Hello, my name is Ms. Grant.

I'm so glad you've decided to learn with me today.

We're in the modern text first study unit and our modern text is "Leave Taking." Today we're going to read Scene Eight, the final scene of the play.

It's incredibly rich, incredibly powerful, full of resolutions, but also new beginnings for some of our characters.

I can't wait to hear all of your fantastic ideas.

I'm gonna be your support and guide as we work through this lesson together.

Let's get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, you're going to be able to explain what happens in Scene eight of "Leave Taking" with a focus on Del's development.

So we're gonna finish the play today.

Such a fantastic final scene.

I can't wait to read it with you.

And we're gonna think about, well, how is Del presented in Scene One? And what has happened to her character over the course of the play? How has she developed? There are some key words which can help unlock our learning today.

They are obeah, obeah is a series of spell casting and healing traditions found in the Caribbean, development, the process by which something may change over time, including people understanding and accepting who they are.

And obviously, today, our focus is the character of Del and her development.

And identity, who you are, the qualities that make you.

Understanding, finding, and accepting your identity can be a life's work.

And we will see how intimately this idea of identity is connected with Del's development.

So these key words are gonna be referenced throughout and they're gonna help us achieve our objective.

Our lesson outline for today, we're gonna read Scene Eight in the first learning cycle and then we're gonna explore Scene Eight and we're gonna focus on the stage directions in this final scene really specifically, really carefully.

And we're also going to think about, well, how has Del developed? Let's start off with reading Scene Eight.

So here is how Del initially responded to Mai and the practise of obeah in Scene One.

If we're gonna think about Del's development, we need to think about what she was presented like at the beginning of the play before we read Scene Eight.

So in Scene One, Del says Mai stinks.

Very rude opening is actually Del's first line in the play.

She suspects Mai of scamming Enid.

So she thinks ab beer is a waste of money and that her mother shouldn't be paying Mai for a reading.

She calls obeah mumbo-jumbo.

So again, very rude.

She says she doesn't want a reading, so she doesn't want anything to do with Mai and obeah.

And she says they should go to a doctor instead.

So she's saying, "Obeah to me is not science, is not something that we should trust.

We should go to a doctor instead." She says there are probably rats in Mai's home.

She accuses Mai of causing a car accident and stealing.

She calls obeah voodoo and she refuses to get a reading and calls obeah stupid.

So all of these moments from Scene One where we can see Del's rejection of obeah and the conflict between her and her mother, Enid, but also her and Mai coming through.

Now by Scene Eight, however, Del is living with Mai and practising obeah traditions.

Indeed, Del is so skilled that Mai says, "I want you to see this client." So someone is coming to consult with Mai, and instead of Mai seeing the client, Mai says, "Del, you are ready to see this client." Their dialogue continues.

Del says, "Me?" Mai says, "Is time.

You ready." Del says, "On my own?" Mai says, "I can't always hold your hand." Del says, "I'll screw it up." Mai says, "You won't." And Del prepares for the meeting, puts holy water on the table and lights a candle.

So seeing what she's like in Scene One, we've recalled what she's like in Scene One.

And here we're seeing a moment from Scene Eight where Del is living with Mai and practising obeah traditions.

Now I'd like you to discuss just using this moment, the short section from Scene Eight and the recollection of what Del was like in Scene One.

How has Del developed? And I want you to consider her relationship with Mai and her relationship with obeah.

Pause a video and discuss this question now.

Really beautiful discussions there.

Tying together two different moments from the play, Scene One and Scene Eight, and really thinking, "Well, if we just look at these two moments, what can we tell about the character of Del?" We can see that Del now relies on Mai and trusts her.

Del takes obeah seriously.

She doesn't want to screw it up, which suggests she believes in its power.

Mai's confidence and the stage directions show Del has been absorbing obeah practises.

So even though Del is really nervous about seeing this client, we can see that Del prepares for the meeting.

She puts holy water on the table, she lights a candle, she knows what she's doing.

So we see a completely different Del.

A Del who now talks to Mai, trusts Mai, is nervous about obeah because she sees its value that is completely different to the person in Scene One who said that Mai stinks, who called obeah voodoo, said it was stupid, who called it mumbo jumbo.

So huge development over the course of these eight scenes.

A check for understanding before we move into the reading of Scene Eight 'cause we want to really understand how Del has developed so that we can explore this idea further when we read Scene Eight.

