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EnglandEnglish Literature

Shakespeare (Component 02, Section B)

5 dot points across 5 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you analyse character and theme in the OCR Shakespeare play?

Analysing how Shakespeare presents character and theme through dramatic method, tracing development across the play, and linking character and theme to Shakespeare's purpose and the play's ideas (AO1 and AO2).
How to analyse character and theme in the OCR GCSE Shakespeare play for Component 02 Section B: reading character as a dramatic construction, treating a theme as Shakespeare's argument, tracing development across the play, and supporting points with short memorised quotations analysed for method and effect (AO1 and AO2).
9 min answer →

How do you approach the OCR Shakespeare play and prepare for the closed-book extract question?

Reading a Shakespeare play for OCR Component 02 Section B: understanding the extract-plus-whole-play question and choice of two, building a memorised quotation bank, and preparing for closed-book conditions where AO4 is assessed (AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO4).
How to approach the OCR GCSE Shakespeare play for Component 02 Section B: understanding the extract-plus-whole-play question and the choice of two, building a flexible memorised quotation bank for closed-book conditions, and remembering that AO4 accuracy is assessed in this section (AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO4).
9 min answer →

How do you analyse Shakespeare's dramatic methods and language for AO2?

Analysing Shakespeare's dramatic methods and language for OCR Component 02 Section B: verse and prose, blank verse and the iambic line, soliloquy and aside, imagery, antithesis and dramatic irony, and reaching the effect on the audience (AO2).
How to analyse Shakespeare's dramatic methods and language for OCR GCSE Component 02 Section B: verse and prose, blank verse and the iambic line, soliloquy and aside, imagery, antithesis and dramatic irony, always reaching the effect on the audience for AO2.
9 min answer →

How do you use Elizabethan and Jacobean context in the OCR Shakespeare answer without writing a history essay?

Using relevant Elizabethan and Jacobean context to deepen analysis of the Shakespeare play, embedding period attitudes (kingship, the supernatural, gender, honour, religion) where they change the reading, and avoiding general biography (AO2 and AO3).
How to use Elizabethan and Jacobean context in the OCR GCSE Shakespeare answer for Component 02 Section B: weaving period attitudes to kingship, the supernatural, gender, honour and religion into analysis where they change the reading, and avoiding general biography that the question does not need (AO2 and AO3).
9 min answer →

How do you structure the OCR Shakespeare answer to cover the printed extract and the whole play?

Structuring the Component 02 Section B Shakespeare response: analysing the printed extract closely, then tracing the same idea across the whole play, managing timing and the AO4 accuracy mark (AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO4).
How to structure the OCR GCSE Component 02 Section B Shakespeare answer: analysing the printed extract closely, then tracing the same character, theme or idea across the whole play, with advice on timing, an idea-led structure, and the AO4 accuracy mark assessed on this question (AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO4).
9 min answer →