AS and A Level: Other Authors

Conclusion analysis

Good conclusions usually refer back to the question or title and address it directly - for example by using key words from the title.
How well do you think these conclusions address the title or question? Answering these questions should help you find out.

1. Do they use key words from the title or question?
2. Do they answer the question directly?
3. Can you work out the question or title just by reading the conclusion?

• Sherriff wrote Journey(TM)s End to show the destruction of war. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

  "In conclusion, the way in which Sherriff describes the mental and physical traumas that the soldiers endured during World War I and the views that he shares on war are all of a negative aspect. He touches really slightly on the comradeship between the soldiers which adds somewhat a sense of an optimistic tone throughout the play. However, as a whole the purpose of Journey's End was to show the reality of the war which is the unfortunate destruction that it caused."

• Compare and contrast Shakespeare and Defoe's presentations of the characters of Robinson Crusoe and Prospero as omnipotent rulers in their respective societies in their works 'Robinson Crusoe' and 'The Tempest'

  "In conclusion, both Defoe's character Robinson Crusoe and Shakespeare's Prospero are at times, if not permanently, omnipotent rulers over their fellows. Prospero differs from Crusoe in his conscious decision to end his rule whereas Crusoe cannot help but leave his "subjects" on his island to continue his legacy. Both their rules originate and increase due to possession of knowledge alien to the natives they come into contact with, and by saving lives in selfish acts of apparent chivalry. However, the protagonists' acts seem more significant, questionable even, to modern audiences and readers, who view the characters as racist or presumptuous when they are merely adhering to the society into which they were created."

• In the writing of Edgar Allan Poe, we see investigations into abnormal psychological states and obsessive behaviour. By comparing The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado explain to what extent you think this is true.

  "In conclusion, both in his own life and in his literature, Poe had a predisposition and fascination with abnormal psychological states. In these two stories, his decision to portray his protagonists as criminals allowed them to revel to the extremes of such behaviour and pushed them even beyond this so that both emerge with a sense of guilt and inability to deal with their psychosis. Therefore, the reader is presented with a thorough and thought-provoking exploration of the minds of abnormal psychological states"