Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham, and it's really nice to see you here for today's lesson.

Now, today, we're going to be looking at some real extracts from Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" stories, and I think you're going to really enjoy it.

So, let's make a start.

Today's lesson is called Analysing the Main Character in Sherlock Holmes from our unit called Sherlock Holmes: Descriptive and Letter Writing.

By the end of this lesson, we'll be able to orally present a paragraph about the main character of Sherlock Holmes.

Now, when you analyse something like in our lesson title for today, you look at it really carefully.

So, that's what we're gonna be doing today with the character of Sherlock Holmes.

We're gonna think about what is he like, and we are gonna learn some words we can use to describe him really accurately, and you're going to have a chance as well to present your ideas out loud.

Let's get to work.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

My turn, your turn.

Explicit, subtext, character traits, and inference.

Well done.

So, if something is made explicit, it's made clear.

And the subtext is a hidden or a less obvious meaning of a piece of text.

Character traits are the special qualities that make a character in a story unique and interesting.

And an inference is a conclusion drawn from information and evidence in a text.

So, here's our lesson outline for today.

We're begin to start off by looking at making some inferences from actual text of "Sherlock Holmes" stories.

And then, we're gonna go on to present those ideas about Sherlock Holmes later in the lesson.

So, when an author describes characters and their actions, we learn about their appearance and about their character traits.

And character traits are features of a person's personality, not things they do just once, but things which affect their behaviour long term.

For instance, we could say someone is empathetic, resilient, curious, creative, humble, optimistic or determined.

These are features of their personality, and that's what makes them character traits.

So, let's think about Sherlock Holmes.

Which character traits do you associate with Sherlock Holmes already based on the knowledge that you have? Pause the video and talk to your partner.

Good ideas, perhaps you said you think of him as very intelligent.

That's something which comes up a lot in the "Sherlock Holmes" stories because of his amazing way of solving crimes.

We won't discuss that in detail now because we're going to look at that for the rest of our lesson.

Really well done for your ideas.

So, when we are introduced to a character, some things about them are made explicit or clear by the author, we are just told them.

Here's how Holmes is described by Watson.

Remember, he's the narrator of the "Sherlock Holmes" stories in the first of all the "Sherlock Holmes" stories.

So, this is the real text that Arthur Conan Doyle used to introduce the character of Sherlock Holmes for the first time.

And it comes from the story "A Study in Scarlet", which was written in 1887.

So, here's where he wrote, "In height, he," meaning Sherlock Holmes, "was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean," thin, "that he seemed to be considerably taller.

His eyes were sharp and piercing, and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision.

His hands were invariably always blotted with ink and stained with chemicals, yet he was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of touch," so he was able to handle things gently when he wanted to.

So, we're told lots of things there by Arthur Conan Doyle about Holmes, let's look at it in more detail.

So, what do we learn about Holmes' appearance and his character traits in this passage from what is stated explicitly? What does Arthur Conan Doyle say explicitly or write out loud about Sherlock Holmes here? Think about his appearance and also any character traits which are mentioned.

Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, good thinking.

So, in terms of his appearance, we're told he's very thin and tall, we're told he has piercing eyes and a thin nose, and that his hands are stained with ink and chemicals.

All those things are made explicit, we're just told them in the text.

In the same way his character traits, we're told he's alert and decisive and we're told he has this delicacy of touch, which means he's gentle with his hands when he needs to be.

So, all of this stuff is made explicit, all of these ideas are made clear to us and we're not having to look any deeper.

Arthur Conan Doyle wants us to know them, so he's making them explicit from the outset in how he describes Sherlock Holmes.

Really well done for spotting this.

So, all those things were made explicit, but sometimes the author will not explicitly describe all aspects of a character and their traits.

The author will show some of the character traits using subtext, things under the text.

Sub means under, so subtext is informational meanings that lie underneath the text which we have to work out.

And we have to do that by making inferences to work out the traits.

We work out from the information we see some other details about the character.

Let's look at another extract from another "Sherlock Holmes" story here.

It says, "'I must apologise for calling so late,' said Holmes, 'and I must further beg you to allow me to leave your house presently by scrambling over your back garden wall.

'" So, he is turned up at Watson's house and he's asking him if he can leave the house by jumping over the garden wall.

So, here, Arthur Conan Doyle doesn't say Holmes is adventurous and athletic, he doesn't state that out loud, he doesn't make it explicit, but we can infer that he's athletic and adventurous from the fact that he wants to leave over the garden wall.

So, we've seen the subtext, we've worked out that Conan Doyle is trying to hint to us that Sherlock Holmes is this adventurous person who's able to leap over a garden wall to escape a house.

