Unseen 19th-century fiction: tasks and exam-style questions

Task 1

Creating your own piece

Using the selection of words below, think about what kind of mood you think is being
created and annotate the text box.
Once you have done this, use all the words to create your own story opening of one or
two paragraphs – trying to create an engaging atmosphere for your readers.

candle window flashes

staircase flourish seconds
apparition cold faced

dread anguish human

sleeping figure eyes
villainous

Task 2

Read the 19th-century extract below twice. Once you have finished, summarise what
happens here using the grid below.
Turn of the Screw extract by Henry James
In this extract the narrator, a governess to two young children, is interrupted by a noise
and goes to investigate. She has previously had two ghostly encounters at the house –
one of which was with the possible apparition of a man named Peter Quint, who used to
work there as a servant. Here, she meets the figure again.

I can say now neither what determined nor what guided me, but I went
straight along the lobby, holding my candle high, till I came within sight of
the tall window that presided over the great turn of the staircase. At this
point I precipitately found myself aware of three things. They were
practically simultaneous, yet they had flashes of succession. My candle, under 5
a bold flourish, went out, and I perceived, by the uncovered window, that the
yielding dusk of earliest morning rendered it unnecessary. Without it, the
next instant, I saw that there was someone on the stair. I speak of sequences,
but I required no lapse of seconds to stiffen myself for a third encounter with
Quint. The apparition had reached the landing halfway up and was therefore 10
on the spot nearest the window, where at sight of me, it stopped short and
fixed me exactly as it had fixed me from the tower and from the garden. He
knew me as well as I knew him; and so, in the cold, faint twilight, with a
glimmer in the high glass and another on the polish of the oak stair below, we
faced each other in our common intensity. He was absolutely, on this 15
occasion, a living, detestable, dangerous presence. But that was not the
wonder of wonders; I reserve this distinction for quite another circumstance:
the circumstance that dread had unmistakably quitted me and that there was
nothing in me there that didn't meet and measure him.
I had plenty of anguish after that extraordinary moment, but I had, thank 20

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 Unseen 19th-century fiction: tasks and exam-style questions

God, no terror. And he knew I had not – I found myself at the end of an
instant magnificently aware of this. I felt, in a fierce rigor of confidence, that
if I stood my ground a minute I should cease – for the time, at least – to have
him to reckon with; and during the minute, accordingly, the thing was as
human and hideous as a real interview: hideous just because it was human, as 25
human as to have met alone, in the small hours, in a sleeping house, some
enemy, some adventurer, some criminal. It was the dead silence of our long
gaze at such close quarters that gave the whole horror, huge as it was, its
only note of the unnatural. If I had met a murderer in such a place and at
such an hour, we still at least would have spoken. Something would have 30
passed, in life, between us; if nothing had passed, one of us would have
moved. The moment was so prolonged that it would have taken but little
more to make me doubt if even I were in life. I can't express what followed it
save by saying that the silence itself – which was indeed in a manner an
attestation of my strength – became the element into which I saw the figure 35
disappear; in which I definitely saw it turn as I might have seen the low
wretch to which it had once belonged turn on receipt of an order, and pass,
with my eyes on the villainous back that no hunch could have more disfigured,
straight down the staircase and into the darkness in which the next bend was
lost.

Who?

What?

Why?

Where?

When?

How?

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 Unseen 19th-century fiction: tasks and exam-style questions
Task 3

Exploring and analysing language and structure

Let’s think about how the writer, Henry James, crafts this piece of writing to create
atmosphere and engage his readers. In the table below, identify what techniques he is
using and what is being implied/suggested as a result of his choices.

Quotation Technique Effect/implication

‘it stopped short

and fixed me
exactly as it had
fixed me from the
tower and from
the garden.’

‘in the cold, faint

twilight’

‘He was […] a

living, detestable,
dangerous
presence’

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 Unseen 19th-century fiction: tasks and exam-style questions

‘I felt, in a fierce
rigor of
confidence, that
if I stood my
ground a minute I
should cease – for
the time, at least
- to have him to
reckon with’

‘some enemy,
some adventurer,
some criminal’

‘my eyes on the

villainous back
that no hunch
could have more
disfigured’

Task 4

Which technique do you think is most powerful in this extract and why?

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 Unseen 19th-century fiction: tasks and exam-style questions
Task 5

Edexcel exam-style questions

1. From lines 1 to 4, identify a phrase which shows that events are happening
quickly.
2. From lines 5 to 15, give two ways the writer suggests that the figure of the man is
ghostly. You may use your own words or quotations from the text.
3. In lines 8 to 27, how does the writer use language and structure to show the
different reactions of the narrator to the ghostly figure? Support your views with
reference to the text.
4. In this extract there is an attempt to create an intense atmosphere. Evaluate how
successfully this is achieved. Support your views with detailed references to the
text.

Task 6

Creative writing
Write about a time when you, or someone you know, met someone unusual or
mysterious. Your response may be real or imagined.
1. Start by thinking about possible scenarios that you could write about. Mind map
them below.

Unusual /
mysterious
meeting

2. Now share your ideas with a classmate and decide which of your ideas gives you
best opportunity to craft a piece of writing which is well-structured, atmospheric
and sophisticated.
3. Create a quick flow chart of ideas, planning out how you will structure your story.
In theory, each section might be developed into a paragraph of your piece.

Creative writing checklist

I have thought about creating an effective opening and ending.

I have considered what the main atmosphere of my piece is going to be, and
where I might heighten or vary this for effect.
I have included a range of paragraph lengths to vary the pace of my work.
I have used some long, complex sentences.
I have used some very short, simple sentences.
I have used a wide variety of ambitious vocabulary.
I have used a range of punctuation. ? ! ; : … ()
I have checked my work carefully for errors.
I have considered using an interesting overall structure (e.g. a flashback, a
cycle).

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