Hello there.

Mr. Barnsley here.

Thank you so much for joining me.

In today's lesson, we are gonna be looking at "Romeo and Juliet", the tragic love story.

Now, in this lesson we're gonna be building up to doing some writing about Shakespeare's intentions, his purposes behind the creation of particularly the character of Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet".

So you are gonna want to come to this lesson with some knowledge and understanding of the whole plot with some knowledge and understanding of the character of Juliet.

Okay? You're gonna need to come in with some of that background knowledge 'cause we're gonna be putting it all into a piece of writing.

All right, if you are ready to start, I'm ready to start, so let's dive in.

So let's have a look at today's outcome then, shall we? By the end of the lesson, you are gonna be able to use tentative language to write about Shakespeare's intentions in "Romeo and Juliet".

Now, here are five are keywords, two of which are in the outcome.

Let's start with those.

The first word, intentions.

This is something that you want or you plan to do.

It's an aim.

Now, the other word that was in our outcome is the bottom word.

The word right at the bottom there, tentative.

And that is something that is not definite or not certain.

So in today's lesson we are gonna be doing kind of using tentative vocabulary to talk about Shakespeare's aims. So we're gonna use language that says we're not definite here, we're not certain.

This is my interpretation to talk about Shakespeare's intentions, his aims. All right, let's look at the other three words that are gonna be popping up in today's lesson that we want to be really sure about.

The first is agency, and that's the capacity of an individual to act independently from others to make their own free choices.

We're gonna looking at that verb to conform.

This is to behave according to the usual standards or behaviour that they're expected by a group.

And this word or this phrase, contemporary discourse will come up, and this is the current discussions and conversations happening in a specific field or context.

So let's keep an eye out for all these, see if we can use them in our own discussions and work.

So in today's lesson, we are gonna be building up to doing a little bit of writing where we use tentative language, and we're gonna do this by following three learning cycles.

The first learning cycle, we are gonna think about female agency in "Romeo and Juliet".

We are then gonna start thinking about Shakespeare's intentions, what were his aims, and then we're gonna write about Shakespeare's intentions, right? About his aim.

So let's start by thinking about female agency in "Romeo and Juliet".

So throughout "Romeo and Juliet", Shakespeare arguably explores this concept of agency, but not just anyone's agency, the agency of women and girls, and he does this through the character of Juliet.

So female agency refers to the ability of characters who are women or who are girls, to take action and make their own decisions, the decisions that are gonna affect their own lives and their own outcomes.

Now, arguably, Shakespeare presents Juliet as both exerting agency, showing agency, having agency in the play, but there's also moments where her agency is undermined.

Okay, let's start then by thinking about how Shakespeare presents Juliet as a character who exerts agency, who has agency, who has some control and has control over her own outcomes and her decisions.

Now, if you've got partner, you can think about this with them.

Otherwise you can pause the video and just think through this independently.

But I want you to be trying to find moments from across the play, which presents Juliette as exerting agency.

Pause the video, give this a go and press Play when you are ready to continue.

Welcome back.

I sure you were finding many different events that you could have talked about.

Let's think about some of these chronologically, how they happen in the play then, shall we? So you might have started by thinking about act one, scene five, which is where Juliet grants Romeo permission to kiss her.

She's in control here, "You may kiss me." In act two, scene two, we see her taking control of this relationship further.

We see that phrase, too rash, implying that she can, and we see that she also implies that she can change her own identity.

"I'll no longer be a Capulet.

"I am in charge of who I will be." In act three, scene two, we see her take control of the consummation.

"I have bought the mansion, give me my Romeo." We also see her forgiving Romeo for killing her cousin Tybalt.

In act four, scene one, we learn that she desires to die rather than marry Paris.

This is her choice.

She uses imperatives, "Give me, give me." You might have also mentioned act four, scene three where she speaks in iambic pentameter when she talks about her death.

Remember, we can argue that iambic pentameter shows that she's controlling her language, therefore she's in control.

And finally, we know by the end of the play in Act five, scene three, she chooses to die rather than join a nunnery.

She has the agency, she makes that choice.

Well done if you said anything similar.

Of course you might have picked some other events from the play as well.

But we've said this is controversial.

