CCEA A2 1 Shakespearean Genres overview quiz quiz

One hour

One hour thirty minutes

Two hours

Three hours

Only AO1 and AO2

Only AO4 and AO5

All five (AO1 to AO5), with a strong AO5 demand

Only AO3

To name the genre once and then summarise the plot

To avoid mentioning genre at all in the essay

To compare the play with a play from a different genre

To apply the genre's conventions to specific moments and test how far the play fits

Resolution in marriage and festivity

Disguise and mistaken identity for comic effect

A happy reconciliation of all the characters

A high-status hero brought down by a flaw (hamartia)

Catharsis following the hero's death

Nemesis punishing the protagonist's hubris

Confusion, disguise and resolution in marriage

A reversal of fortune ending in catastrophe

Because it gives the audience privileged access to a character's reasoning

Because it is always the longest speech in the play

Because it removes the need to quote from the play

Because it only ever appears in comedies

When a character speaks entirely in prose rather than verse

When two characters share the same name

When the play has a sad ending despite being a comedy

When the audience knows more than a character on stage

Ignore the view and write a prepared character study

Agree with the view immediately and move on

Engage the view, test it against the play, weigh an alternative, and judge

Reject the view in the first line without evidence

Using genre conventions to analyse specific moments

Engaging a given critical view and weighing alternatives

Naming the genre, listing its features, and retelling the plot

Analysing soliloquy and dramatic irony closely

As period ideas such as order, kingship or providence that change the reading

As a complete biography of Shakespeare placed first

As a list of the dates of all his plays

As background that is mentioned but never linked to the text

20 percent of the full A-level

16 percent of the full A-level

24 percent of the full A-level

60 percent of the full A-level

Because Shakespeare's plays never fit any genre at all

Because Shakespeare's plays often strain their genre, and the tension is meaningful

Because finding friction lets you avoid analysing method

Because the examiner forbids calling a play a tragedy or comedy

Because the exam is open book and quotation is optional

Because the exam is closed book and close analysis needs exact wording

Because the examiner penalises quotation from soliloquies

Because the play is not named until the exam

Listing as many critics' names as possible

A method-led personal argument that weighs interpretations to a judgement

Summarising the plot from several characters' viewpoints

Writing the longest possible answer regardless of focus