the audience for whom it is intended. (30 marks) answers SECTION B – Mark Scheme A suitable register for a letter to a friend should be adopted. Candidates should address all areas. The following are some points that candidates may make but there are other possibilities. Some candidates may interpret the task more widely and use other examples than those mentioned in the passages. The benefits and joys of owning a pet pets can improve mood: “decreasing feel...