So, we've made an inference to work out the subtext the author's trying to tell.

Now, in this passage, Holmes is talking to someone who comes to him with a problem to solve.

And he says this, "'I'm very busy just now and I desire no distractions,' my friend answered.

'I should much prefer that you called in the aid of the police.

'" So, what can we infer about Holmes from this passage? What's the subtext? What is Arthur Conan Doyle trying to tell us about Sherlock Holmes' character from this passage? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, good ideas.

We can make lots of inferences here.

First of all, we can infer that Holmes is not always keen to help people who come to him.

And we can infer that he's not afraid to say what he thinks or what he feels.

Here, he's told someone, "I don't want to help you, I'm busy." And we can infer that Holmes can be quite single-minded.

He doesn't want to be distracted from what he's doing.

He's set on his one task and he doesn't want the distraction of someone else coming to ask for help.

So, we've seen lots of subtext that Arthur Conan Doyle has given us without stating it explicitly, and we've made inferences to work out what that subtext was.

Really well done if you made some good inferences there.

So, we've seen that authors make some things explicit and some they leave as subtext.

And authors often try and show us character change through subtext because it can be more effective than just stating them out loud.

So, I'm going to show you another passage in a minute, and here Watson has been describing wanting to be on holiday away from London, and he's explaining that Holmes feels differently.

So, this is what Watson says about Holmes.

He says, "Neither the country nor the sea presented the slightest attraction to him.

He loved to lie in the very centre of five millions of people responsive to every little rumour or suspicion of unsolved crime.

Appreciation of nature found no place among his many gifts." Let's just look at some of the vocabulary there.

We've got presented the slightest attraction, which means was appealing to him, was something he liked.

So, it says that, "Neither the country nor the sea presented the slightest attraction to him," they didn't appeal to him.

Then, we've got responsive to, he likes to be responsive to, able to sense and feel every little rumour or suspicion of unsolved crime.

And finally, we've got found no place among, appreciation of nature found no place among, was not one of his many gifts.

So, let's think about the subtext here.

Which character traits can we infer that Holmes has based on this passage? Pause the video, read it again, and decide which of the six character traits below are shown as subtext in this passage.

Have a go.

Well done, great thinking.

So, does this show Holmes is outdoorsy? No, definitely not.

Neither the country nor the sea are appealing to him.

Is he obsessive? Yes, he wants to be here in the city always in touch with the unsolved crime around him.

So, is he single-minded? Yes, his interest is in these crimes, not in going out in nature and enjoying himself on holiday like Watson wants to.

Is he nature loving? Definitely not, the city, the country, and the sea are not appealing to him at all.

Is he curious? Yes, he is curious because he wants to know the solutions to these many, many crimes that are around him in the city.

Is he suspicious? No, if someone's suspicious, we think they might be doing something which is criminal or bad, and that's not something we can infer from this passage.

So, we can see here that Conan Doyle has given us lots of subtext about Sherlock Holmes' character traits without ever stating any of these out loud, we've inferred it based on what Watson has described.

Really well done if you made those inferences about those character traits from the subtext.

Good job.

So, here's another passage.

And in this passage, Holmes turns about Watson's house unannounced, uninvited.

So, what about Holmes is made explicit and what can we infer based on this passage? Pause the video, read the passage, and have a think.

Well done, great thinking.

So, what's made explicit? Well, we're told that Holmes is a late riser, that means he usually gets up late.

And what's an inference we can make? Well, we can see that Holmes is standing by the side of Watson's bed before he's even woken up.

Now, that would be quite a shocking thing to find, wouldn't it? Someone looming over your bed who you haven't invited to your house who isn't supposed to be there at the moment you've woken up, and it's very early in the morning, it's only quarter past seven.

So, we can infer from that that Holmes sometimes acts in ways that are inconsiderate or unusual.

This will be quite a shocking thing for Watson to experience, wouldn't it? And that tells us something about Sherlock Holmes as well.

So, now we're going to read a long extract from "The Speckled Band", a Sherlock Holmes story that was first published in 1892.

And in this extract, a woman has arrived at Baker Street seeking Holmes' help.

Let's explore some of the vocabulary in this extract before we read it.

A Victorian woman might wear a black veil, a face covering, if she's grieving the loss of a close family member perhaps.

An intimate friend is a close one.

And if you're in a pitiable state, people feel sorry for you.

If your hair is shot with grey, it has grey streaks in it.

And someone haggard looks tired and maybe old before their time.

If something is comprehensive, it's thorough.

So, if I did a comprehensive check, then I've checked thoroughly.

A dog-cart was the name of a small carriage that was pulled by horses which humans rode in.

