Hello, everyone.

It's lovely to see you here today.

My name's Dr.

Clayton, and I'm here to guide you through a learning journey today.

So grab your pen, laptop, whatever you're using for this lesson, and let's get started.

Welcome to today's lesson.

The lesson is called "Exploring Perceptions of Caliban".

What we're gonna do today is consider Shakespeare's intentions towards Caliban and whether or not he intended the audience to feel sympathy for Caliban or whether he intended them to feel threatened by Caliban.

And then you are gonna craft a debate answer depending on what your perception is.

Now, having a debate about characters and the writer's intentions is such a useful exercise to do as it helps you understand other people's ideas and perhaps enhance your own ideas about the text and characters.

So we have four words today we're gonna focus on as our keywords.

Our first keyword is intention.

Now, an intention is an aim, something you want and plan for.

For this lesson, we're talking about Shakespeare's intentions.

So when we say that, we mean we're talking about how Shakespeare planned and aimed for the audience to perceive Caliban.

Our second keyword is powerless, which means someone who cannot control events or others.

This, again, is gonna be a key concept for us to think about in relation to Caliban and how it feeds into whether or not the audience might feel sympathy for him.

Our third key word is concisely.

Now, if you express something concisely, you express something in a short and clear way.

This is such a useful concept to have in your head whenever you're writing an introduction to anything as you want the reader to immediately understand what your argument is.

Our fourth and final keyword is construct.

This is incredibly important terminology for English lessons as it means an idea or a character has been deliberately created in a certain way by the writer.

This is something you want to constantly remind yourself when you're looking at texts.

These characters have been deliberately created in a certain way.

They aren't real people.

They're something a writer has constructed 'cause they want to use them to tell the audience something or evoke a particular emotion or idea from the audience.

So two learning cycles in our lesson today.

For our first learning cycle, we're going to consider what Shakespeare's intentions were with the character of Caliban.

We're gonna examine what happens to him, as well as some of the language around him in "The Tempest".

So you can think about whether you think Shakespeare wanted the audience feel sorry for Caliban, or whether he wanted them to be threatened by him.

Always keep in mind there is no right answer.

We don't know what Shakespeare was thinking when he created this character.

So you have to consider the evidence in the text and come to your own conclusions.

For our second learning cycle, we're gonna take our ideas from the first learning cycle and use them to create a debate argument.

To do that, we're gonna talk about what a debate is.

We're gonna think about the structure of debate and how to construct the individual parts.

And then you are gonna have a go at debating our ideas about Caliban and thinking about what Shakespeare wanted the reaction to his character to be.

So let's begin by reminding ourselves about what the focus of this lesson is.

One of the most important things to remember when considering a character is that the writers construct them in particular way to create an effect on the audience.

Remember that construct is one of our keywords, means the writers deliberately created the character.

Now, while we don't know how Shakespeare intended the audience to perceive Caliban, we can look at the language and consider what his intentions might have been.

Remember the intentions is one of our key words.

It means something you want and plan for.

So how does Shakespeare want the audience to perceive Caliban? We're going to consider whether we think Shakespeare intended the audience to feel sympathy for Caliban or whether he intended for them to be threatened by Caliban.

As I said earlier, there's no right or wrong answer to this question.

I know some people really struggle with English because of this concept, but I think that's what makes it such an interesting subject to study.

I might have my own ideas about character or text, but every time I teach it, new ideas appear because of how a student sees a particular word.

And that might not be the same way that I saw that particular word.

The study of text is never over.

You can constantly see them in new ways with new perspectives brought to them.

So in order to think about the intentions, we need to think about the environment that Shakespeare created for Caliban in terms of how he interacts with the other characters.

So what I'd like you to do is create a mind map that shows how Caliban interacts with the other characters in the play.

Pause the video and have a go now.

Amazing, fantastic ideas, everybody.

You might have said that when they first arrived on the island, Caliban showed Prospero and Miranda how to survive.

Now before they arrived, we can assume that Caliban was alone and isolated since his mother was dead and Ariel was imprisoned in a tree at this point.

So the fact he initially welcomed Prospero and Miranda perhaps showed he felt lonely before they arrived and was glad of the company.

However, their relationship takes a turn for the worst after Caliban threatens to hurt Miranda.

Now this is one of the absolutely pivotal moments in the play because it takes Caliban under a very negative trajectory.

So the consequence of this are that Prospero enslaves Caliban and force him to obey him through threats of physical violence.

