What are examiners looking for in my essay's?

The amazing thing about English Literature is your freedom to take the essay in any individual direction you want, especially in A level. Examiners will be looking for individual analysis and interpretation of the text. A lot of reasons that students do poorly in English Literature essays is that they place too much emphasis on description rather than analysis. 

For example instead of writing 'The room that Jane Eyre is banished to is red, which heightens the feeling of punishment', you could write 'Jane Austen picked red, the well acknowledged colour of aggression and anger in order to justly exhibit how traumatic an experience Jane Eyre had there. Furthermore it provides a clear symbol to represent her unloving childhood, in the room she would often recall in a 'PTSD like' state in her later years.'