I have been posting notes here for some years now since I retired as a teacher of English and as an Advising Examiner for English Higher Level for many years.  What I have done here is bring all those links together in one post or blog  – as a kind of Index of all the posts I’ve written that are specifically relevant to Leaving Cert English 2024 – to save you the trouble of constantly searching the internet each time you want to do some background work on a text or a poet or author. It’s not perfect and it won’t suit every student, class, or teacher – you may have already made different text choices from the many available.  It’s my version of a ‘One-Stop Shop’ and you know the drill: just click on the link if it’s relevant to your studies!  My choice of texts is personal and obviously will not suit every teacher, every student, or every class.  You can easily see where my own preferences lie by simply viewing the number of links provided for each text or poet!

However, Caveat Emptor!  Leaving Cert Student Beware !!  These are resources that you should use wisely.  They are my personal responses to the various texts and you should read and consider them and decide to study them if you find them useful.   IN OTHER WORDS, MAKE YOUR OWN OF THEM, ADD TO THEM, OR DELETE FROM THEM AS YOU SEE FIT.

Single Text

Hamlet (H/O)

Shakespearean Tragedy Defined

Hamlet: An Introduction

Hamlet: The World of the Play

Hamlet’s Antic Disposition: That is the Question!

Hamlet’s Delay

The Problem with Hamlet is Hamlet

Death and Deceit in Hamlet

The Moral Question in Hamlet

The King and Queen in Hamlet

Polonius and his family in Hamlet

Comparisons and Contrasts in Hamlet

Ghosts and the Supernatural in Hamlet

Silas Marner (O)

Silas Marner: The Characters

Themes in Silas Marner

Imagery in Silas Marner

Fairy-Tale Elements in Silas Marner

Silas Marner by George Eliot is a radically disturbing social document

Philadelphia, Here I Come! (O)

Characters and Relationships in Philadelphia Here I Come!

The Theme of Communication in Philadelphia Here I Come!

The Theme of Escape in Philadelphia Here I Come!

Comparative Section 

MODES OF COMPARISON

For each Leaving Certificate course, three modes of comparison will be prescribed.  This means that the texts chosen for comparative study must be studied under these particular modes (headings).

This year the modes of comparison at Higher Level are as follows:

• Literary Genre
• Theme or Issue
• Cultural Context

Two of these three will be examined in June 2024.

Literary Genre

This mode focuses on the ways that texts tell their story.  This is also a legitimate basis for comparison: whether it is a tragic play, a detective thriller, a film, a historical novel, an autobiography or a travel book.  (The amazing thing is that all these differing genres are available for study on your Leaving Cert course!).

The following questions should be asked about the texts being studied by you:

• How is this story told? (Who tells it?  Where and when is it told?)
• Why is the story told in this way?
• What effects do all these have?
• Is there just one plot or many plots? How do these relate?
• What are the major tensions in the texts? Are they resolved or not?
• Was this way of telling the story successful and enjoyable?
• How do the texts compare as stories?
• Is the story humorous or tragic, romantic or realistic?
• To what genre does it actually belong?
• Because your three texts are so different you have to be very aware of how different the experience of encountering a novel, a play, and viewing a film is.

 Theme or Issue

This involves comparing texts on a prescribed theme.  These would have to be themes that were pervasive and central to the texts chosen for study e.g.

• Isolation and Loneliness.
• Relationships and love.
• Fantasy and reality.

These themes/issues will be the messages or concerns that the writer or film director wishes to impart to the audience.  In most texts, there will be a number of themes/issues worth considering

Your task, therefore, in this section is to compare and contrast the same theme as it is treated by different authors or film directors.

Cultural Context

Compare the texts focusing on social rituals, values, and attitudes.  This is not to be seen as a sociological study of the texts alone.  It means taking some perspectives, which enable the students to understand the kind of values and structures with which people contend.  It amounts to entering into the world of the text and getting some insight and feel for the cultural texture of the world created.  This would imply considering such aspects as the rituals of life and the routines of living, the structures of society, familial, social, economic, religious, and political: the respective roles of men and women in society, the position of children, the role and nature of work, the sources and structures of power and the significance of race and class.

When you answer a question in the Comparative Section remember that you have to be selective in emphasising the most meaningful similarities and differences between texts.  The more similar they appear to be, the more provocative and challenging it is to contrast them and to draw out differences between them.  Remember also that when you draw out surprising or disputable similarities or differences, you require detailed support from the texts.

 In a Comparative answer, it is vitally important to compare and contrast these different ways of looking at life, or to examine if there is coherence or a lack of coherence between all these differing viewpoints.

Pride and Prejudice

Character Study of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice

The Themes of Pride and Prejudice in Pride and Prejudice

The Theme of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice

Philadelphia,  Here I Come!

Characters and Relationships in Philadelphia Here I Come!

The Theme of Communication in Philadelphia Here I Come!

The Theme of Escape in Philadelphia Here I Come!

Silas Marner

Silas Marner: The Characters

Themes in Silas Marner

Imagery in Silas Marner

Fairy-Tale Elements in Silas Marner

Silas Marner by George Eliot is a radically disturbing social document

Macbeth

Shakespearean Tragedy Defined

Macbeth: A Tragedy

Macbeth: Order violated, order restored.

Macbeth: From Centrality to Isolation

Macbeth: A Truly Aware Tragic Hero?

Macbeth is a villain, but…

Some Grace Notes on Macbeth

Poetry

Emily Dickinson

An Overview of the Poetry of Emily Dickinson

John Donne

An Introduction to Metaphysical Poetry

John Donne and Metaphysical Poetry

An Analysis of Some of my Favourite Poems by John Donne

Seamus Heaney

The Poetry of Seamus Heaney: Some Recurring Themes

The Poetry of Seamus Heaney

Analysis of The Forge by Seamus Heaney

Bogland by Seamus Heaney

Analysis of The Harvest Bow by Seamus Heaney

The Treatment of Women in Seamus Heaney’s Poetry: a feminist critique.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins

An Analysis of Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins

An Analysis of Inversnaid by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Analysis of The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Commentary on Pied Beauty by Hopkins

The Terrible Sonnets are not so terrible after all!

Sylvia Plath

The Poetry of Sylvia Plath

William Butler Yeats

Study Notes on the Poetry of W.B. Yeats

An Overview of Yeats’s Poetry

YEATS: A POET OF OPPOSING TENSIONS.