Hi, everyone, this is Mr. Chandrapala, and I'm really looking forward to working with you as we discuss Rossetti's "Cousin Kate." This is one of those classic poems. Rossetti is one of those really landmark poets in English literature, seen as a preeminent in 19th century poet, and I think that there is a huge amount to be gained from reading her work still in the 21st century.

Let's dive in.

So our outcome for today is to explain how Rossetti presents gendered conflict.

Our key words include the adjective predatory, which means the exploitative behaviour aimed at taking advantage of others, the noun influence, which means something or someone that affects others' behaviours, decisions or beliefs, gender roles, which is the concept of societal norms dictating appropriate behaviours of the different genders, societal conflict, which is disagreements and struggles within the society, and finally, the concept of a patriarchal society, which is a social system dominated by men, with power centred around male authority.

So we're gonna start off by looking at the wider context of Rossetti's "Cousin Kate." Christina Rossetti is a Victorian poet who had several significant influences in her life.

She was devout in her Anglicanism, which is a form of Christianity, and she had personal struggles with depression and societal expectations regarding women.

Her poetry often explored these themes, looking at love, loss, and betrayal, as well as redemption, reflecting on her experiences and beliefs.

Our anthology as part of the Edexcel work is entitled "Conflict." Can we identify any contextual links to conflict here? Post the video, have that discussion, and when you're ready, hit Play.

Some really thoughtful and lovely ideas immediately.

I'm so pleased that so many of you were thinking about the, even the contrast, in the fact that her poetry explores themes of both love and betrayal, loss and redemption, so clearly linking together, but in totally different ways, this almost contrast.

So we have things which link to relationships, which link to connection and fragmentation, and the fact that her work was influenced by societal influences, not only her Anglican face, but also the societal expectations of women.

That inner conflict as well, her personal struggles with depression definitely links to that conflict.

Her inner turmoil definitely fuels her work.

And she was in an era of societal conflict, a time when gender and religion and morality were so carefully policed, but also being so radically challenged during this time.

You have to understand that in the 19th century, we're seeing real discussions happening around each of these areas, which means that it's really difficult to be able to say, yes, this is the dominant view, but it's not the only view, it's not the the only view that exists in society.

So if we just consider Victorian gender roles and expectations, we need to remember that despite having a female monarch, Victorian England had many of the qualities of a patriarchal society.

Victorian gender roles often meant that men, who were considered the more dominant gender, were public figures.

They were providers.

They lived in what was called the public sphere.

They lived out in the open.

Whilst women were meant to be submissive, they were meant to be dominated by the men, they were meant to obey men, and they were therefore, domestic figures.

So they lived, they worked in the home and they were always expected to be mothers, good wives.

Even women who worked, a lot of the time, it was as nurses or looking after younger children.

So this is something that again links to that sense of there is a lack of wider public respect for the women's role.

Women were also, though, expected to be morally pure.

Sex and relationships were frowned upon outside of marriage and naturally, women were expected to almost be the moral arbiters of the household.

If they're mothers, they're teaching the children.

If a child goes awry, awry, well, people would say, "Well, that is due to an issue at home." And women had limited rights.

For all this responsibility, they weren't allowed to vote and they weren't allowed to own a property if they were married.

And they were judged on their modesty and their virtue.

You couldn't be showing and telling.

You had to be very dour.

You had to keep yourself to yourself, be private and respectful.

If there's anything that you need from this mind map, get it down into your notes now and when you're ready, hit Play.

Some lovely ideas there everyone.

Let's move.

So let's just have a quick check for understanding here.

Rossetti's work often explores themes of betrayal, grief, love, or nostalgia.

Pause the video, select any options you think are correct, and when you're ready, hit Play.

Well done, everyone.

We are going to go for betrayal and love.

Grief and nostalgia, not so much a feature in Rossetti's work, definitely not nostalgia.

So we're going to practise using our knowledge of Victorian society and get a really good context to complete each of the following sentence stems. One, Victorian society was patriarchal because.

Two, Victorian society was patriarchal, but.

And three, Victorian society was patriarchal, so.

I then want you to use the because, but, or so sentence structures to write two sentences about Rossetti and her work.

I want you to start your sentence with "Christina Rossetti," and go from that.

Once you've done that, hit Play.

Some lovely ideas there, everyone, some really careful use of context already.

Let's see what you've said.

So as we are taking feedback, you may want to add to your notes in a different colour pen.

