The English Miscellany

Getting on top of the drama exam I've been trawling the exam boards and internet sites for examples of A-level / IB exam/essay questions on Drama. These questions are suitable for 16-18 year-olds. If you are 'lost for ideas' also take a critical look at my TWO compilations of key quotations : Tragedy: Selected Quotations Comedy: famous quotes Exam / Essay Questions: 1. Using two or three plays you have studied, compare the presentation of two or three characters [e.g. introduction, dramatic interactions with other characters], saying in each case how the presentation furthered the dramatists' purposes, and how it rewarded your study. 2. 'While the momentum of the play is carried by major characters, there is often a significant minor character who is a catalyst for change or enlightenment.' Compare the role of a significant minor character in in plays you have studied, showing how these characters contribute to the dramatic action. ...

National Theatre: Othello Tragedy is like strong acid -- it dissolves away all but the very gold of truth. D. H. Lawrence 'the story depicts also the troubled part of the hero's life which precedes and leads up to his death; and an instantaneous death occurring by 'accident' in the midst of prosperity would not suffice for it. It is, in fact, essentially a tale of suffering and calamity conducting to death.' A.C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy Pathos truly is the mode for the pessimist. But tragedy requires a nicer balance between what is possible and what is impossible. And it is curious, although edifying, that the plays we revere, century after century, are the tragedies. In them, and in them alone, lies the belief-optimistic, if you will, in the perfectibility of man. Arthur Miller, Tragedy and the Common Man Tragedies are always discussed as if they took place in a void, but actually each tragedy is conditioned by its setting, local and global...

When s tudent reader s s truggle with poetry, it' s often the relation s hip between s ound and s en s e that pre s ent s a high degree of difficulty. It' s very ea s y to be overcome by pitter-patter rhythm s and arcane name s for metrical technique s and poetic form s . But picking s ound pattern s may help to open up a variety of interpretation s . Thi s mean s s hifting from the identification of a local effect to the elaboration of more complex and nuanced s emantic po ss ibilitie s . The fir s t s onic ta s k for the critical reader involve s the s potting of s imilar s ound s s uch a s alliteration. A higher level of creative reading require s s en s itivity in order to link the s e s ound clu s ter s to the poem' s que s tion s , and it s an s wer s . A great poem hold s together, in tight compre ss ion, the different element s of form and technique, tone s and s tyle, form and content. Critical writing - the expo s ition and appre...