Not everyone is gonna agree, hence why we're gonna be tentative later in the lesson.

Where can we see at times during the play Juliet's agency is undermined? It suggests that she doesn't have agency, she doesn't have control.

Maybe she is restricted by the characters and the things, the events that happen around her.

Again, in pairs or by yourself, pause video, have a think and press Play when you've got some ideas.

Welcome back again.

I'm sure you've picked many, many different moments from the play.

Let's go through just some of them and you can see if you agree with some of the ones that I've chosen.

So again, even back in act one, scene five, we know that Romeo takes the active role.

Romeo kisses her.

He is active, she is passive.

In Act three, scene two, she's compared to an impatient child.

She's infantilized.

She calls Romeo, my husband, suggests her forgiveness for him stems from societal pressure, the pressure of the relationship of how a wife should behave.

In act four, scene one, we know her desire to avoid marrying Paris comes from her wish to remain unstained for Romeo.

It's almost like her desire not to marry Paris is to please her husband, to please Romeo rather than necessarily for her own wishes.

Act four, scene three, we see at times her language is really desperate, and her final line, even though we've talked about the the use of iambic pentameter, her final line isn't in iambic pentameter.

Maybe that implies her decision is for Romeo, it's not for her.

She's kind of relinquished some control here.

And in Act five, scene three, the final line is, "Let me die." She's asking the knife for permission, and her presentation post-death, well, she's gonna be remembered as true and faithful to Romeo, and that tells us that women's reputations are decided by others.

They're defined as a wife.

She's defined by how she's behaved towards her husband.

So really interesting though we can see arguments for both sides.

We can show examples where Juliet both has agency and her agency is undermined.

All right, before we continue, let's do a check.

Shakespeare presents a cohesive, a kind of a fully rounded and clear idea of Juliet's agency throughout the play.

Is that true or is that false? Pause video, have a think and remember to justify your answer.

Press Play when you're ready to continue.

Yeah, well done if you said false there.

Well, why might we have said false? Well, maybe said something similar to this.

We might interpret some moments as showing Juliet exerting agency and others where she takes a much more passive role.

So we can't say there is this really cohesive presentation of Juliet because we can argue both sides.

So over to you then for our first task, this is a discussion task.

So brilliant if you've got a partner or a small group to work with, you can discuss with them.

But do not worry if you're working by yourself.

Discussion activities are always a good opportunity for you to just pause the video, reflect and think to yourself about your own ideas.

So the question we're looking at today is do you think Shakespeare presents Juliet as having agency in "Romeo and Juliet"? Things you may wish to consider, the decisions that Juliet makes in the play to marry Romeo secretly and commit suicide when she discovers him dead, and whether you think Juliet's decisions are made of her own free will.

All right, over to you to discuss in pairs or think by yourself.

Press Play when you are ready to continue.

Welcome back.

I'm sure you had some fantastic ideas there, and really well done if you were taking moments from the play to help justify your thoughts.

Let's have a look at a discussion that was had by two of our Oak pupils.

These are Sam and Sofia, and they have quite different views.

So I want you to think about whose thoughts most closely align to the ideas that you had.

So Sam says that she doesn't think that Shakespeare presents her as having agency.

She thinks her decisions are driven by societal pressure and restrictions rather than her free will.

So Sam's arguing that actually if she had free will, there might be a different outcome.

Whereas Sophia says, "I think Shakespeare does present Juliet as having agency.

"She subverts contemporary stereotypes "and tries to take control of her own life." So we expect that in a patriarchal society, that women would have no control.

And actually what we see here is a woman taking control, and therefore this is having agency and it's subverting what we might have expected of women and girls at the time.

Pause video.

Take a moment to reflect whose opinions were most closely aligned to yours and the person that you were least closely aligned with.

Are you starting to see their point of view now? All right, pause the video, take a moment to reflect and press Play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

It is time for us to continue, and now we're gonna start to consider Shakespeare's intentions.

So a reminder, intentions is one of our keywords.

And when we are talking about a writer's intentions, we're talking about what their aim or their purpose might have been in making the choices that they did.

Remember, every line, every character, every stage direction has been carefully selected by the writer, in this case, William Shakespeare, for a specific reason.

