GCSE English Literature 19th Century Literature at Key Stage 3

112 Pages·2015·1.88 MB·English

19th-century
literature
at Key
Stage 3
Teaching resources to help
you develop the confidence
of your Key Stage 3 students
when reading 19th-century
literature.
aqa.org.uk
Contents
Introducing 19th-century literature at Key Stage 3 4
Childhood and family 1: motherless children 5
• Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens (1848) 7
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (1838) 11
• Silas Marner by George Eliot (1861) 13
Childhood and family 2: education 17
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847) – extract 1 18
• Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (1839) – extract 1 19
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847) – extract 2 20
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1850) 20
• Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (1839) – extract 2 21
• Hard Times by Charles Dickens (1854) 22
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847) – extract 3 24
Childhood and family 3: girls and boys 26
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1847) 27
• The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (1860) 30
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1817) 35
• Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (1891) 37
Childhood and family 4: a woman’s place 40
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (1814) 42
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (1861) 43
• The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy (1886) 44
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (1811) 52
Adventure and mystery 1: the adventure begins 55
• Moonfleet by J. Meade Faulkner (1898) 57
• King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard (1885) 61
• The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1890) 62
2
19TH-CENTURY LITERATURE AT KEY STAGE 3
Adventure and mystery 2: the good the bad
and the ugly: characters in adventure stories 65
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (1883) 66
• Dr Watson’s description of Sherlock Holmes from
A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1887) 69
Adventure and mystery 3: man’s best friend?
Animals in the 19th-century literature 72
• The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903) 73
• Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (1877) 76
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (1837) 78
Adventure and mystery 4: real adventure during
the 19th century – exploration and colonialism 80
• Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) 81
• David Livingstone (1813-1873) 87
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1719) 88
19th-century settings 1: the Gothic tradition 93
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818) 94
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1817) 95
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1847) 99
– Lockwood’s dream
• Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897) 100
• The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle (1902) 102
19th-century settings 2: working life in rural
and urban settings in 19th-century literature 104
• Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (1891) 105
• Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell (1848) 108
3
Introducing 19th-century
literature at Key Stage 3
Teaching resources
This is a resource to help you develop the The resource includes:
confidence of your Key Stage 3 students when • three sections: Childhood, Adventure and
reading 19th-century literature. It will introduce Mystery, and C19th Settings
skills that will be relevant to the study of • extracts of texts, providing satisfying reading,
literature at Key Stage 4, and help your students and plenty of opportunity for discussion and
develop their understanding of contexts, as well exploration
as some of the conventions established in literary • suggestions for further reading of whole books,
genres. including both 19th century and modern texts.
Within each topic, we’ve provided suggestions
for the learning focus, with activities for reading,
discussion and sometimes for writing. You’ll have
plenty of material to adapt and use over a number
of sessions.
Links to GCSE Literature
Understanding and responding AO1 Read, understand and respond to texts.
Students should be able to:
• maintain a critical style and develop an
informed personal response
• use textual references, including
quotations, to support and illustrate
interpretations.
Closer reading AO2 Analyse the language, form and structure
used by a writer to create meanings and
effects, using relevant subject terminology
where appropriate.
Researching context AO3 Show understanding of the relationships
between texts and the contexts in which
they were written.
Comparison Candidates are required to show the abilities
described in AO1, AO2 and AO3 through tasks
which require them to make comparisons
across texts.
4
19TH-CENTURY LITERATURE AT KEY STAGE 3
Childhood and family 1:
motherless children
Aims: Florence, aged six, is Dombey’s first child. What
• to understand family relationships in 19th- do you notice about the way in which she is
century literature treated by the adults in this passage? What do
• to understand aspects of the social and you understand about her relationship with her
historical context of the 19th century father? And her mother?
• to understand the use of orphans and
What does Dombey’s sister, Louisa, bring to our
vulnerable children as a literary device.
understanding of characters and the Dombey
family?
Suggestions for starter or hook
• Share examples from modern literature
Discuss what this passage shows about men,
and films of vulnerable or orphaned child
women and marriage in the 19th century.
characters.
• Consider news stories about children and the
What does this opening chapter show us about
ways in which they are presented.
the business of Dombey and Son, and its
• Discuss how we respond to such stories in real
reputation in society?
life and in fiction.
