The Ascent: Building Depth in Stages
- To develop a truly analytical understanding of your Paper 2 texts, you'll need to move through a structured, multi-layered process.
- Below is a guide to help you ascend from basic comprehension to advanced comparative insight.
How This Works
- The questions you’ll encounter are open-ended prompts, they are designed to guide your thinking, not produce ‘correct’ answers.
- These are not checklist questions. They're starting points for inquiry and reflection.
- To respond meaningfully, expect to:
- Read and re-read key sections of your texts
- Search for relevant quotations that support nuanced analysis
- Use trusted resources like LitCharts, SparkNotes, or class notes
- Use ChatGPT as a brainstorming assistant, but fact-check independently
Time and Effort
- Some prompts may take up to 30 minutes, this is normal. Deeper insights take time to uncover and verify.
- Spread the work across a week or more. You're constructing what we might call a Pyramid of Literary Insight, and pyramids aren’t built overnight.
- If you're cramming, you may need to compress this process, but understand that depth takes time.
Order Matters
- You should work through Levels 1 to 4 in sequence.
- Each level builds on the last, from foundational understanding to sophisticated intertextual comparison.
Level 1: Essential Knowledge-Gathering Tasks
- This stage is about building a solid foundation of understanding across four key areas: themes, characters, techniques, and context.
- Use the prompts below to explore each text deeply and analytically.
1. Themes
- Identify at least three central themes in each of your texts.
- Can you also identify two subtler or overlooked themes?
- Trace the development of each theme across the text: How is it introduced, complicated, or resolved?
- Map the theme’s trajectory:
- Chapter 3: Zara hides her identity (theme: repression)
- Chapter 7: Repression spreads through the town
- Chapter 11: Zara embraces her truth despite the cost
- By the final chapter, what message or conclusion does the writer present about this theme?
- Select a layered quote for each theme that uses at least two techniques.
2. Characters
- Name the three most significant characters in each text.
- Identify two secondary characters whose roles are meaningful thematically or structurally.
- When are they introduced and how are they initially presented?
- Outline the character arc for each: What changes do they undergo? What causes that change?
- Example: A quiet caretaker is slowly pushed to violence through injustice.
- Choose a defining quote for each character, preferably rich in language and technique.
3. Techniques
- Note three prominent literary or stylistic techniques used in each text.
- Identify two less conventional techniques (e.g., unreliable narration, interrupted syntax, framing devices).
- For each technique, choose one well-crafted quote that offers depth of analysis.
Example
- Repetition to create rhythm or reinforce emotional states
- Symbolism used to elevate a mundane object into a motif
- Juxtaposition between characters to highlight ideological conflict
4. Context
- When was the text published?
- List five key biographical or cultural details about the author that inform their writing.
- Define the genre or subgenre (e.g., political allegory, modern tragedy, coming-of-age memoir).
- Research the historical, political, or social influences that shaped the text’s concerns or structure.
- Example: Economic collapse influencing themes of survival and moral ambiguity
- Consider how context interacts with each element of the work: What pressures or norms is the text responding to?
Note
- Choose quotes with analytical potential, lines that contain:
- Strong diction or tone
- A device like metaphor, contrast, or symbolism
- Emotional or thematic resonance
- Poor example: “She looked outside the window.”
- Strong example: “She stared past the cracked window, at a sky that refused to change.”
Level 2: Building Contextual Understanding
- This stage requires deeper research.
- You’ll need to explore how historical, social, and cultural contexts have shaped your texts and support your ideas with well-chosen evidence.
1. Context and Themes
- How does the context influence the key themes in each text?
- Refer back to your Level 1 notes to review the main themes.
- Can you identify a strong quote from each text that shows how context shapes or deepens a particular theme?
2. Context and Characters
- How has context influenced the way characters are created and portrayed?
- Use your character notes from Level 1 as a starting point.
- Can you find a quote for each major character that highlights how context affects their development, behaviour, or significance?
3. Context and Techniques
- How does context shape the author’s use of literary or stylistic techniques?
- Revisit your Level 1 technique notes.
- Can you find a quote from each text that demonstrates how context affects the use or effect of a particular technique?
Tip
- When researching context, don’t just look at the time period, consider the author’s personal background, the cultural climate, political tensions, and any relevant social movements.
- The most convincing arguments often connect specific textual details to big-picture historical forces.
Level 3: Deep Comparative Analysis
- At this stage, your goal is to develop fully integrated, comparative insights across characters, themes, and techniques
- This should be supported by detailed textual evidence and thoughtful analysis.
1. Linking Characters and Themes
- For each key character, identify two central themes that the character is actively involved in.
- The character should play a meaningful role in shaping or reflecting the theme.
Example
- In A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen uses the character of Nora to explore the themes of individual freedom and gender roles.
- Nora’s gradual awakening and eventual decision to leave her husband highlight the oppressive expectations placed on women in 19th-century society.
Self review
- Task:
- Choose a quote that best demonstrates the connection between the character and each theme.
- Write one paragraph of analysis for each quote, explaining how the character reveals or complicates the theme. This will help you prepare comparative points for Paper 2.
