A-LEVEL
CLASSICAL CIVILISATION
CIV3C Greek Tragedy
Report on the Examination
2020
June 2016
Version: 1.0
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REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – A-LEVEL CLASSICAL CIVLISATION – CIV3C – JUNE 2016
CIV3C
Greek Tragedy
General Comments
As usual, this was by far the most popular of the four CIV3 units. The standard of the best work was
high, and there were a few scripts of outstanding quality. Some students had well-developed
analytical and critical skills which they demonstrated in their answers to the 10- and 20-mark
questions. There was some evidence of sophisticated judgement, sensitivity and perception,
particularly in responses to the synoptic questions, and of some excellent and committed teaching.
Some centres had continued to empower their students to use the appropriate technical language
correctly, though, as before, weaker responses tended to scatter the terminology liberally in
uncertainty of its meaning: peripeteia was one of the most popular victims of this trend. Some
students were clearly not in a position to deploy either classical concepts or terminology. There is
still a noticeable tendency to provide narrative rather than analytical answers, or to use everything
they remember about a particular topic, whether appropriate to the question or not. More generally,
there is still a failure to support statements with references to the play, and a strong tendency to
respond to the 40-mark questions with a descriptive play-by-play treatment rather than a thematic
one. Weaker scripts paid less attention to the 20-mark question than they might, and so failed to
demonstrate the knowledge of the individual play which would have gained them marks. There
were widespread examples of poor writing and avoidable spelling mistakes.
Section 1
Option A
This was substantially the more popular of the two structured questions. A number of answers to
Question 01 failed to identify the speech as Creon’s rant to Haemon and the Chorus after Antigone
and Ismene have been despatched into the palace to await the carrying out of Creon’s sentence.
These tended to give more of the earlier story. Good answers to Question 02 were able to think
about Creon’s commitment to the rule of law and political efficiency; this speech is very much
concerned with Creon’s interest in the hierarchical government structure, the household and the
family, and the army as a parallel, all of which work by the maintenance of discipline. Credit was
given for the recognition that the issues of government, and foreign policy, democratic or not, and
of individual liberty that this raises would have been important ones for an Athenian audience of
the day to hear raised and debated. There would certainly have been some sympathetic listeners.
Emphasis on the gender issue was frequent, and given credit as appropriate.
Answers to Question 03 varied between agreement and alternative suggestions, the most
convincing of which was probably the encounter with Teiresias, which received some perceptive
comments. Many answers, however, recognised that Antigone has just achieved a major act of
subversion in demonstrating commitment to her brother, to religious values, even at extreme
personal cost, and that she is openly and aggressively against the regime Creon represents, and
against his secularisation of power. Her treatment of Ismene, Haemon and Creon reveals her as
committed to maintaining independence from those who are not with her; in herself she is
destructive of Creon’s whole conceptual framework. Haemon’s gradual shift, in the face of Creon’s
intransigence to a commitment to Antigone’s cause as well as to her personally and the threat of
his own suicide, reinforces Creon’s own maintenance of his position, and the rest of the ensuing
tragic structure follows. Weaker answers tended to the generic, without much use of the passage.
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REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – A-LEVEL CLASSICAL CIVLISATION – CIV3C – JUNE 2016
Option B
Those students who preferred this option largely responded well. Most answers to Question 04
were able to situate the extract well as the consequence of the opening speech by Aphrodite
announcing her intention of intervening in Theseus’ family; Hippolytus makes it clear that he is her
opponent; Phaedra is supported onstage, sick, by the Nurse, and given a seat by the attendants,
and in the ensuing dialogue it becomes clear that her prevailing emotion is aidos, leading to her
veiling, and a discussion between the nurse and the Chorus of the apparent situation. Phaedra
eventually reveals the cause of her spiritual anguish, to which the Nurse reacts by advising a
practical and physical solution. Many answers to Question 05 were able to centre on marital
chastity, as a mainstay of the orthodox oikos and its succession system, to which Phaedra and
Hippolytus are both to some extent anomalous. Allied to this is the concept of family honour and
reputation, and its place in the honour of their city – no doubt a current issue when the ‘Hippolytus’
was first put on. The Nurse, whose slave status gives her a different perspective, ignores these
issues, and goes for what she views as a realistic solution to the problem in front of her,
deliberately misunderstanding Phaedra’s scruples. Answers to question 06 largely treated it,
rightly, as a cue for discussion of notions of honour, family values, father-son relationships,
husband-wife relationships, stepmothers, responsibility versus personal desires, and the nurse as
a member of a socially excluded class with a different notion of most of these issues. The stronger
answers were able to develop links between this scene and the rest of the play; weaker answers
either went for a negative answer strategy, or noted themes without development or use of other
parts of the play as supporting evidence.
