Lesson video

Welcome to today's English lesson.

I'm Mrs Crompton.

Our focus today is looking at characterization.

You will need a pen and a paper.

Take a moment to make sure you've cleared any distractions away and have everything you need at hand.

To begin with then, we're just going to have a look at a few terms to describe our different character types and consider their function.

We'll have a look at the slide together and then I will give you an opportunity to pause and take down any notes that you need.

So to begin with, we have the hero or protagonist, both names can be used, and they are the main character and they lead the action.

On the other side, we have the villain, the antagonist.

This is the character who opposes the hero and they block the action.

Moving to the bottom of the screen, we have characters who can be described as dynamic characters.

And this is a character who changes or develops during the course of the narrative.

These characters are rounded characters, we get to know lots of different angles to that personality.

They're multi-dimensional.

In opposition, we have the static character, this character stays the same.

They're one-dimensional, they're flat, they tend to serve some sorts of job within the text.

So they are there to be the X-character, the character who is always going to be angry, and that's it and that's their one function.

And that's all that they do.

And they're going to stay like that all the way through.

So pause at this point and take your nerves.

Hero, villain, dynamic characters and static characters.

Let's have a look at a little bit more detail then.

So for more categories, we have a victim.

This character is often a passive or weak character, and they are either the injured party or the prey within the text.

We have a foil character, the foil character offers a contrast to the hero figure.

We often look to the foil character who experiences the same things as the hero in a situation.

And we look at how the foil behaves, and sometimes it shows us a weakness in our main character.

So a foil can be a very interesting character to look at.

An archetype takes its origins from the Greek word "archein" and it means the original.

The original type, model or pattern.

So an archetypal character shows classic qualities of the certain character type.

And then finally, the everyman character, this character acts as a symbol for the average person in society.

Okay, once again, pause the video at this point to take down any of the notes that you require.

Welcome back.

So just a little bit more in terms of characterization, and we can look at two ways of gaining our information about characters.

So we could have direct characterization.

This is where we are told information about our character's personality or qualities in a direct way.

Eg.

Rosabel was determined to succeed.

Actual piece of information being told to us by the narrator.

That is a direct characterization.

Pause, resume when you're ready.

Indirect characterization, this is where we can infer ideas about our character through their actions or what others say about them, or how they interact with others.

So let's take again, the idea that Rosabel is determined.

I can also get that same idea from the following information from the text, "Rosabel was almost in despair.

"Then she remembered the big untouched box upstairs.

"Oh one moment, Madam," she had said, "and she had run up breathlessly." The information that tells me that she's not going to give up.

So I could equally infer that she is a determined individual.

Okay, pause, resume when you're ready.

So in terms of characterization, writers use these ideas, these templates almost in their work.

However, characters can either conform to sub match those expectations or subvert the expectations.

Another useful angle to consider is whether the character presented in a text is typical or atypical of our expectations.

So pause again, take down that final idea that characterization is used by writers and we can therefore look to see whether they conform to or subvert our expectations.

And the key terminology of typical and atypical is also something that you need to note down.

Resume when you've taken the notes and we will look at the next step.

And welcome back.

So what's going to happen now is that I'm going to give you an opportunity to look at an extract from our text, "The Tiredness of Rosabel" by Katherine Mansfield.

We are going to look at it in terms of character types and function.

So as you read through, pausing at the end of each slide and just pausing the video that and taking down any notes.

what I want you to do is to focus upon the idea of whether or not the characters are being presented in a typical or an atypical way.

Control is over to you.

Take your notes and resume and I will go through it with you when you are ready.

Over to you.

And welcome back.

So you've had an opportunity just to have a little read-through and you've made some initial notes.

We're going to do something with those notes now.

And as you can see on the instructions before us, we're going to pause the video in a moment and draw the table shown on the next slide.

I would actually suggest that you tilted your paper to landscape so you've got plenty of space.

And make sure that you've got enough room for notes.

Let's have a look at the table itself.

So we're going to be selecting three to five quotations to evidence our ideas about the function of the characters.

So at this point, don't worry about filling the table in.

All I want you to do is to draw the table.

So pause the video, draw the table, give yourself plenty of space.

Resume when you're ready for the next part of the instruction.

And welcome back.

So we've got our table and what we're going to do, I'm going to show you a model of how I would like you to complete our evidence spread.

So rather than writing up a full response, we're actually going to create a table today just to make sure that we have applied our learning regarding characterization types and function.

So this is my part that I filled in.

And you can see I've pinched a great big chunk of the box in the middle.