So what could we infer about Del when Mai says, "I can't always hold your hand." Is it A, that Mai accept Del's lack of faith in obeah, B, that Mai trust Del's knowledge of obeah, or, C, that Del has come to rely on Mai.

Pause the video and select your responses now.

Well done If you selected B and C.

It's not A, that Mai accept Del's lack of faith in obeah because we actually see Del's huge faith in obeah.

That phrase, "I don't want to screw it up," it's kind of a colloquial phrase.

It's quite informal, but it actually speaks to Del's trust in obeah, her faith in obeah because she knows that it's something that can be messed up and something that she does not want to mess up.

So I'd like you to read Scene Eight of "Leave Taking." It is an amazing scene, really powerful, full of resolution and new beginnings for our characters.

And as you read, I'd like you to pause and discuss these 10 questions.

One, what exams does Del have to sit? Two, in her practical exam, what does Del learn about Mai? Three, what does Mai tell Del she must never do again? Four, what does Mai give Del? Five, what does Enid say about the experience of being poor in England? Six, what is Viv going to study at university? Seven, how does Enid justify the way she brought up Del and Viv? Eight, what does Enid reveal about her relationship with her mother? Nine, what does Enid say about her feelings towards the racial discrimination she sees her daughter's experience? And 10, how does the play end? So pause the video and read the final scene of "Leave Taking" Scene Eight.

And as you're reading, discuss these 10 questions.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic reading of that final scene and really careful discussion of these 10 questions.

Of course, we're going to explore Scene Eight in a lot more depth.

It's really nice to have that initial reading and just think, how is this amazing play? What does it offer us as a resolution at the end? So here's some ideas you might have had about our discussion questions.

One, what exams does Del have to sit? Well, Del has to sit exams to prove to Mai that she understands the theory and practise behind obeah.

And we can see that Del does incredibly well here, and this is one of the reasons why she's able to become an obeah woman.

Two, in her practical exam, what does Del learn about Mai? Del learns that Mai has a serious medical condition, there's something wrong with her heart and it will be fatal.

Mai will die from this condition.

So a really destabilising moment for Del.

One where she has learned that she can become obeah woman, that she has this aptitude, she has this ability, but also an incredibly sad moment where she learns that Mai, who she's come to rely on, is very, very ill.

Three, what does Mai tell Del she must never do again? Mai tells de she must never do the magic trick with the candle again, saying, "This obeah is science." I really like this moment in this scene of "Leave Taking" because Del obviously has developed, she has changed, she has developed an interest in obeah, she's become an obeah woman.

She feels more at peace with herself, but we don't have a complete character change, which would maybe be unrealistic.

We see Del still sort of playing around a little bit with obeah at the start of this scene.

And so I think that makes that this development even more realistic because Del maintains her kind of central characteristics but just develops as a character.

Four, what does Mai give Del? Mai give her notebook where she's been writing things down for years, she's passing on her knowledge of obeah to Del.

So she obviously trusts Del.

Trusts that Del knows the value of all the information that she has about obeah.

Five, what does Enid say about the experience of being poor in England? Enid says being poor in England is more difficult than the more severe destitution her family faced at home.

Because in Jamaica, them all in it together and people shared what little they had.

She feels in Britain, you poor and you by yourself.

And there are so many important themes that Pinnock explores throughout the whole of "Leave taking." But I think isolation, particularly through the character of Enid, is explored incredibly poignantly, incredibly well.

And here, Enid articulates, she doesn't often talk about her family in Jamaica, but here, she's talking to them about, to her daughter, and saying, "Look, I felt very isolated in Britain in a way that I didn't in Jamaica." So a really revealing moment for Enid here.

Six, what is Viv going to study at university? Viv is going to study Black Studies at university.

Now, there was some doubt whether Viv actually wanted to pursue her university career.

She was unhappy about some of her education even though she excelled there because she couldn't see herself in any of the books.

She didn't feel that she could identify with any of the things that she was learning in school.

And so I think Pinnock gives us here a little bit of hope because Viv is now excited.

Enid says that she's very excitedly packing to go to university, and that this might be a course where she feels some identification, feels much happier than she did with her Eurocentric education in school.

Seven, how does Enid justify the way she brought up Del and Viv? Enid justifies the way she brought up Del and Viv, which Del believes was too harsh by saying, "You've got to show them children how life hard." She's speaking to her experiences of being Black and British in 1980s England, saying that to be Black and British can mean nobody see you, nobody hear you, an idea Pinnock has explored throughout the play.

