Lesson video

I'm Mrs. Crompton, welcome to today's English lesson.

Our focus today is responding to a person's stimulus image and continuing to work with our writing skills.

You will need a pen and paper take a moment to make sure you've cleared any distractions away and have everything you need to hand.

To begin, let's start by looking at our stimulus image.

And as I said, today we have a person that we are responding to.

So the first thing I would like you to do, is to take a piece of paper and following the instruction write a description as suggested by this image.

I would like you to think about the vocabulary you would use to describe the man and I put next to that or a woman.

Remember this is suggested by this image.

So if you wanted to change gender, absolutely fine.

It could be the emotion that you're particularly focusing upon.

Okay, so, your choice as suggested by this image, make a list of 10 words or phrases.

Fantastic, so, what I would like us to do at this point is just to pause for a moment, I'm not going to say anything more about those words or phrases, you will be needing those later in the lesson.

But it goes without saying, it's about the precision and your refining of those words so that they communicate the emotion that you want to your reader that we will be looking at later.

Right now what I would like us to do, is to switch to a fresh piece of paper.

So we've done this before, where we've looked at our creative work, but separated out some notes on the characterization of thematic area that's going to be useful to us across our studies.

So this next part of the session is going to focus on a note-taking exercise.

So a new piece of paper is required.

And at the top of that piece of paper, I would like you to write the title characterization and the phrase, everyman.

In particular, we're going to link this into the character of Kurtz, who we met in Lesson One of this week's learning and I said we would come back to, so today is the day that we find out a little bit more about Kurtz.

Quick reminder, notes should be keywords and phrases, in your own words, and I will give you that thinking moment where you get opportunity to review your notes and pick out your top three learning points.

As we've been doing throughout, let's have a look together then.

The first thing that we're going to look at today are three images, we have an image of a satan in our first picture, we have an image of Prometheus, who is having his liver pecked out there.

We'll talk about that a little bit more in a moment, but quite gruesome image.

And then we have an image of Dr.

Faustus.

So these three literary models feed into the characterization of Kurtz, and they create an everyman figure from which we can build our interpretation of Kurtz.

So let's have a look at them one by one.

So in mainstream Christianity, the devil or satan is a fallen angel who rebelled against God.

Satan was expelled from heaven and sent to earth.

So satan becomes the symbol of a fallen figure.

A characterization that depicts an every man sinner figure.

The second image of Prometheus is a Prometheus the Titan, he stole fire and gave it to mankind.

And as his punishment, Zeus changed the gods to a rock on a mountain peak, and every day, an eagle tears out Prometheus' liver, pecks away to eat it, and then, because he's immortal it grows back, and the punishment is a continuous one, he can't die.

So we've got this figure, again, a little bit of a link starting to develop people who defy their position in society.

Defy the bounds within which their society operates, is starting to come through.

And the final one is Faustus.

Now Faustus, Dr.

Faustus is a character by Girth, a German writer, and he is meant to represent all humanity.

He possesses all the qualities of human ability and motivation, and in effect is that archetype of everyman All the Faustus' virtues and faults, his strengths and weaknesses are magnified in this tale, where he basically sells his soul to the devil in order to have power and influence in the presence.

And so this gives his story that stature and dignity and Faustus' life is a mirror of human existence which all men can learn from.

So we have three characters Satan, Prometheus, and Faustus.

All of them defying boundaries, and particularly in the case of Faustus, making a pact in the present in order to gain power and influence, or without care or concern for the consequence, but there is always a consequence.

Okay, so that's our first starting point for our thinking.

And the first point that we are establishing is that Kurtz is following a literary model.

And these are examples of three characters from literature, who have fed into this interpretation.

Let's have a look at the next piece of information.

And we have a quotation at the top.

"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." And that is a quotation taken from Lord Acton who is a British historian, writing in the late 19th century, early 20th century, so contemporary to the time that Conrad is writing.

And here we can see that, that reference between literature, history starting to merge.

And we know that's true, don't we? We are influenced by the world around us.

And Conrad is writing about the world around him.

And therefore, the historian is also commenting on the effects of things like colonialism and the Empire.

Let's have a little look at Kurtz in more detail.

