Analysing Richard III

RICHARD III: film adaptations

The opening soliloquy: various interpretations

The Wooing Scene

THE HOLLOW CROWN: Episode 3 

Getting ready for the Mid-year Exam on July 3rd

Apart from re-reading acts 1 and 2 as well as your booklet and folder notes you may wish to check out the following links:

• PLOT SUMMARY
• CHARACTERIZATION 
• THEMES
• LANGUAGE
• PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS 

Discussion questions to get you thinking

1)  What for you was the most riveting or satisfying moment in the play? Can you account for how the playwright managed to achieve that effect?

2)  Who was your favorite or least favorite secondary character in the play? Can you see how the playwright elicited such a response? Follow-up: Why is that secondary character included?

3)  If you were asked to direct ________________ (for example, the Richard’s death scene; or the wooing of Lady Anne scene; or another important scene), what choices would you make in your direction and what important ideas of the play would your choices help to emphasize?

4)  In a play about royal families, why are common everyday people included? If you were directing, how would you present these characters and why?

5)  Richard often talks directly to the audience in the play. What is the effect of this choice by the playwright?

6)  Sometimes parts are cut from this long Shakespeare play. What is a character that some directors might consider cutting? Can you give cases for and against cutting this character?

7)  This is the only play of Shakespeare’s to begin with a soliloquy, with a character alone onstage describing a long speech. What effect does this soliloquy have on both the audience and the ideas of the play?

8)  How does the dramatist use rhythm and breaks in meter to convey theme and character?

LANGUAGE BOOKLET

RICHARD 3 Booklet

RICHARD 3

CONTEXT: THE WARS OF THE ROSES

SOURCES

Thomas More's Life of Richard (1513)

"Richard, the third son, of whom we now entreat, was in wit and courage equal with either of them, in body and prowess far under them both; little of stature, ill-featured of limbs, crook-backed, his left shoulder much higher than his right, hard-favoured of visage, and such as is in states called warlike, in other men otherwise. He was malicious, wrathful, envious and from afore his birth ever froward ... He was close and secret, a deep dissimuler, lowly of countenance, arrogant of heart, outwardly coumpinable [friendly] where he inwardly hated, not letting to kiss whom he thought to kill; dispiteous and cruel, not for evil will always, but after for ambition, and either for the surety and increase of his estate."

And so on. This is the portrait of Richard that was taken up by the chroniclers Hall (The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke) and Holinshed (Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland). Where More charts Richard’s rise to the throne, the chroniclers add his descent into disgrace and defeat, providing history in a more medieval sense than we are used to today – a pageant of the lives of great men and houses, exemplifying moral lessons: the Wheel of Fortune is relentless, pride must have a fall, the evildoer eventually meets with his just deserts. In this mentality, even the alleged physical deformities have a moral significance, as outward signs of inner ugliness. For a dramatist, then, More and the chroniclers provided a fully worked-out cartoon villain, complete with motives (‘not for evil will always, but after for ambition’), and vivid details: for example, Shakespeare’s depiction of the scene in which Richard entraps Hastings and orders his execution - ‘Talk’st thou to me of ifs?’ (3.4.75) – closely follows the account of the same scene in More.

DNA Arguing constructively

Today we are going to do a Socratic Seminar.

To start the discussion, please fill in the following survey. Click on the link below

https://forms.gle/rkcmrwEwJyhAgQpR7

POETRY UNIT

HOW CAN POETRY BE USED FOR PROTEST?

Speak your truth

L5 Lan Lit Evaluation

TERM 3 Grammar test

GRAMMAR TEST 3rd Term

Criterion D: Using language Maximum: 8 

At the end of year 5, students should be able to:

i. use appropriate and varied vocabulary, sentence structures and forms of expression
ii. write and speak in a register and style that serve the context and intention
iii. use correct grammar, syntax and punctuation
iv. spell (alphabetic languages), write (character languages) and pronounce with accuracy
v. use appropriate non-verbal communication techniques.

On November 14 some stuudents will be taking a test which will assess strands i, iii and iv of this criterion.

In order to practice for it here are a few links you can use

•  .Word formation exercises. (exercises 1 to 10)
•    Multiple choice cloze (exercises 1 to 5)
•    Open cloze (exercises 1 to 5)
•    Key word transformation (all the exercises)
•    Modal verbs: deduction and speculation
•   Error correction: Work on YOUR common errors by going through your corrections. Try and see what kind of mistakes you always make. You may also check out this link for errors Spanish speaking learners tend to make. At the bottom of the page you have the key. 

ANIMAL FARM

Use of form in Animal Farm

The form of a novel is the type of text and genre the writer chooses to write in. Animal Farm has a number of elements to its form and genre.

Animal Farm could fit into the genre of a fairy story, fable, allegory or satire.

