WJEC ENGLISH LITERATURE

Commentary
“Like giving into the craving for cake and having to face the gym later.” In this opening
extract of an unwritten book, much is revealed and foreshadowed about the rest of the novel.
Inspired by Ian McEwan’s Atonement, I based my extract around the theme of Forbidden
Romance – much like Cecilia’s and Robbie’s – using careful characterisation and vivid
descriptions of scenery to make the relationship between a professor and student as exciting
as possible.
By setting the novel in Cambridge, the traditional image that is portrayed is immediately
juxtaposed
with the scandal of the affair between a married lecturer and a student. Also, as
Cambridge is a small community, based mainly around the University – often described as
the Cambridge bubble – when the details of the relations surface, they spread quickly due to
the close-knit society, creating more shock and exclusion because everyone knows. In this
unfinished letter, I have particularly tried to make the place seem heavenly using ethereal
vocabulary such as “elevate”, “radiant”, “imperishable” and “perfection”. This is emphasised
by the biblical allusion of “Saint Christopher”, which is effective because the simile linking to
the support of Jesus against a raging river creates a divine image by relating the buildings to
Jesus. Furthermore, the magnificence of the building is also exaggerated by the
personification as “the blades of grass… bow down.” The contrast between the tall buildings
and the flat, plain greenery illuminate the buildings grandness and by talking about “Blades”
as if they were individuals, it’s as if there is a population of people in awe of the building. The
scandal therefore becomes more abnormal because it takes place here. Through her
description of the city, it also denotes how ignorant she is to the outside world. She refers to
Cambridge being a “town” twice in this letter, when it really is a city. This shows her lack of
recognition of the real world.
In addition to my descriptions, I tried to develop the plot by making it an improbable couple,
shown though careful characterisation, although it was difficult to layer a character is such a
confined word restriction. Jeff, the professor, is portrayed as being confident. In their first
encounter, he had an “undulating stride and a supercilious stare that gazed above the
distant horizon, causing his head to marginally tilt toward the heavens.” The sibilance of this
quote gives an early indication of his later deception and slyness by resembling the sound of
a snake’s hiss. Also, the end of the quote shows how he looks down his nose at people and
the word “heavens” not only displays that Josephine, the author of the letter, thinks Jeff is
heavenly, but it also alludes back to the beginning of the extract suggesting that maybe the
reason why she finds Cambridge heavenly is because of him. In contrast, Josephine
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