So Del has always found her mother's treatment of her very difficult.

And here, Enid is actually explaining why she brought Del and Viv up the way that she did.

And Del's previous accusation in Scene Two that Enid ignores the racial discrimination that they face in Britain.

Here, Enid is saying, "I'm not ignoring it, I see it, but I just had to teach you that life I can be hard.

That's the choice that I made in order to bring you up." Eight, what does Enid reveal about her relationship with her mother? Enid says she believes her mother never liked her.

Enid believes this was because of the way Enid looked.

I was too Black, me hair too dry, everything that make you invisible in the world.

Enid says her mother never spoke to her after she migrated to England.

And I remember the first time I read "Leave Taking," being quite shocked at this moment.

This is one of the final pieces of dialogue in the play.

And I'd always assumed that Enid had a close relationship with her mother, and it was just her migration that caused the kind of rift between them.

But actually here, we see that when Enid grew up, she had a difficult, a challenging relationship with her mother, and the migration kind of sealed that, and that she hadn't spoken to her mother for years and years and years.

And so that really helped me understand some of the earlier scenes, Enid's lack of desire to talk about Jamaica because she really had to sacrifice a really important relationship in her life, her relationship with her mother in order to move to Britain, and that relationship was never really restored.

It also helped me understand some of the guilt that she feels after her mother dies as well.

So it was really nice to go back and reread some earlier scenes with this knowledge from Scene Eight.

Nine, what does Enid say about her feelings towards the racial discrimination she sees her daughter's experience? Enid says it makes her want to tear the place down and that she would chop her hand off if it would help.

Ultimately, though, she says it is up to Del and Viv to take on the fight as she's been fighting too long and can't fight anymore.

I thought this is a really interesting moment in the play because we see Del has often felt very angry and expressed that anger in dialogue, but also in actions in frustration, walking out of home or kicking the wall when she hears that Enid was abused by her husband.

So I feel here there's a kind of connection between mother and and daughter, but we also see this moment of vulnerability where Enid says she she can't fight anymore.

And it's sort of up to Del to see how she responds to this idea that her mother is not going to fight anymore, that she needs support rather than being able to support her daughters.

10, how does the play end? The play ends with Del reading her mother's palm.

We're gonna look at these stage directions in a little bit more detail in the next learning cycle, but it's a really beautiful moment with mother and daughter connected physically, but it also seems emotionally and a beautiful moment to end the play on.

Well done for reading Scene Eight.

So carefully discussing these questions and reflecting on your entire experience of reading the play of "Leave Taking." So we've read Scene Eight, and we're now going to explore Scene Eight in a little bit more detail.

I'd like you to re-read the final stage directions of the play.

They say, "Del has a struggle with herself.

Then she makes a decision.

She joins Enid at the table and takes her mother's hand into both her own and smooths the palm with her thumbs.

She examines the palm for a moment, then looks into her mother's eyes.

The lights go down as Del begins the reading." Now I'd like you to discuss how has Del changed and developed over the course of the play.

We had an initial discussion of this in learning cycle one, but now that we've read Scene Eight, we've seen the end of the play.

We can develop that discussion even further and we're gonna rely on these stage directions to help us the final lines of the play.

Pause the video and discuss how has Del changed and developed over the course of the play.

Pause the video now.

Some beautiful discussions there.

It's really lovely to see people think about "Leave Taking" play as a whole, but also being able to look at stage directions, an important dramatic device in order to understand the idea of Del's changing and development.

So you might have said, "Well, she struggled to speak to her mother without conflict at the beginning of the play." Now she's not only speaking to her but also being a support.

Enid just relying on Del here, not the other way around.

At the beginning of the play, Del did not take obeah seriously, but now she understands it, its power, and believes in its practises.

We can see that she's taking the reading incredibly seriously.

She didn't show any interest in her cultural identity at the beginning of the play, but now she's committed to obeah and its rituals.

It's knowledge is valuable to her.

She thought she knew her mother and hated aspects of her personality, but now she listens to her, is starting to understand her as a person.

When her mother slaps her, she says, "That's the last time." But now she holds her mother's palm in her hand.

I think that's one of the reasons why I really, really love these stage directions because that idea of smoothing the palm, examining the palm, it's so different from the last time that these two characters actually saw each other and interacted on stage where the hand was used to hurt, where Enid slapped her daughter.

