Writer's methods — Pride and Prejudice — Edexcel GCSE English Literature 1ET0
Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
Writer's methods
Writer's methods
What you need to know
How Austen's form, structure and language create meaning: the ironic narrator and free indirect style, dialogue that reveals character,
letters as turning points, a structure built round two proposals, and contrasts between characters and between marriages.
The ironic narrator: the opening's 'truth universally acknowledged', and verdicts on characters such as Mrs Bennet's 'mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper'.
Free indirect style: the narration taking on a character's thoughts, as in Charlotte's reasoning that 'still he would be her husband'.
Dialogue that reveals character: Mrs Bennet's exclamations, Mr Bennet's irony, Mr Collins's pompous speeches and Lady Catherine's commands.
Letters as turning points, especially Darcy's letter, and a structure built round two proposals that mirror each other.
Foils and contrasts: Jane and Elizabeth, Darcy and Wickham, Bingley and Darcy, and Charlotte's marriage set against Elizabeth's.
Edexcel's novel question has two parts, and neither marks context: part (a) on the printed extract marks language, form and structure (AO2); part (b) on the novel elsewhere, from memory, marks the argument and its references (AO1), not language analysis. Use context only where it explains a reading, and say which part each worked paragraph and exam tip is for.
