AQA A-Level English Literature A Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts (2A), June 2025: Question 13

25 marks · Hard difficulty · Extended Response

Examine the significance of Craiglockhart Hospital as a setting in Regeneration.

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Question

Question 13 for Pat Barker's Regeneration asks students to: 'Examine the significance of Craiglockhart Hospital as a setting in Regeneration.' It is marked out of 25 marks.
Question text

Regeneration – Pat Barker

Either

13 Examine the significance of Craiglockhart Hospital as a setting in Regeneration.

[25 marks]

Mark scheme

Show the mark scheme Mark scheme for Question 13 outlines assessment objectives AO1 to AO5. AO5 points cover interpretations of the hospital as a psychological space, a place of therapy versus military discipline, and its physical decay. AO4 involves connections with hospital presentation, psychological effects of war, and home front settings. AO3 focuses on context including treatments of shell shock, historical context of Craiglockhart, changing medical practices, and attitudes towards masculinity. AO2 highlights narrative form, dialogue, prose description, and perspective. AO1 focuses on essay structure, argument, and terminology.

Question 13

Regeneration – Pat Barker

Examine the significance of Craiglockhart Hospital as a setting in Regeneration.

[25 marks]

Possible content:

Please refer to pages 4 to 7.

AO5 Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations

Students might consider:

• the hospital setting allows Barker to explore the impact of war in more varied ways; through the

dreams of the men and the interactions with Rivers

• the ambiguous nature of a hospital which promotes the ‘talking cure’ yet is run through military

discipline and monitors the movements of patients

• how the setting is more of a psychological space that presents the conflict and trauma of the men

who are treated there; ‘a place of screams and running footsteps’

• the physical representation of the building as ‘decaying’ and the dread that characters such as

Graves feel when they see it for the first time

• Barker’s use of an historical setting in a work of fiction

• etc

AO4 Explore connections across literary texts

Focus might be on:

• the presentation of hospitals

• ideas about the psychological effects of war

• home front settings

• etc.

AO3 Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which

literary texts are written and received

Focus might be on:

• the development of treatments towards ‘shell shock’ in the war

• the historical context of the setting

• the changing nature of medical practice

• changing attitudes towards masculinity in war

• the experience of war on the home front

• etc.

AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts

Focus might be on: 37

• aspects of narrative form and genre

• the use of dialogue as a way of presenting relationships

• the varied use of narrative perspective as a way of signifying Craiglockhart

• prose description of the hospital as a way of presenting the psychological experiences of the men

there

• etc.

AO1 Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated

concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression

• quality of argument

• organisation of ideas

• use of appropriate concepts and terminology

• technical accuracy.

Accept any valid interpretations, any valid comments on contexts and any valid discussion of

authorial methods.

How to answer it

Significance of Craiglockhart War Hospital in Regeneration

AQA A-Level English Literature A • Paper 2: Texts in Shared Contexts • 25 Marks

What this question tests

This question assesses your ability to explore the multi-layered significance of setting within 20th-century war prose, synthesising narrative technique, contextual influences, and literary debate.

Assessment Objectives (AOs):
  • AO1 (28%): Coherent, conceptually driven argument using literary critical vocabulary.
  • AO2 (24%): Analysis of Barker's methods: imagery, structural framing, narrative voice, and symbolism.
Historical & Literary Contexts:
  • AO3 (24%): Medical history (W.H.R. Rivers, Freud, 'shell shock'), class/military hierarchy, and gender roles.
  • AO4 & AO5 (24%): War literature traditions (home front vs battlefront) and critical interpretations (sanctuary vs prison).

1. Deconstructing the Question: "Significance of Setting"

Question 13: Examine the significance of Craiglockhart Hospital as a setting in Regeneration [25 marks]

In top-tier responses, "setting" is never treated merely as a passive physical backdrop. Craiglockhart operates as a complex, contradictory space: an architectural embodiment of psychological trauma, an instrument of state control, and an experimental therapeutic sanctuary.

💡 The Three Facets of Craiglockhart

  • Psychological Reflection: A physical manifestation of internal neuroses ("a place of screams and running footsteps").
  • The Paradoxical Sanctuary: A safe haven from the Western Front that simultaneously serves as a military depot preparing broken men to return to combat.
  • Liminal Social Space: Suspended between the Front and civilian life, where rigid Edwardian codes of class and masculine stoicism break down.

🧠 Top-Band Structural Strategy

  • Thesis: Barker frames Craiglockhart not as an oasis of peace, but as an extension of the war machine disguised as a domestic asylum.
  • Paragraph 1: Physical description & gothic undertones (decay, confinement, sensory horror).
  • Paragraph 2: The hospital as a panopticon/prison vs. Rivers' domestic "talking cure".
  • Paragraph 3: Subversion of gender & emasculation within the institutional space.
  • Paragraph 4: Craiglockhart vs. external settings (the Front, Slateford, the conservatory).

