Higher English – Critical Essay Questions
Choose from a play an important scene which you found particularly entertaining or particularly shocking
Explain briefly why the scene is important to the play as a whole and discuss in detail how the dramatist makes the scene so entertaining or shocking.
- Shocking scene – the death of Mercutio (alternative – the deaths of Romeo and Juliet)
- Mercutio is a vibrant, energetic, likeable character which makes his death even more shocking.
- He is not even a member of either of the feuding families which adds to the shocking nature of his death.
- It is important in understanding the themes of revenge, violence and family honour and their horrible destructive force.
- It leads to the banishment of Romeo as he kills Tybalt in revenge.
- This greatly complicates Romeo and Juliet’s already difficult relationship.
- Friar Lawrence tries to end the feud between the two families by taking advantage of the two lovers’ situation
- The tragic ending – another example of the terrible, shocking violence that arises from the feud.
Choose a play in which a character makes a crucial error.
Explain what the error is and discuss to what extent it is important to your understanding of the character’s situation in the play as a whole.
- Crucial error – Romeo’s killing of Tybalt.
- Highlights the terrible cycle of violence that exists between the two families.
- Shows Romeo’s capacity for great passion – both love and hate.
- Leads to his banishment and the isolation of his wife.
- Leaves Juliet full of desperation and willing to submit to Friar Lawrence’s plan.
- Ultimately leads to the tragic ending.
Choose a play in which a central character is heroic yet vulnerable.
Shoe how the dramatist makes you aware of both qualities and discuss how they affect your response to the character’s fate in the play as a whole.
· Heroic yet vulnerable character: Juliet.
· Juliet is heroic in her commitment and loyalty to Romeo and her willingness to risk her life for their love.
· She is heroic in her willingness to defy her family and transcend the destructive hatred that exists between her family and Romeo’s.
· She is vulnerable in that she is a young girl who is expected to submit to the authority of her father. Going behind her father’s back and loving her father’s enemy makes her vulnerable to the forces of hate and violence that dominate the relationship between Capulet and Montague.
· Discuss Juliet’s character at the start of the play – dutiful – willing to please her family.
· Discuss the meeting with Romeo and how her sudden and passionate love turns her world upside down.
· Discuss the bravery/daring/heroic nature of her willingness to marry Romeo even after she finds out he is Montague.
· Discuss the feud and the death of Tybalt and Juliet’s brave/heroic decision to stand by her husband. Discuss how vulnerable she is when she stands up to her parents.
· Discuss the plan of Friar Lawrence and Juliet’s heroic willingness to risk her life but also how vulnerable she is emotionally.
· Discuss the ending – is she brave and heroic to end her life in the way she does?
Choose a play in which the relationship between a male and a female character changes significantly.
Show how the relationship changes and discuss to what extent this illuminates a central idea of the play.
· Juliet and her father – at the start Juliet is dutiful; her father is understanding, loving.
· This changes suddenly with the meeting with Romeo. Her love for Romeo causes her to abandon the duty of a daughter to follow the wishes of a father. This highlights the strength of the love she feels (a central idea of the play).
· The love that Juliet has for Romeo and the duty she owes her father come into direct conflict when Juliet’s father arranges the marriage to Paris. Juliet’s defiance here causes her father to become authoritarian and even cruel to his daughter. Juliet’s love for Romeo has caused a seemingly insurmountable rift between her and her father. Is Shakespeare suggesting that love can be a destructive force?
· Juliet’s desperate situation leads her to Friar Lawrence who tries to remedy the situation.
· Juliet’s love for Romeo leads to her death. Her father remembers his love for his daughter but it is now too late. The love of Romeo and Juliet has brought great tragedy but it has also achieved a measure of reconciliation between the two families.
Choose a play which explores the theme of love in difficult circumstances.
Explain how the dramatist introduces the theme and discuss how in the course of the play he prepares you for the resolution of the drama.
· The “star-crossed lovers” – Romeo and Juliet’s ill-fated, tragic love story. Difficult circumstances – they are on opposite sides of a violent and hate-filled feud.
· Discuss the meeting of the lovers and their agreement to get married despite the difficulties of being from opposite sides of the feud. What do we learn about the two characters and the nature of their love? Does their impulsiveness/capacity for extreme passion prepare us for the resolution of the drama?
· Discuss Romeo’s killing of Tybalt and the near impossibility of the two lovers now being together. Does this prepare us further for the resolution? Think of Romeo’s emotional impulsiveness.
· Discuss Juliet’s desperation and determination to be with her husband despite all the difficulties. Discuss Friar Lawrence’s plan and the risks involved.
· Discuss the resolution – the tragic death of the two lovers whose sacrifice brings an end to the terrible family feud.
· Choose a novel that deals with true love, unrequited love or love betrayed.
Discuss the writer’s exploration of the theme and show to what extent it conveys a powerful message about the nature of love.