On the surface the novel is very simple, a narrative with a lesson that is suitable for children. When seeing the narrative as a metaphor or allegory it becomes more complex, the reader needs prior knowledge to appreciate the novel on this level.

Genre

·         Fairy story - the idea of talking animals and the simple written style are elements that fit this form.

·         Allegory - the farm and the animals are an extended metaphor. The farm represents Russia and its experience of revolution in the 1900s. Mr Jones and the animals represent the Russian leaders and people of the time.

·         Fable - a fable is a story that teaches a lesson or moral. Orwell uses the actions of the animals to teach the reader lessons about equality, power, corruption and freedom.

·         Satire - Orwell satirises the political leaders of Russia in the 1900s.

The narrator

The novel has a third person omniscient narrator, we see and know everything that happens and hear the characters' thoughts. This gives the reader an overview which allows us to come to our own conclusions about events on the farm.

How to analyse form

Question

Explain how Animal Farm is allegorical.

· On the surface Animal Farm is a simple story.

· If the reader has knowledge of the events of the Russian Revolution in 1917 it can be read as an allegory.

· This means that each character and event has a real life equivalent

· Orwell uses this form to express his opinions about the events and people who were involved in this period of history

Use of language in Animal Farm

The language Orwell uses in Animal Farm is simple, clear and accessible. Description and dialogue are kept to a minimum and Orwell avoids sentimentality - even the most heart-breaking sections of the text are very direct in style. He focuses on telling the story, allowing the reader to concentrate on the lessons he wants us to learn. Through the pigs, Orwell shows how rhetoric can be a powerful tool of manipulation.

When analysing the language Orwell uses, you could use this structure:

• What has Orwell done?
• How and why has he done it?
• What effect does it have on the reader?
• How could the words you have chosen to look at be interpreted differently?
• Use a quote to back up your point.
• Avoid explaining what language devices mean eg no need to say 'a simile is a way of comparing one thing to another'.

Evidence and explanation of the language used

What	How	Why	Effect
Persuading questions	"Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours?"	To make the other animals question their positions on the farm.	This rhetorical device is used to encourage the animals to rebel. Old Major asks the question and then he provides the animals with the answer he wants, persuading them that he is right.
Controlling questions	"Are you certain that this is not something that you have dreamed, comrades? Have you any record of such a resolution?"	Squealer controls the others by questioning their memories.	This rhetorical device is used to make the animals doubt themselves. Orwell shows how rhetoric can be used negatively.
Repetition	"Long live the windmill! Long live Animal Farm!"	Here Napoleon uses repetition to reinforce his message.	Repeating ‘Long live’ helps emphasise Napoleon’s point that he wants Animal Farm to continue forever. Whilst this appears to be positive, here Napoleon uses the sentiment to make a scapegoat (an individual irrationally blamed) of Snowball.
Emotive language	A cry of horror burst from all the animals.	The scene when Boxer is taken away is very emotive.	The fact that the ‘horror’, in itself an emotive word, ‘burst’ from the animals gives a clear indication that their fear was so great it almost exploded from within them.
Direct style	Boxer was never seen again.	Orwell uses very plain language to describe Boxer’s disappearance.	In contrast to the emotive language seen above, Orwell uses direct and understated language. This helps to make Boxer’s treatment more tragic.

How to analyse language

In order to analyse language you must:

• choose a section from the text to analyse
• select a quote from the text that is relevant to the question and the point you want to make
• consider how the quote reflects character/theme/context
• explore in detail the impact specific words or phrases have upon the reader
• evaluate how effective the author’s choice of language is

Below is an example section from the novel. In this section Napoleon is speaking to the farm animals. He blames Snowball for the damage the bad weather has done to the windmill.

'Comrades', he said quietly, 'do you know who is responsible for this? Do you know the enemy who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill? SNOWBALL!' he roared in a voice of thunder. 'Snowball has done this thing! In sheer malignity, thinking to set back our plans and avenge himself for his ignominious expulsion, this traitor has crept here under cover of night and destroyed our work of nearly a year' (Napoleon)

Question

Analyse the language used in this quotation. How do the pigs use language to control the other animals?

1. Use of personal pronouns - Napoleon uses 'Comrades' and 'our' to get the other animals on his side.
2. Emotive language - he uses words like 'malignity' and 'traitor' - these emotive words help make the animals react emotionally to what he is saying meaning they are more likely to be angry.
3. Use of questions and repetition - 'Do you know who is responsible for this?', 'do you know the enemy..?'. Napoleon repeats the question and gives them his own answer 'SNOWBALL'. Here questions are used to control.
4. Uses of expressive verbs and adjectives - Orwell explains that Napoleon 'Roared in a voice of thunder'. Explosive words which add a sense of sound to of the section as well as the mood.

STRUCTURE IN ANIMAL FARM

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