Writer's methods — Pride and Prejudice — OCR GCSE English Literature J352
OCR GCSE English Literature · J352
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.
OCR's question on this novel is one essay, from a choice of two, for 40 marks: an extract-based question on the printed extract and the novel elsewhere, or a discursive question on a view of the novel, using at least two moments. Response (AO1) and language, form and structure (AO2) carry the most weight and equal weight, context (AO3) counts when it is relevant to the question, and 4 marks are for vocabulary, sentence structures, spelling and punctuation (AO4). An extract-based answer that never leaves the extract, or a discursive answer built on one moment, cannot go above Level 3. Each worked paragraph and exam tip is labelled with the question it is for.
