This resource is a plan written by a second-year undergraduate at Durham University. It looks at the question: ‘At this moment I am casting about for an end. The problem is how to bring Lily and Mr Ramsey together and make a combination of interest at the end’ (Virginia Woolf). Consider the idea that Woolf’s major aesthetic ambition in To the Lighthouse is that of combining the evanescence of thought and feeling with narrative completion. This can be used as a starting point to research themes of artistry, objectivity, imagery and symbolism within Virginia Woolf’s various works.

This essay plan was created by a second-year English Literature undergraduate at Durham University. It looks at the question: ‘I meant nothing by the lighthouse’ (Virginia Woolf in a letter to Roger Fry). In the light of this comment, explore Woolf’s complex development of the symbol as a mediating figure between writer and reader, fictional and historical worlds. This analyses Woolf’s works, A Sketch of the Past, Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and ‘A Writer’s Diary’.

This essay plan was created by a second-year English Literature undergraduate at Durham University. It looks at the question: ‘Whether an author self-identifies as male or female is what determines the author’s sex. The ways in which the author adopts styles, gestures, conventions, diction, and genres associated in a given culture with male writers or female writers add up to the masculinity or the femininity, the gender of the writing’ (Robyn Warhol). Assess the validity of this distinction with reference to ONE OR MORE literary works of your choice. This analyses Mansfield’s place within the Bloomsbury Group, Helene Cixous’ theory of ecriture feminine, feminism, and the Modernist era, and her short story, ‘Bliss’.

This essay plan was created by a second-year English Literature undergraduate at Durham University. It looks at the question: Consider the place of ONE OR MORE of the following in AT LEAST TWO stories by Katherine Mansfield: the outsider; sexual adventure; symbolism. This analyses the idea of the outsider in Mansfield’s short story, ‘Bliss’, and themes and symbolism of gender, femininity, and the body and psyche.

This essay was written by a second-year undergraduate at Durham University. It answers the question: Gaveston: What greater bliss can hap to Gaveston Than live and be the favourite of a king? Sweet prince, I come. These, these thy amorous lines Might have enforced me to have swum from France, And, like Leander, gasped upon the sand, So thou wouldst smile and take me in thy arms. (Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, 1.1.1-9) Taking this passage as a starting-point, write an essay on the phenomenon of the ‘court favourite’ in Renaissance literature. It looks at the ‘court favourite’ figure in Marlowe’s play, Edward II, as well as other contemporary Renaissance literature, mythology, religion, and homosocial bonds within the early modern court. Can be used for university and A-level examples.

This essay was written by a second-year undergraduate at Durham University. It answers the question: 'Often in modern literature, despair prompts a new style of writing, or it becomes itself a kind of style – a darkly ironic style.’ Discuss. It looks at the influence of despair on T.S. Eliot’s writing style in poems such as ‘Marina’ and ‘Four Quartets’, the role of religion, and introspection in poems such as ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ and ‘Ash Wednesday’. Can be used for university and A-level examples.

This essay plan was written by a second-year undergraduate student at Durham University. It answers the question: ‘To what extent do the political fears and anxieties associated with social change in the early twentieth century shape the forms and styles of modern writing?’ The plan considers T.S. Eliot’s personal life in shaping his writing in poems like ‘Ash Wednesday’. It also considers the poetic form of ‘The Waste Land’ in the context of post world war anxieties and Modernism. It also addresses poems such as ‘Four Quartets’ , ‘Ash Wednesday’, and ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’.

This essay plan has been written by a second-year undergraduate at Durham University. It addresses the question: ’The time of the coupling of man and woman / And that of beasts. Feet rising and falling. / Eating and drinking. Dung and death’ (T. S. Eliot, ‘East Coker’). Discuss the significance of representations of materiality AND/OR the body in Eliot’s poetry. This looks at the body as a source of anxiety in ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, his anti-materialism instilled in ‘Ash Wednesday’, spirituality in ‘Four Quartets’, and Eliot’s own personal spiritual beliefs in the context of his poetry.

This essay plan has been written by a second-year undergraduate at Durham University. It addresses the question: With close reference to the work of ONE OR MORE writers of the modern period, write an essay on ONE of the following topics: free verse, symbolism, surrealism, impressionism, imagism, futurism. It looks at the various symbols within his poetry such as water, particularly in ‘Marina’, ‘Prufrock’ and ‘Ash Wednesday’. It also analyses the symbol of the stairs in ‘Ash Wednesday’ and how this affirms his personal Christian faith, as well as introspection and personal exploration in the poem ‘Four Quartets’.

This essay plan was written by a second-year undergraduate at Durham University. It addresses the question: ‘Eliot’s poems are always a form of modernist lyric drama; he is a poet of voices, often of voices that fall subtly awry’ (Michael O’Neill). Examine the ‘modernist lyric drama’ in the poetry of T. S. Eliot. The plan analyses the form of ‘Four Quartets’, as well as symbols in ‘Ash Wednesday’ and ‘Prufrock’. Anxious voices in ‘Prufrock’ are further analysed, as is the modernist lyric drama in ‘The Waste Land’ and the role of drama and dramatists in his poetry.

