GCSE English Literature

Shakespeare
13 Topics
Understanding Macbeth
Character Analysis of Macbeth
Character Relationships in Macbeth
The Context of Macbeth
Language and Dramatic Techniques in Macbeth
Themes, Motifs and Symbols in Macbeth
Understanding Romeo and Juliet
Character Analysis of Romeo and Juliet
Character Relationships in Romeo and Juliet
The Context of Romeo and Juliet
Language and Dramatic Techniques in Romeo and Juliet
Themes, Motifs and Symbols in Romeo and Juliet
Understanding the Tempest
19th Century Novels
20 Topics
Understanding The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Chapter 5-10 Summaries of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Character Analysis of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Themes in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Understanding A Christmas Carol
Character Analysis of A Christmas Carol
Themes in A Christmas Carol
Understanding Great Expectations
Great Expectations Character Analysis
Themes in Great Expectations
Understanding Jane Eyre
Character Analysis of Jane Eyre
Themes in Jane Eyre
Understanding Frankenstein
Character Analysis of Frankenstein
Themes in Frankenstein
Understanding Pride and Prejudice
Summary of Pride and Prejudice
Character Analysis of Pride and Prejudice
Themes in Pride and Prejudice
Drama
38 Topics
Understanding An Inspector Calls
Character Analysis of An Inspector Calls
Themes in An Inspector Calls
Understanding Blood Brothers
Act 1 Summary of Blood Brothers
Act 2 Summary of Blood Brothers
Twins Character Analysis of Blood Brothers
Supporting Characters Analysis of Blood Brothers
Themes in Blood Brothers
Motifs and Symbols in Blood Brothers
Understanding The History Boys
Act 1: Summary of The History Boys
Act 2: Summary of The History Boys
Character Analysis of The History Boys
Themes in The History Boys
Understanding The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Part One: Summary of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Part Two: Summary of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Primary Character Analysis of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Secondary Character Analysis of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
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Prose
19 Topics
Primary Character Analysis of Animal Farm
Secondary Character Analysis of Animal Farm
Themes in Animal Farm
Symbols in Animal Farm
Understanding Animal Farm
Chapter Summaries of Animal Farm
Understanding Lord of the Flies
Chapter 1-6 Summary of Lord of the Flies
Chapter 7-12 Summary of Lord of the Flies
Primary Character Analysis of Lord of the Flies
Secondary Character Analysis of Lord of the Flies
Themes in Lord of the Flies
Symbols in Lord of the Flies
Chemistry – Telling Tales Analysis – AQA Anthology
Odour of Chrysanthemums – Telling Tales Analysis – AQA Anthology
My Polish Teacher’s Tie – Telling Tales Analysis – AQA Anthology
Korea – Telling Tales Analysis – AQA Anthology
A Family Supper – Telling Tales Analysis – AQA Anthology
Invisible Mass of the Back Row – Telling Tales Analysis – AQA Anthology
Poetry
30 Topics
The Farmer’s Bride: Love and Relationships Analysis
Eden Rock: Love and Relationships Analysis
Walking Away: Love and Relationships Analysis
Letters from Yorkshire: Love and Relationships Analysis
Follower: Love and Relationships Analysis
Mother, Any Distance: Love and Relationships Analysis
Love’s Philosophy: Love and Relationships Analysis
Neutral Tones: Love and Relationships Analysis
When We Two Parted: Love and Relationships Analysis
Porphyria’s Lover: Love and Relationships Analysis
Sonnet 29: Love and Relationships Analysis
Before You Were Mine: Love and Relationships Analysis
Winter Swans: Love and Relationships Analysis
Singh Song!: Love and Relationships Analysis
Climbing My Grandfather: Love and Relationships Analysis
Ozymandias: Power and Conflict Analysis
London: Power and Conflict Analysis
The Prelude – Stealing the Boat: Power and Conflict Analysis
My Last Duchess: Power and Conflict Analysis
The Charge of the Light Brigade: Power and Conflict Analysis
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Chemistry – Telling Tales Analysis – AQA Anthology

GCSE English Literature Prose Chemistry – Telling Tales Analysis – AQA Anthology

Chemistry was written in 1982 by London-born writer Graham Swift. It first appeared in the collection Learning to Swim and Other Stories. Swift has stated that he likes to “write about the moments of crisis in people’s lives.”

Plot Summary

Chemistry tells the story of a boy who lives with his mother and grandfather. He describes the closeness he feels with his grandfather. This is demonstrated in their shared activity of sending a small motorboat across a pond to each other, which they both greatly enjoy.

