Hello everyone, thank you for joining me today.

I'm Miss Sutherland and today's lesson is called comparing the victims. In this lesson, we will be comparing the victims of two Charlotte Combe stories, "The Adventure of a Speckled Band" and "The Boscombe Valley Mystery." Our learning outcome for today is to be able to compare two characters effectively.

And we'll be comparing the two victims, one from "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" and the other from "The Boscombe Valley Mystery." We have four key words today and they are compare: To compare is to estimate the similarities or differences between two things.

Victim.

A victim is a person harmed, injured or killed as a result of a crime.

Sympathetic.

A sympathetic character is one that you feel pity or sorrow for.

And comparative connective.

A comparative connective, for example, however, but, or similarly, expresses similarity or difference between two ideas.

I'm going to give you a moment to jot down any of those key words that you may want to because they'll be useful in your learning today.

Off you go.

Great, let's get started with today's lesson.

We have two learning cycles today.

In the first one, we'll be taking a look at the two victims from "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" and "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." They are Charles McCarthy and Julia Stoner.

So, we'll be looking at those and beginning to get some ideas about how they're similar and different.

In the second learning cycle, we'll then be writing up a comparison between those two victims. So, let's get started.

Let's just recap how Charles McCarthy, the victim in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery," is presented.

So, I'm going to read you extract there, where his son describes him.

A conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, for my father was a man of a very violent temper.

Seeing that his passion was becoming ungovernable, I left.

However, I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me to run back again.

I found my father expiring upon the ground.

with his head terribly injured.

He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no active enemies.

That's a very interesting description of Charles McCarthy, and we're going to unpack it.

So, based on what I've just read to you, what impression do you get of Charles McCarthy? Pause the video and have a think about that.

I heard some really interesting responses there.

Perhaps you mentioned that Charles McCarthy, despite being the victim, has got some somewhat questionable qualities, such as being cold, forbidding, and not being very popular.

Also being aggressive and losing his temper.

That's a really interesting depiction of a victim in this story.

I want you to complete this quote to show you understand how Charles McCarthy reacted to his death.

Pause the video and complete the quote.

Well done if you said, the quote reads as, "I heard a hideous outcry behind me." Now, that quote there actually shows McCarthy in a slightly more sympathetic light, doesn't it? Because he's shown to be suffering in that quote due to his hideous outcry.

It shows he's in a lot of pain.

That presents quite an interesting description of McCarthy because it means that we both sympathise with him, and don't sympathise with him at the same time.

Now, we're going to compare the victims of both Sherlock Holmes stories.

So, remember Julia Stoner is the victim in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." We're going to go through quotes that describe Julia Stoner in the Speckled Band story, and Charles McCarthy in the Boscombe Valley story.

So Julia Stoner, the first quote we have is, "Her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for help." Now that's presenting her as vulnerable and helpless, isn't it? Charles McCarthy, our first quote for him is that he's a man of a very violent temper.

That's a very different quote to the one we have for Julia, because we see with Charles McCarthy, we're painting a picture of a man who is potentially aggressive and hostile, not helpless and vulnerable.

Next quote for Julia Stoner is, "She writhed as one who is in terrible pain and her limbs were dreadfully convulsed," again presenting her as in agony upon her death.

Our second quote for Charles McCarthy is that his passion was becoming ungovernable.

What that means is his anger, his temper is becoming uncontrollable.

He's losing it.

He's losing control of his emotions.

Our third quote for Julia Stoner is, "She suddenly shrieked out in a voice which I shall never forget." And that is showing her again to be in great pain, to be maybe confused, to be in a very dire situation.

The next quote we have for Charles McCarthy is that he was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and forbidding.

Again, the ideas coming up of Charles McCarthy being hostile, being unfriendly, of not having many friends.

So, we're seeing him in a very different light to the way in which we see Julia Stoner at this point.

Our final quote for Julia is that, is Helen's description of her, and Helen says that that was the dreadful end of her beloved sister.

So in that quote, we're seeing Helen's own emotions to her sister's death and we see there how fond Helen was of her sister and how very sorrowful she is that her sister's died.

Here we finally have Charles McCarthy's reaction to dying, which is his hideous outcry and that his head was terribly injured.

But then we also have this quote here about how he was found and it just says, "They found the dead body stretched out upon the grass beside the pool." So in that sense we have a much more, you could say, clinical description of Charles McCarthy's death.

It's less intimate, it's less sorrowful, his description of his death compared to Julia.

Some students have seen those quotes too.

And they're now having a discussion about who is presented more sympathetically by Conan Doyle, which victim out of Julia Stoner and Charles McCarthy is presented as more sympathetic.

So in other words, which victim do you feel more sorry for? Let's see what the students said.

So Aisha says, "Arguably, Julia Stoner is presented more sympathetically, which is demonstrated by her description as vulnerable and helpless with a face blanched with terror." And Izzy says she agrees because McCarthy is not presented in a sympathetic light compared to Julia.

He seems hostile and aggressive as he is described as cold and having a violent temper.

So, both those girls seem to agree with each other about which character is more sympathetic.

But what do you think? Pause the video and discuss who you think is presented more sympathetically by Conan Doyle.

Off you go.

I heard some really interesting discussions there and well done for using quotes to justify your discussion.

We're now going to complete the Venn diagram looking at similarities and differences between the two victims, Julia Stoner and Charles McCarthy.

So what you need to do is on the left-hand side, you have a section that you need to write ideas about Julia as a victim and include quotes to justify your answer.