By the end of the chapter a mother has died
Researching the 19th-century context
leaving her new baby and a young daughter. A
• Mother and infant mortality rates.
businessman has been widowed and is left with
• Workhouses and other provision for destitute the care of two young children. Where does your
people in your local area. sympathy lie? What do you think will happen next
with the family?
Closer reading
Texts
1. Examine the structure of the sentences in the
Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens (1848)
first three paragraphs. What pattern has the
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (1838) author used? How does this pattern introduce
us to the characters and the business of
Silas Marner by George Eliot (1861)
Dombey and Son?
2. Examine the nouns and noun phrases that
Dickens has used for characters in this
Understanding and responding
passage, and consider how they contribute
Extract 1 to our understanding of the characters, their
Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens (1848) relationships and their values.
This scene at the birth of Dombey’s second child
• The baby is referred to as ‘Son’ with a
reminds us that childbirth in the 19th century
capital letter.
was dangerous for both women and their babies.
• Later, we learn that he will be given the
Identify the details that suggest that Mrs Dombey
name Paul.
will die.
• Dombey addresses his wife as ‘Mrs Dombey’
and only hesitatingly, and only once, uses
What are the reader’s impressions of Dombey?
the term of endearment ‘my dear’.
What are his main concerns? How can we tell
that he takes great pride in his family name and • Florence is described as ‘a piece of base
business? Does he have the same pride in all the coin’ and ‘a bad Boy’. Her father refers to
members of his family? her as ‘the person’.
5
• The only utterances that Florence makes 3. Oliver, and other babies in the same position
address her mother as ‘Mama’. as him, are referred to in this passage as
‘juvenile offenders against the poor-laws’ and
3. Read this paragraph again:
‘culprits’. What do these phrases suggest
• Those three words conveyed the one idea
about how the children were regarded?
of Mr Dombey’s life. The earth was made
4. How did the woman who looked after the
for Dombey and Son to trade in, and the
babies cheat them?
sun and moon were made to give them
light. Rivers and seas were formed to float 5. How might readers respond to this description
their ships; rainbows gave them promise of Oliver’s situation?
of fair weather; winds blew for or against 6. What impression does Dickens create of the
their enterprises; stars and planets circled in conditions in the workhouse?
their orbits, to preserve inviolate a system of
7. What is Charles Dickens’s tone when he
which they were the centre.
describes the scene as ‘this festive composition’?
Underline the details that refer to the natural
8. Why has Dickens made the master of the
world. What impression do these details
workhouse ‘fat and healthy’?
convey of Dombey’s attitude and business?
9. Why does the gentleman in the white waistcoat
Consider the number of times that the
predict that Oliver Twist “will be hung”?
pronouns ‘their’ and ‘them’ are used. What
effect is created?
Extract 3
4. Read again the section in which Dombey’s From Silas Marner by George Eliot
sister, Louisa Chick, talks about the baby 1. Consider George Eliot’s presentation of Molly.
and its mother. How would you describe her What is her motivation in making this journey?
attitude towards Mrs Dombey? Why does she George Eliot shows that Godfrey Cass was
say “If dear Fanny were a Dombey!”? wrong to leave her, and shows that Molly too
has faults. What are they? Did she intend to
5. Dickens describes Mrs Dombey’s death at
leave her child?
the end of the chapter by using a metaphor
based on the sea. Which words has he used to 2. Read the description of Silas before he finds
create this metaphor? Do you think this is an the child. How does George Eliot create a
appropriate metaphor for death? In particular, sense of his loneliness and despair? What does
how does it suit the death of Mrs Dombey of the description of the snowy night contribute to
Dombey and Son? Which other metaphors our understanding of his isolation?
may be used to describe death? 3. What is his reaction to finding the child on his
hearth?
Extract 2
4. How does George Eliot show us at the end of
From chapter 2 of Oliver Twist by Charles
the passage that Molly is dead?
Dickens
5. What is your prediction for what will happen to
In this account of Oliver’s early life, Dickens is
Molly’s child?
criticising the authorities responsible for the care
of orphans.
Closer reading
1. Identify the words and phrases where the
1. Explain what is meant by ‘treachery and
author personifies opium, and explain how this
deception’. How do they apply to what
helps us to understand Molly’s predicament.
happens to Oliver Twist?
