What the exam asks
In Paper 2 (1 hour 45 minutes, 25 marks), you write a closed-book comparative essay on two literary works in response to one of four general questions. Questions frequently ask how authors use conflict, power and justice, rhetoric, characterization or dramatic tension to shape meaning.
- Criterion A (5 marks) rewards detailed knowledge of both works and a persuasive interpretation of their subtle implications.
- Criterion B1 (5 marks) rewards your analysis and evaluation (judging how well choices work) of both small-scale language features and broader authorial choices such as staging, props and dramatic structure.
- Criterion B2 (5 marks) rewards sustained comparison showing how two works illuminate each other.
Core ideas
1. Framing the outsider: “gentle” vs “stony”
Before Shylock steps into the Venetian court of justice, the Duke frames the trial for Antonio. He calls Shylock “A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch, / Uncapable of pity, void and empty / From any dram of mercy” (4.1, Duke). When Shylock enters, the Duke publicly predicts that Shylock will relent out of “human gentleness and love”, concluding: “We all expect a gentle answer, Jew” (4.1, Duke).
Shakespeare loads the adjective “gentle” with a sharp pun on “gentile” (non-Jew). In the Duke’s framing, to be merciful and human is to act like a Christian gentile; to insist on the written contract is to be “stony” and “inhuman”. Later in the scene, Gratiano drops all courtly politeness for open abuse, claiming Shylock’s “currish spirit / Govern’d a wolf who, hang’d for human slaughter, / Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet” (4.1, Gratiano). By surrounding Shylock with the language of stones, curs (dogs) and wolves, the Venetian court pre-judges him as subhuman before hearing a word of his legal plea.
2. The rhetoric of “humour” and Venice’s “charter”
In 3.1 (“Hath not a Jew eyes?”), Shylock argued from shared humanity. In 4.1, facing a court that calls him inhuman, he abandons emotional appeal. Instead, he weaponizes two things: Venice’s commercial law and a refusal to explain himself.
- The legal trap: Shylock warns the Duke that denying his bond will let danger fall “Upon your charter and your city’s freedom!” (4.1, Shylock). Venice is a trading republic whose wealth depends on foreigners trusting its contracts; if the Duke bends the law to save a Christian friend, Venice’s credit collapses.
- The refusal of reasons: Rather than justify why he wants “A weight of carrion flesh” over three thousand ducats, Shylock says, “it is my humour. Is it answer’d?” (4.1, Shylock). In early modern medicine, a “humour” is a bodily fluid governing temperament, meaning an irrational whim or disposition. Depending on the director and actor, this can be played as chilling malice or as a defiant refusal to perform contrition for persecutors who have never listened to his reasons.