An essay plan on Shakespeare’s history play, Richard ii, written by a second-year undergraduate at Durham University. It answers the question: ‘The history play of the 1590s was not a totalitarian, hegemonic genre … but a new and experimental form within which individual playwrights might articulate a range of ideas, radical as well as conservative, about men and women and their place in public life.’ (Martha Kurtz) Discuss with regard to any of Shakespeare’s English history plays. The plan discusses the genre of the history play, analysing the language, symbolism and metaphors within Richard ii. The context of Elizabethan/Jacobean England, Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, is embedded into the plan. Can be used for university or A-level.

This essay deals with Shakespeare’s tragedy plays, Richard ii, Macbeth, The Tempest, and Hamlet and the theme of improvisation within these. It answers the question: ‘Those who improvise are the characters who most excite Shakespeare’ (Jonathan Bate). Discuss with reference to AT LEAST TWO works. Dramatic techniques such as meta-theatricality, Shakespeare’s personification of characters as himself, and the fourth wall are discussed. Also discusses historical constructs of the Great Chain of Being and Divine Right of Kings. The essay is fully referenced with a MHRA bibliography. Also includes feedback from a professor throughout the essay (in red) - useful for identifying strengths and weaknesses. Useful for university, A-level, and GCSE students. Includes quotes, analysis, wider historical context, alternative interpretations, and discussion of critics’ quotations. Written by a second-year undergraduate at Durham University.

Essay on Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula and Christina Rossetti’s poem ‘Goblin Market’ on the theme of temptation and desire. It answers the question: ‘Come buy, come buy.’ (Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market). In the light of this quotation, analyse the presentation of desire AND/OR temptation in Victorian literature. The essay breaks down two types of desire: economic desire and greed, and sexual temptation. It discusses religious influences on both works in terms of Anglican Tractarian values, and Judaism, and the portrayal of anti-Semitism in Dracula. It also compares Dracula with the earlier novella by Sheridan Le Fanu, ‘Carmilla’. Themes of lesbianism and homosexuality, the Victorian ghost story, Gothic literature, and more, are analysed. Also includes feedback and comments from another literature student. Excellent resource for university and A-level students. Written by a second-year undergraduate at Durham University.

This essay plan compares Shakespeare’s history play, Richard ii, with Edward Marlowe’s play, Edward ii, in the context of Elizabethan/Jacobean England. It answers the question: Examine any work(s) by Shakespeare in dialogue with any other suitable work(s) of the Elizabethan or Jacobean period. The plan primarily dissects monarchic power and instability, religion, and deposition, comparing the similarities between both plays. Written by a second-year undergraduate at Durham University.

This essay plan on Shakespeare’s history play, Richard ii, answers the question: ’So shaken as we are, so wan with care’ (Henry IV, in I Henry IV). How does Shakespeare depict the difficulties which beset a ruler in his history plays? It deals with the character of Richard ii and his compassion, his difficulty in distinguishing between personal and political boundaries, and the difficulty he faces in accepting monarchic responsibility. Written by a second-year undergraduate at Durham University.

Essay plan on John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi on the theme of audience identification. It answers the question: ‘It is imaginatively gratifying to identify with someone else, however unenviable his or her plight, and in tragedy this carries with it an agreeable sadomasochistic bonus’ (Terry Eagleton). In the light of this quotation, write an essay on the dynamics of audience (AND/OR reader) response in relation to Renaissance tragedy. The plan deals primarily with the character of Bosola. It argues that his character’s anti-authoritarian and transgressive characteristics allow the audience to identify with his character. Written by a finalist at Durham University. Excellent resource for A-level and university students.

Essay plan on John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi which discusses the figure of the malcontent. It answers the question: ’Every time I create an appointment, I create a hundred malcontents and one ingrate’ (Louis XIV). Discuss the early modern phenomenon of the ‘malcontent’ with regard to any work(s) you have studied on this module. The plan deals primarily with the character of Bosola. It argues that he plays a role in exposing the corruption of the Amalfi court within the play, using wider historical context of the Jacobean period. Written by a finalist at Durham University. Excellent resource for A-level and university students.

Essay plan on John Webster’s drama The Duchess of Malfi on the theme of transgression. It answers the question: I’ll be the custom-breaker: and begin To show my sex the way to freedom’s door. (Salome, in Elizabeth Cary, The Tragedy of Mariam, c.1613) Discuss the presentation and function of ‘custom-breakers’ in any text(s) you have encountered on this module. This plan looks at characters such as the protagonist, the Duchess, the malcontent, Bosola, and the antagonistic Ferdinand and the Cardinal. Analyses language and key quotes from the play. Looks at incest, immorality, corruption. Includes interpretations from critics. Written by a finalist at Durham University. Excellent resource for A-level and university students.