Transcript Philocleon

Wasps test 2 2006
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LEADER: Who is it that’s keeping you shut up in there?
[Philocleon, putting his finger to his lips, remains silent.]
Come on, you can tell us, we’re your friends.
Philocleon: My son. But don’t shout so loud – he’s asleep out in front there. Keep your
voices down.
LEADER: But why is he doing it? What’s his motive?
Philocleon: He won’t allow me to go to court: [petulantly] he won’t let me do any harm to
anybody. He wants to give me a good time, he says. I’ve never heard such nonsense.
I don’t want to be given a good time.
LEADER: Outrageous! It’s a threat to democracy! He’d never dare to say such things unless
he was plotting to overthrow the constitution. Traitor! Conspirator! – But you must
try to find some way of escape. Can’t you get down to us without him seeing you?
Philocleon: What way out is there? See if you can find one – I’ll do anything, I’m desperate.
If only I could get to court again! [Lyrically] I’m dying to file past the screens again,
with the pebble in my hand!
LEADER: Couldn’t you tunnel a way through the wall and come out disguised in rags, like
wily Odysseus?
Philocleon: They’ve stopped up all the holes: there isn’t a chink a gnat could squeeze
through. You’ll have to think of something else. What do you think I’m made of?
Cream cheese?
LEADER: Remember the Naxos campaign, and the way you stole those spits and climbed
down the wall?
Philocleon: Ah, yes, but things were different then. I was a young man, quick-footed and
light-fingered; at the height of my powers. And I wasn’t under guard: I could get
away quite safely. But this place is besieged: there’s a whole battalion of heavy
infantry right across my line of retreat. There are two of them down by the door,
watching every move I make. Anyone’d think I was the cat, trying to make off with
tomorrow’s joint. They’re the ones that have got the spits.
LEADER: Come on, you’ve got to think up some way of getting out, quickly – it’s getting
light.
(a)
(ii)
(i)
Who are Philocleon’s “friends” (line 3)?
Why have they come to his house?
Ques
Evidence
Achievement Mer Exc
tion
(a) (i) (The chorus of) (old) jurymen / BOTH parts
are required.
(A group of) elderly Athenian
citizens/old men / the chorus of
Wasps. (ii) To meet up with him /
Philocleon and head off together
to jury service.
(b) Explain the significance of the pebble that
Philocleon wants to hold in his hand (line 15).
Ques
Evidence
tion
(b) The jurors indicated their
verdict of guilty or innocent by
dropping a pebble into the
appropriate urn / jug / jar /
container.
Achievmnt
BOTH parts
are required.
Mer Exc
(c)
Describe in detail Philocleon’s earlier
unsuccessful attempt to escape “like wily Odysseus”
(line16-17)
Ques
Evidence
tion
(c) • Philocleon tried to break out of
the house by clinging to the belly
of/underneath a donkey (on its
way to market). • He tried to
sneak past his son. • However,
he is discovered (by Xanthias
and Bdelycleon), • his head
stuffed up the animal’s backside.
• Odysseus escaped (from the
Cyclops) underneath a ram. (Or
similar.)
Achievement Mer Exc
First point
plus one
other needed
for
Achievement.
(d)
(i)
What idea does Philocleon come up with for
“getting out” of the house (line 29)?
(ii)
How successful is his escape?
Ques
Evidence
tion
Achievement Mer Exc
(d) (i) He decides to gnaw
BOTH
through the net draped
parts are
over the house (and lower required.
himself on a rope from the
upper window). (ii) He
manages to get through
the net, but is caught in
mid-escape by Bdelycleon
(who suddenly wakes up).
(Or similar.)
(e)
Discuss in detail TWO aspects of Philocleon’s character
revealed in this extract. Provide evidence from the extract to
support your answer.
Qu
Evidence
(e)
• Philocleon is obsessed with jury service and desperate
to escape so that he can attend court: “I’ll do anything”.
• He is not interested in fashionable leisure activities and
is scornful of the pleasures promised by his son: “I don’t
want to be given a good time”.
