Oxford Cambridge and RSA
May 2026 – Morning
AS Level English Language and Literature (EMC)
H074/02 The language of literary texts
Time allowed: 1 hour 30 minutes
You must have:
• the OCR 12‑page Answer Booklet
INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to each question in the Answer Booklet. The question numbers must be
clearly shown.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• Answer one question in Section A and one in Section B.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 50.
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ].
• This document has 24 pages.
ADVICE
• Read each question carefully before you start your answer.
OCR AS Level English Language and Literature (EMC) The
language of literary texts (H074/02) Question Paper And Mark Scheme
, 2
Section A
The language of prose
Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre
F Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby Chinua
Achebe: Things Fall Apart Arundhati Roy:
The God of Small Things Ian McEwan:
Atonement
Jhumpa Lahiri: The Namesake
Answer one question from this section on your chosen prose text. You should
spend about 45 minutes on this section.
1 Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre
Write about the ways in which Charlotte Brontë tells the story in this extract. In
your answer you should:
• explore the narrative techniques used in the extract
• consider the extract in the context of the novel as a whole and its genre. [25]
I hardly know whether I had slept or not after this musing; at any rate, I started wide awake on hearing a
vague murmur, peculiar and lugubrious, which sounded, I thought, just above me. I wished I had kept my
candle burning: the night was drearily dark; my spirits were depressed. I rose and sat up in bed, listening. The
sound was hushed.
I tried again to sleep; but my heart beat anxiously: my inward tranquillity was broken. The clock, far
down in the hall, struck two. Just then it seemed my chamber‑door was touched; as if fingers had swept the
panels in groping a way along the dark gallery outside. I said, ‘Who is there?’ Nothing answered. I was chilled
with fear.
All at once I remembered that it might be Pilot, who, when the kitchen‑door chanced to be left open, not
unfrequently found his way up to the threshold of Mr Rochester’s chamber: I had seen him lying there myself
in the mornings. The idea calmed me somewhat: I lay down. Silence composes the nerves; and as an unbroken
hush now reigned again through the whole house, I began to feel the return of slumber. But it was not fated
that I should sleep that night. A dream had scarcely approached my ear, when it fled affrighted, scared by a
marrow‑freezing incident enough.
This was a demoniac laugh – low, suppressed, and deep – uttered, as it seemed, at the very keyhole of my
chamber door. The head of my bed was near the door, and I thought at first the goblin‑laugher stood at my bedside
– or rather, crouched by my pillow: but I rose, looked round, and could see nothing; while, as I still gazed, the
unnatural sound was reiterated: and I knew it came from behind the panels. My first impulse was to rise and
fasten the bolt; my next, again to cry out, ‘Who is there?’
Something gurgled and moaned. Ere long, steps retreated up the gallery towards the third‑storey staircase:
a door had lately been made to shut in that staircase; I heard it open and close, and all was still.
‘Was that Grace Poole? and is she possessed with a devil?’ thought I. Impossible now to remain longer
by myself: I must go to Mrs Fairfax. I hurried on my frock and a shawl; I withdrew the bolt and opened the
door with a trembling hand. There was a candle burning just outside, and on the matting in the gallery. I was
surprised at this circumstance: but still more was I amazed to perceive the air quite dim, as if filled with
© OCR 2025 H074/02 Jun25
, 3
smoke; and, while looking to the right hand and left, to find whence these blue wreaths issued, I became
further aware of a strong smell of burning.
© OCR 2025 H074/02 Jun25 Turn over
, 4
Something creaked: it was a door ajar; and that door was Mr Rochester’s, and the smoke rushed in a
cloud from thence. I thought no more of Mrs Fairfax; I thought no more of Grace Poole, or the laugh: in an
instant, I was within the chamber. Tongues of flame darted round the bed: the curtains were on fire. In the
midst of blaze and vapour, Mr Rochester lay stretched motionless, in deep sleep.
‘Wake! wake!’ I cried. I shook him, but he only murmured and turned: the smoke had stupefied him. Not
a moment could be lost: the very sheets were kindling, I rushed to his basin and ewer; fortunately, one was
wide and the other deep, and both were filled with water. I heaved them up, deluged the bed and its occupant,
flew back to my own room, brought my own water‑jug, baptized the couch afresh, and, by God’s aid, succeeded
in extinguishing the flames which were devouring it.