You may have written something like, "Victorian society was patriarchal because women had limited rights and men had legal control over their wives and daughters." You may have said that, "Victorian society was patriarchal, but some women like Rossetti achieved fame and recognition for their work." You may have said that, "Victorian society was patriarchal, so women were often viewed as domestic figures whose responsibilities were in the home." For the sentences beginning with "Christina Rossetti," you may have said, "Christina Rossetti's work explored gendered expectations because she lived in Victorian England, which was a patriarchal society." Or you may have said that, "Christina Rossetti was a devout Anglican, but many of her poems included immodest characters conducting premarital, say, before marriage relationships." Pause the video, add anything that you would want, and when you're ready, hit Play.

And now I want you to discuss; have a look at your partner's work.

What was their best sentence? Why do you think that was? Offer them a little bit of a comment on what made their sentence so good, and once you've done so, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone, some really considerate feedback and that's really gonna put your partner in a good position moving forward.

Lovely stuff there.

We're now going to work on exploring the poem "Cousin Kate." So we're gonna take some time now to read "Cousin Kate." First of all, I want you to read it independently.

You'll find it in your anthology.

Once you've read it, hit Play.

Lovely reading there, everyone, some really careful work with the pen in hands, making sure that we're just annotating, just beginning to underline keywords.

Nothing much on this first read.

Just a quick reminder of some words that you may have come across but may have forgotten from our glossary.

A maiden is a young woman.

Flaxen is golden, so the colour of flaxseed.

If you are lured, or lured even, you were tempted.

And rye is a type of grain and it's grown in large fields.

I want you to have a look at the statements about the poem, and I want you to see which one you would agree with most.

One, the speaker's jealous of her cousin.

Two, the speaker's angry with her cousin , 'cause she stole her lover.

Three, the speaker seems she is angry with her cousin but ultimately feels that she has won.

What you may want to do now is have each one of you, so you may want to work in a three, and you may each wanna take option one, option two, option three.

Find evidence to support that view and then have that discussion to give yourself a little bit of thinking time, or you may want to just discuss this in pairs, or if you're working alone, you may just want to pick the one that you are most convinced of it off the bat and find evidence to support it.

Once you've done that, hit Play.

Some really thoughtful and considerate reading there everyone.

Lovely stuff.

So you might have said that each of the statements is valid to a certain extent, but some are more convincing interpretations than others.

We cannot be sure of Rossetti's intended meaning.

There could be multiple, in fact, we've already said that there are multiple valid readings, but there may be multiple ones that Rossetti intended, and we can only make inferences and support our ideas with evidence from the text.

So what we're going to do as part of understanding the poem is we're going to start off by reading it, and as we're reading it, we'll be discussing some of the key annotations.

As we're reading, you'll want to have a pen in your hand to be actively taking notes.

So we start with, "I was a cottage maiden hardened by sun and air, contented with my cottage mates, not mindful I was fair.

Why did a great lord find me out and praise my flaxen hair? Why did a great lord find me out to fill my heart with care?" Well, here, the speaker introduces herself and explains how she met the nobleman.

But how does the speaker present herself? Pause the video and find any evidence of how she presents herself.

What tone is she building? Once you've done that, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

So we can see that she's presenting herself sympathetically.

She plays on Victorian gender roles here.

She talks about how she's fair, the fact that she's a maiden, but also there's a sense that, actually, the speaker is an innocent prey.

She's a maiden, contented, "Not mindful I was fair-" She's not thinking about it, And yet there is a predatory nobleman who found me out, find me out.

That sense, that repetition suggests that actually, it's almost a constant nuisance and "find me out" suggests that almost if you are finding something, that thing was hidden.

So she's trying to gain the reader's sympathy.

Pause the video, anything you need, take it down, and when you're ready, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

Let's move on.

So the next section of the poem, "He lured me to his palace home, woe's me for joy thereof, to lead a shameless, shameful life, his plaything and his love.

He wore me like a silk knot, he changed me like a glove.

So now I moan, an unclean thing, who might have been a dove.

So we can see here that the speaker describes how he tempted her and ultimately corrupted her innocence.

But how does the speaker think the nobleman felt about her? We obviously know how she's treated, but how did she maybe expect to be treated? Pause the video, have that discussion, annotating, finding evidence to support your ideas, and when you've done so, hit Play.

Some lovely ideas there, everyone.

So we can say with "his plaything and his love," there's maybe a conflicted nature to that.

Plaything is maybe suggesting something a little bit more, almost a distraction.

So he used her to fulfil his desires but ultimately, did not have passionate feelings for her.