• He unashamedly acknowledges his true motivation for
undertaking jury service. He has no special interest in
seeing that justice is done; instead he wants to go to
court to “do … harm”.
• He recognises that he is no longer in his physical prime
and regrets that he can’t clamber down the wall on spits:
“things were different then. I was a young man”.
• He is cunning / wily: eg he tells his friends he has to be
careful of his son / he was quick-footed and lightfingered as a warrior in his youth.
• He is stubborn: eg even though he is under guard and
being besieged, he is still looking for other ways to get
out TWO points with evidence are required. (Other
answers are possible.)
Ach
Mer
ONE
correct
answer.
OR TWO
partial
answers.
BOTH
parts of
the
questions
must be
fully
answere
d.
Exc
(f)
Discuss in detail TWO reasons for the Leader’s accusation that Philocleon’s
confinement represents “a threat to democracy” (line 10).
Qu Evidence
Ach
Mer
• The jurors identify themselves as
(f) patriotic democrats and believe that the
courts of Athens are a bulwark of the city’s
security / not allowing him to serve on a
jury might allow anti-democratic people to
go free.
• They see any attempt to interfere with
their right to undertake jury service as an
act of treachery, threatening the
constitution of the city.
• The jurors are under the influence of
powerful demagogues / radical democrats
and revert to political rhetoric when
obstructed. (Other answers are possible.)
ONE
correct
answer.
OR
TWO
partial
ansers.
BOTH
parts of
the
quns
must be
fully
ansd.
Ex
c
(g)
(i)
In the agon, Philocleon explains how he behaves in court.
Discuss in detail the ways in which he does “harm” (line 7). You must make THREE
points and provide specific examples from the play to support your answer.
Qu
(g)
Evidence
Ach
Mer
(i)
Any
TWO
points
fully
answerd
Any
THREE
points
fully
answerd
or
or
THREE
points
partially
answerd
.
FOUR
points
partially
answerd.
Ways Philocleon does “harm”:
• Philocleon is prepared to accept bribes – an
important man “slips his delicate hand into mine”.
• He is susceptible to flattery and emotional pleas:
“some of them bewail their poverty”.
• He is influenced by the entertainment the
defendants provide – a funny story from Aesop, a
speech from Niobe or a flute recital.
• He ignores “wills and solemn seals” if there is a
more lucrative offer, since jurors are not “held to
account”.
• He is under the sway of powerful politicians like
Cleon. The Great Roarer “keeps the flies off” the
jurors because they convict his political enemies.
(Other points are possible: eg encouragement of child
abuse.) THREE points are needed (wording of
question will allow points from elsewhere in play).
Exc
FOUR points
fully answered
are required.
(g) (ii) To what extent are politicians held responsible for the corruption of the
Athenian justice system in the Wasps? Provide evidence from the play to support
your answer. Do not repeat information used elsewhere.
Qu
(g)
Evidence
Ach
Mer
(ii) Extent to which politicians are held responsible for
corruption:
• Politicians are depicted as self-interested, dishonest men
who use the courts to increase their own power eg the First
Dog, aka Cleon, prosecutes Labes, aka Laches, because he
has not been given his share of the spoils, the stolen cheese.
He demands that Labes be convicted on the grounds that
“there’s no room for two thieves in one kitchen”.
• They enslave jurors, like Philocleon, exploiting their
economic vulnerability or their gullibility eg Bdelycleon
explains in the agon that the jurors receive less than 10% of
the national income, while “this gang of demagogues” keeps
them poor so that they will do their bidding: “Go on! Good
dog! Bite him!”
• They manipulate jurors to get the verdicts they want eg As
the chorus of jurymen head off to court, they acknowledge
that they are attending “with three days’ ration of bad
temper” on the recommendation of Cleon. Laches, one of
Cleon’s opponents, is on trial, and the demagogue has
effectively bought the jury before the trial begins. ONE point
is needed with evidence from the text. (Other anss possible.)
Any
TWO
points
fully
answerd
Any
THREE
points
fully
answerd
or
or
THREE
points
partially
answerd
.
FOUR
points
partially
answerd.
Exc
FOUR points
fully answered
are required.