So why do you think it's important that we do think about the writer's intentions? Why do we think about their aims and their purposes? Why do we do that? Why don't we just analyse the language and think about what it makes us feel? Why do we think about the rights intention? Pause video, have a think with a pair, with a partner or by yourself and press Play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

I wonder if you said something similar to what one of our Oak pupils, Laura, said.

She said, "It might reveal what the writer's overall message is.

"What do they want us as a reader "or as an audience to take away from the text or the play? "What are they saying about society? "What are they saying about humanity?" So thinking about what the writer is trying to do really helps us with our analysis and thinking about how we are, maybe the writer is wanting us to respond.

Well done if you said something similar.

Of course you might have slightly different ideas as well.

So now let's start thinking about Shakespeare's intentions.

Why might thinking about Shakespeare's intentions regarding female agency be important? What do you think? Pause video, have a bit of a think by yourself or with a partner and press Play when you've got some ideas.

Welcome back.

Let's think about some of the things that you might have said.

Well, it might reveal how Shakespeare wants us as the audience to view women.

It could tell us whether he thinks women should be submissive or whether he thinks women should be more powerful.

We can start starting thinking about is he subverting or is he conforming? Kind of meeting expectations of stereotypical depictions of women.

So we can start thinking about like how is he presenting his women, and what's he trying to say about women, and how does he want us to feel about women? And what is his message about how women should behave and view themselves? So you can see here, by starting to think about Shakespeare's intentions, we can go a lot deeper in our analysis rather than just saying this is how Juliet feels.

We can start to think about actually how is Juliet being used to share messages about women and girls in society at the time? So true or false then? Considering a writer's intention is an important aspect of analytical writing.

Do you think that's true or do you think that's false? Pause the video, select your answer, but don't forget to justify.

All right, over to you.

Press Play when you're ready to continue.

Well done if you said that was true.

Why? Well, you might have said something similar to this.

Considering a writer's intention allows us to think about what their overall message is.

What are they saying about society and humanity throughout their writing? So we know that when "Romeo and Julio" was written, England was a patriarchal society.

Men were in control.

As a consequence, women were expected to obey their fathers and husbands.

They were considerably less powerful than men.

They were expected to be submissive, subservient, and they were not seen as having any agency, any control over their lives.

However, despite there being this patriarchal society, England had a female monarch, Queen Elizabeth I.

So let's think about the information that we know about Queen Elizabeth I.

Well, firstly, as a queen, she had ultimate power in England.

Specifically, as queen, She had power over the men around her because she could appoint, she could hire, she could demote, and she could even execute.

She could even have the men around her killed.

And through all of this, even though her counsellors advised her to, Queen Elizabeth refused to get married.

So what do you think the implications could be for the patriarchal system if there was a woman, was the monarch was allowed to be the head of this system? What do you think the consequences, the implications might be? Pause the video.

Tricky question here, so if you've got a partner, do feel free to discuss with them.

Otherwise just think through this independently.

Remember to press Play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

This was a tough question here.

So one of our Oak pupils, Aisha, has given this a go and I think we'll take a moment to reflect and see if your answers were the same.

So Aisha said, "I think it would invite people "to consider ideas of women in power, potentially ideas "that hadn't been considered very often.

"So Queen Elizabeth I could rule effectively, "then perhaps women should have more power.

"If Queen Elizabeth I didn't have to be obedient "to the men in her life, "then why should any woman have to be obedient?" I wonder if you said something similar.

I wonder if you are starting to think about how having a woman at the top of this system, at the top of this hierarchy could start to open people's eyes or get people to question kind of the validity of a patriarchal system.

So we know in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", Juliet marries in secret and she doesn't marry the man her father wants her to marry.

I've got this really meaty question for you to get your teeth into.

How might the character of Juliet feed into contemporary discourses? So discussions that were ha happening at the time around women power and control.

And if you really want to challenge yourself, you can also start to think about those conversations that might still be happening today, because actually there are conversations in modern society about women, power and control too.

So over to you in pairs or by yourself, how might Juliet represent these conversations? Pause the video, give it a go and press Play when you are done.

I'm sure you had some really fantastic ideas there.

