Hello there.

Welcome to today's lesson, Puck's treatment of the Rude Mechanicals.

It's so good to see you.

I'm really pleased you've joined me for today's lesson.

My name is Mr. Barnsley and I cannot wait to continue exploring "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with you.

Okay, I think it's time to begin.

Okay, let's look at the outcome of today's lesson.

You are gonna be able to explain how Puck treats the Rude Mechanicals and why.

Okay, here are some keywords that are gonna be cropping up in today's lesson.

They are irreverent, contemptuous, Rude Mechanicals.

We saw that in our outcome, crude and hierarchy.

So the first word is irreverent and this means disrespectful.

I'm sure straight away you can see how useful the word irreverent is going to be when we are talking about the character of Puck.

Contemptuous, contemptuous means insulting.

Again, try and find, can you think of off the top of your head any moments where Puck behaves in a contemptuous way? Now the Rude Mechanicals is a phrase that Puck uses in the play, and he uses this to describe the poor Athenian actors.

By doing this, he's referencing their day jobs as skilled manual labourers.

He's being quite disrespectful.

Now, crude is a word that we can use to describe humour that relies on rude words or rude ideas.

So again, as we are thinking about Puck and the different ways he's presented, let's think about if any of his behaviour is quite crude.

And hierarchy we know is a very important word and it links to Elizabethan society.

It's a system whereby people or things are ranked with some things being higher than others.

So they are all of our keywords.

I really want you to keep an eye out for them when they appear in today's lesson so you A, know what they mean.

But also, hopefully you're gonna be able to use some of these in your own discussions and your own work.

Now might be the perfect time to pause the video and just note down any of this if you want to keep a reference of these keywords and the definitions.

Right, I think it's time for us to get started.

So today's lesson is broken down into two learning cycles.

Firstly, we're gonna be looking at again those different presentations of Puck.

Puck's obedience versus his irreverence.

Okay, so it'd be really interesting to look at how Puck is presented in different ways.

And the reason why we're gonna do that is 'cause we're gonna end this lesson with a little bit of drama.

I always say you cannot study Shakespeare without including a bit of drama.

You know, realistically plays are meant to be watched, not read so it is a great way for us to bring Shakespeare's work to life, but we can't bring Shakespeare's work to life unless we've thought about the character and how we might want them to come across, how we might want to perform them.

So it's really important that we start by looking at different aspects of Puck before we decide how we should perform his lines so let's do that.

Let's look at Puck's obedience versus his irreverence.

So we first meet Puck in Act two, Scene one, and through his dialogue with a fairy, we know he's presented as an irreverent character.

He is famous for his practical jokes.

We know the fairy says "you are that shrewd and knavish sprite called Robin Goodfellow.

Are you not he that frights maidens of the villag'ry, mislead night wanderers laughing at their harm?" Puck says "the wisest aunt telling the saddest tale sometimes for a three-foot stool mistaketh me.

Then I slip from her bum and down topples she." Okay, some really interesting first dialogue that we hear about Puck and from Puck.

What I want you to think about is what kind of things does Puck find funny.

Now you can do this as a discussion.

So if you've got a partner, you can work through your ideas with them discussing back and forth.

But don't worry if you're working by yourself, you can just pause the video and take a few moments to think through this question independently.

It is over to you though now.

So do pause the video, have a think about this question and press play when you are ready to continue.

Welcome back.

Some great discussions there, well done for you really looking at individual words in the script there, in the lines to really help you justify what you think Puck found funny.

Now, we know from the fairy talks about frightening maidens or misleading night wanderers, basically deliberately causing chaos to try and cause disorder and confuse people and that word, that phrase, "laughing at their harm" suggests that Puck finds that really, really funny.

He's doing it for his own amusement.

On the right hand side, looking at Puck's own speech, he gives a very specific example where he uses his trickery this time against the wisest aunt so we're thinking of a wise older woman here who's telling the saddest tale and what does Puck do? Well, he transforms himself into a three-foot stool and as soon as she goes to sit down, he moves away making sure this wise old woman falls on her bottom, embarrassing herself, humiliating herself, and potentially even hurting herself and that's something that Puck finds really, really amusing.

However, we very quickly see this irreverence being contrasted with his obedience to his master, Oberon.

So let's have a look at some examples in that early scene where we see Pucks irreverence on one hand and Pucks obedience on the other.

So we know that he speaks at length.

You can't stop him speaking to the fairy about all of his practical jokes.

Okay? He loves speaking, he almost dominates that conversation.

Whereas when we see him conversing with Oberon, we'll notice that Puck only has about three lines.

Oberon completely dominates that conversation.

We almost see this respectful side of Puck respecting Oberon's authority and place in hierarchy.

And when Puck is talking about his jokes, we see him using quite descriptive and crude language, which shows that really he doesn't really have any respect for the people he's talking about or the people that he's mocking.

Whereas in comparison, his language becomes much clearer and respectful when he speaks to Oberon, it's almost like he is capable of shifting, of transforming the way that he presents himself depending on the person that he's talking to.