2. Explore the symbolism of the extract
2. There are two authorities at work in this
• Underline the references to light and dark in
passage: the workhouse and the parish. Use
this extract. How are they used to create the
a dictionary and discuss your understanding
atmosphere, and what symbolic effect do
of the words ‘dignity’ , ‘humility’,
they convey?
magnanimously’, and ‘humanely’. What does
the author’s use of these words suggest about • What do you think is the significance of
his view of how the authorities behaved? How these events happening on New Year’s Eve?
does the language suggest that the authorities • Silas mistakes the child’s golden hair for the
cared little about Oliver? return of his stolen money.
6
19TH-CENTURY LITERATURE AT KEY STAGE 3
Understanding and responding to the three 4. We see that the children in two of these
texts together extracts still have fathers, but it does not
1. How does the reader respond to each of these seem that that will be enough to secure their
motherless children? What do they have in happiness. Has the role of fathers changed
common, and how are they different? over time?
2. Why might stories about children have been 5. What do these passages say about the
popular with 19th century readers? Why are innocence of children and their need for love?
they still popular? 6. What do the extracts from Dombey and Son
3. Each passage might help us to understand and Silas Marner suggest that children may
something more about human nature and the bring into people’s lives?
society in which we live. What do you think
each one shows us?
Dombey and Son

by Charles Dickens (published as a complete novel in 1848)

Extract from chapter 1 Dombey, ‘be not only in name but in fact Dombey
and Son;’ and he added, in a tone of luxurious
Dombey sat in the corner of the darkened room
satisfaction, with his eyes half-closed as if he
in the great arm-chair by the bedside, and Son
were reading the name in a device of flowers, and
lay tucked up warm in a little basket bedstead,
inhaling their fragrance at the same time; ‘Dombey
carefully disposed on a low settee immediately
and Son!’
in front of the fire and close to it, as if his
constitution were analogous to that of a muffin,
The words had such a softening influence, that he
and it was essential to toast him brown while he
appended a term of endearment to Mrs Dombey’s
was very new.
name (though not without some hesitation,
as being a man but little used to that form of
Dombey was about eight-and-forty years of age.
address): and said, ‘Mrs Dombey, my—my dear.’
Son about eight-and-forty minutes. Dombey was
rather bald, rather red, and though a handsome
A transient flush of faint surprise overspread the
well-made man, too stern and pompous in
sick lady’s face as she raised her eyes towards
appearance, to be prepossessing. Son was very
him.
bald, and very red, and though (of course) an
undeniably fine infant, somewhat crushed and
‘He will be christened Paul, my—Mrs Dombey—of
spotty in his general effect, as yet.
course.’
Dombey, exulting in the long-looked-for event,
jingled and jingled the heavy gold watch-chain She feebly echoed, ‘Of course,’ or rather
that depended from below his trim blue coat, expressed it by the motion of her lips, and closed
whereof the buttons sparkled phosphorescently her eyes again.
in the feeble rays of the distant fire. Son, with his
little fists curled up and clenched, seemed, in his ‘His father’s name, Mrs Dombey, and his
feeble way, to be squaring at existence for having grandfather’s! I wish his grandfather were alive this
come upon him so unexpectedly. day! There is some inconvenience in the necessity
of writing Junior,’ said Mr Dombey, making a
‘The House will once again, Mrs Dombey,’ said Mr fictitious autograph on his knee; ‘but it is merely
7
of a private and personal complexion. It doesn’t who had stolen into the chamber unobserved,
enter into the correspondence of the House. Its was now crouching timidly, in a corner whence
signature remains the same.’ And again he said she could see her mother’s face. But what was
‘Dombey and Son,’ in exactly the same tone as a girl to Dombey and Son! In the capital of the
before. House’s name and dignity, such a child was
merely a piece of base coin that couldn’t be
Those three words conveyed the one idea of Mr invested—a bad Boy—nothing more.
Dombey’s life. The earth was made for Dombey
and Son to trade in, and the sun and moon were Mr Dombey’s cup of satisfaction was so full at this
made to give them light. Rivers and seas were moment, however, that he felt he could afford a
formed to float their ships; rainbows gave them drop or two of its contents, even to sprinkle on the
promise of fair weather; winds blew for or against dust in the by-path of his little daughter.
their enterprises; stars and planets circled in their
orbits, to preserve inviolate a system of which So he said, ‘Florence, you may go and look at
they were the centre. your pretty brother, if you like, I daresay. Don’t
touch him!’
