TASKS AND TIMING

On both the Higher and Ordinary Level papers, you have 3 hours and 20 minutes to read the paper, select the questions you will answer and jot down preliminary plans for each essay (all of which should take no more than 10 minutes); then, at Higher Level, you must write one essay on The Single Text for 60 marks (60 minutes), one essay on Comparative Study for 70 marks (65 minutes), one essay on Prescribed Poetry for 50 marks (50 minutes) and one answer on the Unseen Poem for 20 marks (15 minutes), while at Ordinary Level you must answer a number of questions in each section for the same marks within the same time periods.

SECTION I, THE SINGLE TEXT

One of the following texts must be selected by you: Wuthering Heights (H, O), The Remains of the Day (H, O), How Many Miles to Babylon? (O), Death and Nightingales (H, O), The Crucible (H, O), Lies of Silence (O), The Plough and the Stars (O), Othello (H, O), The Importance of Being Earnest (O).

At Higher Level, two questions are set on each of these texts and you must write an essay on one. Your essay must provide a detailed assessment of one or more of the major characters, a detailed exploration of one or more of the central themes, or a detailed discussion of the text with reference to some aspect of its style.

At Ordinary Level, a number of more specific questions are set and you must answer all. Your answers will deal with characters, events and subject-matter in your chosen text.

At Higher Level, because you are given a critical quotation to discuss – ‘Despite the striking portrayals of goodness and nobility, the play Othello leaves the audience with a sense of dismal despair.’ (1998) – it is vital to identify and consistently address the key elements of that quotation. I can’t stress this strongly enough. It’s not sufficient to have a detailed knowledge of the text; you must be able to apply it to answer a specific question. Failure to address the question you were asked will result in your wonderful knowledge getting you a D grade.

For instance, in relation to the Othello quotation above: what are the portrayals of goodness, what are the portrayals of nobility, what’s so striking about them, what the hell does ‘dismal despair’ actually mean, and is this what we’re left with, despite everything else? All these issues must be addressed and must be linked to each other coherently. Your points must be supported by quotations or references. Be aware that you are awarded marks on the basis of coherence (organisation of essay) and relevance (answering the question you were asked) as well as knowledge.

A QUICK GUIDE TO THE MAJOR CHARACTERS IN OTHELLO

DESDEMONA

Open. Guileless. Honest. Truthful. Displaying on the surface, in her actions and her words, only what lies beneath that surface, in her mind and heart. She is what she seems to be.

Thinks well of everyone. Believes in the natural goodness of men and women. Has faith in others. Seeks to love, respect and serve others, always appropriately: Othello as a husband, Cassio as a friend, Emilia as a companion, Brabantio as a father.

Emotional. Sympathetic. Idealistic.Tender. Compassionate. Gentle.

OTHELLO

All Othello’s best qualities – his composure, his self-assurance, his loyalty, his modesty, his sensitivity, his openness, his love, his dignity, his trust in others – are displayed in his wonderfully accomplished defence of himself against Brabantio’s accusations of witchcraft, coercion and seduction. His delivery is beautifully composed, full of genuine feeling, but not emotional in itself. As he speaks, we too experience the gentle giant that Desdemona fell in love with.

And yet, within a very short period of time, this composed, dignified and courteous man is ranting like a lunatic, unable to control his speech; and worse, this loving man, a deep admirer of tenderness in others, is striking his wife in public in front of appalled Venetian noblemen.

IAGO

Whereas Desdemona believes in the natural goodness of others Iago considers humans as hateful creatures, driven by greed and lust and self-interest, no better than animals.

Whereas Desdemona seeks to love, respect and serve others, Iago is defined by self-interest. Whatever he does, he performs for his own twisted reasons, to serve himself.

Whereas Desdemona is emotional, sympathetic, tender and compassionate, Iago, as is best demonstrated by his soliloquies, is cold, calculating, rational, indifferent.

Iago is a brilliant orator, a supreme manipulator of words, a master of language, whose final words are a dedication to silence

SECTION II, THE COMPARATIVE STUDY

You must select 3 texts from a list of 39 prescribed.

