Writer's methods — The Merchant of Venice — Eduqas GCSE English Literature C720
Eduqas GCSE English Literature · C720
Writer's methods
Writer's methods
What you need to know
How Shakespeare's form, structure and language create meaning: comedy and its tragic figure, the contrast of Venice and Belmont, verse and prose,
the caskets and rings as tests, disguise, the trial as drama, imagery of money, flesh and animals, and the speeches on mercy and on being a Jew.
Comedy and its tragic figure: the double plot of Venice and Belmont, the marriages and music of the ending, and Shylock's absence from it.
Blank verse, prose and rhyme: the rhyming scrolls in the caskets, Launcelot's comic prose, and Shylock's prose in Act 3 Scene 1 against his verse at the trial.
Imagery of money, flesh, animals and light, the caskets and rings as symbols and tests, dramatic irony in the disguises, and the set speeches on mercy and on being a Jew.
Eduqas's Shakespeare questions don't mark context: the extract question (15 marks) and the whole-play essay (20 marks, plus 5 for spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and sentence structures) both mark response and analysis of language, form and structure (AO1 and AO2). Use context only in a phrase that supports an interpretation, and say which question each worked paragraph practises.