The boy’s mother meets a new partner, Ralph, and he moves into the house. This causes a lot of tension as Ralph and the boy’s grandfather argue a lot. The grandfather spends more and more time in his shed conducting chemistry experiments. Inside the house, the boy’s mother and Ralph spend their evenings getting drunk.

The boy feels desperate to resolve the conflict in the family. He steals some acid from his grandfather’s shed, which he plans to throw in Ralph’s face the following day. However, when he wakes up the next day, he finds his grandfather dead, being carried away in an ambulance. The official verdict is suicide by drinking a toxic substance, but the boy blames his mother for driving him to suicide.

He goes to the pond where they used to sail the motorboat. There, he imagines that he sees his grandfather on the other side, showing how their bond is unbroken by death.

Characters

The Boy

Aged 10 when the main action in the story happens, he is said to look like both his grandmother and his father. He is very close to his grandfather, and he feels responsible for helping him when he is forced out of the house, into his shed.

His solution, to throw acid in Ralph’s face, is childish and disturbing. He grieves deeply for his grandfather after his death and imagines him reappearing.

The Grandfather

He is stubborn and refuses to move out of his house when his wife dies, and is happy when his daughter and grandson come to live with him. He has a passion for chemistry and carries out experiments in his shed.

The grandfather’s hands are deformed and scarred from an experiment that went wrong. He enters into a battle of wills with Ralph, but his daughter sides with her new partner over her father, so he is banished to the shed. His misery leads to him committing suicide.

The Mother

She is still grieving for her husband who died when the small aircraft he was on crashed into the Irish Sea. She treats the boy more like an adult, pleading for his advice on the tension in the family. During disputes, she sides with Ralph, and she takes to drinking heavily with him every night.

The boy becomes convinced that she deliberately sunk the motorboat he and his grandfather had. After her father’s death, she seems happier and starts preparing to move to a new house.

Ralph

The boy’s stepfather, Ralph, is a physically large man whom the boy fears and hates. He challenges the grandfather’s dominance in the household, forcing the older man to relocate to his shed. He drinks heavily and influences the mother to do the same.

Language, Form and Structure

  • The story is written in the third person and past tense.
  • We see the events from the child’s narrative viewpoint.
  • The boy, his mother and grandfather are not given names, perhaps to make the story more universal and relatable to diverse family dynamics.
  • Time in the story is used to compare the past and the present. After Ralph is shown arguing with the grandfather, there is a flashback to how they came to live together. The past is revealed to be a more settled period for the family.
  • There is also a flashforward when the narrator explains how the mother “never did explain” the circumstances of the grandfather’s death.

Themes

Family ties

Swift uses the symbol of the motorboat to show the connection that the boy feels with his mother and grandfather at the beginning of the story:

“As it moved, it seemed that it followed an actual existing line between Grandfather, myself and Mother, as if Grandfather were pulling us toward him on some invisible cord, and that he had to do this to prove we were not beyond his reach.”

When the boat sinks, this signals that the family tie between the three of them is broken. In a dream where he sees his father, the boy realises that his mother had put a hole in the boat to make it sink. Therefore, he blames his mother for the breakdown of their family, caused by her bringing Ralph into their home.

The story ends with him imagining his grandfather on the other side of the pond, waiting for the “unstoppable, unsinkable” boat. This symbolises how, even in death, the connection between the boy and his grandfather cannot be broken.

Grief

All three of the remaining family members grieve for the death of the boy’s father and grandmother. Even when unified in the story’s opening, they live together in a “sad symmetry.”

The boy then has to cope with the grief of losing his grandfather. This is made worse because he is angry towards his mother, whom he blames for his grandfather’s suicide. While he grieves, his mother looks happy, “as if she had recovered from an illness.”

Just before his grandfather dies, he has a dream about his father, which is disturbing as he appears as if pulled out of the ocean, with “seaweed hung from his shoulders.” However, the vision of his grandfather at the pond is much happier, helping him to cope with the devastating loss.

Change

The boy experiences many changes throughout the short story:

  • Ralph moves in
  • His grandfather moves to the shed
  • His mother becomes an alcoholic
  • His grandfather dies
  • His mother prepares for them to leave the house

He struggles to cope with all these changes in his life and wishes everything could be as it was before Ralph’s arrival. This prompts him to plan the drastic action of throwing acid in Ralph’s face. He has the misguided notion that this would make everything normal again.

The idea of change is symbolised through the grandfather’s love of chemistry. He explains, “Chemistry is the science of change… Anything can change.” This prompts the boy to think about people changing, in particular his mother, now that she is with Ralph.

By the end of the story, his growing up is shown by his acceptance of change, as he realises that “though things change they aren’t destroyed.” He understands that he can still remember his past and the people he has lost, even if they are no longer physically present with him.

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