The full list is available on the Department of Education’s website www.education.ie. With reference to the modes that are specified you must study similarities and differences between the three texts. This year, the Comparative Modes for examination are: at Higher Level, (1) Theme or Issue (2) The Cultural Context, (3) Literary Genre; at Ordinary Level, (1) Relationships, (2) Theme, (3) Social Setting.

Two of these modes will be presented for discussion on the examination paper. Two questions will be set on each of the selected modes.

In effect, this means that you answer one question from a choice of four. You must have a good knowledge of your three texts. In other words, you must know the following in relation to each:

? the genre, or category, that the text falls into, whether biography, realistic fiction, Shakespearian stage drama, etc.

? the historical setting; where and when the action takes place;

? what exactly happens and in what sequence it happens;

? the names and personalities of the main characters;

? the relationships between the main characters.

THE COMPARATIVE MODES FOR 2008

THEME OR ISSUE – THEME - RELATIONSHIPS

A theme is a unifying idea or motif repeated or developed throughout a work. This means that it must be one of the central concerns of the text. At it simplest, an issue means a topic of interest or discussion, b ut clearly what is meant is a topic that is consistently treated throughout the text.

There are a number of universal themes in literature and you’d be well advised to concentrate on a few of these for particular study. Each will apply in some form or other to any three texts you select, although of course you must be aware of precisely what aspects of the theme your texts explore. Here are three examples:

? Love or Relationships

What text does not, in some way or other, deal with love, the most intense, the most longed-for and the most vulnerable of all human aspirations and conditions? In fact, how a text interprets love is very often a key to understanding the entire work.

? Relationship Between an Individual and Society

A key theme in modern literature, where society is often seen as restricting the freedom of the individual.

? Power

Another of literature’s essential themes, since all societies and all relationships are defined by questions of power: who holds it, who benefits from it, who suffers because of it, who are the powerless.

LITERARY GENRE

The term Literary Genre asks us to consider what category a text falls into and to explore how different types of text, or different genres, use different techniques to tell their stories. Here are two examples of such techniques:

? Type of Text

Each genre – or type of text – has some technique available to it that is either not available to other genres or not quite as important. For instance, films tells their stories largely through flickering images on a screen, stage plays tell their stories almost entirely through the spoken word or dialogue, and prose works, novels, short stories and memoirs, rely on their access to a character’s thoughts or reflections to advance and deepen the story. In discussing a text as an example of an literary genre, we are therefore looking for recurring uses of such techniques – recurring images in films, recurring patterns of dialogue in plays, recurring reflections in prose works.

? The Use of Humour and Darkness to Tell the Story

If a text is very funny, its humour contributes to a generally bright, light-hearted view of the world. On the other hand, if it is dominated by gloomy images and landscapes – brooding mountains and damp caverns – then it will automatically have a darker, more fatalistic feel to it. If the characters are likeable, the world they inhabit will be attractive. If the characters are all sour, negative gits, then their world will be unappealing. If the story is set in a rural paradise, it will vibrate with positive energy. If it’s set in a deprived slum, it will stutter with uncertain life. These are just some of the ways that light and darkness, humour and seriousness, are used in the telling of a story.

THE CULTURAL CONTEXT– SOCIAL SETTING

The terms Cultural Context and Social Setting simply refer to the time and place the work is set in, the society that is depicted or created in the text. A fictional society, just like any other society, is discussed with reference to power & politics, wealth, work & religion, social customs, and the roles of men, women & children.

To begin with, you need to be able to briefly, but accurately describe the society depicted in each of your chosen texts. Here are the films from this year’scourse.

Twelve Angry Men is set in an American courtroom and jury room during the 1950’s trial for murder of an immigrant defendant from a poor background.

My Left Foot is set in working class Dublin during the middle decades of the twentieth century and concerns the efforts of a cerebral palsy victim to overcome his handicap and his environment.

