Hi, everyone.

My name is Mr. Gentra Parler and I'm really looking forward to working with you today.

We're gonna be having a look at what makes each of the different Shakespearean genres, so comedies, histories, tragedies.

We're gonna be talking about the features and why they're so important when we look at them.

We're then gonna use that understanding of Shakespearean conventions, particularly for comedies, to understand "A Midsummer Night's Dream." It promises to be a really exciting lesson.

Let's get into it.

So, our lesson outcome for today is that we can explain how we know that "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a comedy.

Our key words include the word genre, which is a noun, which tells us the style or type of text.

For example, whether it's science fiction or in the case of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the fact that it is a Shakespearean comedy.

And Shakespearean comedy is a play designed to make us laugh.

It often involves misunderstandings and ends in marriage.

So for example, the marriages of Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius in a "Midsummer Night's Dream." Often Shakespearean comedies have quite intricate plots, which means that they're quite complicated and they may involve slapstick humour, which is physical comedy, sometimes violent, but intended to make people laugh.

It's often not particularly serious.

We're also gonna be discussing the importance of Shakespeare's "First Folio," which is the first collection of most of Shakespeare's plays, which were published in 1623, seven years after his death.

So, we're gonna start off by explaining and understanding the different genres of Shakespeare's plays.

Laura describes the Shakespearean play that she has read about.

She says, "I haven't really seen any Shakespearean plays, but I have heard of 'Romeo and Juliet.

' I know it's meant to be a really sad and ends in the death of both Romeo and Juliet who are young and in love.

I think that means it's a tragedy." So, what Shakespearean plays have you heard about, read, or seen? Consider if the play is meant to be scary, funny, sad, or something else entirely.

Think about the stories even that you may have come across in primary school or you may know are distantly related to Shakespeare.

Pause the video now and see if you can jot any ideas down or talk to the person next to you and see if you could brainstorm any memories of Shakespearean plays and your impressions of them.

Love that some absolutely fantastic ideas there, everyone.

My first Shakespearean play was Romeo and Juliet, but what I realised much later on is for example, that I had already come across Shakespearean as tragedy in the form of "Hamlet," but I had known that it was "Hamlet" because I, my brother's favourite Shakespearean, sorry, my brother's favourite Disney animated cartoon when we were younger was the "Lion King." And the "Lion King" is based off of "Hamlet." So, I was able to experience immense feelings of sadness for Simba and real anger towards Mustafa.

But really what I was actually experiencing there was basically sort of the setup to "Hamlet." The play has a very different ending to the "Lion King," but it's often, often we find that Shakespeare's work is adapted into stories that we know and love already.

So, the first collection of Shakespeare's plays was published in 1623, seven years after his death.

This is commonly known as the "First Folio." It contains 36 of Shakespeare's plays and offered to divide them into three genres, which are the comedies, for example, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which we're reading at the moment.

The histories which include "Richard III." And the tragedies, which include text like "Romeo and Juliet." Each genre contains some pretty important common features.

So for example, for tragedies, we have the fact that they explore complex ideas like power, ambition, and jealousy.

And they often include a hero who dies because of some sort of weakness in themselves.

On the other hand, the histories often focus on English history and their central question seems to be what makes a good monarch or a good king or queen? And then finally we have the comedies, which often focus on love and end of marriage, and the plot is intricate and full of surprises.

There is often slapstick humour as well.

There are also a blend of the two, which are known as the tragic comedies, which aren't as necessarily agreed upon, and they may combine elements of both tragedies and comedies.

So for example, a genre, this is not a genre that is included in the "First Folio," but it's something that is increasingly understood by scholars and we increasingly agree upon it.

And these plays combine elements of both tragedy and comedy, and they are hugely significant.

So we're just gonna have a quick chat for understanding here.

True or false, the "First Folio" divided Shakespeare's plays into four genres.

Think about what we've just discussed now and pause the video.

Select true or false and when you're ready, hit play.

You're absolutely right, everyone.

So there are actually only three genres in the "First Folio," which are the histories, the comedies, and the tragedies.

We need to justify our answer.

Is it because scholars generally accept that there are three genres of Shakespeare's plays or is it because scholars added an additional genre to define the plays that include both tragedy and comedy? Justify your answer.

Pause the video now, choose your justification, and then hit play.

Well done.

You're absolutely correct.

Scholars added the additional genre to define the plays that includes both tragedy and comedy, and those are called tragic comedies.

Fantastic work, everyone.

Let's keep moving.

So, let's practise our understanding here.

We're gonna have a look at what Laura considers the different or considers about the different genres.

She says, "I'm interested in learning more about the tragedies.

I like the idea that the hero is brought down by their own weakness.

That must make them a really complex character.

This genre explores some really intense things like power and jealousy, and I like exploring those scary ideas and emotions.

I already know a little bit about 'Romeo and Juliet' and now am eager to find out even more about this tragedy." How has Laura shown she understands the common features of a tragedy? Think about those features that we discussed earlier.