And agitation is nervousness and anxiety.

So, if you're in a state of agitation, then you're very nervous and very anxious.

So, what inference can we make from each of these descriptions using those words we just discussed? Pause the video and see if you can work out what we can infer about the person being described from each of these descriptions.

Have a go.

Well done, good thinking.

So, a, woman arrives wearing a veil in a pitiable state.

What can we infer? Well, probably the woman might be grieving of recent loss and she's still upset about it.

For b, we've got a man's hair is shot with grey.

Well, from that we can infer that the man may be old or may be getting old.

From c, a dog cart pulls up, carrying a haggard man in a state of great agitation.

Hmm, so something very bad might have happened to him because he looks both haggard and agitated.

So, he's very anxious, but also that's affected his appearance so that he looks tired and old, so something bad has possibly happened to him.

Now, we can't be sure about some of these things, we might have made the wrong inference, but we've tried to infer something from what we've been told, which will then be either confirmed or disconfirmed, proved wrong by what we read later on.

So, we're now ready to read a real extract from a "Sherlock Holmes" story, and you'll find this extract in the additional materials for this lesson.

I'd like you to listen to an adult read the extract once, and I'm going to do that for you now.

"A lady dressed in black and heavily veiled who had been sitting in the window, rose as we entered.

'Good morning, madam,' said Holmes cheerly.

'My name is Sherlock Holmes.

This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr.

Watson, before whom you can speak as freely as before myself.

Ha, I'm glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the fire.

Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot coffee, for I observe that you are shivering.

' 'It is not cold, which makes me shiver,' said the woman in a low voice, changing her seat as requested.

'And what then?' 'It is fear, Mr. Holmes.

It is terror.

' She raised her veil as she spoke and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable state of agitation, her face all drawn in grey with restless, frightened eyes like those of some hunted animal.

Her features and figure were those of a woman of 30, but her hair was shocked with premature grey and her expression was weary and haggard.

Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, all-comprehensive glances.

'You must not fear,' he said soothingly, bending forward and patting her forearm.

'We shall soon set matters right, I have no doubt.

You have come by train this morning, I see.

' 'You know me, then?' No, but I observed the second half of a return ticket in the palm of your left of glove.

You must have started early, and yet you had a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached the station.

' The woman gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my companion.

'There's no mystery, my dear madam,' said he, smiling.

'The left arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven places.

The marks are perfectly fresh.

There is no vehicle save a dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you sit on the left-hand side of the driver.

'" So, now that you've heard the extract once, I'd like you to read it again, this time looking for any inferences you can make about Holmes' character traits based on the text.

And I'd like you to underline or highlight any passages that allow you to make those inferences, and label them with the character trait they show.

For instance, you could underline the passage and label it inquisitive if you think that that passage shows us that Holmes is being inquisitive.

So, pause the video, read the extract again, and label it up, highlighting or labelling any sections which you think show a particular character trait.

Pause the video and have a go.

Really well done.

Now, we will all have made different inferences from this text, which is what makes reading so interesting.

We all have different perspectives on it, but here are some of the inferences you might have made about Holmes based on certain passages of the text.

So, at one point it says, "'Good morning, madam,' said Holmes cheerly.

And from that we can infer that Holmes is a positive person, he's very cheerful.

It says again, "Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick all-comprehensive glances." So, that suggests that Holmes is very observant, he can see lots of things just by looking carefully at someone.

Then, it says this, "'You must not fear,' said he soothingly." So, that shows that Holmes is caring, he's trying to make the woman calm and comfortable.

Another passage says, "'There's no mystery, my dear madam,' said he, smiling." That shows that he's confident.

He believes there isn't a mystery to be solved here, he can resolve it easily.

And then, another point it says, "The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment," this is after Holmes has said something.

So, this shows that Holmes can be a little disconcerting, he can sometimes act, as we said before, in a way that is a little bit unusual and surprising to people.

So, we've been able to make lots and lots of interesting character inferences by reading the subtext, by making inferences from what Conan Doyle wrote.

I hope you really enjoyed that story, and I hope you've been able to make some really good inferences as well about Sherlock Holmes' character.

Great job.

So, we're now going to move on to try and present our ideas about Sherlock Holmes and learn some new vocabulary to describe him.

So, it's important we have a rich vocabulary of words to describe character traits.

So, we're going to learn some useful ones now which you might not have heard before.

So, here's a great word, shrewd.

Well done, so if someone's shrewd, they're able to judge people and situations well and make good decisions.

Perhaps your teacher is very shrewd.

Another word is assertive.

Well done.

