AQA A-LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE B Paper 1A Literary genres: Aspects of tragedy QP MAY 2025
A-level
ENGLISH LITERATURE B
Paper 1A Literary genres: Aspects of tragedy
Wednesday 14 May 2025 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30
minutes
Materials
For this paper you must have:
an AQA 12-page answer book.
Instructions
Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is
7717/1A.
Answer one question from Section A, one question from Section B and one
question from Section C.
You may answer on the same Shakespeare play in Sections A and B.
For Section C, you must write about one drama text and one further text, one of
which must be written pre-1900.
Do all rough work in your answer book. Cross through any work you do not want to be
marked.
Information
The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
The maximum mark for this paper is 75.
You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
In your response you need to:
– analyse carefully the writers’ methods
– explore the contexts of the texts you are writing about
– explore connections across the texts you have studied
– explore different interpretations of your texts.
IB/G/Jun25/G4009/
7717/1A
E2
, 2
Section A
Answer one question in this section.
Either
0 1 Othello – William Shakespeare
Read the extract below and then answer the question.
Explore the significance of this extract in relation to the tragedy of the play as a
whole.
Remember to include in your answer relevant analysis of Shakespeare’s
dramatic methods.
[25 marks]
Exeunt Othello, Lodovico, and attendants
EMILIA
How goes it now? He looks gentler than he did.
DESDEMONA
He says he will return incontinent.
He hath commanded me to go to bed,
And bade me to dismiss you.
EMILIA Dismiss me?
DESDEMONA
It was his bidding: therefore, good
Emilia, Give me my nightly wearing,
and adieu. We must not now
displease him.
EMILIA
I would you had never seen him.
DESDEMONA
So would not I: my love doth so approve him
That even his stubbornness, his cheeks, his
frowns – Prithee, unpin me – have grace and
favour in them.
EMILIA
I have laid those sheets, you bade me, on the bed.
DESDEMONA
All’s one. Good faith, how foolish are our
minds! If I do die before thee, prithee
shroud me
In one of those same sheets.
EMILIA Come, come, you talk.
DESDEMONA
My mother had a maid called Barbary:
She was in love: and he she loved proved
mad And did forsake her. She had a
song of willow; An old thing ’twas; but it
expressed her fortune, And she died
singing it. That song tonight
Will not go from my mind: I have much to
do But to go hang my head all at one
side,
IB/G/
Jun25/7717/1A
A-level
ENGLISH LITERATURE B
Paper 1A Literary genres: Aspects of tragedy
Wednesday 14 May 2025 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30
minutes
Materials
For this paper you must have:
an AQA 12-page answer book.
Instructions
Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is
7717/1A.
Answer one question from Section A, one question from Section B and one
question from Section C.
You may answer on the same Shakespeare play in Sections A and B.
For Section C, you must write about one drama text and one further text, one of
which must be written pre-1900.
Do all rough work in your answer book. Cross through any work you do not want to be
marked.
Information
The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
The maximum mark for this paper is 75.
You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
In your response you need to:
– analyse carefully the writers’ methods
– explore the contexts of the texts you are writing about
– explore connections across the texts you have studied
– explore different interpretations of your texts.
IB/G/Jun25/G4009/
7717/1A
E2
, 2
Section A
Answer one question in this section.
Either
0 1 Othello – William Shakespeare
Read the extract below and then answer the question.
Explore the significance of this extract in relation to the tragedy of the play as a
whole.
Remember to include in your answer relevant analysis of Shakespeare’s
dramatic methods.
[25 marks]
Exeunt Othello, Lodovico, and attendants
EMILIA
How goes it now? He looks gentler than he did.
DESDEMONA
He says he will return incontinent.
He hath commanded me to go to bed,
And bade me to dismiss you.
EMILIA Dismiss me?
DESDEMONA
It was his bidding: therefore, good
Emilia, Give me my nightly wearing,
and adieu. We must not now
displease him.
EMILIA
I would you had never seen him.
DESDEMONA
So would not I: my love doth so approve him
That even his stubbornness, his cheeks, his
frowns – Prithee, unpin me – have grace and
favour in them.
EMILIA
I have laid those sheets, you bade me, on the bed.
DESDEMONA
All’s one. Good faith, how foolish are our
minds! If I do die before thee, prithee
shroud me
In one of those same sheets.
EMILIA Come, come, you talk.
DESDEMONA
My mother had a maid called Barbary:
She was in love: and he she loved proved
mad And did forsake her. She had a
song of willow; An old thing ’twas; but it
expressed her fortune, And she died
singing it. That song tonight
Will not go from my mind: I have much to
do But to go hang my head all at one
side,
IB/G/
Jun25/7717/1A