Now, when we're thinking about whether or not we feel sorry for Caliban or whether we feel threatened by him, this is perhaps one of the most important moments in the play because without it, I think we could be fairly sure in thinking we feel sorry for Caliban, and that his later aggression is perhaps the result of anger and frustration.

So why did Shakespeare include this moment? Is it to possibly show the effects of long-term isolation on somebody, or is it to show that Caliban was in fact an aggressive and violent character all along? Now, as I said, following his enslavement, we see Caliban speaking an active aggressively towards the other characters.

For example, Caliban asked Stephano to bite Trinculo to death in response to Trinculo insulting him.

But Trinculo is unharmed.

So you might think about this excessively violent notion of wanting someone to be bitten to death as quite aggressive response.

However, ultimately, none of the people that Caliban threatens to harm are actually hurt in any way.

So does this mean we actually aren't supposed to see him as a threat, just someone who's taking out their rage on others? Now we know that Caliban has a lot of rage built up against Prospero since he's enslaved him and has physically hurt him.

So it's no surprise then that when Caliban meets Stephano and Trinculo, he plots with them to kill Prospero.

Prospero, however, is aware of the plan so he easily foils it.

Again, Caliban's threats and intended violence come to nothing.

Now for a quick check for understanding, which two of the following statements are true? So A, Caliban physically hurts Prospero, C, Prospero threatens to physically hurt Caliban, C, Caliban asks Stephano to bite Trinculo to death, or D, Caliban mocks all of the other characters.

So pause the video and make a selection now.

The correct answers are B, Prospero threats to physically hurt Caliban, and C, Caliban asks Stephano to bite Trinculo to death.

So very well done if you've got those right.

So now we've thought about Caliban's interactions with the other characters.

I'd like you to put the information into the following table.

So which interactions do you think would make the audience feel sympathy for Caliban? And which interactions do you think would make the audience feel threatened by Caliban? So pause the video and complete the table now.

Fantastic.

Some amazing work there.

I really appreciated the amount of focus people had when they're doing this task.

So thinking about why the audience might feel sympathy, you might have said that Caliban is enslaved by Prospero.

Now the idea of being considered someone else's property and being forced to obey them is an idea that perhaps make us feel sorry for Caliban because he has no control over his life.

You might also have thought about the fact that he's mocked by the other characters.

Now we're gonna talk about the language more in a moment, but no one in "The Tempest" has a kind word to say about Caliban, and it very much positions him as an outcast who's being bullied by the other characters.

Now though Caliban threatens violence, he's ultimately powerless.

Now, this is one of our key words.

It means that Caliban cannot control events or people.

And I think that's a concept that make us feel sympathy for him because we all want to feel some degree of control over our lives.

On the other hand, you might consider the fact that Caliban threatens the other characters as something that would mean the audience is supposed to feel threatened.

He threatens to harm Prospero, Miranda, and Trinculo, and this shows us that perhaps Shakespeare wanted us to consider him as aggressive.

As I said earlier, we're now gonna think about how Caliban is spoken to in "The Tempest" and what that makes us think about it.

Now you might have heard the old saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Now anyone who's been called names or mean things will know that, that just isn't true.

The words we use about people can be very hurtful and certainly if we were called some of the things that Caliban is, then we would think of them as hurtful.

So Caliban is called a villain, which essentially means he has wicked intentions.

He's called a thing which essentially dehumanises him and makes him seem as if he's an object with no feelings or emotions.

He's called a monster, which makes him sound aggressive and inhuman.

He's called a slave, that emphasises just how little power control he has over himself.

He's called a hag-seed, which means the son of a witch.

And he's called a savage, which generally makes us think of something wild and potentially violent.

So what I'd like you to do now is complete the table to show whether these quotations make us feel sympathy for Caliban or whether they'd make us feel threatened by him.

So just a reminder of the quotations.

They are thing, monster, villain, hag-seed, slave, and savage.

So would those words make us feel sympathy for Caliban or would they make us feel threatened by him? Pause the video and complete the table now.

Fantastic work, everyone.

It was great to see some people starting to have those initial debates with each other about whether a word would make them feel sympathy or not.

So here's what you might have said.

Now "thing" is interesting as you could potentially see it as either creating sympathy or creating a threat.

The idea of someone being called it or a thing would make us feel sorry for them 'cause it's just they're simply an object with no feelings, that they don't matter.