On the right-hand side, there's a space there for you to write quotes and ideas about Charles McCarthy as a victim and in the middle section there where the Venn diagram overlaps that's where you'll want to put ideas that are similar between the two victims. So one more time then, on the left-hand side you're writing ideas and quotes about Julia as a victim, the ideas that don't overlap with Charles as a victim.

On the right-hand side, you'll be writing ideas about Charles as a victim and those should not relate to Julia as a victim.

Finally, in the middle, you write ideas that relate to how both of them are similar victims. Pause the video and complete the Venn diagram.

Great, I'm really excited to see all of your ideas.

Let's go through how you could have approached this task.

An idea for Julia is that she's presented as fearful, " face blanched with terror" is our quote to justify that.

Charles, on the other hand, is presented as hostile.

He's described as cold and forbidding by his son.

Julia, we also have the idea that she was very much in agony.

She shrieked and writhed.

For Charles, we seem to have an idea that he was threatening.

The very end of the story when John Turner talks about what kind of man McCarthy was, we get the idea that he was threatening.

And the quote is, "Charles McCarthy's grip had been upon me these 20 years." Let's have a look at the ideas that relate to both victims. They were both murdered.

They both died under mysterious circumstances, and money played a role in both of their deaths.

If you think about it, Julia died because her stepfather, Dr.

Roiland, did not want her to marry and take money away from him.

And Charles McCarthy died because he was using John Turner for money over the years.

And he finally asked for something that John Turner wasn't willing to give, and that was Alice Turner, John Turner's daughter.

So, you could say that money was a factor in both of these mysteries.

Well done on that task.

We're now onto our second learning cycle where we will write a comparison between McCarthy and Stoner.

We are going to use our notes and our Venn diagrams to create a comparative response to the question, which victim is presented more sympathetically? Let's look at an example of the beginning of the comparative response, so I'm going to start the paragraph off for you.

Let's take a look at how it's maybe written.

Arguably, Conan Doyle presents victim Julia Stoner as a sympathetic character.

Upon her death, her face is blanched with terror and she writhed in pain and shrieked.

Here Conan Doyle utilises the verbs blanched, writhed, shrieked to encapsulate that Julia Stoner was in agony and helpless upon her death.

This makes the reader feel pity towards her.

In contrast, Charles McCarthy is presented as unsympathetic upon his death, and then, that is where the first part finishes.

True or false, the reader is made to feel more sympathetic towards the death of Julia Stoner? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said true.

Based on all those quotes there that we've seen that describe Julia Stoner in agony upon her death, we can very much assume that the reader would feel more sympathetic towards her than they do perhaps for Charles McCarthy.

Now justify your answer.

How do you know that the reader is made to feel more sympathetic towards the death of Julia Stoner than that of Charles McCarthy? Pause the video and justify your answer.

Well done if you said, it's because of the description of her face being blanched with terror, and all the other quotes that highlight her helplessness, and agony that prove the reader is made to feel more sympathetic towards the death of Julia Stoner.

Now, let's break down the beginning of that comparative response and see where it meets the success criteria, so you know exactly how you can be successful when you come to write your response.

First of all, we have tentative adverbs, and that is shown with the word arguably.

Arguably is a word that allows us to pose a suggestion about how someone or something has been presented.

It's a word that conveys that this is our opinion, but it might not necessarily be the truth.

It's important to do that because we don't necessarily know for sure what the author intended.

Next, we have the author's name.

It's important to use that to show that an author has made a character and that's their creation.

Next, we have a key idea to answer the question.

Our key idea is that Julia is presented as a sympathetic character.

Remember, we're answering the question, which character is presented more sympathetically? And so by saying Julia is presented as sympathetically, we are answering that question directly.

The next part of the response is the quotes.

We have two quotes there.

That Julia's face was blanked with terror and that she writhed in pain and shrieked.

Notice how those quotes are not necessarily very long.

They are just meaningful because they have powerful words and ideas in them.

Next, we have our analysis.

Our analysis is where we unpick the quote.

So when we say what that quote suggests, that's where we analyse.

And lastly, we have the reader response.

That is where we write how the reader may react to the character, and that's shown in the sentence the reader may feel pity.

So, there we have a broken down example response.

It's over to you now.

You need to complete the comparative response to the question, which victim is presented more sympathetically? So, here are your sentence starters.

Remember because you're finishing off the response, you're now writing about McCarthy and how he contrasts to Julia.

Use the sentence starters to help you and use the checklist there on the right to help you as well.

You need a comparative connective such as in contrast or however.

You need the author's name, you need a key idea to answer the question, you need quotes, analysis, read a response and a concluding sentence which summarises who you think is more sympathetic as a character.

Pause the video and write your comparison.

Great job everyone! It's now time to self-assess.

I want you to re-read and check your work.

Make sure you've included the following in your response.

A comparative connective, the author's name, a key idea to answer the question, quotes, analysis, reader response, and a concluding sentence.

Make sure to check that your quotes are clear and concise.

And make sure that you've finished off your response with a sentence that summarises who you think the most sympathetic character is.

Pause the video and self-assess.

Brilliant work today everyone.

Well done for being so diligent in your self-assessment.

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

Julia Stoner and Charles McCarthy are presented as very different victims. Stoner is presented more sympathetically than McCarthy, arguably.

Contrasting connectors are important for comparative responses.

Comparisons should always be justified by quotes and analysis.

And you should include a summary at the end of a comparative response.

Thank you so much for joining me in today's lesson where we compared the victims of two Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

You've worked so hard and I hope to see you next time.