2. Linking Characters and Techniques
- For each character, identify two techniques the writer uses to portray or develop them.
- Consider methods like dialogue, symbolism, dramatic structure, contrast, or stage directions.
Example
In A Doll’s House, Ibsen uses symbolism (the tarantella dance) and stage directions (Nora’s frantic movements and later calm resolve) to reflect her emotional state and internal transformation.
Self review
- Task:
- Find a quote that clearly illustrates each technique-character connection.
- Write one paragraph of analysis per quote, showing how the technique shapes our understanding of the character.
3. Linking Themes and Techniques
- For each major theme, identify two techniques used by the writer to explore or reinforce it.
- Consider how language, dramatic irony, contrast, staging, or recurring motifs contribute to the development of the theme.
Example
- The theme of power and control in A Doll’s House is developed through dramatic irony and dialogue.
- Torvald’s patronizing language reveals how little power Nora truly holds, even as she pretends to conform to his expectations which the audience begins to see through long before he does.
Self review
- Task:
- Select a quote that exemplifies each theme-technique pairing.
- Write a paragraph of analysis explaining how the technique deepens the audience’s understanding of the theme.
Tip
- Make sure your analysis explains why the technique matters.
- Don’t just name it, explore how it influences audience interpretation, contributes to meaning, or reflects broader social and historical contexts.
- This depth of insight is what earns top marks in Paper 2.
Level 4: Final Comparative Mastery
- This final stage is about drawing sharp, comparative insights across both texts, focusing on how authors craft meaning through themes, characters, techniques, and context.
- You’ll need to be precise, perceptive, and persuasive in your analysis.
1. Themes Across Texts
- Identify three pairs of similar themes, with each pair drawn from different texts.
- For each pair:
- Explain why the themes are comparable, what shared concerns, questions, or critiques do they raise?
- Then, explore how these themes diverge in their treatment. What’s nuanced or unique about each writer’s approach?
Example
In A Doll’s House and The Handmaid’s Tale, both texts explore gender roles and female agency, but while Ibsen critiques 19th-century domestic expectations through Nora’s gradual awakening, Atwood presents a dystopian exaggeration of patriarchal control that strips women of agency almost entirely.
2. Character Comparison
Similar Characters
Self review
- Identify two pairs of similar characters, with each character coming from a different text.
- For each pair:
- Choose one quote per character that shows a key similarity (e.g. their moral ambiguity, ignorance, or resistance).
- Answer the following:
- What contextual influences shaped each character’s portrayal?
- Which themes do these characters help develop? (Refer to your Level 2 notes.)
- What techniques are used to construct them?
Example
- Nora (A Doll’s House) and Offred (The Handmaid’s Tale) both begin as women trapped by oppressive gender structures.
- Each eventually confronts her powerlessness, though their paths diverge, both characters illuminate the tension between compliance and resistance.
Contrasting Characters
Self review
- Identify two pairs of highly contrasting characters, again from different texts.
- For each pair:
- Choose one quote per character that highlights their differences (e.g. optimism vs cynicism, morality vs manipulation).
- Use the same prompts as above:
- How does context shape these differences?
- What themes do they embody?
- What techniques are used to portray them?
Example
Torvald (A Doll’s House) and Aunt Lydia (The Handmaid’s Tale) differ sharply: Torvald is well-meaning but patronising, upholding gender roles unconsciously, while Aunt Lydia is fully complicit and consciously manipulative, using religion to justify oppression.
3. Shared Techniques and Their Functions
Self review
- Identify three major techniques used significantly in both texts. Think about techniques the writers return to repeatedly (e.g. symbolism, irony, dialogue, narrative voice).
- For each technique, answer:
- Which themes does it help develop in each text? Are those themes similar or different?
- Which characters are shaped by this technique in each text? Are they similar or different?
- Why might both writers have chosen to use this technique?
- Is it genre-related?
- Or is it because both texts deal with similar messages or conflicts?
Example
- Both Atwood and Ibsen use irony to critique power structures
- Atwood through Offred’s dry internal monologue, and Ibsen through Torvald’s obliviousness to Nora’s independence.
- In both cases, irony reveals the gap between appearance and reality, especially in male-dominated environments.
4. Contextual Parallels and Contrasts
Similarities in Context
Self review
- Identify at least two significant similarities in the authors' contexts.
- Examples: Both were writing in response to restrictive gender norms; both were influenced by rising political tensions; both aimed to provoke societal reflection.
Example
- Atwood and Ibsen both write in response to patriarchal societies
- Atwood in the aftermath of the feminist movement, and Ibsen during a time when women were legally subordinate in marriage.
Differences in Context
- Highlight the differences in historical or ideological background.
- Examples: One author critiques religious authoritarianism, the other critiques bourgeois domestic values. One focuses on dystopian speculation; the other on realistic drama.
Example
Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was written in 19th-century Norway amid growing debates about women’s legal rights, while Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale emerged from fears of conservative backlash in 1980s America, particularly against second-wave feminism.
Tip
- High-scoring Paper 2 essays don’t just compare, they analyze the reasons behind the differences and similarities.
- Always ask yourself: What do these choices reveal about the authors’ aims, values, and contexts?