He had risen, as his father had before him, in the
course of life and death, from Son to Dombey, The child glanced keenly at the blue coat and stiff
and for nearly twenty years had been the sole white cravat, which, with a pair of creaking boots
representative of the Firm. Of those years he had and a very loud ticking watch, embodied her idea
been married, ten—married, as some said, to a of a father; but her eyes returned to her mother’s
lady with no heart to give him; whose happiness face immediately, and she neither moved nor
was in the past, and who was content to bind her answered.
broken spirit to the dutiful and meek endurance
of the present. Dombey and Son had often dealt Next moment, the lady had opened her eyes and
in hides, but never in hearts. They left that fancy seen the child; and the child had run towards her;
ware to boys and girls, and boarding-schools and and, standing on tiptoe, the better to hide her
books. Mr Dombey would have reasoned: That face in her embrace, had clung about her with a
a matrimonial alliance with himself must, in the desperate affection very much at variance with her
nature of things, be gratifying and honourable years.
to any woman of common sense. That the hope
of giving birth to a new partner in such a House, ‘Oh Lord bless me!’ said Mr Dombey, rising testily.
could not fail to awaken a glorious and stirring ‘A very ill-advised and feverish proceeding this, I
ambition in the breast of the least ambitious of am sure. Please to ring there for Miss Florence’s
her sex. That Mrs Dombey had entered on that nurse. Really the person should be more care-’
social contract of matrimony: almost necessarily
part of a genteel and wealthy station, even without ‘Wait! I—had better ask Doctor Peps if he’ll have
reference to the perpetuation of family Firms: with the goodness to step upstairs again perhaps.
her eyes fully open to these advantages. That I’ll go down. I’ll go down. I needn’t beg you,’ he
Mrs Dombey had had daily practical knowledge added, pausing for a moment at the settee before
of his position in society. That Mrs Dombey had the fire, ‘to take particular care of this young
always sat at the head of his table, and done the gentleman, Mrs ——’
honours of his house in a remarkably lady-like and
becoming manner. That Mrs Dombey must have ‘Blockitt, Sir?’ suggested the nurse, a simpering
been happy. That she couldn’t help it. piece of faded gentility, who did not presume to
state her name as a fact, but merely offered it as a
They had been married ten years, and until this mild suggestion.
present day on which Mr Dombey sat jingling and
jingling his heavy gold watch-chain in the great ‘Of this young gentleman, Mrs Blockitt.’
arm-chair by the side of the bed, had had no
issue. ‘No, Sir, indeed. I remember when Miss Florence
was born—’
—To speak of; none worth mentioning. There had
been a girl some six years before, and the child, ‘Ay, ay, ay,’ said Mr Dombey, bending over the
8
19TH-CENTURY LITERATURE AT KEY STAGE 3
basket bedstead, and slightly bending his brows flung her arms around his neck, and said, in a
at the same time. ‘Miss Florence was all very well, choking voice,
but this is another matter. This young gentleman
has to accomplish a destiny. A destiny, little ‘My dear Paul! He’s quite a Dombey!’
fellow!’ As he thus apostrophised the infant he
raised one of his hands to his lips, and kissed ‘Well, well!’ returned her brother—for Mr Dombey
it; then, seeming to fear that the action involved was her brother—’I think he is like the family.
some compromise of his dignity, went, awkwardly Don’t agitate yourself, Louisa.’
enough, away.
‘It’s very foolish of me,’ said Louisa, sitting down,
To record of Mr Dombey that he was not in his and taking out her pocket-handkerchief, ‘but
way affected by this intelligence, would be to do he’s—he’s such a perfect Dombey!’
him an injustice. He was not a man of whom it
could properly be said that he was ever startled, Mr Dombey coughed.
or shocked; but he certainly had a sense within
him, that if his wife should sicken and decay, ‘It’s so extraordinary,’ said Louisa; smiling through
he would be very sorry, and that he would find her tears, which indeed were not overpowering,
a something gone from among his plate and ‘as to be perfectly ridiculous. So completely our
furniture, and other household possessions, which family. I never saw anything like it in my life!’
was well worth the having, and could not be lost
without sincere regret. Though it would be a cool, ‘But what is this about Fanny, herself?’ said Mr
business-like, gentlemanly, self-possessed regret, Dombey. ‘How is Fanny?’
no doubt.
