O-LevelLiterature in EnglishDrama2010/22 · May/June 2015 · Q525 Marks
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: The Merchant of Venice Remember to support your ideas with details from the text. Read this passage, and then answer the question that follows it: Portia: I pray you tarry; pause a day or two Before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong, I lose your company; therefore forbear awhile. There's something tells me but it is not love I would not lose you; and I know you yourself Hate counsels not in such a quality. But lest you should not understand me well – And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought – I would detain you here some month or two Before you venture for me. I could teach you How to choose right, but then I am forsworn; So will I never be; so may you miss me; But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin, That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes! They have o'erlook'd me and divided me; One half of me is yours, the other half yours – Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, And so all yours. O! these naughty times Puts bars between the owners and their rights; And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so, Let fortune go to hell for it, not I. I speak too long, but 'tis to peize the time, To eke it, and to draw it out in length, To stay you from election. Bassanio: Let me choose; For as I am, I live upon the rack. Portia: Upon the rack, Bassanio? Then confess What treason there is mingled with your love. Bassanio: None but that ugly treason of mistrust, Which makes me fear th' enjoying of my love; There may as well be amity and life 'Tween snow and fire as treason and my love. Portia: Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack, Where men enforced do speak anything. Bassanio: Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth. Portia: Well then, confess and live. Bassanio: 'Confess' and 'love' Had been the very sum of my confession. O happy torment, when my torturer Doth teach me answers for deliverance! But let me to my fortune and the caskets. [from Act 3 Scene 2]
- How does Shakespeare make this such a memorably dramatic moment in the play?[25]
Mark scheme
Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2015). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.
- [23-25] Band 1: Answers in this band have all the qualities of Band 2 work, with further insight, sensitivity, individuality and flair. They show sustained engagement with both text and task.
- [20-22] Band 2: Sustains a perceptive, convincing and relevant personal response. Shows a clear critical understanding of the text. Responds sensitively and in detail to the way the writer achieves her/his effects. Integrates much well-selected reference to the text.
- [17-19] Band 3: Makes a well-developed, detailed and relevant personal response. Shows a clear understanding of the text and some of its deeper implications. Makes a developed response to the way the writer achieves her/his effects. Supports with careful and relevant reference to the text.
- [14-16] Band 4: Makes a reasonably developed relevant personal response. Shows understanding of the text and some of its deeper implications. Makes some response to the way the writer uses language. Shows some thoroughness in the use of supporting evidence from the text.
- [11-13] Band 5: Begins to develop a relevant personal response. Shows some understanding of meaning. Makes a little reference to the language of the text. Uses some supporting textual detail.
- [8-10] Band 6: Attempts to communicate a basic personal response to the task. Makes some relevant comments. Shows a basic understanding of surface meaning of the text. Makes a little supporting reference to the text.
- [5-7] Band 7: Some evidence of simple personal response. Makes a few straightforward comments. Shows a few signs of understanding the surface meaning of the text. Makes a little reference to the text.
- [2-4] Band 8: Limited attempt to respond. Shows some limited understanding of simple/literal meaning.
- [0-1] Below Band 8: No answer / Insufficient to meet the criteria for Band 8.
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