Cinema Paradiso is set in a poor, but closely-knit Sicilian community in post-war Italy and shows how the magic of film can brighten everyday village life.

The Truman Show is set in an artificially created world, on a set designed for a television programme, and explores one man’s struggle against his imposed environment.

Strictly Ballroom is set among the rule-bound ballroom dancing community in late twentieth century Australia and explores a young man’s fight for self-expression against social convention.

Then, at Higher Level, you need three separate cultural aspects to structure your essay around. Pick from the list above – power, politics, wealth, work, religion, the social roles of men and women – or select your own beyond this range.

SECTION III, POETRY

THE UNSEEN POEM & ORDINARY LEVEL PRESCRIBED POETRY

In The Unseen Poem, you are presented with a poem that you will not have studied before and in Ordinary Level Prescribed Poetry with a poem you will be familiar with. In both cases, you are asked a number of questions on the poems, relating to theme and technique.

The important areas (for discussing both Unseen and Ordinary Level Prescribed Poetry) are as follows:

Theme: In an enjoyable book called Understand Poetry, James Reeves says that a poem is an act, not a statement. The difference between an act and a statement is the difference between a kiss and a piece of paper with the words I love you written on it. It would be ridiculous to say that a kiss is about love, in the same way that it's ridiculous to say that a poem is about something. A kiss can express love. It can also express betrayal, of course, as in the Christian story of Judas and the insincere hug in Mafia films like The Godfather. It all depends on the context. So in discussing a poet's themes, you can use such terms as expresses, demonstrates, explores, approaches. Think of the kiss. Think of the poem as an act that combines feeling, expression and purpose.

Language: Poetry exploits the richness of language and if you can get into the habit of thinking about the meaning, suggestiveness and feel of words, you won't have much difficulty- enjoying and studying literature: In discussing poetry, the three most important language-related terms are imagery, simile and metaphor.

Consider the following three expressions: a) The look he gave me was as sharp as a dagger; (b) His look was like a dagger; and (c) There's daggers in men's smiles. All three use the- image of a dagger to communicate-the notion of hostility and danger from another.

The first two are similes, in that the connection between one thing (the look) and the other (the dagger) is plainly stated by using like or as. The-most obvious is (a). It leaves no room for doubt and even goes as far as stressing the most relevant feature (sharpness) of the dagger: It also leaves little room for imagining; of course. The second, (b) is also straightforward, but because it doesn't tell you what to think it allows your imagination to link many things with the dagger, and therefore with the look: sharpness, brightness, danger. The third, (c), is a metaphor rather than a simile. It's much more subtle. Everything is implied rather than stated. It's also much more complex, in that it connects two apparent opposites - smiles (friendship, tenderness, laughter, relaxation) and daggers (threat, danger; death, hostility, coldness). The third, by the way, is a quotation from Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Sound Effects: The main sound effects for consideration are: alliteration (two or more words in close proximity beginning with the same letter); rhyme (two or more words; usually at the ends of lines, with the same sound; and assonance (half-rhyme, as in the sounds of 'love' and 'move' combining). All words make a sound, of course, and the combination of all sounds within a poem creates the rhythm.

Tone and Mood: Tone implies feeling or emotion. The phrase 'Get out of here!' can be many things. It can be affectionate (Americans use it in this way, to mean 'Don't be kidding me') or it can be an angry command. It depends on the tone of voice. Mood, on the other hand, suggests a state or condition rather than a more temporary feeling, as in the expression A bad mood. So, while the opening two lines of a poem might have a pessimistic tone (1 can't get through to my lover), the mood of the whole poem might be optimistic (I'll get through to her/him eventually;).

TYPE 1: SAMPLE QUESTION AND OPENING RESPONSE

The figure of the outsider is a recurring feature of the poetry of Derek Mahon. Discuss.