I wonder if you said anything similar to what you can see on the screen now.

Actually, she links to questions about whether women should have agency and power.

There are always people arguing throughout history.

Some people today will still try and argue whether women should or shouldn't have agency in power.

And Juliet could be a central character.

It could be something that people have discussed, particularly throughout history.

People might argue that Juliet reveals the consequences of women having agency, particularly people who want to fight against women having agency might use Juliet as an example of why this might be a bad thing.

And at the time, she might represent the realities of how much power women could have.

So when we think about the character of Juliet, there is so much we can say beyond what she does and how she responds.

We can dig so much deeper in our analysis and think about what it tells us about society, the arguments that people were having at the time, the differing views that people had in the time, but actually those arguments that some people are still having to have today.

All right then, which of the following were stereotypes of women in a patriarchal society? Is it A, that women were expected to exert agency over their lives? Is it B, that women were expected to be submissive and obedient? Or is it C, that women were expected to show authority in situations? A, B, or C? Pause the video, make your choice and press Play when you are done.

Well done if you said B.

Of course women were expected to be submissive and obedient.

Right onto our second task of today then, another discussion activity.

What do you think Shakespeare's intentions were concerning female agency? It's not clear, so you're gonna have to think what your own opinions here, but some things you might want to consider as you're thinking about this.

Juliet has a tragic end.

How might this link to what Shakespeare's intentions? What do you think Shakespeare might have been suggesting about how women should behave? What are the implications might be for ideas of women, control and power, and what this might reveal about the realities of being a woman in patriarchal society? All right, over to you.

This is all about your own opinions, but remember, it's fine to think whatever.

It's fine for you to have your own opinions on what Shakespeare's intentions might be, but you do need to justify it with ideas from the text.

All right, pause the video, give this a go and press Play when you're ready to continue.

I'm sure you had some brilliant discussions there.

So much to talk about from what we've discussed in the lesson and other things that you might be bringing from your own knowledge.

Before we move on, I want us to take a second to pause and reflect on the discussions that we had.

So we're gonna do this independently.

We're gonna think to ourselves, did you consider the following ideas? Did you consider that Shakespeare might have been criticising women who are trying to exert agency through Juliet's tragic end? Did you consider that if Shakespeare was criticising women, then maybe he's conforming to stereotypical ideas that women should be submissive and obedient? Did you consider that Shakespeare might be criticising society for restricting women's agency through Juliet's tragic end? And that if Shakespeare was criticising society, then maybe he was being subversive and he was suggesting that women should actually have more power.

I wonder which side of the fence you fell down on there.

Take a moment to pause, reflect, and really think about what your opinions on Shakespeare's intentions are.

Okay, we've come to our final learning cycle, and now it's time for us to put all of these fantastic ideas into writing.

Now, when we write analytically, we want to be using tentative language, tentative our keyword, kind of not decisive.

And this is really important when we're talking about writer's intentions.

So why do you think it's so important that we use tentative language in analytical writing? Pause the video, have a think and press Play when you've got some ideas.

Welcome back.

You might have said something along the lines of there are no right and wrong answers in English.

We might have also said that actually people have different interpretations.

The way you interpret, the way you view a character might be very different to how I feel about them.

Similarly, when I read a word, it might make me think of something, but it might make you think of something else.

And ultimately, we can never really truly know the writer's intentions.

Obviously a lot easier if the authors are still alive today, we can interview them.

We can ask them, "What were your intentions?" "Why did you do this?" But certainly when we're talking about the work of William Shakespeare, we cannot be sure what he was trying to do.

We cannot be sure whether he was conforming or being subversive when he was talking about women's agency.

So we have to be tentative.

We have to be tentative there to show, "Look, we're not saying we're 100 percent right here." So to make your writing tentative, you might include tentative verbs and adverbs.

For example, the following sentence is very definitive.

Shakespeare presents Juliet as exerting agency throughout "Romeo and Juliet".

This person is very, very sure they know exactly what Shakespeare meant to say and meant to do, when in reality, how can they be certain? They can't.

So we might add a tentative adverb to make it tentative.

And this adverb is arguably.

So arguably means it could be argued.

Some people might argue, I am arguing, but I'm not saying that every single person is going to agree with me here.

