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GCSE English Literature · key term
Steadfastness, loyalty and self-control, especially under pressure.
Used by AQA and OCR
Paper 1
Firmness of purpose, loyalty and self-control, especially under pressure.
Revise: Act 2She also reveals that she has tested her endurance by ‘Giving myself a voluntary wound / Here, in the thigh’. She presents her ability to bear pain as proof that she can bear a secret. This reflects ideals of Roman constancy and assumptions that strength belongs especially to men.
Use context to explain a particular moment, such as Brutus's reference to Rome's rejection of kings or Portia's appeal to masculine ideals of constancy.
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Self-control and endurance, especially under emotional pressure; in Julius Caesar, characters often treat these qualities as signs of Roman honour.
Paper 2
Faithfulness or dependability that continues over time.
Revise: Love and Friendship‘Bright Star’ offers a useful contrast in attitudes to constancy. Keats’s speaker wishes to be ‘still stedfast, still unchangeable,’ in line 9, seeking permanence within romantic love. Brontë’s speaker instead associates dependable endurance with friendship.