And the reason Enid slapped her daughter is because Del said, "You are the reason that our father left." And again, that was Del not understanding something about her mother.

So here we have not only that emotional understanding and that physical connection really comes through as well where they are basically holding each other's hands.

Well done for exploring these stage directions in such detail in using them to anchor your discussion of how Del has changed and developed over the course of the play.

A check for understanding 'cause we know our objective today is to understand Del's development, as well as reading Scene Eight.

So I'd like you to match these sentence stems to their endings.

So Del has developed over the play because, Del has developed over the play but, Del has developed over the play so.

And you can see the endings on the board, and I'd like you to match the beginning of the sentence stems to their endings.

So pause the video, read through the endings, and match the sentence stems to their endings.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

This was a difficult check for understanding, trying to think about the different ways that Del has developed, but also thinking about what Pinnock is trying to tell us.

So Del has developed over the play because she feels more secure in her identity, including her cultural identity.

Del has developed over the play but she retains her independence at the end, not moving back in with Enid.

And Del has developed over the play so she's able to establish a more stable relationship with her mother.

Well done for thinking about Del's development in three different ways.

Now I'd like you to complete the table to show how the event contributes to Del's development.

So a number of things happened to Del over the course of the play.

We've read Scene Eight today, but of course you've read scenes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 previously.

So all of these events occur to Del in the play.

And I want you to tell me, how does the event contribute to Del's development? So we've got Del meets Mai.

Del moves outta the family home and moves in with Mai.

Del finds out why her parents separated.

Del realises that Mai is fatally unwell.

And Del finds out about Enid's relationship with her mother.

Pause the video and complete the table to show how each event contributes to Del's development.

Pause the video now.

Well done for thinking really carefully about each plot point and thinking, "Well, how does this contribute to the character of Del and her development?" You might have said Del meets Mai.

Well, it sparks an interest in obeah and cultural identity.

Maybe Del does her best to hide it.

Lots of people reference how rude she is in Scene One, but it definitely sparks an interest in obeah.

Del moves out of the family home and moves in with Mai, which she realises her friends are not reliable and turns to Mai who supports, educates, and guides her.

Lots of people referenced that at the end of Scene One, Mai does offer support to Del, which Del rejects quite rudely.

But actually, when she leaves the family home, she's not able to rely on her friends.

Instead, she relies on Mai and she takes up that offers of support.

Del finds out about why her parents separated.

This happens just before Scene Eight, in scene seven.

A very difficult moment for the character of Del.

Brod tells her that her father was abusive and her mother left the family home to protect her and Viv.

Well, she begins to understand her mother's experiences and how they shaped her.

And understanding her mother is key in Del's development so that she doesn't become, she doesn't always have to argue with Enid, but she actually understands who her mother is.

Del realises that Mai is fatally unwell.

So this happens in Scene Eight, just after she's passed the exams so that she can become obeah woman.

And she realises that she must take on obeah to keep part of her culture alive.

If Mai is no longer around, then it is Del's job to keep obeah alive and keep those practises alive so that they continue on into the next generation.

And finally, finds out about Enid's relationship with her mother.

So this is in the closing moments of the play.

And it deepens her understanding of her mother's experiences, feelings, and choices.

And we can see the impact of this because in those stage directions, which we looked at so carefully in earlier in this learning cycle, we can see that Del, because she understands her mother's experiences, is then able to take her palm in her hand and do an obeah reading.

It is a struggle.

Pinnock concludes the phrase, "Del struggles with herself, but she does decide to do the obeah reading." And I really like that moment where Pinnock includes that stage direction, Del struggles with herself, because it shows that this development, it's not easy, hasn't just come to her.

It's involved a lot of work and a lot of really hard lessons for Del, but she ends the play with this resolution.

Perhaps even a new beginning, a new relationship with her mother.

Well done for looking at those plot points and thinking about how they contribute to Del's development.

It was really nice to hear people referencing earlier moments in the play and really specific moments in the play in order to understand this character.

In summary, Del sits exams with Mai to prove she's capable of being obeah woman.

Mai has a serious heart condition that will prove fatal.

Mai gives Del her notebook, which contains everything she knows about obeah.

Enid justifies the choices she made in bringing up her daughters.

The play ends with Del reading Enid's Palm.

It has been such a pleasure to read the final scene of "Leave Taking" with you and explore the character of Del.

I look forward to seeing you next time.