Most poets seem to experience themselves as outsiders. For Mahon, who was born in Belfast in 1941, into the narrow-minded Protestant community he describes so caustically in 'Ecclesiastes: this feeling must be particularly acute. Religious zealots are interested in the narrow distortions of language. No surrender! Fenian! God save the Queen! They are, as Mahon himself writes, 'stiff with rhetoric' and with 'a bleak afflatus.' Poets, on the other hand, are involved with the beauties and complexities of language.

So Mahon himself is the first and most prominent of all the outsiders featured in his poems. Alienated, in his bohemian 'red bandana' and 'banjo: from his own community, with its 'dank churches, the empty streets, the shipyard silence: he tries, in 'Ecclesiastes: to imagine himself a part of it all again and can only come up with a kind of horrified sarcasm. 'God, you could grow to love it, God-fearing, God-/chosen purist little puritan that. .. you are.' It is, as he presents it, a joyless tradition, dominated by scowling males, where Sunday is the day of dreariness and duty rather than the day of celebration, where it's always 'January' and always raining, and where the graves of the dead are the most significant things in life.

The adjective 'bleak' stands out in the centre of the poem and the word 'stiff: with its double meaning of cold and dead, completes the misery at the end. A tradition 'promising nothing under the sun: and no place for anyone with a little joy still left in them, never mind a poet. We can see in 'Ecclesiastes' not only the origin of the outsider figure, but also of the sense of personal isolation that dominates Mahon's work.

TYPE 2: SAMPLE QUESTION AND OPENING RESPONSE

Write a personal response to the poems by Eavan Boland on your course.

I found Eavan Boland the most intriguing poet on our course. On the one hand, she explored themes and described situations that are part of every modern woman's life, but that are not really part of traditional poetry. They include reflections on what life is like for a woman in late twentieth century Ireland and what life was like for Irish women in earlier times, on the relationships between different generations of women, and on how the domestic order that we all, but particularly women, try to create is constantly threatened by other forces.

On the other hand, because Boland always critically examines these experiences, instead of just emotionally responding to them, her style of writing can be quite demanding. Sometimes, it's like watching a complicated mind concentrating. But you realise after a while -- or at least, I did -- that this is because she is taking her subjects seriously, not treating them as trivial women's issues, like some popular magazines. As a young woman, this, I think, is what I most appreciate about Boland. As she stresses so often herself, she deals with real women, not with stereotypes.

So, what is the life of a woman? If I had to put a single word on it, with reference to Boland's poetry, I'd say: relationships. Relationships with lovers and husbands, as explored in Love and The Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me, relationships with other women in The Shadow Doll and Famine Road, and, most importantly of all, I think, relationships with children, in the poems already mentioned and in The Pomegranate and This Moment.

HIGHER LEVEL PRESCRIBED POETRY

There are eight prescribed poets on your course: Boland, Donne, Frost, Larkin, Mahon, Montague, Plath and Rich.

Four of these will appear on the examination paper.

You are expected to be familiar with six poems by each poet and to discuss at least three in detail in your essay.

One question will be set on each of the chosen four. You must answer one of these questions.

Two types of questions are set: those that specify what aspects you must discuss (in 2007, Robert Frost -- a poet of sadness and The poetry of Sylvia Plath is intense, deeply personal and quite disturbing) and those that do not specify what aspects you must discuss (in 2007, Write a personal response to the poems by T. S. Eliot on your course and The impact that John Montague's poetry had on you.) In the former, you must consistently address the aspects you are given; in the latter, you must provide your own shape and material.

AND FINALLY ….. A GUIDE TO THE MARKING SCHEME

? Clarity of Purpose (30pc):

This assesses the relevance of your answer. In other words, have you understood and adequately tackled the task that you were given? Do you know what you are talking about?

? Coherence of Delivery (30pc):

This assesses the structure of your answer. In other words, how well organised is your discussion or argument and how effectively is it supported by references and illustrations? Does your answer hold together?

? Efficiency of Language Use (30pc):

This assesses the effectiveness of your writing style. How appropriate is your choice of words and how powerfully do you organise them into sentences and paragraphs?

? Accuracy of Mechanics (30pc):

This assesses the accuracy of your spelling and grammar