!! English 2016 Higher Level Paper 2 - Discussion / aftermath

Leavingcert16

What exactly does the redemptive power of love actually mean i'm pretty sure I know what it means but I just want to make sure

Johno2474

Leavingcert16 wrote:

What exactly does the redemptive power of love actually mean i'm pretty sure I know what it means but I just want to make sure

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think it means like how love is restored/saved in the text king lear

Leavingcert16

Johno2474 wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think it means like how love is restored/saved in the text king lear

Yeah that is what I wrote about I was just making sure thank you

randylonghorn

Leavingcert16 wrote: »

What exactly does the redemptive power of love actually mean i'm pretty sure I know what it means but I just want to make sure

That love has the power to redeem / heal / make right.

In Lear, Cordelia's love is the redemptive force which saves the king from insanity, and at one point in the play it seems that we will yet have a happy ending ... where all will "live /And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh".

There is a double-edge to this sword though ... Cordelia dies despite her goodness and integrity, underlining the moral that hubris in any man will be punished, and the more severely in a king.

And so Lear is left to cry: "Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men /of stones!"

DublinArnie

randylonghorn wrote: »

That love has the power to redeem / heal / make right.

In Lear, Cordelia's love is the redemptive force which saves the king from insanity, and at one point in the play it seems that we will yet have a happy ending ... where all will "live /And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh".

There is a double-edge to this sword though ... Cordelia dies despite her goodness and integrity, underlining the moral that hubris in any man will be punished, and the more severely in a king.

And so Lear is left to cry: "Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men /of stones!"

Puts my mind to rest knowing I wrote something along those lines.

daveytheravey

Just want to make sure i am alone. i did the first lear question and i ended completely disagreeing with the statement. I was kinda mean and i suggested it was Lear and Gloucester's fault for causing and they don't deserve much sympathy as people think. Am i completely alone?

daveytheravey

Also for Durcan did anyone else compare his social problems (wife who smashed tv, family failure, ireland 2002) and then his emotive personal issues (nessa, difficulty that is marriage, internal struggle etc etc?) I did every second poem so IMO flowed nicely?

randylonghorn

I just wanted to ask you could you write about how Cordelia redeemed the character of lear through the love she had for him Thanks

Cordelia has always loved Lear unconditionally, but she refrains from participating in the auction / test which Lear sets up (itself evidence of his own imperfect understanding of real love). In his anger and lack of understanding, he punishes her and rewards her sisters who play the game for their own benefit, sowing the seeds of his downfall and madness.

It is her continued love for him and the fact that despite his actions she finds "no cause" to revenge herself on him but rather weeps for him that brings him to his senses and opens his eyes to her true love for him ... and to what love truly is.

LEAR
Be your tears wet? yes, 'faith. I pray, weep not:
If you have poison for me, I will drink it.
I know you do not love me; for your sisters
Have, as I do remember, done me wrong:
You have some cause, they have not.
CORDELIA
No cause, no cause.

By the end of the play, the king who sought pomp and circumstance at the start of the play will be happy to sing like a bird in prison once she is with him, and is humbled enough to resolve to kneel and ask her forgiveness.

Lear:
No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison:
We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness

Her love for him has redeemed him both in the sense that it has brought him out of his madness, but also in the sense that it has caused him to forsake his pride and opened his eyes to the true nature of love.

Hellsbelles

Wondering if you guys can answer a question I have about the Lear/Gloucester hero question:

“Throughout the course of the play, both Lear and Gloucester are tragic
characters, but Lear develops into the more heroic figure.”

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Support your
answer with reference to the play, King Lear.

My daughter answered this but focused nearly exclusively on Lear, only mentioning Gloucester in the opening and closing paragraphs. So far we have only heard of people discussing both characters throughout their answers. My daughter feels that there is no problem with the way she answered it because the question did not specify a need to refer to both characters. Looking at other questions (like the Wuthering Heights example below) I see what she means as it directly instructs you to make reference to both characters:

“Unlike Heathcliff, Hareton maintains a positive attitude to the world.”

Discuss this statement with reference to both Hareton and Heathcliff.
Support your answer with suitable reference to the text

What are peoples thoughts on this please?

Bazinga_N

Hellsbelles wrote: »

Wondering if you guys can answer a question I have about the Lear/Gloucester hero question:

“Throughout the course of the play, both Lear and Gloucester are tragic
characters, but Lear develops into the more heroic figure.”

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Support your
answer with reference to the play, King Lear.

My daughter answered this but focused nearly exclusively on Lear, only mentioning Gloucester in the opening and closing paragraphs. So far we have only heard of people discussing both characters throughout their answers. My daughter feels that there is no problem with the way she answered it because the question did not specify a need to refer to both characters. Looking at other questions (like the Wuthering Heights example below) I see what she means as it directly instructs you to make reference to both characters:

“Unlike Heathcliff, Hareton maintains a positive attitude to the world.”

Discuss this statement with reference to both Hareton and Heathcliff.
Support your answer with suitable reference to the text

What are peoples thoughts on this please?

Like the question makes a statement about both characters and asks whether or not you agree or disagree with it. It says to reference the play in general, so yeah it doesn't ask you to refer to both characters specifically but I imagine you'd still be expected to.

Hellsbelles

Thanks for reply! I get what you are saying, its a little bit unclear though (compared to previous years/questions).

Bazinga_N

Hellsbelles wrote: »

Thanks for reply! I get what you are saying, its a little bit unclear though (compared to previous years/questions).

Yeah, your daughter probably wouldn't be penalised much for her answer (maybe the loss of a few Purpose marks), but don't let her worry about it now! Nothing she can do about it now.

spurious

A97 wrote: »

Guys don't be too upset if you think a question got away from you. You can often be too judgemental about it. I thought that I had lost the run of my Comparative halfway through it last year and it turned out to be highest marked thing I wrote over the two papers. The examiner might like what you wrote even if you didn't!

Exactly. You also might have written something decent and original rather than a learned off 'sample' answer.