‘My dear Paul,’ returned Louisa, ‘it’s nothing
His meditations on the subject were soon whatever. Take my word, it’s nothing whatever.
interrupted, first by the rustling of garments on the There is exhaustion, certainly, but nothing like
staircase, and then by the sudden whisking into what I underwent myself, either with George or
the room of a lady rather past the middle age than Frederick. An effort is necessary. That’s all. If dear
otherwise but dressed in a very juvenile manner, Fanny were a Dombey!—But I daresay she’ll make
particularly as to the tightness of her bodice, who, it; I have no doubt she’ll make it. Knowing it to be
running up to him with a kind of screw in her face required of her, as a duty, of course she’ll make
and carriage, expressive of suppressed emotion, it. My dear Paul, it’s very weak and silly of me, I
9
know, to be so trembly and shaky from head to the dull and languid air the lady breathed.
foot; but I am so very queer that I must ask you for There was such a solemn stillness round the bed;
a glass of wine and a morsel of that cake.’ and the two medical attendants seemed to look
on the impassive form with so much compassion
Mr Dombey promptly supplied her with these and so little hope, that Mrs Chick was for the
refreshments from a tray on the table. moment diverted from her purpose. But presently
summoning courage, and what she called
‘I shall not drink my love to you, Paul,’ said Louisa: presence of mind, she sat down by the bedside,
‘I shall drink to the little Dombey. Good gracious and said in the low precise tone of one who
me!—it’s the most astonishing thing I ever knew in endeavours to awaken a sleeper:
all my days, he’s such a perfect Dombey.’
‘Fanny! Fanny!’
‘Why, my dear Paul!’ exclaimed his sister, ‘you
look quite pale! There’s nothing the matter?’ There was no sound in answer but the loud ticking
of Mr Dombey’s watch and Doctor Parker Peps’s
‘I am sorry to say, Louisa, that they tell me that watch, which seemed in the silence to be running
Fanny—’ a race.
‘Now, my dear Paul,’ returned his sister rising, ‘Fanny, my dear,’ said Mrs Chick, with assumed
‘don’t believe it … you may rest assured that there lightness, ‘here’s Mr Dombey come to see you.
is nothing wanting but an effort on Fanny’s part. Won’t you speak to him? They want to lay your
And that effort,’ she continued, taking off her little boy—the baby, Fanny, you know; you have
bonnet, and adjusting her cap and gloves, in a hardly seen him yet, I think—in bed; but they can’t
business-like manner, ‘she must be encouraged, till you rouse yourself a little. Don’t you think it’s
and really, if necessary, urged to make. Now, my time you roused yourself a little? Eh?’
dear Paul, come upstairs with me.’
She bent her ear to the bed, and listened: at the
Mr Dombey, who, besides being generally same time looking round at the bystanders, and
influenced by his sister for the reason already holding up her finger.
mentioned, had really faith in her as an
experienced and bustling matron, acquiesced; ‘Eh?’ she repeated, ‘what was it you said, Fanny?
and followed her, at once, to the sick chamber. I didn’t hear you.’
The lady lay upon her bed as he had left her, No word or sound in answer. Mr Dombey’s watch
clasping her little daughter to her breast. The child and Dr Parker Peps’s watch seemed to be racing
clung close about her, with the same intensity as faster.
before, and never raised her head, or moved her
soft cheek from her mother’s face, or looked on ‘Now, really, Fanny my dear,’ said the sister-in-law,
those who stood around, or spoke, or moved, or altering her position, and speaking less confidently,
shed a tear. and more earnestly, in spite of herself, ‘I shall
have to be quite cross with you, if you don’t rouse
‘Restless without the little girl,’ the Doctor yourself. It’s necessary for you to make an effort,
whispered Mr Dombey. ‘We found it best to have and perhaps a very great and painful effort which
her in again.’ you are not disposed to make; but this is a world
of effort you know, Fanny, and we must never yield,
‘Can nothing be done?’ asked Mr Dombey. when so much depends upon us. Come! Try! I
must really scold you if you don’t!’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘We can do no more.’
The race in the ensuing pause was fierce and
The windows stood open, and the twilight was furious. The watches seemed to jostle, and to trip
gathering without. each other up.
The scent of the restoratives that had been tried ‘Fanny!’ said Louisa, glancing round, with a
was pungent in the room, but had no fragrance in gathering alarm. ‘Only look at me. Only open your
10