Here's a list of coursework titles for those of you redrafting/replacing coursework over half-term.
Much Ado About Nothing
1.
- “O God that I were a man!”(IV, I, l. 301).
Examine the role of gender in Much Ado About Nothing, with especial reference to the characters of Beatrice and Benedick.
Comment on:
· How Shakespeare portrays these characters
· How these character’s behaviour conforms to or challenges gender roles—both in Shakespeare’s time and ours
· The dramatic impact of these character’s speech and actions
“In Hero and Beatrice, Shakespeare presents two radically different ideas of femininity.”
Compare the portrayal of Hero and Beatrice, with especial reference to I, I; III, iv; and IV, i.
How does Shakespeare create his female characters, and engage audience sympathies with them?
3.
What is the dramatic contribution of Don John in Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’? How might this character be presented to an audience?
4.
Examine the roles of Benedick and Claudio as ‘lover’.
· How do these characters compare in speech and actions?
· How does Shakespeare use the conventions of his time in shaping these characters?
· How do these characters add to the dramatic impact of the play?
- 5.
Re-examine the events in and surrounding Act IV, Scene I of Much Ado About Nothing.
How does Shakespeare make this scene the dramatic ‘high point’ of the play?
In your answer, you should consider:
How Shakespeare presents characters;
His use of language and dramatic structure;
The impact of social conventions or ideas—both contemporary and current—on audience reactions.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
1. How does Stevenson engage his readership and establish intrigue/suspense in the novel? Pay especial attention to Stevenson’s use of language, the structure of the story, and his use of character and incident.
2. Select three passages from the novel, and comment on how Stevenson’s use of setting helps the reader to
· Understand the themes or ideas of the novel
· Experience suspense/tension or other effects
· Learn more about nineteenth-century life and society
· Appreciate his skill as a writer
3. Imagine you are Ms Davis, the Head of English at the Girls’ High School. You have just received the following letter from perturbed parents.
Write a response to the Shuckleburgers’ letter, defending the use of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in your GCSE English studies.
In your response, you should consider:
· How Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde reflects Victorian society or culture, and why it is valuable to learn about such ideas;
· How Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is an example of a literary style/genre, and what students could learn from this;
· The quality of Stevenson’s writing—what techniques does he employ, and what could students learn from him?
Remember that the Shuckleburgers are very sceptical, and will need ample proof from the text itself (i.e., quotations!), for you to succeed in quieting their opposition.
Remember to put your response in the form of a letter—a formal, ‘business’ style would work best.
Dear Ms Davis:
As concerned and child-centred parents, we take great interest in our daughter’s schoolwork, and we regularly snoop through, er, examine the contents of her lessons and homework.
We are rather perturbed by the inclusion of the text of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as part of Penelope’s English coursework. We both took turns reading the text, and felt that it was inappropriate for study in this day and age.
Put simply, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde strikes us as an irrelevant, outdated Victorian text, with little or nothing of value to offer the student of today. We cannot conceive how our precious Penelope could enjoy this text, or learn anything from a piece of badly-written pulp fiction from 120 years ago.
We do hope that you will swiftly move to replace this text with something a little more contemporary or appropriate: say, Riders by Jilly Cooper, or Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. And sack her dreadful teacher while you’re at it.
Yours sincerely,
Milton and Millicent Shuckleburger