However, we could see the fact they don't have human feelings or emotions as potentially quite threatening because it might make us think they have no morals and that would potentially make them quite unpredictable and potentially even violent.

Now, a monster would most likely make us feel threatened because a monster is something supposed to scare us in stories and films. We think of monster as something inhumane and terrifying.

A villain would again, most likely make us feel threatened 'cause villains are the wicked characters in stories.

They intend for bad things to happen and therefore they're bad people.

Now hag-seed is interesting because you have to think about how Shakespeare and audience might react to the word.

Hag-seed means son of a witch, and witches in Shakespeare's time were considered evil and associated with the devil.

So Shakespeare and audience would most likely see Caliban as evil because of this.

Now, being called a slave would make us feel sympathy for Caliban because to have one human being forced to serve another, particularly with threats of physical violence, would make us feel sorry for Caliban.

Finally, savage would most likely make us feel threatened by Caliban since this suggests he's someone wild and unpredictable as well as someone potentially violent.

Now for a quick check for understanding, what I'd like you to do is select whether the following statement is true or false.

So is it true or false? The language used around Caliban suggests he's a bad person.

Pause the video and make a selection now.

The correct answer is true.

The language used around Caliban does suggest he's a bad person.

Now I'd like you to justify that answer.

So which of the following things suggest he's a bad person? Is it A, he's called a villain, or B, he's called a savage? Pause the video and make a selection now.

Correct answer is A, he's called a villain, since villains are the bad characters in stories.

So very well done if you got that right.

Amazing work everyone on our first task of the lesson.

Now what I'd like you to do is consider everything we've talked about in the lesson so far in terms of how Caliban interacts with the other characters and the language used about him and respond to the following statement.

Shakespeare's intentions were for the audience to feel threatened by Caliban.

How far do you agree? So based on what we've talked about, do you think Shakespeare wanted the audience to feel threatened by Caliban or not? In order to respond to the statement, I'd like you to complete the single paragraph outline to plan your argument.

These are excellent tools for planning since they allow you to really concisely map out your ideas.

So for the topic sentence, I'd like you to say whether or not you agree with the statement and give a brief idea of why.

For the supporting detail, I'd like you to say which quotes and information you're using from "The Tempest" to prove your point.

And of the concluding sentence, I'd like you to summarise your argument and say why you believe it.

So pause the video and create your single paragraph outline now.

Amazing work, everyone.

It was great to see people looking back through their notes and really trying to decide whether or not they agree or disagree with the statement.

Now, you might have said for your topic sentence, I disagree that Shakespeare intended the audience to perceive Caliban as a threat because of the other characters' interactions with him.

So you told me you disagree and you've told me why.

You said you disagree because of the other characters' interactions with Caliban.

For you supporting detail, you might have said that Caliban is insulted by most of the characters, yet never harms any of them.

Language such as "monster" and "slave" make us feel sympathy for Caliban because of how the other characters treat him.

And Prospero physically threatens Caliban, but Caliban never touches him.

You might remember that Caliban threatens violence towards a lot of the characters, but he never follows through.

And that's a conscious decision that Shakespeare has made.

Why has Shakespeare decided that Caliban will never commit an act of violence? Is it because as the audience, we're meant to see him as a sympathetic figure rather than someone who's actually a threat to anybody? So for your concluding sentence, you might have said, ultimately, Shakespeare represents Caliban as a powerless figure who the other characters feel confident enough to mock and insult.

This makes the audience feel sympathy for him as the outsider.

Now remember, this is just one opinion.

You absolutely might have agreed with the statement and that's perfectly fine, as long as you've got the evidence to back it up.

As I said, there are no right or wrong answers.

This is just one interpretation of how Shakespeare might have wanted Caliban to be perceived.

Fantastic work.

Now I'm gonna take our thoughts about what Shakespeare intended about Caliban, and think about how we can turn that into a debate.

Now, this is a debate that actually many scholars of Shakespeare have had and continue to have because it's such a pivotal part of how we read the play in terms of the context of colonialism and slavery.

Was Shakespeare saying that colonialism and slavery were bad through Caliban or was he not? And it really cuts the heart of whether we can see Shakespeare as someone who wanted society to change or whether he wanted society to stay the same.

Is he progressive or is he conservative? And your thoughts about Caliban might influence how you see Shakespeare's plays in all of your future studies as well.

In terms of, again, whether you see him as someone who wanted society to change or whether he wanted society to stay the same.

So let's begin by defining what a debate is.

A debate is where teams of people argue a subject or statement, and then the team who's judged to make the best argument wins.