So you need to bear this in mind, and you might want to adjust your table accordingly.

So in the middle, I have given you an example of some pieces of evidence that I have selected in order to consider the characterization of the red-haired girl.

So to start with, I've picked out the details with regards colour, red, white, green, gold.

And she seems to really stand out to all the other characters who seem quite dull in comparison.

And is this in order to suggest that she's therefore more powerful? So I've got that as an idea.

I have, however, noted that she's never given a name throughout the whole extract.

So for me, that creates a little bit of an atypical presentation.

She appears to be more passive and potentially, is she more of a functional, one of the most static minor characters? And so I'm starting to have a few queries.

And I've got an idea here that the language used to describe her doesn't quite match with her actions.

Then I've looked a little bit further, her first words we noted previously, a quite playful.

What is it exactly that I want, Harry.

And she smiled again at Rosabel.

Is she kind? That's a little bit of an atypical image because if Rosabel are heroine, I'm looking for the red-haired girl to be the villain.

So now, I'm saying she's not an antagonist.

And I'm starting to think, linking this back to the previous idea of her being quite passive and perhaps the lack of name is another hint.

Is she possibly a victim figure? So I've got a new idea there.

And then finally, we've got this idea of her being waited on by Rosabel.

Rosabel took the pins out of her hat, and the indirect characterization has been used there to establish her as the archetypal rich girl, and she swept out to her carriage.

So she has all of the trappings of the archetypal rich girl.

However, my interpretation stands, I think I have still got some issues with what she actually gains from this power.

And I do have concerns about the fact she's unnamed.

And I do have concerns that she doesn't behave as I would expect her to.

I don't find her unkind to Rosabel, I don't find her to be a typical antagonist.

So that's my explanation of the three bits of evidence and my interpretation of this character type and function.

I think Katherine Mansfield is subverting this character type and asking us to look again at her situation.

What I would like you to do is to complete the box for Rosabel and for Harry.

So what I'm going to do is to hand over control to you.

Start with this screen and take down the details regarding the red-haired girl.

Disagree with me if you wish, that's absolutely fine.

Make sure however, that you're adjusting the evidence accordingly if you don't agree with the interpretation I have taken.

Then what you need to do is to work through the rest of the text, and you can see that I have given you again.

And as you remember, we've got details picked out that might be useful to you.

Okay, so control is over with you.

When you resume the video, you will work through this activity, and your table will be complete.

Over to you.

And welcome back.

So let's just recap on where we are, you'll have your table complete.

And we are now at a stage where we are starting to think.

Who's the protagonist? Who is the antagonist? Who is the villain and who is the victim? On the screen you can see a reminder of the four big picture thinking statements that we had at the end of lesson one.

We have A, the text shows a conflict between Rosabel and the red-haired, though the red-haired girl is rude and treats Rosabel badly.

Are we accepting or rejecting that now, outright? B, the text shows that Rosabel wishes she could be like the red-haired girl, and he's angry that she cannot have what she has.

Is that an adequate explanation? Do we accept or reject that man versus man conflict? C, there are two victims in the text; the red-haired girl is ignorant of her situation and doesn't mean to make Rosabel feel uncomfortable.

They are both trapped by social class and man versus society conflict.

And then finally D, Rosabel is angry with herself as much as she is with others.

She too dreams of fairy palaces and wants to break out of her situation, but she's too scared to do anything for fear of losing her livelihood.

Is that how you feel? If she's scared of losing her livelihood, what is it that's holding her back? So we have these statements.

What I would like you to do as we come to our final reflection point is to work through these statements again.

I'll give you control of the screen in a moment.

And then I'm going to ask you to land on this final screen and pause the video at this point.

I would like you to write your own reflective paragraph.

So a reflective paragraph is where you get to write down your ideas about the characterization that you have seen in this text and what you have learned from it.

What do you think Mansfield is wanting us to think about? Think about typical and atypical, think about character types and functions.

You can see that I have given you some sentence starters and ideas.

So you have a couple of options, you can use these to build your own response.

Or you can have a go just answering each of them one by one and seeing whether that starts to get you thinking.

It depends on how confident you're feeling with your ideas at this point.

Okay, so we have two options.

Either use the prompts, use them as prompts, or use them as a scaffold to create your own reflective paragraph.

Okay, control is back up with you.

Take it from here, review these statements, think about the notes that you've already taken in your table and bring all of that learning together.

Control is with you.

And welcome back.

So all that remains for me to say is thank you for your focus today.

Don't forget to complete your exit quiz, and enjoy the rest of your learning.