So arguably, Shakespeare presents Juliet as exerting agency throughout "Romeo and Juliet".

Can you see the difference there between those two sentences? The first one says, I know I'm right and this is the only possible interpretation.

The second one says, this is my opinion, and I think you might agree with me, but I'm acknowledging that there might be different opinions here.

So here are some examples of tentative verbs and adverbs that will really useful when we're writing tentatively.

So some tentative verbs are things like could, may and might.

Let's see how they might be used.

So Shakespeare's posthumous presentation of Juliet as true and faithful, that means how she was presented after her death, could show that women's reputations are controlled by the men in their lives.

May show that women's reputations are controlled by the men in their lives.

Might show that women's reputations are controlled by the men in their lives.

Alternatively, we could use a tentative adverb like perhaps, maybe, arguably.

Shakespeare's use of the submissive, let me, in Juliet's final line perhaps suggests that our final impression of Juliet is meant to undermine her agency.

Maybe suggests that our final impression of Juliet is meant to undermine her agency.

Arguably suggests that our final impression of Juliet is meant to undermine her agency.

All right, let's see how we've been understanding.

Let's check, we know what tentative language is.

Which of the following sentences uses tentative language? Is it A, by writing stage directions that position Romeo in an active role, Shakespeare is showing that men should be dominant? Is it B, the image of Lord Montague dressing Juliet's commemorative statue is Shakespeare depicting men as in control of women? Or is it C, Juliet's personification of the knife In act five, scene three could suggest that Shakespeare wants us to see her as giving away control? A, B, or C? Make your choice, pause your video and press Play when you're ready to find out the answer.

Really well done if you said A.

That is the only one that uses tentative language.

Did you spot it? It's the word could.

We're not saying it definitely suggests.

We're saying it could, it may, it might suggest.

Well done if you've got that correct.

Okay, we're now onto our final task, and this is the bit of writing that we've been building up to.

We're only writing a short answer, but I want you to answer this question.

What do you think Shakespeare's intentions were in his presentation of female agency in "Romeo and Juliet"? Okay, we're gonna put all of our ideas together from across this lesson and even more.

You can bring other ideas that you might have already had.

So things I want you to remember to do.

Use tentative language because remember, we cannot be sure exactly what Shakespeare's intentions were, but also really think about how Shakespeare's intentions connect to contemporary discourses on women, control and power.

All right, over to you.

I know you can do this.

I know you're gonna do a really fantastic job.

You've learned so much, now it's time to put it all together.

Pause the video, best of luck, and press Play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

Great job.

It was fantastic to see you writing with such confidence, and of course really well done to anyone who check their spelling, punctuation, and grammar before they put their pen down.

Brilliant.

That's what we like to see.

All right, we're gonna finish with a moment of feedback then, and I'm gonna do this by reflecting on our work and reflecting on the work of an Oak pupil.

So Izzy wrote, "Through his presentation of Juliet's agency, "Shakespeare criticises contemporary society "and the restrictions placed on women.

"By giving Juliet a tragic end, "Shakespeare reveals the realities "of being a woman in a patriarchal society "and how their lack of control leads to violence." Great ideas is he, but wasn't particularly tentative.

Where could we add some tentative language? Well, we could have said, Shakespeare arguably criticises, and we could have said Shakespeare may be revealing the realities of being a woman because we don't know for sure.

All right, take a moment to pause the video, reread your work and check you have been tentative.

Press Play when you are done.

Well, that's it.

We've reached the end of the lesson, and what a fantastic job you've done.

It's been my absolute pleasure learning alongside you.

On the screen, you can see a summary of the learning that we covered.

Let's quickly go through that so you can feel really confident before you move on to your next lesson.

So we've learned that arguably Shakespeare shows Juliet as both exerting agency and assuming a passive role in "Romeo and Juliet".

We've learned that a writer's intentions can reveal that overall message, what they are saying about society or humanity.

And we've learned that using tentative language is important because we can never truly be sure of a writer's intention.

Fantastic work today.

You've done such a good job.

You should be really proud of yourself.

I do hope to see you in one of our lessons again in the future.

Take care, and see you all soon.

Bye-bye.