Model Answers (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Model Answers

Below you will find a full-mark, Level 6 model answer for a poetry anthology comparison essay. The commentary below each section of the essay illustrates how and why it would be awarded Level 6. Despite the fact it is an answer to a specific Power and Conflict question, the commentary below is relevant to any poetry anthology question.

As the commentary is arranged by assessment objective, a student-friendly mark scheme has been included here:

Model Answer Breakdown

The commentary for the below model answer as arranged by assessment objective: each paragraph has commentary for a different assessment objective, as follows:

• Introduction includes commentary on all the AOs

• Paragraph 1 includes commentary on AO1 (answering the question and selecting references)

• Paragraph 2 includes commentary on AO2 (analysing poets’ methods)

• Paragraph 3 includes commentary on AO3 (exploring contextual ideas)

• Conclusion includes commentary on all the AOs

The model answer answers the following question:

Level 6, full-mark answer: 

In London, William Blake is concerned with how human power can be used to control and oppress both people and the natural world, whereas Robert Browning in My Last Duchess presents power through the individual character of the Duke, who uses his position of authority to control women. Both poets perhaps do this to criticise inherited or institutional power over ordinary people.

Commentary:

• The introduction is in the form of a thesis statement

• It includes a central argument based on my own opinions

• It includes key words from the question:

  • "Blake is concerned with how human power can be used to control and oppress people…"

• It takes an integrated approach, referencing ideas in both poems:

  • "Whereas”; “Both"

• It acknowledges the two poets making deliberate choices and conveying a message

  •  "Both poets perhaps do this to criticise…

• "It includes modal language to show a conceptualised approach

Both William Blake and Robert Browning present the control institutions or powerful figures hold over women as leading to violence (either committed against, or by these women) to highlight the disastrous effects of female oppression in their respective societies. Both Blake and Browning hint at the destructive and violent consequences of the oppression of women through the use of (voiceless) female characters in their poems. While Blake’s “youthful harlot” takes out her desperation on her own “new-born infant” (a symbol of perfect innocence) by blasting it with curses, Browning implies a more direct violence against women through the sinister presentation of his persona, the Duke, who seems to wield ultimate control over his wife: the ability to take her life if he so chooses. Blake’s presentation of a seemingly immoral “harlot” presents readers with a moral dilemma: it is clear that her behaviour towards her infant is wrong, but - given the oppression and control the institutions of power have over her (and thus her limited freedom) - perhaps Blake is asking the reader to apportion blame instead to the systemic failures of a society that leads women to be in such desperate, impoverished, situations. Indeed, the fact that these “harlots” - young women forced into prostitution by an unsupportive state - are walking the “midnight streets” suggests that their plight is endless, that the oppression of people, and especially women, is round-the-clock. Browning also hints at the total and all-consuming nature of the oppression of women when he has his persona suggest that his “last” duchess suffered the ultimate price for disobeying his wishes: she paid with her life. With his implied power over life and death, Browning presents the Duke as having the arrogant and hubristic desire to have God’s power, but unlike God, man does not have the moral capacity to wield that much power. Like Blake, Browning is suggesting that when people assume too much power they end up controlling and mistreating those without power: here, powerful men oppressing women.

Commentary:

• Paragraph begins with a topic sentence

• Topic sentence directly addresses the question (answer always address the idea of “control”)

• Topic sentence has a narrower focus than the thesis statement (focus is on “women”)

• The whole paragraph is related to the topic sentence

• Paragraph includes multiple relevant references to both poems

• All references are linked to the question, and support the argument of my topic sentence

Both Blake and Browning use their poems as criticisms of inherited power: while Blake takes his aim at institutional power systems, including the monarchy, Browning suggests that the inherited wealth and prestige of the aristocracy leads to an abuse of power, and an attempt to control those who do not inherit power. Robert Browning in My Last Duchess inhabits the perspective of the landed classes in order to open a window into the aristocracy’s ideas about power and control. By choosing to write his poem in the form of a dramatic monologue, and with an invented persona in the form of a wealthy Duke, Browning is able to present the point of view he is criticising. Indeed, his use of the first-person point of view gives a vivid and direct sense of the power and control that the Duke wields: we do not get the perspective of his interlocutor, or his last wife’s side of the story, only the Duke’s words and his version of events. As such, Browning chooses to have the Duke command and control the conversation much like he commands and controls his personal fiefdom, and the people in it. Similarly, Blake presents those with inherited power as wielding control over those who don’t. His “palace walls” are covered in soldiers’ blood, suggesting that the monarchy is responsible for the deaths of those who serve it. Like the Duke’s power over his wife in My Last Duchess, Blake suggests the British monarchy has absolute control over those in their power: the power over their lives. Both poets are challenging - Browning indirectly via his persona, and Blake directly through his visceral imagery - the control inherited power has over the less fortunate in society.

Commentary:

• Analysis provides evidence for the points in the topic sentence (all evidence relates to inherited power and the control it has over others)

• Whole-text analysis of the poems (focus on overarching poetic choices like perspective)

• Not just analysis of the language, but also:

  • Imagery and symbolism

  • Perspective

  • Voice

  • The poets’ ideas

• All analysis explained fully in terms of the question and my own argument

• Analysis explained in terms of the poets’ overall message (“Both poets are challenging … inherited power…”)