2. Key Textual Evidence & Contextual Synthesis

Essential quotes, motifs, and historical connections

💡 Core Motifs & Key Quotes

"A Victorian hydro... huge, gloomy, decaying."

Analysis: Barker highlights its pre-war civilian identity as a bourgeois spa, accentuating the irony of its conversion into a warehouse for psychological casualties.

"He had never been in a place where men sobbed and broke down so openly... it was a house of crying."

Analysis: Graves' and Sassoon's early perceptions construct the hospital as an emotional and emasculated space, violating the Edwardian masculine ideal.

"A place of screams and running footsteps in the night."

Analysis: By night, the rational institution collapses into nightmares and somnambulism, showing that the Front has crossed the channel into the patients' minds.

📐 AO3 & AO4 Framing Framework

  • AO3: Medical History: Craiglockhart was dedicated to officers suffering from neurasthenia. Contrast Rivers' humane, Freudian-influenced "talking cure" with Lewis Yealland’s brutal electrotherapy at Queen Square (London).
  • AO3: Military Conditioning: Despite civilian appearance, military ranks, uniforms, and Medical Boards dictate life. Discharge is not recovery; it is fitness to die.
  • AO4: War Writing Tradition: Barker subverts traditional war literature (which focuses on frontline trenches) by situating the trauma narrative entirely on the domestic "Home Front". Craiglockhart proves the trenches cannot be escaped.

3. Model Paragraphs & Examiner Commentary

Contrasting Band 3 (Sound) vs. Band 5 (Insightful/Conceptualised)

✅ Band 5 Extract: Conceptual Analysis of Setting

Barker constructs Craiglockhart not as an idyllic retreat from industrial slaughter, but as a liminal purgatory wherein the trauma of the Western Front is relentlessly re-enacted. The physical building—described through Graves' eyes as a "huge, gloomy, decaying" Victorian hydro—evokes Gothic tropes of domestic confinement and psychological entrapment. By night, the institutional facade of daytime medical routine disintegrates into "screams and running footsteps" , illustrating how the trench landscape has colonised the subconscious minds of its inmates. Furthermore, Barker uses the panoptic layout of Craiglockhart to underscore its role as an instrument of state hegemony: Rivers is explicitly conscious of his role as an institutional gatekeeper whose primary duty is not individual spiritual healing, but rather "re-educating" shattered officers so they may be recycled back to the killing fields. Thus, the hospital functions paradoxically as both an empathetic sanctuary for emotional honesty and a military processing station enforcing fatal compliance.

Examiner Assessment: Band 5/6 (23–25 marks). Strong conceptual argument (AO1), precise textual integration (AO2), seamless contextual embedding of Foucaultian discipline and historical military imperatives (AO3), and exploration of the sanctuary/prison paradox (AO5).

🧠 What Distinguishes Top-Level Responses?

  • Spatial nuance: Examining specific micro-spaces inside the hospital: Rivers' consulting room (intimate, equalizing), the public dining room (performance of sanity), the corridors/towers (surveillance, decay).
  • Contrast with exterior spaces: Comparing Craiglockhart with the Sussex countryside, the bedside visit to Campbell, or the industrial shell factory where Sarah works.
  • Rivers' moral crisis: Recognizing that the hospital traps the physician as much as the patients (the physical breakdown of Rivers' own jaw and health).

❌ Common Errors & Mark Traps

  • Pure narrative recount: Telling the story of who arrived at Craiglockhart (Sassoon, Prior, Burns) rather than analysing the function of setting.
  • "Tack-on" context: Dumping paragraphs on Freud or shell shock history without tying them directly to Barker's descriptions of the rooms or interactions.
  • Ignoring authorial craft (AO2): Failing to mention that Barker writes historical fiction with a late-20th-century feminist perspective on masculinity and trauma.

4. Essay Blueprint for Full Marks [25 Marks]

A 4-stage structural framework for your exam answer

Step 1: Introduction

Define Craiglockhart beyond geography. Establish the central paradox: a hybrid of therapeutic sanctuary and military penitentiary, reflecting the divided minds of officers trapped between duty and conscience.

Step 2: Gothic & Psychological Space

Analyse Barker’s sensory descriptions: sounds of somatic paralysis, mutism, nightmares. Show how the building acts as an objective correlative for the men's interior disintegration.

Step 3: Masculinity & Medical Regimes

Contrast Rivers' room (fostering maternal care and tears) with the authoritarian military board that sits in judgement. Explore how the setting challenges Edwardian stoic ideals.

Step 4: Institutional Complicity

Conclude with Rivers’ realization: Craiglockhart is merely the gentle hand of the state. Its ultimate goal is to pacify moral revolt (like Sassoon's declaration) and re-arm the victims.

Topics

WW1 and its aftermath · Regeneration

Question and mark scheme from the AQA A-Level English Literature A examination, Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts (2A), June 2025. QuestionVault is an independent revision resource; questions remain the copyright of the awarding body.