If you're assertive, you're confident, you're forceful, you're able to say what you want.

And if you are unflappable, my turn, unflappable, well done, then you are very calm under pressure or in a crisis.

So, I wonder if you're thinking of someone now who might be unflappable.

These are all great words we can use to describe someone's character traits: shrewd, assertive, and unflappable.

So, have a look at these three examples of people.

Which of these words best describes each person? Are they being unflappable, shrewd, or assertive? Pause the video and decide.

Done, good job.

So, someone who stands up to a bully and tells them to stop is being (pauses)? Well done, assertive.

A teacher who does not get stressed about presenting to the headteacher or parents is unflappable.

And a friend who's always able to work out why you're upset is very shrewd.

They've worked something out in a sensible and reasonable way.

Really well done for getting those.

Here are two more useful words that we can use to describe character traits.

My turn, diffident.

Well done.

Now, if you're diffident, you're modest and you're not confident in your abilities.

So, if you look at this picture, the character's shaking with worry and nerves, even though that's a very thin stick, which hopefully would be quite easy to break.

So, we'd say this character is diffident because they're not confident in their abilities.

Another great word is, a tricky one here, presumptuous.

One more time, presumptuous.

Well done.

So, if you're presumptuous, you think the normal rules maybe don't apply to you or you're overconfident, you presume that you're right.

So, presumptuous can have a few different meanings, but we can see here the character is presuming they will win even though we can see that banana skin about to slip them up.

So, they're being presumptuous because they're being overconfident, they're certain they're going to win, even though that might not be the case.

So, is the person in each of these examples being presumptuous or diffident? Pause the video and try and decide.

Done, great ideas.

So, in a, a neighbour you hardly know turns up at your house uninvited at tea time and asked for a plate of food.

That is being presumptuous, you're presuming that that's okay when it might not be for that person.

A says a child knows the answer to the teacher's question, but he's too shy to raise his hand.

That child's being diffident, isn't he? And c says an office worker in a meeting has lots of ideas to share, but they're too nervous to share them.

That will be being diffident, they're being modest, they're not being confident, they're not showing off at all, they're quite unconfident about sharing their ideas.

And d, it says, your brother borrows your football boots without asking whether you need them.

That is being presumptuous because your brother's presuming that that'll be okay with you without checking first.

So, if you're worried about whether something is presumptuous or not, just think, "Am I presuming that something's okay with someone else? If I'm doing that, I might be being presumptuous." So, let's look at this passage which describes Mrs. Begum's behaviour.

Which character traits best describe her in this passage and why? Pause the video, read the passage and describe which character traits describe Mrs. Begum best in this passage.

Have a go.

Well done, good job.

So, we might say that Mrs. Begum is shrewd because she's able to identify the culprit easily in this case.

We might say she's assertive because she can confidently stop that fight with just a word.

And finally, we might say she's unflappable because she stays calm in a difficult situation.

She's definitely not being diffident, is she? If she was being diffident, she would be walking away from the situation or not involving herself in it.

So, she's definitely being assertive instead of diffident in this case.

Really well done if you made those links.

Now, let's return to thinking about Sherlock Holmes in relation to these words.

We can find evidence of some of these character traits we've just described in the text.

Let's look at this one again, "'I'm very busy just now, and I desire no distractions,' my friend answered.

'I should much prefer that you called in the aid of the police.

'" Here, we could say Holmes is being assertive, isn't he? Because he's stating very clearly he doesn't want to be involved in this.

And if we look at this example, it says, "It was early in April in the year '83 that he woke up one morning to find Sherlock Holmes standing fully dressed, by the side of my bed." Hmm, what's Holmes being here? Yeah, I think here Holmes as being presumptuous.

He assumes or presumes that Watson won't mind him turning up uninvited, and we don't know that to be the case.

So, there, Holmes' behaviour is definitely presumptuous.

So, based on the extracts we've read in this lesson, which character trait do you think is least like Sherlock Holmes from this list, and why? Pause the video and decide.

Good job, I think probably Holmes is definitely not diffident.

He's very happy to share his ideas, isn't he? And the deductions are the workings out that he's made from evidence.

He's certainly not a modest person and doesn't try to hide how good he is at what he does.

We could say perhaps that Watson is a slightly more diffident character than Holmes.

He's a bit more willing to sit back and let things happen.

But Holmes definitely could not really be described as a diffident character.

Really well done for sharing your ideas there.

So, let's look at a little diagram here.

How close does each of our character trait words come to describing Holmes? Where would you place each word on the diagram? You're going to place the words which describe Holmes best in the centre and the words which describe Holmes least well outside the circle.

And think about where each could be on that scale.