Now, in order to put forward the best argument, you need to use persuasive techniques, consider who your audience is and who your judge is, which persuasive techniques are the most effective for them, and anticipate the counter arguments to your points so that you can refute them.

Now, the key to any speech or debate that's designed to persuade the audience that your argument is correct is persuasive language.

So let's have a look at some examples of what persuasive language you might use in your argument.

So hyperbole is exaggerated language for effect.

And one example might be, has anyone ever been more persecuted than Caliban? And this really makes the audience think about how persecuted Caliban has been, and that might make them feel sympathy towards him.

Now, personal pronouns are a great way to connect to the audience.

It really makes them feel as if you are talking to them directly, rather than some anonymous audience as a whole.

An example might be we've all felt alone and isolated.

So here you're forwarding an emotional connection from you, the audience, and Caliban, to really make them appreciate and feel sympathy for Caliban.

Another thing you might use is triples.

Now, you might also hear these referred to as triplets or the power of three.

It's three related words to grab your attention.

So you might have said he's aggressive, violent, wild.

This really builds the picture in the audience's mind of how threatening a character Caliban is.

You might also use emotive language, words chosen to make the audience feel a certain way.

Now this is often misinterpreted because people feel that emotional language is meant to make you feel sympathy and make you feel sad, but actually it's just designed to make you feel any sort of emotion.

So you might say, ever at the mercy of his tyrannical master, Caliban suffers.

So here we've really used that emotive language.

We've talked about suffering, we've talked about mercy, talked about his master being a tyrant, and that would make the audience feel sympathy for Caliban.

Now rhetorical question is rhetorically, which implies its own answer.

So you might say, who here wouldn't feel anger at such treatment? Now the answer is obvious because everyone would feel angry at being enslaved by somebody else.

So again, it makes the audience feel sympathy and perhaps even feel anger on Caliban's behalf.

Now, for a quick check for understanding, what I'd like you to do is say whether the following statement is true or false so that true or false, that emotive language is an effective persuasive device.

Pause the video and make a selection now.

Correct answer is true.

It is an effective persuasive device.

Now I'd like you to justify that.

So why is it effective? Is it A, iT's designed to make the audience feel a certain way, or B, it's designed to make the audience feel sad? So pause the video and make a selection now.

Correct answer is A, designed to make the audience feel a certain way.

So very well done if you got that right.

Now let's talk through the different components of debate and how it's structured.

So you start with your opening statement.

You begin by having a statement designed to catch the audience's attention and state your argument concisely.

Now, concise is one of our key words.

It means to express something in a short and clear way.

This is necessary for your introduction 'cause you need the audience to understand what your argument is going to be straight away.

For your main argument, you lay out your points and use persuasive device to convince your audience.

And for your closing argument, you offer a brief summary of the evidence you presented.

Now each team takes it in turns to perform each of the component parts.

So each team will give their opening statement, then each team will give their main argument.

Then each team will give their closing argument.

This gives you a chance to respond to the other team as you go.

So let's have a look at some examples of an opening statement.

Now what I'd like you to think about is how are they effective? So Sam has opened with, "Inhumane, monstrous, animalistic.

How could we, as the audience, not feel threatened by Caliban?" And then Alex has said, "Insulted, degraded, forced to serve those who took over his island.

Caliban is the victim rather than a threat." So pause the video and think about why those are effective.

Amazing, some great discussions there.

And it was really great to see some people say them out loud to really practise getting that performative element to it.

They might have said they both utilise persuasive techniques to catch the audience's attention, and the argument of each person is clear from their statement.

Now, for a quick check for understanding, what I'd like you to do is select which two of the following statements are true of opening statements.

So A, they should catch the audience's attention.

B, they should try to avoid emotive language.

C, they should offer a summary of the argument you presented, or D, they should state your argument concisely.

So pause the video and make your selections now.

The correct answers are A, they should catch the audience's attention, and D, they should state your argument concisely.

So very well done if you've got those right.

So what I'd like you to have a go at now is completing the table to create a persuasive device for each of the evidence points.

Now, you can choose any persuasive device you like, but try to use a different device for each quote if you can.

Remember as well, you're trying to convince the audience of your point of view.

So convince them to either feel sorry for Caliban or to feel threatened by Caliban through your persuasive devices.

So our two quotes are "hag-seed" and "thing".

So pause the video and complete the table to use a persuasive device for each of those quotes.

Amazing work, everyone.