Yes, there's that use of the word love, but, you know, love could also be used quite meaninglessly, sort of to suggest that we feel a very base level of affection.

People call you love or sweetheart or darling.

It's not because you necessarily are their love, sweetheart, or darling, right? Which may be a similar issue here.

And ultimately, with phrases like "wore me" and "changed me" and even describing herself as an unclean thing rather than this dove, she feels as though she has been used and discarded.

There's this sense that, actually, she has been made impure and then left to the side and she is frustrated with that.

Okay, so if we just have a look at that final two lines of that section, how could we link these lines to Victorian gender roles? Pause the video.

Maybe one of you have a look back at the context, another one of you have a look at the line, and then see if you can come up with your own idea.

How do these lines link to Victorian gender roles? Once you've done so, hit Play.

I love the way that some of you were going to the context specifically and then developing your idea.

Some of you were actually starting off with the text and considering some of the connotations of that word dove.

So what you may have wanted to say was that sexual relationships were forbidden before marriage and women were told they needed to be modest and virtuous.

But the speaker describing herself now as an unclean thing suggests the nobleman has ultimately dirtied her innocence and virtue.

She can no longer be the dove, this innocence, sorry, symbol of innocence and purity that she hoped be.

And on to the next one.

"O lady Kate, my cousin Kate, you grew more fair than I.

He saw you at your father's gate, chose you, and cast me by.

He watched your steps along the lane, your work among the rye.

He lifted you from mean estate to sit with him on high." So she's switched her attention.

She addresses her cousin Kate.

The nobleman has met her, fallen in love, and now they are married.

But how she does she describe the nobleman's feelings for her cousin? Well, she clearly views him.

Oh, sorry, he clearly views her differently.

She, cousin Kate, is chosen, she is watched, she is lifted.

So these are much more gentler forms of language.

Kate's still an object: lifted, watched, chosen, but is still treated more gently.

We could argue that, actually, she seems or the narrator seems quite envious of her cousin's new high status.

Pause the video, anything you need here, take it down as a note, and then hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

And in the next section we have, "Because you are so good and pure, he bound you with his ring, the neighbours call you good and pure, call me an outcast thing, even so I sit and howl in dust, you sit in gold and sing.

Now which of us has tenderer heart? You had the stronger wing.

So here, Rossetti explores Victorian gender roles further.

Kate's purity has secured her wealth, status, happiness and popularity.

But the speaker also presents herself here, but in quite a different way.

Pause the video, have that discussion, and when you're ready, hit Play.

Some excellent work there, everyone.

So we can see that the speaker presents herself as sitting and howling in her dust, which suggests that she's sad and ashamed.

Her affair with the nobleman has ultimately ruined her life, ruined her reputation.

But how else does Rossetti link to Victorian gender roles here beyond this line? What else is significant in terms of links to Victorian gender roles? Pause the video, have that discussion, and when you're ready, hit Play.

Some really careful annotating there, everyone.

So we may have a look at this line, "He bound you with his ring." Kate is given legitimacy.

She's made a proper spouse for the nobleman because she marries him.

He has control over her life now, but also, it's willingly given by Kate or largely willingly given patriarchal society.

Marriage, it's a complicated deal.

But it's a very different state for the narrator who didn't have the safety of marriage and ultimately, is therefore in a much worse position, is much more liable for society to sort of look at her quite negatively.

So we come to this next section.

"O cousin Kate, my love was true, your love was writ in sand.

If he had fooled not me but you, if you stood where I stand, he'd not have won me with his love nor bought me with his land, I would've spit into his face and not have taken his hand." So here the speaker compares how each of them loved the nobleman, but there's a real difference.

What does she suggest attracted Kate to the nobleman? Pause the video, have that discussion, and when you're ready, hit Play.

Excellent work.

So ultimately it is his wealth and status that the narrator claims that Kate is sort of interested in more than anything.

She claims she would've rejected him in Kate's position.

And really, Kate has only accepted it because she knows she's given that security.

It's almost casting Kate in quite a cunning light.

But what's interesting about this line, "I would've spit into his face"? Pause the video, maybe considered the contrast with gender expectations, and when you're ready, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

So most Victorians would've considered this behaviour very uncivil and unwomanly.

I would argue that, actually, we don't even consider it unwomanly.

We just don't consider it civilised at all in 21st century society.

There are famous speakers who have spat into people's faces who we now will often talk about.

That is part of their sort of story as national figures, and it changes the way that we perceive them.

For a woman in the 19th century and for the Victorian period, this would've been seen as deeply subversive, deeply problematic.

