The glass plate
An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.
Mr Voss stood beside the camera, polishing its brass fittings until they shone. Nell Gray waited at the rear bench among the stoppered bottles. Although she had worked there for two years, he still called her “girl”, as if her name were an unnecessary piece of equipment.
“Bring the large plate,” he ordered when the family arrived for their portrait.
Nell lifted it towards the window and saw a hair-thin scratch across the glass. She warned him quietly.
“I shall judge that,” Mr Voss replied. He took the plate from her, but sunlight found the flaw at once, drawing a bright scar across its surface. For a moment, he said nothing.
Nell had already placed an undamaged plate beside the camera.
“Then we shall use yours,” he said.
The youngest child would not remain still. Mr Voss moved the stool twice, each time more sharply than before. At last, he looked towards Nell. “Where would you place him, Miss Gray?”
She brought the child nearer his mother and gave him a brass lens cap to hold. He became quiet. Mr Voss stepped away from the camera, leaving Nell to arrange the others. When she had finished, he inspected the group but altered nothing.
Later, the completed portrait emerged clear and balanced. “You may prepare tomorrow’s sitting alone,” he told her. Then he locked the unused plates in the cabinet and slipped the key into his own waistcoat pocket, as he always did.
Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to present the changing working relationship between Mr Voss and Nell. In your answer, consider whether the ending shows genuine trust or whether Mr Voss still keeps control. Support your answer with references to the passage.
456 exam-style questions on Edexcel GCSE English Language 1.3 Content: prose fiction study requirements, covering 1.3.1 Read challenging prose fiction for the unseen 19th-century extract. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.