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Analyse Key Quotes: What is all the fuss?
With any novel that we study, we should remember that the writer has chosen every word that goes into it!
As students of literature, we are interested in spotting patterns in the language and how these may echo the writer's thoughts and ideas, or how they have made deliberate choices to create specific effects.
There are a lot of words in a book, even a novella such as 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'! Identifying words, phrases or a short extract for a closer analysis helps you to write about the book with confidence that displays your knowledge and your skills.
In the GCSE exam, you are given an extract from the novel. You are asked to write about this part and what you know from different parts of the text. This is where learning a few quotes to remember, and where they come from in the story, is really helpful.
In this activity, we will look at the novel chapter by chapter. Knowing the book really well is the best exam preparation, so breaking it down into chapters is a good way to manage this. It also keeps you firmly aware of the structure of the novel and how the author manages the narrative.
To help you even further, there is a brief summary of the main events in the chapter. For a little extra challenge, there are some helpful quotes for you to keep a note of, but, you need to find who said it, or what it describes, and this will help you to understand them better in the context of the novel!
We will identify one significant quote, or a short passage, from each chapter and think about it in more detail. Looking at what makes it significant in the novel and being able to explain how the writer makes it meaningful is how we get better marks in the exam!
You should always refer to your own text when working through these examples. These quotations are for reference only.
