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GCSE English Literature · Edexcel style · Part (a), extract
Edexcel style (a): The relationship between Benedick and Beatrice in the extract (Much Ado About Nothing)
AO220 marks · about 25 minutes

Explore how Shakespeare presents the relationship between Benedick and Beatrice in this extract. Refer closely to the extract in your answer. (20 marks) AO2

Read the extract, then write below it.
BENEDICK. [Advancing from the arbour.] This can be no trick: the conference was sadly borne. They have the truth of this from Hero. They seem to pity the lady: it seems her affections have their full bent. Love me? why, it must be requited. I hear how I am censured: they say I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive the love come from her; they say too that she will rather die than give any sign of affection. I did never think to marry: I must not seem proud: happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending. They say the lady is fair: ’tis a truth, I can bear them witness; and virtuous: ’tis so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but for loving me: by my troth, it is no addition to her wit, nor no great argument of her folly, for I will be horribly in love with her. I may chance have some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me, because I have railed so long against marriage; but doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age. Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career of his humour? No; the world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married. Here comes Beatrice. By this day! she’s a fair lady: I do spy some marks of love in her. Enter Beatrice. BEATRICE. Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner. BENEDICK. Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains. BEATRICE. I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would not have come. BENEDICK. You take pleasure then in the message? BEATRICE. Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife’s point, and choke a daw withal. You have no stomach, signior: fare you well. [Exit.] BENEDICK. Ha! ‘Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner,’ there’s a double meaning in that. ‘I took no more pains for those thanks than you took pains to thank me,’ that’s as much as to say, Any pains that I take for you is as easy as thanks. If I do not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not love her, I am a Jew. I will go get her picture.
Source: William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1599). Public domain.
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How this is marked

AO2 (published assessment objective): Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language and structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support their views (English). For Geography: demonstrate geographical understanding of concepts and how they are used in relation to places, environments and processes, and the interrelationships between places, environments and processes. For History: explain and analyse historical events and periods studied using second-order historical concepts.

Assessed against AO2 using Revision Robin's own level descriptors below. These are not the exam board's mark scheme. Every quotation in the feedback is checked against your answer and the extract before you see it, and a teacher's mark overrides ours.

Level 5 · 17 to 20Convincing, critical and exploratory response to the task and the whole text. Judicious, precise references integrated into the argument; analysis of the writer's methods with subject terminology used to sharpen the point; ideas about context or the writer's purpose are woven into the argument rather than bolted on.
Level 4 · 13 to 16Thoughtful, developed response. Apt references used to support a considered argument; examination of the writer's methods and their effects; ideas about context are relevant and linked to the task.
Level 3 · 9 to 12Clear, explained response. Relevant references; clear explanation of some methods and effects; some relevant comment on context.
Level 2 · 5 to 8Some explained comment. A supported point or two; some reference to the text; methods identified with simple comment on effect; context mentioned in passing or not at all.
Level 1 · 1 to 4Simple, supported comment. Narrates or describes the text; little reference to methods or context.