Pause the video and have a try.

Now, we all disagree on this, but here's an example of how I might have done it.

I might have put shrewd right at the centre, assertive and unflappable just around there, presumptuous towards the outside because it's not something he's always doing, but we've seen some elements of him being presumptuous.

And I'm gonna put diffident outside the outermost circle because I don't think that's a trait which Sherlock Holmes really shows at all.

So, we can see that different words have different levels of relevance to a particular character.

So, when we describe character traits, we can use a certain structure to show the evidence to support view.

You could use this.

I think Sherlock Holmes is a blank character because he blank.

For example, in the text, blank, which shows that blank.

Let me show you an example.

I could say I think Sherlock Holmes is a presumptuous character because he does not always think about other people's feelings.

For example, in the text, Watson says he woke up to find Holmes by the side of my bed, which shows that Holmes does not always consider how his actions might affect other people.

So, we're saying what the character trait is, presumptuous, an explanation for why, because he doesn't always think about other people's feelings.

And then, we give the evidence, we say, "For example in the text, he does this, he stands by Watson's bed early in the morning." And then what does that show? It shows that he's not thinking about how his actions affect other people, and that's why we could describe him as presumptuous.

So, I've really explained clearly why I think Holmes is sometimes a presumptuous character.

So, how might you complete that same structure based on this passage? We've got that same passage we looked at before where Holmes says he doesn't want to help this person.

So, how could we describe Holmes based on this passage using the structure we've got on the right-hand side? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, good thinking.

So, maybe you said, "I think Sherlock Holmes is an assertive character because he says what he thinks.

For example, in the text he says, 'I desire no distractions,' which shows that he's happy to say no to things he's not interested in." So, we've proved the point that Holmes is assertive based on the passage we've seen.

Really well done for doing that.

Okay, so now we're ready to prepare our own oral presentations about Sherlock Holmes and his character traits.

So, I'd like you to have a look back at all the extracts from the Holmes stories that we've read and decide on a character trait you think best describes Holmes.

And then, look for in those extracts the best evidence for this trait.

Where is this proved really well in what we've seen written? And then, I want you to prepare to say your presentation out loud using the structure on the right-hand side.

Now, you could use one of those vocabulary words we've learned, or you might want to choose your own word that you think really describes Holmes really well.

Now, you should practise saying your presentation several times once you found your good evidence to make sure that you're ready when we come to present.

But for now, I'd just like you to practise on your own saying your presentation out loud to yourself so that you're ready to go for the next part of our task.

So, pause the video and prepare your presentation.

Have a go.

Well done.

So, you've prepared your presentation out loud and we're ready to share.

So, when we share our presentations, we're going to make sure we follow these guidelines.

Now, if you're doing this at home, you could do this to someone else who's at home with you so that they can really clearly see your opinion of Sherlock Holmes.

So, when you're presenting, make sure you make eye contact with the audience, you look around at different people in front of you.

Make sure you use positive body language, see if you can look assertive like our vocabulary word.

And make sure you speak at a suitable volume for the space so that everyone hears your ideas.

Remember, your teacher doesn't usually talk at the volume they talk in the classroom, they're doing that so you can all hear, so make sure you do the same thing.

And when you're watching other people's presentations, you should do these things.

You should make sure you look at the person who's speaking, nod maybe if you agree with them, and try to listen to every word they say.

That can be hard, so really do your best to listen to everything they've got to say.

Okay, I'd like you now to present your presentation to your audience.

Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, fantastic job with your presentation.

Here's an example of the kind of presentation you might have made.

Maybe you said, "I think Sherlock Holmes is a shrewd character because he's able to deduce detailed information about people from small details.

For example, in the text he's able to deduce that the woman has come by train and by dog-cart, saying, 'You have come in by train this morning, I see,' which shows that he's able to come to clear judgments quickly and easily.

In addition, the woman's shocked reaction shows that his judgement is correct." So, I've tried to really prove there that Holmes is a shrewd character based on the evidence from that extract.

Really well done for your presentation.

Great work.

So, let's summarise our learning in this lesson.

We learned that when author create characters, they give them character traits, features of their personality that inform their behaviour in the narrative.

And sometimes they make these traits explicit by simply saying what they are or having another character describe the person.

But at other times, we can read the subtext of the text to make inferences about character traits.

And we said that Sherlock Holmes could be described as shrewd, presumptuous, unflappable, and assertive.

You've done a really good job in this lesson.

I hope you've really enjoyed, like I have, reading the real "Sherlock Holmes" story so we can see exactly how Arthur Conan Doyle described him.

Fantastic work, and I hope to see you again in a future lesson, goodbye.