How has she included them in her response? Pause the video now and either deconstruct this for yourselves on your notes and try to form a little bit of a success criteria or maybe talk to the person next to you what elements has she already discussed.

When you're ready, hit play.

Well done for checking back through your notes on each of the different conventions for the tragedy.

So, let's have a look at what Laura's done here.

Laura's included the key features in her response, hasn't she? She said that they explore really intense things like power and jealousy, which are really common themes.

And she's also mentioned the fact that the hero is brought down by their own weakness, that idea of they've got this fatal flaw which ends to them, which leads to them sort of failing.

Using Laura's model as a guide, I would like you to explain which genre you are most interested in and why.

So that could be tragedies, comedies, or histories or if you wanna go for it, you could even look and have a look at tragic comedies.

Pause the video now and try and explain in your own notes which one you're most interested in.

When you're ready, hit play.

Fantastic work there everyone.

Love to see how many of you are going back to your notes and thinking about actually what are you most interested in reading and watching? Here's what one of our Oak character said.

Jun said, "I'm interested in learning more about the history plays.

There are only 10 of them, which means Shakespeare must have explored what it means to be a monarch in a lot of different ways.

I'd heard of comedies and tragedies before, but I never heard about the genre of history plays so that also makes me want to find out more.

' That's a really interesting idea from Jun, the fact that actually the histories aren't widely covered in the same way.

He's considered the key features of a history play.

He's made sure to mention the fact that they consider how a monarch is meant to be.

I want you to have a look at your own explanation.

Which key features of your selected genre did you identify? Why were you so interested in them? Pause the video now.

Make sure that you've got each of those and when you're ready, hit play.

Lovely work there, everyone.

And I was so pleased to see people going back and changing their work in either the same colour panel or a different colour panel, just to see that they could actually build on what they've already got there.

Fantastic.

Let's keep moving.

So we're now moving on to identifying the genre of a Shakespearean play and we're gonna have a look specifically at "A Midsummer Night's Dream." So I'm gonna focus on the plot of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" initially.

In Act One, Hermia and Lysander run away from Athens.

And then in Act Two Lysander falls in love with Helena.

Act Three, Titania falls in love with Bottom who has transformed or has got the head of a donkey and Demetrius falls in love with Helena.

In Act Four, the magical love potion is removed from Lysander and Titania.

And in Act Five, the Athenian nobles get married and then watch a play.

So Hermia marries Lysander and Helena marries Demetrius, and they all watch Bottom who now has a normal head perform with the rest of his company.

Looking at the plot, how does the plot resemble that of a comedy? Use the keywords as part of your discussion.

So I've got genre, intricate, slapstick, comedy.

Which of these plot details seem to fit for each of those individual words? Pause the video now, try and match them up.

Have that discussion and when you are ready, hit play.

I'm really pleased to see that so many of you were discussing the fact that Titania falling for Bottom, who has the head of a donkey can be included as a little bit of slapstick humour.

And then we've got that love quadrangle, that love rectangle or square, which is really intricate, really confusing.

We need to be really careful of following to make sure that we understand it.

Some excellent work there, everyone.

Well done.

So we're gonna read a moment from Act Three when Puck reveals Queen Titania is in love with a poor actor whose head Puck has turned into a donkey.

So this is when Puck reveals that Titania has fallen in love with Bottom who's got the head of a donkey.

And we're also gonna have a look at the moment where Puck realises he has put the magical love potion on the wrong person.

So, both of these are from Act Three, Scene Two.

Puck "TiTania waked and straightway loved an ass." Oberon.

"This falls out better than I could devise.

But hast now yet latched the Athenian's eyes with the love juice, as I did bid thee do?" Enter Demetrius and Hermia.

Oberon.

"Stand close.

This is the same Athenian." Puck.

"This is the woman, but this is not the man." So here we can see how the play begins to conform or fit to common features of comedies.

We've got that moment of slapstick.

We've got Titania who has waked and suddenly has fallen in love with Bottom, who's got the head of a donkey.

A synonym for a fool is, sorry, an ass is a synonym for a fool as well as a donkey, which makes it a bit of a pun and makes it even funnier.

We've then got this intricate element to the narrative because here we have a plot twist where the story becomes more intricate as more and more misunderstandings build up.

So here we find out that Puck has put the potion on the wrong person.

We're gonna consider the plot of another Shakespearean play.

This time we're gonna have a look at "Macbeth." In "Macbeth" in Act One, Macbeth who is an ambitious soldier is told by three witches that he will become a king of Scotland.

In Act Two, Macbeth kills the current king of Scotland, Duncan, and takes the throat.

In Act Three, Macbeth has to kill a number of people to hold onto his power.

He sees a ghost of one of them.

In Act Four, he speaks to the witches again and the people of Scotland are very unhappy with how he rules them.

He's considered to be a cruel tyrant.

