Year 11 Prepare for A Level Literature

How to get A* understanding even before you read the set texts! Make notes now which will dramatically boost your grade.
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[ecaterinakate]

Thank you so much for this video! I have just finished my gcse exams from the 2024 series and I will start doing this from next week! I'm 100% sure it will make my transition into yr 12 less stressful as i am actually going to do 4 a levels so sorting one b4 hand will make life easier (hopefully)!

[stressedbitch]

Doing this had made it easier for me to undertsand the text and I was just about to chnage my mind from doing english A-levels. Thank you sir so much!

[eva]

wow this is so helpful! im taking english lit for a-level starting in september and really wanted to do some research over the summer. so thanks !!

[amyukulele]

How can I best prepare for a comparative exam? I'm going to be on edexcel and I have to compare Frankenstein and a handmaid's tale under 'science and society'. I'm really struggling to work out how to prepare for that comparison without teacher support

[sarahgeorge]

Hi Mr Salles, please could you do a video on A Level English Language as well? It would be greatly appreciated; your videos are the best!

[ErinM]

Hi Mr Salles, could you do a video on how to make one of these study guides for English Language please? :)

[milanpop]

hi sir, i’m in year 13 but is there any chance you can make any a level videos please? you saved my gcse grades

[halimahravat]

Are you able to do one for a level English language

[funwithaiman]

September 11, 2021

Do you believe that a person who has no prior experience of literature, as in, not having taken it as a GCSE, have any setbacks when it comes to studying it in A-levels? Thank you for your time.

[maryamshazad]

Please can you make one for A level English Language

[haisamnadeem]

Are you still going to do lit prediction for gcse of they want to resit and also you know when we get out results if there is any specific subject i am not hapoy with can i resit that only or do i have to resit every sjngle subject

[bethany]

I emailed my college for a list of the books that i'll be studying but they said that they can't tell me what should i do?

[alishak]

do you think it’s worth doing both a level literature and english language or just doing one- i am interested in a career in journalism and a levels i’m also interested in are government + politics, sociology, psychology and history. obviously i’d only pick three but i am so torn between which ones to choose.

[cloudsoflyrics]

Hi sir, Your videos have extremely helped me in English however I’ve written an answer on an inspector calls and my teacher said it would probably be in grade4/5 and in Band 3 ‘explained’ yet I’ve used grade 9 ideas from you videos please could you tell me what I need to Improve on and what you would grade it, Thank you
HOW DOES PRIESTLEY PRESENT NEGATIVE ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE WORKING CLASS?
e working class?

An inspector calls was written in 1944, however, it was set in 1912, at that time their was a distinct difference in the way people were treated; which was based on class. Priestley, who had very strong socialist ideologies, presents negative attitudes towards the working class through: the lack of knowledge and understanding the Birling’s show towards Eva Smith and the rest of the working class. Eva smith purposely dies from drinking disinfectant to reflect on how she needed to disinfect the inhumane ways the Birling’s had treated her. Essentially Priestley portrays to his audience that capitalism is a disease that needs to be cured, as mankind cannot live on in such a way.

Immediately in the play, we can see that both Mr and Mrs Birling sit on opposite ends of the table in the ‘large suburban house’, while the younger generation are contained between them. Both Mr and Mrs Birling act as a metaphorical barrier as they try to protect their children from the outside world – preventing them from viewing the harsh life that working class people experience. This lack of knowledge about the lower classes is evident in Sheila later in the play when she is ‘rather distressed’ upon hearing Eva smith’s story, as she has never heard or seen anything like this. This is perhaps, why the Inspector comments that the younger generation is so ‘impressionable’. From this, possibly Mr and Mrs Birling view the life of someone of working class as something to look down upon, it is simply that inadequate, compared to the lives they live, that their children shouldn’t have to see it. This causes the audience dissociate themselves with the Birling’s as they recognise the hardship the working class go through, yet feel no sympathy for them, choose to ignore it and still mistreat them.

Priestley highlights the exploitative element through Gerald’s admission ‘I didn’t feel about her as she felt about me’, which demonstrates the selfish nature of the upper class. Gerald’s keeping of Eva Smith as a ‘mistress’ implies that he used her and sexually exploited her, having played with her feelings. After the summer he spent with Eva he returned back to Sheila, which presents how women of a lower class were used and were not treated in the same respectful manner as someone like Sheila would be, portraying ‘girls of that class’ were seen by men as merely a body without feelings that they could take advantage of due to their lack of power. Moreover, Priestley retains Gerald’s character as constant, given his later comment that ‘Everything’s fine now’, the irony depicts the upper class as callous and uncouth, further causing the audience to disassociate themselves from the Eurocentric idea.

Throughout the short amount of time Edna is featured in the play she repeatedly refers to Mr Birling as ‘sir’, to remind the audience how stark the class divide was in the 20th century. For a working class woman in the Edwardian era, to be unemployed was a horrendous situation to be in, therefore Edna is consistently polite towards Mr Birling as the working class were viewed by the bourgeoisie as easily disposable- seen with Eva when Mr Birling just simply: ‘discharged her’. Whereas in contrast Mrs Birling shows no politeness in the way she speaks to Edna ‘I’ll ring… when we want coffee’. The adverbial phrase ‘when we want coffee’ demonstrates command and power as show by the connotations of control in the adverb ‘when’. At the beginning of the play Sheila complains about Gerald who ‘never came near’ during the summer, Mrs Birling then replies ‘You’ll have to get used to that, just as I had’. This suggests perhaps Mr Birling had several affairs during their relationship however she had to just suppress her emotions towards it as women in the 20th century could only gain power by marrying someone with high status and wealth. Emphasizing just how much disgust there was towards being someone from the working class, that it lead to having to marry for status and not for love. Thus possibly why Mrs Birling shows no manners in the way she speaks to Edna, as she asserts clear dominance over her because of her class in which she shows great repentance towards.

Finally, it is important for the inspector to leave after his dramatic speech, as this structural device is the only way the Birling family can be tested and can be given the opportunity to put the inspectors words into action. The inspector said that if they did not learn their lesson then they will be "taught with blood and anguish". This quote foreshadows the world wars that were yet to happen and so clearly shows that the Birling’s did not learn from the errors of their ways even when given the chance. Through this Priestley is attacking the capitalists and implying that it was because of the Birling’s (upper class capitalists) that "millions" of people are dead and its because of them that the world became a war zone, as everyone could have left behind their negative attitudes towards the working class which meant the forming of a strong alliance with one another.

[bethany]

I emailed my college for a list of the books that i'll be studying but they said that they can't tell me what should i do?