AQA GCSE English Paper One 2024: Questions 2 and 3 Example Responses.

Question 2:

Foxcote Manor is initially described in terms of neglect, as it is ‘Behind a tall, rusting gate’, which conveys a sense of secrecy as well as abandonment. Such a description is far from welcoming, and this sense of unease is consolidated by the violence suggested by ‘erupts from the undergrowth’, which heavily suggests something disruptive and damaging about the house. If the verb ‘erupts’ unexpectedly hints at something volcanic and life -changing, then the reference to ‘geological heave’ confirms our suspicions. This neglected house feels both dangerous and fierce. The practically oxymoronic ‘ wrecked beauty’ inspires a sense of pity, too and hints at a former grandeur now lost. When the writer uses personification to describe the house more closely, ‘ Windows blink drunkenly’ we understand that something about the house is out of control reinforcing the sense of danger we detected earlier and the unsettling sibilance used to describe the roof which ‘sags…like a snapped spine’ conveys the disconcerting sense that the Manor’s very structure is profoundly faulty perhaps sending out a warning to the visitors who may seek to occupy the house once again. The combination of personification with simile heightens the dramatic effect, and the ‘Ivy’, which ‘suckers the timber’, suggests that any stability is severely threatened. We cannot quite diagnose what exactly is wrong with this ‘Brick- gabled facade’, but the term ‘facade’ does convey a sense of secrecy and even duplicity. The house is most decidedly unwelcoming to the human world, contrasting with the ‘darting birds’ with their natural freedom of movement and the ‘billowing veil of bees ‘ who have made their home in this abandoned place. The extract ends on a powerful note of contrast with the ‘elegant London townhouse’ underlying the dramatic difference between Foxcote Manor and their previous home. Indeed, this new home seems uncanny and threatening-even predatory.

Question 3:

The new question will focus on more specific terms than the rather vague ‘interests.’ For this exercise, I will look at the way the writer structures the text to convey fear.

At the beginning of the opening, Rita’s fear is established through her apprehensive thoughts about the forest, which ‘looks like it’ll eat them alive.’ This fearful apprehension suggests that Rita regards the landscape as predatory and malign. Hence, ‘her grip is tightened’, and she distrusts her own ability to drive safely, so she ‘takes a bend too fast’ and ‘slams her foot on the brake.’ This mental and physical presentation of fear is uncomfortably revealed to be justified through the unsettling description of the derelict house with the ‘ chimneys’ tilting at ‘odd angles.’ This visual glimpse of something askew mirrors what we assume Rita is feeling as a series of flashbacks reveal her ‘shuddered’ vision, which ‘disoriented’ her on the journey as her sense of fear and disquiet increased. The reader recognised that her certainty about ‘quite how hard a tree trunk’ might be when involved in a collision must come from personal experience, which again increases the overriding sense of fearful anticipation. The repetition of the reference to ‘forests’seems to refer to some private horror and the shift from the flat admission that ‘she hates forests’ to the single sentence paragraph ‘it was meant to be a London nannying job’ takes us back into a more specific and recent personal experience where Rita’s expectations have been shockingly undermined by some catastrophic event which find out in the closing stages of the extract must be the ‘fire’. Before we reach this revelation, we have another recollection, ‘fourteenth months ago’, which gives us still more insight into the earlier events which have led to Rita’s challenging drive with her employer and charges into the unwelcoming home in the country.