- Gatsby’s love is unrequited. His all-consuming love for Daisy is never really returned.
- Discuss the nature of Gatsby’s love and the fact that he has devoted his life to it. Is Gatsby in love with Daisy or his dream of her? You could compare Gatsby’s love to other characters. Tom and Daisy may have some kind of affection and loyalty for each other, but we're pretty sure it's not actually love. Jordan and Nick are happy enough to spend time together but again it’s not actually love. Only Gatsby seems to be truly in love – the one-sided nature, or unrequited nature, of his love seems to inevitably lead to disaster.
- Discuss the scene in the hotel when Gatsby’s dream begins to fall apart. Gatsby needs Daisy to love him with the same degree of passion and obsessiveness with which he loves her. She can’t and Daisy retreats back to the safety of Tom and his money.
- Despite Daisy’s rejection – Gatsby remains true to her and is even willing to take the blame for the car accident. This is a sacrifice that perhaps Daisy does not deserve. What does this reveal about Gatsby’s character?
- Discuss the ending – does Gatsby’s unrequited love lead ultimately to his death?
- Discuss the symbolic significance of Gatsby and his Dream of Love – symbols of the American dream and its demise.
Choose a novel in which symbolism is an important aspect of the writer’s style.
Show how the writer’s use of symbolism contributes to your understanding of character and theme.
- Symbolism is an important aspect of Fitzgerald’s style - you could structure this essay by focusing on one symbol or group of symbols in a paragraph.
- Colour symbolism: the green light – symbolises Daisy, or Gatsby’s idealised image of her, his dream of a happy future. Discuss how the colour green links Gatsby’s yearning for Daisy with the first sailors to arrive in America who dreamed of a better world thus making Gatsby symbolic of the seemingly hopeless pursuit of the American dream.
- Characters as symbols: Gatsby, as mentioned above, comes to represent the pursuit of the American Dream. Tom and Daisy come to represent the upper classes in general – they are both cold and careless and living essentially meaningless lives and through these characters Gatsby is criticising the wealthy upper classes generally. Tom and Daisy are also symbols of the corruption of the American Dream – with their wealth and luxury they seem to have achieved the dream but they are both essentially unhappy. Is this because the pursuit of wealth at any cost has replaced the pursuit of happiness?
- The valley of ashes – symbolic of a moral wasteland. Signifies the huge gulf between rich and poor. The characters who live here – Myrtle and Wilson are symbolic or representative of the lower classes. They end up being victims of the immoral, selfish “careless” rich.
- The giant eyes of Doctor T J Eckleburg. Wilson connects him with god Does he represent the absence of god? And therefore the absence of traditional values and morals? Is it a symbol of the commercialisation of America (an advert replacing god)? Is it symbolic of society needing to “correct its vision” and “see” its faults?
Choose a novel or short story in which one of the main characters is not in harmony with his/her society.
Describe the character’s situation and go on to discuss how it adds to your understanding of a central concern of the text.
· Gatsby is out of harmony with the wealthy upper-class society of Daisy and Tom.
· He is from a poor background and he has devoted his time and energy to become wealthy enough to be accepted by the upper class, and crucially, to be accepted by Daisy.
· Although he becomes fabulously wealthy he never quite fits in/is never quite in harmony with the upper classes. His house is in West Egg, viewed by the aristocratic East-Eggers as a vulgar place full of people with “new” money. Gatsby’s mansion is a “factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy” which suggests it is not authentic just as Gatsby is not authentically aristocratic.
· Gatsby reinvents himself to fit in with the upper classes but he never quite manages it. His use of “old sport” sounds unnatural and absurd. When Nick first meets Gatsby he is almost won over by Gatsby’s extraordinary smile with its “quality of eternal reassurance” but when the smile goes Nick describes him as “an elegant young rough-neck... whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd”. It is clear that this “young rough-neck” is never going to be in harmony with the sophisticated high society people who attend his parties. We see here one of concerns of the text – class division and the snobbery of the traditionally wealthy.
· Tom is always suspicious of Gatsby, questioning where his wealth came from. He becomes more antagonistic towards Gatsby as he begins to realise the relationship going on between Gatsby and his wife. This leads to the confrontation in the New York hotel. He reveals Gatsby as someone who has made his money from criminal activities. This frightens off Daisy and she retreats to the safety of her husband’s wealth.
· Gatsby’s faithfulness to Daisy after this episode and his willingness to take the blame for the death of Myrtle are both admirable but he is almost an absurd figure as he waits outside her house when we know she has rejected him. Gatsby could never be accepted into this exclusive society due to his humble origins and the underworld/low-class nature in which he made his money.
· With Gatsby’s death we see how completely out of harmony Gatsby is with the upper class society. Only Owl eyes attends his funeral. The crowds who readily attended his parties have no interest in him. This reveals the shallowness/emptiness of the upper classes.