Text Overview & Revision Checklist

This lesson provides an overview of every AQA GCSE English Literature set text option, organised by paper and section. Use it as a reference to understand what is available, to review the key themes and features of your chosen texts, and to structure your revision with the checklist and countdown strategy at the end.

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AQA Set Text Options

AQA GCSE English Literature allows schools to choose from a range of set texts for each section of the exam. Here is the full list.

Paper 1, Section A: Shakespeare

You study one of the following plays:

Play	Key Themes	Key Characters	Top Extract Scenes
Macbeth	Ambition, guilt, the supernatural, appearance vs reality, power, gender, fate vs free will, kingship	Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo, Duncan, Macduff, the Witches, Malcolm	Act 1 Scene 5 (Lady Macbeth's "unsex me"), Act 1 Scene 7 (Macbeth's soliloquy), Act 2 Scene 2 (after the murder), Act 3 Scene 4 (banquet/ghost), Act 5 Scene 1 (sleepwalking)
Romeo and Juliet	Love, conflict, fate, family loyalty, youth vs age, honour, time	Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt, the Nurse, Friar Lawrence, Lord Capulet	Act 1 Scene 5 (first meeting), Act 2 Scene 2 (balcony scene), Act 3 Scene 1 (Mercutio/Tybalt deaths), Act 3 Scene 5 (Capulet's rage), Act 5 Scene 3 (tomb)
The Tempest	Power, colonialism, magic, forgiveness, nature vs nurture, freedom, revenge	Prospero, Ariel, Caliban, Miranda, Ferdinand, Gonzalo	Act 1 Scene 2 (Prospero's exposition), Act 2 Scene 2 (Caliban and Trinculo), Act 3 Scene 1 (Ferdinand and Miranda), Act 4 Scene 1 ("Our revels"), Act 5 Scene 1 (forgiveness)
The Merchant of Venice	Prejudice, justice vs mercy, love, wealth, appearance vs reality, loyalty, anti-Semitism	Shylock, Portia, Antonio, Bassanio, Jessica	Act 1 Scene 3 (bond), Act 3 Scene 1 ("Hath not a Jew eyes?"), Act 4 Scene 1 (trial scene), Act 5 Scene 1 (Belmont)
Much Ado About Nothing	Love, deception, honour, gender, wit, social convention, male friendship	Beatrice, Benedick, Hero, Claudio, Don John, Dogberry, Leonato	Act 2 Scene 3 (Benedick tricked), Act 3 Scene 1 (Beatrice tricked), Act 4 Scene 1 (wedding/accusation), Act 4 Scene 1 ("Kill Claudio"), Act 5 Scene 4 (resolution)
Julius Caesar	Power, ambition, honour, betrayal, manipulation, republicanism vs tyranny, fate	Brutus, Cassius, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Portia, Calpurnia	Act 1 Scene 2 (Cassius tempts Brutus), Act 2 Scene 1 (Brutus's soliloquy), Act 3 Scene 1 (assassination), Act 3 Scene 2 (funeral speeches), Act 5 Scene 5 (Brutus's death)
Twelfth Night	Love, disguise, identity, gender, folly, class, self-deception	Viola, Olivia, Orsino, Malvolio, Sir Toby Belch, Feste	Act 1 Scene 1 ("If music be the food of love"), Act 1 Scene 5 (Viola meets Olivia), Act 2 Scene 5 (Malvolio and the letter), Act 3 Scene 1 (Viola and Olivia), Act 5 Scene 1 (revelation)
A Midsummer Night's Dream	Love, magic, transformation, order vs disorder, imagination, patriarchal authority	Titania, Oberon, Puck, Bottom, Helena, Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius	Act 1 Scene 1 (Egeus and Hermia), Act 2 Scene 1 (Oberon and Titania), Act 2 Scene 2 (love juice), Act 3 Scene 1 (Bottom transformed), Act 5 Scene 1 (play-within-a-play)

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Paper 1, Section B: 19th-Century Novel

You study one of the following novels:

Novel	Author	Key Themes	Key Narrative Techniques
A Christmas Carol	Charles Dickens (1843)	Social responsibility, redemption, poverty, greed, Christmas spirit, family	Frame narrative (Stave structure), omniscient narrator, temporal shifts (past/present/future), allegory
Great Expectations	Charles Dickens (1861)	Social class, ambition, loyalty, crime, identity, guilt, redemption	First-person retrospective narrator (Pip), bildungsroman, dramatic irony (reader learns truths before Pip), symbolism (Miss Havisham's house)
Jane Eyre	Charlotte Brontë (1847)	Gender, independence, morality, religion, love, social class, the supernatural (Gothic)	First-person narrator, bildungsroman, Gothic elements, direct address to reader ("Reader, I married him"), pathetic fallacy
Frankenstein	Mary Shelley (1818)	Creation, responsibility, isolation, the sublime, knowledge, prejudice, monstrosity	Frame narrative (Walton's letters), multiple narrators (Walton, Victor, the Creature), epistolary elements, Gothic setting
Pride and Prejudice	Jane Austen (1813)	Social class, marriage, pride, prejudice, gender, morality, reputation	Free indirect discourse, irony, third-person omniscient narrator, wit and dialogue-driven narrative
The Sign of the Four	Arthur Conan Doyle (1890)	Justice, empire, colonialism, rationality, addiction, wealth, loyalty	First-person narrator (Watson), detective fiction conventions, dual narrative (investigation + backstory), multiple genres within the text
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde	Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)	Duality, repression, respectability, science, secrecy, Victorian morality, the uncanny	Third-person limited narrator (through Utterson), mystery/Gothic, structural withholding of truth until final chapters, dual narrative in the final chapter

