How does the writer make any one of the following characters particularly memorable? Aunt Mary in Secrets (by Bernard MacLaverty) Mrs Croft in The Third and Final Continent (by Jhumpa Lahiri) Mother in On Her Knees (by Tim Winton) Remember to support your answer with details from your chosen story.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2010). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [25] What candidates find memorable will obviously differ, but more than straight character sketches are required.
2. [25] The key issue about Aunt Mary is that she is seen through the eyes of the child so she is something of a mystery and does not reveal very much of herself.
3. [25] Her story (of the lover lost to the Church because of his experiences in the Great War) emerges through the postcards and letters and her reaction to the boy's reading of them is violent, and perhaps surprising in the extent of her anger.
4. [25] It is very sad when, after her death, the boy's mother burns the letters.
5. [25] Mrs Croft is also seen through the eyes of another person and his first impressions are slightly grotesque.
6. [25] She is very ancient and speaks loudly and forthrightly and behaves eccentrically, and it eventually emerges that she is over one hundred.
7. [25] She understandably has a strange sense of time.
8. [25] A mutual respect builds between her and the narrator who comes to find her very admirable.
9. [25] Mother is perhaps memorable because she keeps her dignity despite being employed to do the most menial of tasks by people who consider her of no importance.
10. [25] Seen through the loving eyes of her son, she seems something of a heroine.
11. [25] Refer to the band descriptors in arriving at your mark.