Section 2
Option C
This was the more popular 40-mark question, but many students simply offered play-by-play
readings. Some argued within individual plays, some rejected forgiveness completely in some of
them. Thus, whilst it was a popular choice, students were not always prepared to offer analytical
responses to this question. Some very good answers took thematic approaches that looked at
how forgiveness related to other themes such as revenge and even what could be inferred about
forgiveness from its absence. Students who at least started to develop links were rewarded. A few
students started with the idea of drawing a line under an issue of guilt, and moving on, and used all
four plays to consider whether this is a factor in the resolution of any of them. Rather more
students thought in terms of forgiveness, or a lack of it, as a factor which could have altered the
plot or its outcomes for individual characters: ‘Hippolytus’ was an obvious starting point, using both
the Phaedra story, and at least some or all of the Artemis, Theseus, Hippolytus scenario, and
especially Artemis’ speech to Theseus before the revelation of Hippolytus’ ‘accident’. Some better
answers were able to extend this to discussion of Antigone, Creon and Haemon in ‘Antigone’ and
the chain of events which leads to Creon’s failure to rescue his family. Equally, some answers
thought about Oedipus, Jocasta and Creon in ‘King Oedipus’ – again, Jocasta’s suicide, and both
Oedipus’ own form of penitence and Creon’s actions to force a resolution figured. Probably
inevitably, ‘Medea’ often produced a discussion which weighed up revenge as against pardon /
penitence / admission of guilt by any of the figures involved, but especially Medea. Good answers
had a sense of the way in which these factors play a part in the characterisation of the major
players, as well as the plot, and had something to say about the classical ethical framework in
which they fit.
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REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – A-LEVEL CLASSICAL CIVLISATION – CIV3C – JUNE 2016
Option D
This was the less popular synoptic question, but encouraged stronger answers with awareness of
the need for a thematic approach. Most connected plays through concepts such as dramatic irony
and political motifs. There were also some good answers that understood how myths had been
changed and / or engineered to shock and engage the audience. Some students were less well
prepared for this and asserted that elements of the plots would be taken for granted by Athenians
where this might not be the case, for instance Medea’s murder of her children. There were some
weaker play-by-play responses but these were less common for this question.
Stronger responses demonstrated that students recognised that the question encouraged
discussion of familiar legends and dramatic irony as devices for including the audience in the
working out of the plot; ‘Oedipus the King’ provided a lot of the fuel – we know much more than he
does, and almost everything he says is double edged. In the ‘Hippolytus’ our pity is perhaps
moved by what we know will happen to him, if not so much by the minutiae of what he says. Our
knowledge of his fate will affect the view we take of Theseus’ treatment of him, and also probably
our reception of Phaedra. ‘Antigone’ is perhaps the least ironic of all the plays, though there is a
reversal of fortune which will contribute to our appreciation of the twists of the plot; the view we
take of Creon will be fuelled by our knowledge of the outcome of his adherence to principles which
are not wrong by one set of standards, and which he views as universal and impersonal rules of
good government but which will lead to disaster of a particularly personal and domestic kind in the
loss of his wife and son. Good answers were able to use all four plays to illustrate a sense of
dramatic irony as a convention and as a tool for managing audience reaction. Credit was given for
recognition that both playwrights used variable myths or innovated (including the fate of Haemon,
the two versions of Hippolytus, and Euripides’ probable introduction of infanticide in ‘Medea’) thus
using material which may not have been familiar to the audience.
Mark Ranges and Award of Grades
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