So let's think about what we might have said.

So hag-seed means the son of a witch.

And in Shakespearean times, they associated witchcraft with the devil.

So you might have said, the devil, that's who is part of his family.

How could you not feel threatened by such wickedness? This is using rhetorical question, asking someone will they feel threatened by the devil and his wickedness implies its own answer because we'd all feel threatened by the devil.

Now for thing, they call him a thing, they think he's a worthless, inhumane, unemotive object.

Here, the sentence is doing a triple to emphasise just how hurtful being called a thing might be and just how much the other characters must dislike Caliban, and therefore we, as the audience, would feel sympathy towards him.

Now let's take a moment to think about closing statements.

Remember, they're designed to summarise your argument and link it back to the question.

So one example of a closing statement might be, "To recap, Shakespeare constructed Caliban as a figure of sympathy since he's constantly positioned as an outsider and forced to obey someone who treats him cruelly." Now what I'd like you to do is consider why is that effective closing statement.

So pause the video and take a few moments to consider.

Amazing, some great ideas there.

You might have said it offers a conclusive discourse marker when it says recap.

It links back to the question of Shakespeare's intentions and it summarises the main points of the argument.

Now, as I said earlier, a debate gives you the chance to consider and respond to other people's points of view, but you need to think about how you can do that effectively and respectively.

So here are some of the phrases you might use.

I see your point, but I think.

That's all true, but have you considered.

Yes, I understand, but my opinion is that.

And I cannot agree with your point because.

Now these phrases all allow you to listen to someone else speak first and put forward that you've heard them, but that you disagree because.

You never want to speak over someone or dismiss what they've said out of hand.

As I said, there's no right or wrong answer when it comes to interpretations.

So it's always gonna be disagreements between people, but what a certain word might mean or how we should think about a character.

Now, disagreements are healthy because it allows to evolve and perhaps consider things in a different way, but we need to be able to express that disagreement respectfully.

Now, for quick check for understanding, what I'd like you to do is select which two of the following statements are true.

A, each debate team says their whole argument in one go.

B, each debate team takes it in turns to say each component part.

C, you can disagree with the other team, or D, you can't interact with the other team.

So pause the video and make your selections now.

The correct answers are B, each team takes it in turns to say each component part, and C, you can disagree with the other team.

So very well done if you got that right.

Amazing work today, everyone.

Now what I'd like you to do for the final task of our lesson is take all of the information from the lesson and use it to create your contribution to the debate.

Remember the statement is, Shakespeare's intentions were for the audience to feel threatened by Caliban.

So think about what we said about how the other characters interact with Caliban.

Think about the language they use about him and think about whether you think Shakespeare wanted us to feel threatened by Caliban, or whether you think Shakespeare wanted us to feel sorry for Caliban.

Now, when you're creating contribution, remember to look at the evidence and decide on your point of view, create an opening statement that concisely shows your argument and grab the audience's attention.

Use persuasive devices throughout that tailor to your audience, and create a closing statement that summarises your argument.

So pause the video and create your contribution to the debate now.

Fantastic work, everyone.

Now for your very final part of the lesson, what I'd like you to do is self-assess your participation in the debate.

Shakespeare's intentions were for the audience feel threatened by Caliban.

So think about was your point of view clear throughout? Did your opening statement concisely convey your argument and grab the audience's attention? Did you effectively use persuasive devices throughout? Did you create a closing statement that summarises your argument and did you listen and respond to the other argument? So pause the video and think about your contribution now.

Absolutely amazing, everyone.

Well done.

It was so great to hear so many different points of view throughout that.

As I said, that's the beauty of English.

We all see characters and words differently and that's what makes it so interesting.

There's never one static opinion about how a character should be seen or how a word or a text should be seen or even a writer.

We all come at it with our own individual interpretations because we are all unique with our own perspectives, our own memories, our own experiences, and that forms how we respond to a text.

So it was so brilliant to see so many people really engaging with that and thinking about how we can see these characters in different lights depending on how we interpret the words and actions of the characters.

As I said, amazing work today, everyone.

Let's just summarise what we learned.

While we may not know Shakespeare's intentions, we can make an educated guess through looking at the language used.

The audience might interpret Caliban as a threatening figure or a sympathetic figure.

Persuasive devices can be used throughout to convince the audience that your argument is correct.

And a debate is where two teams offer their arguments either for or against a debate statement.

I really hope you enjoyed the lesson, everyone.

Goodbye.