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Paper 2, Section A: Modern Texts

You study one of the following:

Text	Author	Type	Key Themes
An Inspector Calls	J.B. Priestley (1945)	Play	Social responsibility, class, gender, generational change, guilt, capitalism vs socialism
Blood Brothers	Willy Russell (1983)	Play	Class, nature vs nurture, superstition, friendship, fate, Thatcherism
The History Boys	Alan Bennett (2004)	Play	Education, knowledge, sexuality, history, youth, class
DNA	Dennis Kelly (2008)	Play	Group mentality, morality, leadership, violence, guilt, silence
A Taste of Honey	Shelagh Delaney (1958)	Play	Class, gender, race, sexuality, motherhood, independence
Lord of the Flies	William Golding (1954)	Novel	Civilisation vs savagery, power, innocence, fear, democracy vs dictatorship, human nature
Animal Farm	George Orwell (1945)	Novel	Power, corruption, revolution, propaganda, class, totalitarianism
Never Let Me Go	Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)	Novel	Identity, mortality, memory, ethics, humanity, acceptance
Pigeon English	Stephen Kelman (2011)	Novel	Immigration, violence, innocence, community, identity, poverty

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Paper 2, Section B: Poetry Anthology

You study one of two clusters:

Power and Conflict

Poem	Poet	Key Theme(s)
Ozymandias	Percy Bysshe Shelley	Power, arrogance, impermanence
London	William Blake	Inequality, suffering, institutional power
Extract from The Prelude	William Wordsworth	Nature's power, fear, the sublime
My Last Duchess	Robert Browning	Power, control, jealousy, gender
Charge of the Light Brigade	Alfred, Lord Tennyson	War, duty, honour, military failure
Exposure	Wilfred Owen	War, suffering, futility, nature's hostility
Storm on the Island	Seamus Heaney	Nature's power, isolation, fear
Bayonet Charge	Ted Hughes	War, terror, individuality, patriotism
Remains	Simon Armitage	PTSD, guilt, memory, the psychological cost of conflict
Poppies	Jane Weir	Loss, motherhood, memory, absence
War Photographer	Carol Ann Duffy	Conflict, suffering, desensitisation, guilt
Tissue	Imtiaz Dharker	Power, impermanence, human connection
The Emigree	Carol Rumens	Memory, identity, exile, political conflict
Checking Out Me History	John Agard	Identity, education, colonial power, resistance
Kamikaze	Beatrice Garland	Honour, shame, family, war, memory

Love and Relationships

Poem	Poet	Key Theme(s)
When We Two Parted	Lord Byron	Loss, secrecy, betrayal, memory
Love's Philosophy	Percy Bysshe Shelley	Desire, natural imagery, persuasion
Porphyria's Lover	Robert Browning	Obsessive love, power, control, madness
Sonnet 29	Elizabeth Barrett Browning	Transformative love, spiritual elevation
Neutral Tones	Thomas Hardy	Loss of love, disillusionment, memory
The Farmer's Bride	Charlotte Mew	Desire, isolation, gender, entrapment
Walking Away	Cecil Day Lewis	Parental love, letting go, memory
Letters from Yorkshire	Maura Dooley	Distance, communication, different lives, connection
Eden Rock	Charles Causley	Memory, family, death, reunion
Follower	Seamus Heaney	Father-son relationships, admiration, role reversal
Mother, Any Distance	Simon Armitage	Parental love, independence, growing up
Before You Were Mine	Carol Ann Duffy	Mother-daughter relationship, memory, nostalgia, possession
Winter Swans	Owen Sheers	Reconciliation, natural imagery, love
Singh Song!	Daljit Nagra	Cultural identity, love, humour, marriage
Climbing My Grandfather	Andrew Waterhouse	Family, memory, admiration, extended metaphor

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Shakespeare: Key Themes and Characters for Each Play

For whichever Shakespeare play you have studied, make sure you can discuss the following for each major character:

Character revision framework

For each character, know:

1. Their role in the plot — what do they do? How do they change?
2. Their key quotations — 3–5 quotations you can analyse
3. Their thematic significance — what ideas or themes do they represent?
4. Shakespeare's methods — how does Shakespeare present them (language, imagery, dramatic techniques)?
5. Contextual significance — how would a contemporary audience have viewed them?
6. Alternative interpretations — are there different ways to read their character?

Theme revision framework

For each key theme, know:

1. How the theme is introduced — where does it first appear?
2. How it develops — how does the theme change across the text?
3. Key quotations — 3–5 quotations that illuminate the theme
4. Writer's methods — how does the writer explore the theme (imagery, structure, symbolism)?
5. Contextual links — how does the theme connect to the historical/social context?

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19th-Century Novels: Key Themes and Narrative Techniques

For your chosen novel, ensure you can discuss:

Key areas for revision