Cambridge International Literature in English

How Dracula is examined. Dracula was a Paper 4 (Pre- and Post-1900 Poetry and Prose) Section A set text for 2022, 2023 and 2024 only – not for 2025, 2026 or the 2029–31 syllabus (2021–23 syllabus; 2024–26 syllabus). Each question offers (a) an essay or (b) a printed passage, out of 25. Closed book. The catalogue includes 20 papers and 40 question records across March, June and November series in 2022–2024. Check the series and variant rather than assuming a fixed number each year. Source details. Source details.

Mark schemes are generic (“mark according to the levels of response marking criteria”), so the commentary lives in the Principal Examiner Reports.

Browse the Cambridge 9695 question records. Exact question excerpts, shortened prompts and report-based summaries are labelled separately. Open the original paper for the complete instruction, extract and rubric.

Read each year’s questions before its feedback. The wording labels distinguish recorded excerpts from summaries that still need checking against the paper. General-paper and unseen-passage comments are identified separately; a report may not discuss every question listed.

Report: report. Source details.

Questions in this series. The recorded wording below is labelled as an excerpt or a summary; use the original paper for the complete instruction and any supplied passage.

What the examiners reported

• 41(a) victims: most answered well, with good work on Mina, Lucy and the three vampire women; weaker answers summarised Mina and Lucy as stereotypes. Psychoanalytic and socio-cultural readings were used. Many argued Lucy is no longer a victim by the end. The vampire women were read as victims turned predators under the Count – “patriarchy ruling from beyond the grave”. The best linked characterisation to male heroism, romantic love and the Gothic bedroom scene.

• 41(b) the Count’s welcome: the best caught his duplicity and linked it to imperialism and exoticism; few noticed the threshold-invitation motif.

• 42(b): better answers on the Count’s inhumanity (animal imagery, crucifix, wafer) and on the build and release of tension.

• 43(a) desire: very few answers, mostly Level 3 or below, focused on the vampire women, Harker and the attacks read as sexual. The weakest took “desire” to mean ordinary wishes. 43(b): the best read Van Helsing as teacher and as foil to the Count.

Report: report. Source details.

Questions in this series. The recorded wording below is labelled as an excerpt or a summary; use the original paper for the complete instruction and any supplied passage.

What the examiners reported

• 42(a) outsider: some excellent answers combined context with philosophical argument about “the other” in Victorian literature while staying rooted in the text. Too many dwelt only on the castle chapters, raising doubts about whole-novel reading. The best tied the epistolary form and structure to the question.

• 43(a) reader’s response to the Count: mostly good; some leaned too heavily on the Count as a symbol of contemporary fears.

• 41(b) Lucy’s memorandum: Lucy as victim; symbolism of the wreath and the wolf; laudanum as context.

Report: report. Source details.

Questions in this series. The recorded wording below is labelled as an excerpt or a summary; use the original paper for the complete instruction and any supplied passage.

What the examiners reported

• 41(a) Van Helsing: the best linked him to religion against science, East against West, and appearance against reality. Some read him as the good foreigner set against the bad foreigner, opening up Victorian attitudes to outsiders. 41(b): the best used dramatic irony and the epistolary form.

• 42(a) Harker and Mina: mostly mid-range. Their love read as a defence against darkness; Mina as a conventional Victorian wife with a foot in the new age, contrasted with Lucy; some saw role reversal (Harker trapped, Mina resisting). Insightful but thinly evidenced, with little on methods.

Questions in this series. The recorded wording below is labelled as an excerpt or a summary; use the original paper for the complete instruction and any supplied passage.

What the examiners reported

The official June 2024 report is publicly available. Its Dracula discussion is under Question 5. Stronger answers use the question to establish a clear judgement, support it across the text and analyse narrative methods; weaker responses tend towards descriptive accounts or paraphrase. Read the report (PDF pp. 51–52, 59 and 65). Source details.

Open the candidate-answer catalogue for links, reported marks, page references and what to learn from each response.

None. No Cambridge “Example Candidate Responses” booklet for Dracula was found.

Cambridge’s examiners credit context when it is combined with close reading – “the other” in Victorian literature, imperialism and exoticism, laudanum – but warn against reading the Count merely as a symbol of contemporary fears. Critical lenses (psychoanalytic, socio-cultural) are welcome. Their recurring emphasis is on methods and on whole-novel knowledge rather than a few famous chapters.

Open the board’s assessment-materials library. The source register records individual reports, mark schemes and access notes. Sources for studying and teaching Dracula.

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