Dogberry and the watch — OCR GCSE English Literature J352
OCR GCSE English Literature · J352
Dogberry and the watch
Characters
What you need to know
How Shakespeare presents Dogberry and the watch, and how the character develops across the text: the self-important constable whose muddled words nearly hide the truth his men uncover.
The key quotations for this character and how to analyse them, with the context that shapes them.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: 'You are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch', 'you shall comprehend all vagrom men', 'they that touch pitch will be defiled', 'our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two aspicious persons', 'we are the poor duke's officers', 'Is our whole dissembly appeared?', 'thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this', 'I am a wise fellow, and, which is more, an officer, and, which is more, a householder', 'remember that I am an ass', 'they have committed false report'.
Structure: the fools who misunderstand everything uncover the truth, and their comedy tells the audience that Hero will be saved.
Context: malapropisms, the Elizabethan watch, whose incompetence was a stock joke on the stage, and the part first played by the comic actor Will Kemp.
OCR's question on this play is one essay, from a choice of two, for 40 marks: an extract-based question on the printed extract and the play elsewhere, or a discursive question on a view of the play, using at least two moments. Response (AO1) and language, form and structure (AO2) carry the most weight and equal weight, context (AO3) counts as the play shows it, 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.
