Hello everyone and welcome to a lesson today on analysing the character of Helen Stoner from "The Speckled Band" story.

I'm Miss Sutherland and I'll be teaching you today.

Our learning outcome for today is to analyse a character's presentation and we'll be analysing the character of Helen Stoner.

Our key words for today are prevent.

If you prevent something, you stop it from happening.

Detective.

A detective is someone who investigates and solves crimes.

Agitation.

Agitation is a state of anxiety or panic.

Analyse.

If you analyse something, you explore it in great detail.

I hope these words will be very helpful in helping us meet our outcome today.

We're gonna start off in this lesson by looking at a bit of historical context and what it was like to solve crimes in the Victorian era.

We're then going to meet Helen Stoner from the story, "The Speckled Band," and hear about why she's come to Sherlock Holmes and then we'll be writing about Helen Stoner as a character and analysing her presentation.

So let's start off with solving crimes in the Victorian era.

Let's read this bit of information.

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Stories" in the Victorian era, and that was from 1837 to 1901.

At the time, the police force was new and the public was sceptical about the intentions of the police.

Until 1842, the new police force solely focused on crime prevention rather than solving previous crimes.

In one particular case, it took the police force 10 days to find someone who had committed a murder.

This led to the establishment of a detective force who used clues to solve previous crimes and a public interest in detective fiction.

Sherlock Holmes thus became a very popular and admired detective for many Victorian readers, as he solves crimes meticulously, is dedicated to providing accurate answers to crimes and bringing clients justice.

Now, is this true or false? The police force had always focused on solving crimes.

Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said false.

The police force had not always focused on solving crimes.

Why is that? Pause the video and justify your answer.

Well done if you said it's because the police force mostly focused on crime prevention.

What led to the establishment of the detective force and rise of def of detective fiction? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said, a serious crime taking a very long time to solve, in fact, it took 10 days led to the establishment of the detect detective force and rise of detective fiction.

The police force didn't want more to do.

That's not the reason that the detective force was formed, and it's not because Sherlock Holmes inspired the city of London.

In fact, Sherlock Holmes was a character created after the detective force was formed in London.

You could say that Sherlock Holmes, the character of Sherlock Holmes, was inspired by the new detective force that was created.

Therefore, the detective force in London, in the Victorian era was first established because a murder took 10 days to solve, which was a very long time.

Well done if you got that right.

I now want you to answer the following questions to show your understanding of solving crimes in the Victorian era and the rise of the fictional detective.

So we're gonna show that we understand that paragraph that we just read.

Here are your questions.

Number one, how did the police force change in 1842? Which event was the catalyst or the reason causing the police force to form a detective force? And why do you think this sparked change? Number three, what did detectives do that the original police force did not? Number four, why was Sherlock Holmes so popular? Pause the video and answer those questions.

Let's go through some answers.

In 1842, the police force shifted away from merely the prevention of crime and began to solve previous crimes.

Number two, the catalyst or the reason for the police force forming a detective department was a murder case that took 10 days to solve.

This may have sparked change because society may have seen that the current police approach was not efficient or effective enough to keep society safe.

Number three, detective used clues to solve previous crime cases, whereas the original police force tried to prevent crimes from happening and lastly, Sherlock Holmes was popular because he solved crimes meticulously, provided accurate answers and brought clients to justice.

Well done if you've got all those questions right.

We're now gonna meet Helen Stoner in the story, "The Speckled band." We're gonna explore who she is, why she's come to Holmes, and how she's feeling.

So let's begin reading Conan Doyle's favourite detective story, "The speckled band." In the story, a woman named Helen Stoner has approached Sherlock Holmes.

As we read, think carefully about what state she is in and why she may have approached Holmes.

Let's begin reading.

"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 that makes me shiver" said the woman in a low voice, changing her seat as requested.

"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 and 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 shot with premature grey and her expressions weary and haggard.

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

Answer this question to check your understanding of what we've just read.

When we meet Helen Stoner, she's in a state of, pause the video and complete the sentence.

Well done if you said that when we meet Helen Stoner, she is in a state of terror.

We can see that because her eyes are like that of a restless, frightened animal and she's in a state of agitation.

How would you describe Helen Stoner's appearance? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, if you said unhealthy, we see her being described as being haggard, and that means she looks worn out, she looks exhausted.

Well done if you got that right.

Why does Helen Stoner look weary and haggard? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said, Helen Stoner looks weary and haggard because she is frightened.

She hasn't necessarily had a long journey.

Well, we don't know yet, and she has not yet said if she's homeless or not, but we do know she's frightened because she said she's shivering because of fear.

Well done if you got that right.

I now want you to find three quotes that tell you something about Helen Stoner.

Find 'em from the extract that we just read.

Pause video and find the quotes.

You could have found her face all drawn and grey with restless, frightened eyes like those of some hunted animal.

Also, her hair was shot with premature grey, and finally her expression was weary and haggard.

There are my three quotes about Helen Stoner from the text.

I'm now going to ask you to explode the quotes, to dig deeper into Helen Stoner's character, and this is going to help us analyse her character.

So let's go through how to explode a quote.

First of all, you need to highlight the interesting words and phrases in the quote.

Then you need to annotate the quote with any language devices that you are noticing.

So that could be any technique the writer has used such as a simile, a metaphor, any interesting adjective, and so on and finally, I want you to annotate the quote with what these words, phrases, and devices suggest about the character.

Let's give that a go here.

So for example, I've highlighted, like those of some hunted animal, because I think that phrase is quite interesting.

I think that tells me a lot about the state she is in.

I'm now going to annotate it with my language devices.

In order to do that, I've given you help.

So you need to answer what language device is used here and what does it suggest about Helen at this moment.