And clearly he has a lot of reverence for Oberon.

He's very respectful of him and his position of authority and therefore he mirrors this in his language choices.

So therefore we can argue that even though Puck is presented as irreverent, he's also presented as a character who really does care about hierarchy.

For example, as soon as Puck realises that Oberon is about to arrive, he stops talking to the fairy about his practical jokes.

He cuts his conversation dead.

And when Oberon commands him to fetch the magical potion, we know he does this as quickly as he possibly can.

When Oberon commands him to put the magical potion on Demetrius, he replies, "fear not, my Lord.

Your servant shall do so." So I want us to think about that language in that quotation that's from Act two, Scene one, line 268.

"Fear not, my Lord.

Your servant shall do so." How does that language that Puck uses, how does that reveal his respect for hierarchy? Why don't we pause our video now and either if you've got partner, you can discuss this question with them.

But don't worry if you're working by yourself, just think through this question to yourself.

You can even make a couple of notes if you wish to.

What does this quote, "fear not, my Lord.

Your servant shall do so." What does that show us? What does that reveal about Puck's respect for hierarchy? All right, pause the video, over to you and press play when you are ready to continue.

Welcome back.

I really liked, I was really impressed to hear people zooming in on individual words.

I heard people zooming in on the words lord and servant, which really placed Puck and Oberon in a hierarchy with Oberon being Puck's superior.

But also that fear not is saying that Oberon has nothing to worry about.

I will always do exactly as you ask.

It shows Pucker is a really obedient and respectful character, completely different to the Puck that we saw speaking to the fairy earlier on in this scene.

Well done if you said something similar.

So we know that Shakespeare develops Puck as a character who cares about hierarchy and status even further in Act three.

And he does this through his interactions with the Rude Mechanicals.

And the Rude Mechanicals as a reminder, are those Athenian workers who are practising their play in the forest.

It's quite a disrespectful term that Puck uses referring to their jobs in manual labour.

Now he treats these characters as low status characters.

They're below him on the hierarchy.

They're below Oberon and to Titania as king and queen of the forest as character.

They're much lower on the hierarchy and he treats them differently and he does this in a number of ways.

Firstly, he makes fun of their clothing.

He's saying that their clothing looks handmade and looks like it's a made of poor materials.

He also calls them very simple.

This quote, "homespun" is an example of saying they're very simple and finally he decides to cause chaos and confusion amongst them.

And we can see how Puck uses his magic much more towards people he doesn't have respect for.

He stops all of his talk about magic and practical jokes when he knows Oberon is arriving.

But now he's got these characters, the Rude Mechanicals who he has very little respect for, he thinks this is some time to cause chaos and confusion.

So let's stop for a minute and check our understanding so far.

Why might we think of Puck as an irreverent character? There are four answers there.

Let's read through them together.

Is it A, he has a strong sense of the importance of hierarchy? Is it B, he calls himself a Rude Mechanical? Is it C, he's an obedient servant to Oberon his master? Or is it D, he likes playing practical jokes? Which of these present or which of these help us see Puck as an irreverent character? Pause the video, select the answer you think is right and press play when you're ready to continue.

Really well done if you selected D.

The fact that he likes playing practical jokes really does present Puck as an irreverent character.

The first, A and C are both examples of the opposite really, of him being a really obedient character.

And of course B was a bit of a red herring there or was completely a red herring because he doesn't call himself a Rude Mechanical.

That's what he calls the Athenian workers.

Right, let's look at our first task then.

We are gonna read Act three, Scene one, line 72 to 75.

Here Puck sees the Rude Mechanicals for the first time.

Using the questions, I want you to annotate his lines.

So let's read what Puck says.

"What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here so near the cradle of the Fairy Queen? What, a play toward? I'll be the auditor, an actor two perhaps if I see cause." So questions I want you to think about to help you analyse this scene.

How does Pucks show his contemptuous, his disrespectful attitude towards the Rude Mechanicals? Why might Puck be so shocked that the Rude Mechanicals are near the Fairy Queen? What does Puck say he will do? And how are his actions here different to his actions toward with Lysander and Hermia? And why might there be a difference here? Okay, time for you to pause the video and annotate this short extract from Puck's speech.

Give this a go and remember to press play when you are ready to continue with today's lesson.

Really great job with your annotations there.

Well done for using those questions to really guide you on what you should have been annotating the monologue with.

Let's have a look at some of the things that you might have said.

So how does Puck show his contemptuous attitude towards the Rude Mechanicals? Well, he calls them hempen and homespuns.

So basically he's saying they're poorly dressed and they are simple.

He's being incredibly disrespectful here.

Why might Puck be shocked that the Rude Mechanicals are near the Fairy Queen? Well, we could say that he thinks of the Rude Mechanicals as being really low status and they shouldn't be anywhere near royalty.

And remember, Titania is royalty within the magical forest.

So what does Puck say he will do? Well he says he will listen in and perhaps interact with the Rude Mechanicals if he wants to.

Basically he's gonna cause some trouble.