And in Act Five, Macbeth is killed and a better king takes over Scotland.

How does this plot tell us that this play is a tragedy? Explain why it is neither a comedy nor history.

So maybe you wanna go back to your sort of notes on what makes a tragedy, the fact that it has complex themes involving jealousy and power and ambition, and has complex characters.

And then maybe think about does this have the sort of slapstick humour of a comedy? Is it particularly complicated compared to what we've already read of "A Midsummer Night's Dream?" And does it seem to focus on a real text? Well, that's actually a little bit more complicated, but we may discuss that at another time.

Does that follow the features of the history? Pause the video now and see if you can work out what makes "Macbeth" specifically a tragedy and definitely not a comedy or a history.

When you're ready, hit play.

Some lovely ideas there, everyone.

Really pleased to see that people were getting into the ideas of what makes a comedy while thinking about the intricate plot, thinking about the slapstick humour, thinking about the fact that actually it's got much lighter themes than a tragedy.

So, we're just gonna have a quick check for understanding here.

How can we determine the genre of a Shakespearean play? Is it A, considering if there are high status characters? B, considering if there are supernatural elements? C, by considering the plot of the text? Or D, considering the language.

Pause the video now and have a think.

Which of these options determine, so tell us that the text, sorry, the genre of a Shakespearean play.

So whether it's a comedy, a tragedy, or a history.

When you've selected your choice or choices, hit play.

Well done for checking back through your notes and thinking about what we've just discussed with both "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Macbeth." Let's go through.

So, we can see that by determining the genre, we can determine the genre of a Shakespearean play by considering the plot and considering the language.

We're gonna practise applying our knowledge of these different genres.

I'm gonna try and help if we can, we'll try and see if we can help our friend Andeep.

Andeep has become a little bit confused.

He says, "We've looked at so many different terms. Remind me, why is 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' a comedy? Here, I've given you some prompts.

So "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a comedy because more specifically, and furthermore, unlike Macbeth, which da, da, da, da, da "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is da, da, da, da, da.

For each of these prompts, I would like to refer to the things on the right hand side.

So for example, for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a comedy because I want you to reference the common features of comedy.

When I say more specifically, I want you to focus on the specific plot or language details.

So for example, Bottom whose head turns to that of a donkey, of an ass or you may want to think about the intricacy of the plot details.

And then furthermore, unlike "Macbeth" which da, da, da, da, da, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" da, da, da, da, da.

Develop the comparison between tragedy and comedy.

What is the difference between this? Pause the video now, check back as we are going to see if you can help Andeep out by completing those sentences.

Add them to your notes and when you're finished, hit play.

Really good knowledge there, everyone.

So pleased to see that so many of you were able to recall such intricate details about the genres and making sure that we could apply them really carefully.

Let's take some feedback now and see if we can improve anything.

So as we're self-assessing, I want you to make sure that you've got a different colour pen in your hand so you can really clearly see how you're actually extending your answers just that a little bit further.

So for example, I've got "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a comedy because.

Have you referenced there the fact that there's often a focus on love and comedies at the end of a, sorry.

How there's often a focus on love and comedies often end in marriages.

So for example, we've got the two marriages at the end of the text of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The fact that the plot is intricate and full of surprises and that often there is slapstick humour.

If there's any of those terms which we have missed, maybe just go back and add them in a different colour pen, making sure to use them this time.

And then furthermore specifically, have you made a specific reference to a moment in the play? For example, have you referenced the transformation of Bottom or the magical potion being put on the wrong man? Pause the video again and add anything that you've missed here or any other plot detail that you think really clearly suggests that the play is a comedy.

Once you've done that, hit play.

Great work there, everyone.

Really reflective.

It's really gonna help us build a really confident understanding of the play.

And then furthermore, unlike "Macbeth," which, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," have you clearly explained the difference between the two? Perhaps referencing the ideas explored in "Macbeth" in comparison to the ideas of love and marriage explored in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." This is the fact that "Macbeth" has so much to do with jealousy, and desire, and ambition, and power compared to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" which is more about love and marriage.

Pause the video now and make sure that you have got those references.

So I impressive that so many of you have been able to pick up not only the plot of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" so quickly, but also being able to think about its conventions and your knowledge of "Macbeth" now.

So impressed with all of you.

Fantastic work.

So, we're just going to summarise our understanding of the genre of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." We've covered today how the "First Folio" divides Shakespeare's plays into tragedies, histories, and comedies but there is an additional genre, tragic comedies, which scholars have agreed on because they have been used to describe plays which combine both tragic and comic elements.

Crucially, Shakespearean comedies usually focus on love and end in marriage, and the plots of comedies are often intricate and include a number of surprises and plot twists.

Shakespearean comedies often include slapstick humour, which we see within "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the transformation of Bottom's head into that of an ass.

Really impressive work, everyone.

I've been so pleased to see how quickly you've grasped the text of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and I'm really looking forward to working with you again very soon.

Bye for now.