To help you annotate what it suggests about the character, you can answer the question, what does hunted suggest? You can zoom in the word hunted.

So pause the video and have a go at exploding all of the quotes on the screen there or the ones that you found.

Pause the video and explode the quotes.

Let's go through some of your possible annotations.

Her face all drawn in grey with restless, frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal.

There is a simile in, like those of some hunted animal, and this similarly compares Helen to a hunted animal, suggesting she's in in impending danger like defenceless prey.

I also think the adjective hunted suggests she's being viciously targeted, which explains her restlessness.

Let's move on to this quote.

Her hair was shot with premature grey.

The verb shot could be symbolic of impending brutality or violence because we associate shooting with a gun with violence.

The word grey could represent her bleak circumstances or emphasise her stress because grey is a gloomy colour and grey, turning grey is associated with increasing stress sometimes as well.

Now let's analyse the quotes, her expression was weary and haggard.

I'm going to zoom into the words weary and haggard here.

These are both adjectives which suggest she's in a state of tension and stress, which is making her appear unhealthy.

If someone is haggard, it means they look exhausted and unwell, usually due to some sort of suffering.

Now let's move on to write about Helen Stoner.

So what we're going to do now is put all of our ideas from the quote explosions into a paragraph about this character.

So let's consider what we need to include in that paragraph.

What are the ingredients of a good paragraph response to how does Conan Doyle present Helen Stoner in the opening of "The Speckled Band?" Let's read the paragraph and see how you can be successful when you write this answer yourself.

Conan Doyle creates a sense of foreboding around Helen Stoner when describing her hair, shot with premature grey.

The verb shot could be symbolic of some impending brutality she will face, because it has violent connotations.

The adjective grey could represent the bleak situation she finds herself, which is causing her stress.

It seems that Helen Stoner has visited Holmes in order to help her solve a very serious crime that could result in her dangerous end, if not resolved quickly.

Let's break that paragraph down.

What makes it successful? Firstly, there's a topic sentence and that's surrounding Helen Stoner because of course we're answering a question about her character.

It also has an embedded quotation.

It means the quotation is already within our first sentence.

We haven't started a brand new sentence just for the quote.

We've slotted it in where it fits nicely and notice also how the quotation is concise.

That means it's brief.

We then have our analysis of keywords or phrases from the quote.

Notice how the analysis section is the longest section of the paragraph because that's the most important section.

We have to really dig into our quotes and allow space for that in our paragraph and all of your analysis when your writing will come from your quote explosion, so make sure you use those for your ideas.

We also have conjunctions to justify our analysis.

We haven't just said the verb shot could be symbolic of brutality.

We've said the verb shot could be symbolic of brutality, because it has violent connotations.

So make sure you are using your conjunctions to justify your analysis too.

Lastly, we've ended with a prediction about why Helen Stoner may have visited homes.

Based on our analysis, we want to end the paragraph in a meaningful way, and our analysis is important because it gives us clues about why she's even ended up in this situation.

Why has she visited Holmes? So bring your paragraph back to the story.

Bring your paragraph back to why she is visiting Holmes at this moment.

What do you need to do when analysing your quote? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said you need to unpick interesting words or phrases when analysing your quote.

You do not need to define keywords when analysing your quote.

An analysis is about unravelling not defining.

Secondly, you don't need to provide a topic sentence when analysing your quote, because the topic sentence would be the first thing you do when writing the paragraph and it introduces your point, it does not cover the analysis.

Well done if you got that right.

When analysing your quote, you should unpick interesting words or phrases, just as you did in the quote explosion.

I now want you to complete the paragraph using the checklist and your quote explosion to help you.

So in this paragraph so far, you've been given the topic sentence and you've been given the quote.

All you have to do is add the analysis and add the prediction about why Helen has visited Holmes.

So you need to finish the following paragraph, Conan Doyle presents Helen Stoner as a haunted damsel in distress, as she visits Holmes with restless and eyes like those of some hunted animal.

Use the checklist to finish that paragraph.

Use your quote explosion to help you.

Pause the video and write the paragraph.

Well done on writing your paragraph everybody.

Let's go through what you may have written.

Conan Doyle presents Helen Stoner as a haunted damsel in distress as she visits Holmes with restless, frightened eyes like those of some hunted animal.

The simile, like those of a hunted animal suggests that Helen is vulnerable and hopeless at this time.

There I have my analysis of interesting words or phrases from the quote.

Because she's likened to defenceless prey, that's my conjunct, my sentence that starts with a conjunction in order to justify my analysis.

I haven't just said the simile suggests she's vulnerable.

I've said the simile suggests she's vulnerable, because she's likened to defenceless prey.

I've explained why I think she's vulnerable.

Then I've zoomed in to a particular phrase or word in my quote.

I said in particular, the word hunted suggests she's threatened and faces impending danger and then lastly, I've got my prediction about why she's visited Holmes.

Helen May have visited homes to ask for his help in detecting the criminal that poses a threat to her, which could provide her with some safety and security.

I now want you to make sure you've got all of those components in your own paragraph, so pause a video and self-assess your work.

Can you highlight where you've met all of those things on the checklist in your work? Pause a video and self-assess.

Well done everyone.

Let's go through what we've learned today.

The Victorian era saw the police force take an interest in solving previous crimes rather than just prevention.

The popularity of detective fiction grew at this time.

Sherlock Holmes was a popular fictional detective due to his meticulous investigative skills.

In "The Speckled Band," Helen Stoner, who is frightened and distressed, comes to visit Sherlock Holmes.

Helen may have visited Holmes to help her solve a serious crime.

Great work in today's lesson, everyone.

I look forward to seeing you next time.