© OCR 2025 H074/02 Jun25
May 2026 – Morning
AS Level English Language and Literature (EMC)
H074/02 The language of literary texts
Time allowed: 1 hour 30 minutes
You must have:
• the OCR 12‑page Answer Booklet
INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to each question in the Answer Booklet. The question numbers must be
clearly shown.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• Answer one question in Section A and one in Section B.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 50.
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ].
• This document has 24 pages.
ADVICE
• Read each question carefully before you start your answer.
OCR AS Level English Language and Literature (EMC) The
language of literary texts (H074/02) Question Paper And Mark Scheme
, 2
Section A
The language of prose
Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre
F Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby Chinua
Achebe: Things Fall Apart Arundhati Roy:
The God of Small Things Ian McEwan:
Atonement
Jhumpa Lahiri: The Namesake
Answer one question from this section on your chosen prose text. You should
spend about 45 minutes on this section.
1 Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre
Write about the ways in which Charlotte Brontë tells the story in this extract. In
your answer you should:
• explore the narrative techniques used in the extract
• consider the extract in the context of the novel as a whole and its genre. [25]
I hardly know whether I had slept or not after this musing; at any rate, I started wide awake on hearing a
vague murmur, peculiar and lugubrious, which sounded, I thought, just above me. I wished I had kept my
candle burning: the night was drearily dark; my spirits were depressed. I rose and sat up in bed, listening. The
sound was hushed.
I tried again to sleep; but my heart beat anxiously: my inward tranquillity was broken. The clock, far
down in the hall, struck two. Just then it seemed my chamber‑door was touched; as if fingers had swept the
panels in groping a way along the dark gallery outside. I said, ‘Who is there?’ Nothing answered. I was chilled
with fear.
All at once I remembered that it might be Pilot, who, when the kitchen‑door chanced to be left open, not
unfrequently found his way up to the threshold of Mr Rochester’s chamber: I had seen him lying there myself
in the mornings. The idea calmed me somewhat: I lay down. Silence composes the nerves; and as an unbroken
hush now reigned again through the whole house, I began to feel the return of slumber. But it was not fated
that I should sleep that night. A dream had scarcely approached my ear, when it fled affrighted, scared by a
marrow‑freezing incident enough.
This was a demoniac laugh – low, suppressed, and deep – uttered, as it seemed, at the very keyhole of my
chamber door. The head of my bed was near the door, and I thought at first the goblin‑laugher stood at my bedside
– or rather, crouched by my pillow: but I rose, looked round, and could see nothing; while, as I still gazed, the
unnatural sound was reiterated: and I knew it came from behind the panels. My first impulse was to rise and
fasten the bolt; my next, again to cry out, ‘Who is there?’
Something gurgled and moaned. Ere long, steps retreated up the gallery towards the third‑storey staircase:
a door had lately been made to shut in that staircase; I heard it open and close, and all was still.
‘Was that Grace Poole? and is she possessed with a devil?’ thought I. Impossible now to remain longer
by myself: I must go to Mrs Fairfax. I hurried on my frock and a shawl; I withdrew the bolt and opened the
door with a trembling hand. There was a candle burning just outside, and on the matting in the gallery. I was
surprised at this circumstance: but still more was I amazed to perceive the air quite dim, as if filled with
© OCR 2025 H074/02 Jun25
, 3
smoke; and, while looking to the right hand and left, to find whence these blue wreaths issued, I became
further aware of a strong smell of burning.
© OCR 2025 H074/02 Jun25 Turn over
, 4
Something creaked: it was a door ajar; and that door was Mr Rochester’s, and the smoke rushed in a
cloud from thence. I thought no more of Mrs Fairfax; I thought no more of Grace Poole, or the laugh: in an
instant, I was within the chamber. Tongues of flame darted round the bed: the curtains were on fire. In the
midst of blaze and vapour, Mr Rochester lay stretched motionless, in deep sleep.
‘Wake! wake!’ I cried. I shook him, but he only murmured and turned: the smoke had stupefied him. Not
a moment could be lost: the very sheets were kindling, I rushed to his basin and ewer; fortunately, one was
wide and the other deep, and both were filled with water. I heaved them up, deluged the bed and its occupant,
flew back to my own room, brought my own water‑jug, baptized the couch afresh, and, by God’s aid, succeeded
in extinguishing the flames which were devouring it.
© OCR 2025 H074/02 Jun25
