A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE B7717/1A
ACTUAL 2025 PAPER MERGED WITH
MARK SCHEMEPaper 1A Literary
genres: Aspects of tragedy
vincent marekia
[COMPANY NAME] [Company address]
, 1
A-level
ENGLISH LITERATURE B7717/1A
ACTUAL 2025 PAPER MERGED WITH
MARK SCHEME
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/Jun25/7717/1A
, 2
IB/G/Jun25/G4009/E2 7717/1A
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;
IB/G/Jun25/7717/1A
, 3
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,
And sing it like poor Barbary – prithee, dispatch.
EMILIA
Shall I go fetch your night-gown?
DESDEMONA No, unpin me here. This
Lodovico is a proper man.
EMILIA
A very handsome man.
DESDEMONA He speaks well.
EMILIA I know a lady in Venice would have walked bare- foot
to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.
DESDEMONA (sings)
The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow;
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow;
The fresh streams ran by her and murmured her moans;
Sing willow, willow, willow;
Her salt tears fell from her and softened the stones –
(She speaks) Lay by these.
(She sings)
Sing willow, willow, willow –
(She speaks)
Prithee hie thee; he’ll come anon.
(She sings)
Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve –
(She speaks)
Nay, that’s not next. Hark, who is’t that knocks? EMILIA
It’s the wind.
DESDEMONA (sings)
I called my love false love, but what said he then?
Sing willow, willow, willow:
If I court moe women, you’ll couch with moe men.
(She speaks)
So get thee gone; good night. Mine eyes do itch:
Does that bode weeping?
EMILIA ’Tis neither here nor there.
(Act 4, Scene 3)
Turn over for the next question
IB/G/Jun25/7717/1A
ACTUAL 2025 PAPER MERGED WITH
MARK SCHEMEPaper 1A Literary
genres: Aspects of tragedy
vincent marekia
[COMPANY NAME] [Company address]
, 1
A-level
ENGLISH LITERATURE B7717/1A
ACTUAL 2025 PAPER MERGED WITH
MARK SCHEME
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/Jun25/7717/1A
, 2
IB/G/Jun25/G4009/E2 7717/1A
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;
IB/G/Jun25/7717/1A
, 3
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,
And sing it like poor Barbary – prithee, dispatch.
EMILIA
Shall I go fetch your night-gown?
DESDEMONA No, unpin me here. This
Lodovico is a proper man.
EMILIA
A very handsome man.
DESDEMONA He speaks well.
EMILIA I know a lady in Venice would have walked bare- foot
to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.
DESDEMONA (sings)
The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow;
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow;
The fresh streams ran by her and murmured her moans;
Sing willow, willow, willow;
Her salt tears fell from her and softened the stones –
(She speaks) Lay by these.
(She sings)
Sing willow, willow, willow –
(She speaks)
Prithee hie thee; he’ll come anon.
(She sings)
Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve –
(She speaks)
Nay, that’s not next. Hark, who is’t that knocks? EMILIA
It’s the wind.
DESDEMONA (sings)
I called my love false love, but what said he then?
Sing willow, willow, willow:
If I court moe women, you’ll couch with moe men.
(She speaks)
So get thee gone; good night. Mine eyes do itch:
Does that bode weeping?
EMILIA ’Tis neither here nor there.
(Act 4, Scene 3)
Turn over for the next question
IB/G/Jun25/7717/1A