And how are his actions here different to his actions with Lysander and Hermia and why might there be a difference? Well, well done if you said he was trying to help the Athenian nobles, even though he did make a mistake and he was trying to fulfil Oberon's orders properly but here he's not trying to be helpful.

He's trying to create chaos and disorder perhaps because he just doesn't think these people are anywhere near as important.

First of all, (instructor coughing) excuse me.

First of all, this hasn't been an instruction from Oberon, but secondly, the people here are not nobility.

So if we think back to hierarchy, Lysander and Hermia will be viewed as much more important and much higher up the hierarchy than the Rude Mechanicals would be.

Well done if you've got any similar ideas and of course if you've got slightly different interpretations, that's okay as well.

As long as you can justify those ideas from the text.

Right, now it's time for us to start performing Puck.

We really thought carefully about him as a character and the different sides and different interpretations we might have of him and we're gonna use this to inspire us with a bit of drama.

So Izzy is going to play the role of Puck in an upcoming performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Discuss what advice would you give to her in order to make the performance as rich as possible.

Things you may wish to consider the different attitudes and tones that she might have to use in her performance.

And what aspects of Puck's character.

of Puck's character, sorry, do you think she should draw attention to? And how could she do this? Right, pause the video.

If you've got a partner you can discuss with them.

If you're working by yourself, just think through these questions independently.

Welcome back.

It was great to hear you thinking about all the different ways that Puck could be performed and justifying how or why you might choose to perform Puck in that manner.

All right, time for a check for understanding now.

True or false, there is one way to perform the character of Puck and our job as English pupils is to find the right one.

What do you think? Is that true or false? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you are ready to continue.

Well done if you said that was false, now let's justify that.

Is it A, that Puck is characterised differently at different points in the play, so you have to find the correct way to perform him in each different scene? Or is it B, being able to justify the way you think an actor should perform Puck's lines is important but there is no complete and final idea.

There is no one way.

What do you think? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you're ready to continue.

Well done if you said B, you might perform Puck slightly differently in different scenes depending on how he's behaving.

But ultimately there is no right or wrong way to perform Puck.

And our job as English pupils or our job as drama pupils is always to think about the different ways people might interpret the lines that have been written by the playwright.

So well done if you've got that right.

Right, over to you now for our final task and we are gonna do some drama.

So first of all, I need you to reread these sections of the play, Act two, Scene one, lines 42 to 58 when Puck introduced himself as a practical joker.

Act two, Scene two, lines 247 to the end where Puck is being an obedient servant to Oberon and Act three, Scene one, line 72 to 75 where Puck sees the Rude Mechanicals.

I want you to perform each section drawing out the different sides to Puck's character.

And then I want you to explain what you are trying to show about Puck's character in each section.

So if you have a partner, you can do this, perform to them and explain afterwards what you were trying to do.

If you are working by yourself, this might be a fantastic opportunity to see if there's anyone else in your household who will watch your performance.

But don't worry if there isn't, you can just practise performing to yourself, maybe even in front of the mirror.

And afterwards you can make a couple of notes explaining the reasons, the decisions that you made about your presentation of Puck.

Okay, I can't wait to set you off on this.

I love a bit of drama.

This is what theatre is all about.

So over to you now, pause the video, reread these scenes, do a bit of acting, and then justify your choices.

Remember to press play when you are ready to continue.

Welcome back.

That was great to see so much theatrical energy going into your performances of Puck there.

That was fantastic to see.

Right, Izzy has done a little bit of a self review of her performance explaining the decisions she made in Act two, Scene one when Puck was introducing himself as a practical joker.

Let's see how Izzy evaluated her performance.

She said, "I tried to perform in such a way that revealed the fun of Puck's practical jokes.

I did this because the play is a comedy and even though we could see Puck as being cruel, I wanted to convey the irreverent fun of his character, especially his crude comedy.

I also thought performing in this way would be a good contrast to how he acts when Oberon is around." Using Izzy's answer as a model, I want you to explain your choice, how your choices differed from hers.

So you can see in that speech bubble, a sentence started that you may wish to use.

"By contrast, I wanted to.

." All right, think about how your decisions were similar or different to Izzy's.

Over to you.

Right, that's it.

What a fantastic lesson we've had.

It's been a joy seeing you throw yourself into some drama today.

On the screen you can see a summary of everything that we have learned.

Let's quickly read through that together to make sure we are really confident before we move on to our next lesson.

So firstly, arguably Puck is presented as an irreverent character.

However, Shakespeare develops Puck's character by contrasting his initial presentation to those of his interactions with Oberon.

We see Puck's language when he speaks to Oberon, suggests he really does respect the hierarchy.

But then again, we see a contrast when we see Puck's language when he first meets the Rude Mechanicals.

This suggests he has contempt for them as low status characters.

Really well done for all of your learning in today's lesson.

I hope you've enjoyed the lesson as much as I have.

Thank you so much for joining me today, and I hope to see you in one of our lessons in the future.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

See you all soon.

Goodbye.