And so she would have been seen as really uncompromisingly unwomanly.

"Yet I have a gift you have not got and seem not like to get.

For all your clothes and wedding ring, I've little doubt you fret.

My fair-haired son, my shame, my pride cling closer, closer yet.

Yet your father would give lands for one to wear his coronet." So the speaker reveals at this point that she has given birth to the nobleman's son.

How does the speaker feel about her son? Pause the video, see if you can annotate this bit, thinking about how the speaker feels about her son, and once you've done so, hit Play.

This is such a rich moment in the text.

There's so much that we could discuss here.

So on the one hand, we have, "My fair-haired son, my shame, my pride." There is a sense of conflict.

She's proud and loves him.

It also acknowledges he is the product of a shameful affair that ultimately disgraces her.

But also, the speaker suggests that she has the last laugh.

But how? Pause the video, see if you can find it, and when you're ready, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

"Your father would give lands for one to wear his coronet." Kate has not yet given birth to a son.

The nobleman wants him there for the title, which means that, suddenly, that son becomes at all-important.

The speaker has a bargaining chip over both the nobleman and Kate.

So let's just have a quick check for understanding here.

True or false: the speaker feels as though Kate has everything and she has nothing.

Pause the video, select a response, and when you're ready, hit Play.

Okay, excellent work, there.

So we can see that this is indeed false, but is it A, the speaker has a plan to win back her love by convincing their neighbours Kate is unpure and has cheated on the nobleman, or B, the speaker has given birth to the nobleman's son, whereas Kate hasn't and the nobleman desires and heir to its title.

Which is the better justification? Pause the video, select a response, and when you're ready, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

So we can see it's clearly B.

The most important thing is what we just went through on the last slide, that actually, that fair-haired son, her shame, her pride is the main thing that she's able to look to as a sense of actually, she's still got something here.

So we're just going to put a little bit of practise in.

I've got a list of all the poems in your anthology up on the board, and all I would like you to do is decide which poem you think is most similar to "Cousin Kate" and why.

To do this, you'll need to summarise the similarities and differences between "Cousin Kate" and your chosen poem, supporting your ideas with evidence from the text.

You may want to do this by almost giving a brief bullet point that looks at a similarity or a difference.

This just bullet pointing underneath almost as a little table, poem A your chosen poem, and then "Cousin Kate" as your poem B.

Pause the video, do that now, and once you've completed that, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

Let's take some feedback.

So our Oak pupils were also given this task and they came up with the following: Izzy said, well, "I'd choose 'Catrin,' since both poems focus on the conflict that can occur in family relationships," whilst Lucas argued, well, "I'd want to choose 'Half-caste.

' Both used the first person to reflect on personal life experiences of conflict." Whilst Laura said, "I'd choose 'A Poison Tree,' since both poems focus on the speaker's interpersonal conflict with another who they feel has wronged or betrayed them." I want you to discuss, who do you think out of Izzy, Lucas, and Laura has the best choice.

You will also want to have a look at their justifications here as well, as they're really important.

Once you've done that, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

Some really fruitful discussions.

So we think that Laura's response is the best one there.

We think that her focus is really clear and we know where she's gonna go with that argument.

It's detailed and focused on key ideas.

But can we give Izzy and Lucas EBIs? Pause the video, maybe split it between you as partners, one of you takes Izzy, one of you takes Lucas, and then feed back to each other.

Or you could work collaboratively to give either Izzy, Lucas, or both of them EBIs, or you can just work independently looking at either one.

Once you've done so, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

So Izzy's EBI is clear.

She needs to focus more on comparative detail.

She's just focused on 'Catrin,' and actually, we need a little bit more focus on both poems. Whilst Lucas is really feature-spotting, he's talking about the fact that both of them use the first person, which isn't really enough to discuss for a whole essay, so it's quite a limited comparison.

We need to make sure that we lead with key ideas.

So let's just summarise our understanding of the poem "Cousin Kate." The poem explores the conflict between the speaker and society's expectations of her as a woman, and Victorian women had higher moral expectations placed on them than men.

The speaker in the poem has been caught having sexual relationships outside of marriage, but women were often considered the property of men at the same time the poem was written.

Rossetti ultimately is trying to explore Victorian gender roles in the poem, reflecting on the inequality of a patriarchal society.

This is one of my favourite poems within this collection, so I'm really glad that I've been given the chance to work with you on it today.

Thank you so much for joining me and thank you for all your efforts and thoughts.

I really look forward to working with you again soon.

Bye for now, everyone.