Kurtz is an ivory trader sent by a Belgian company to Africa.

And we talked about the fact that Kurtz has been there longer than Marlow and he is at the Central Station.

A few more interesting features of Kurtz.

His mother is half English, father half French, and that characterization is deliberately presented so that he is symbolic of European strengths united so he's like the archetypal European character.

Again, that every man figure, everyone within the text describes him as being ambitious and charismatic, he's talented, he campaigns, he's a musician, he's a writer, a politician, and a leader.

He's not a weak character.

He is actually the epitome of everything that we would want in an individual, similar to Faustus.

Okay, so this is the characterization of Kurtz as indicated by Conrad throughout the text.

Let's start just piecing some of this together.

He's the archetypal, European talented, ambitious, but with the potential as we're going to see, to also make a dreadful pact that's going to have consequences.

So he initially sets out as that every man figure with standards and moralities.

And he travels to the Congo with philanthropic ideals.

So he wants to help the mankind by being there, to learn to develop all of those positive things that we initially discussed about the Victorian explorer in the Congo, something takes control of him.

And we've got a couple of ways of looking at this.

So in the Congo, either he takes control of his situation by creating an identity for himself and he does, he establishes himself as a demigod and treats those who go against him with absolute cruelty.

So it starts off as an opportunity, and then that idea of power corrupting absolutely starts to kick in, and that power and the corruption is demonstrated on both a physical and a mental level.

Okay, let's pause here then.

So we've got a few ideas about this everyman and we'll call it an everyman Faustian character.

And that's what we've got to think about with Kurtz.

The person who sells themselves in the present and gets the power and influence and prosperity right now, and doesn't think about the consequences to come.

So having a little think through your notes now, I would like you to select your top three learning points, and try and write those out in full sentences.

And what we're going to do is to play around with this characterization of the everyman and associate it back with the initial image that we had.

Over to you take control, take your time.

Go back through those notes, make sure that you're happy with the ideas that we've explored.

And I'll be waiting for you.

Welcome back.

So this next step, and this is a writing session.

However, I do want us to get to know Kurtz a little bit more.

And I feel like I need to deal with this because it was the one big, some big idea from this novel that we really need to tackle this idea of what power can do to an individual.

What sorts of ideas can be generated from this idea that one person thinks that they represent God and how easily they can find themselves on the side of evil without even knowing where the lines were drawn.

And I would really not want to waste this opportunity to have a little bit of read with you.

So what we're going to do is, have a focus to the reading.

Okay, so how is Kurtz characterised at the end of the novel? So at this point, Marlow has travelled right into the Congo, he has got to the central station, and Kurtz is unwell, and he gets Kurtz back onto the steamer and he is travelling back with him.

So we're looking at this character at the end of their development at the end of the story in terms of what happens to the individual who makes that pact.

As we go through this, I want you to think about how we can just complete the following tasks.

Kurtz is presented as an, we can put every man character in there.

That's what I'm suggesting.

You might want to go for Faustian or you might want to choose another word of your own.

So I'd leave that open to you.

So we're going to consider what type of character Kurtz is presented as.

I want you to focus on just picking up on one anchor quotation, if you get more evidence, that's fantastic, but just that one anchor quotation, to really pinpoint.

I think Kurtz is X type of character, and it's because of this detail.

And then you're going to have an opportunity to reflect and just expand on your comments.

It might be that you are at that point you want to say, I think he's both this and this.

So that's your opportunity to expand.

I'll read with you just keep the pace of this session.

And there will be the pause point at the end.

But bearing in mind, we're only asking to zoom in on one quotation, so please don't worry about capturing too much.

If you do want to pause at any time though, that is obviously there for you as an option.

So the extract is from the end of the novel, Kurtz has been taken away from the central station.

And what you can see is that I have picked a few details out in orange that will help you to select the anchor quotation.

The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress, and Kurtz's life was running swiftly too ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time.

Kurtz discoursed.

A voice! A voice! It rang deep to the very last.

It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence, the barren darkness of his heart.

Oh, he struggled and struggled the wastes of his weary brain were haunted by shadowy images now.

Images of wealth and fame revolving obsequiously around his own extinguishable gift of noble and lofty expression.

My intended, my station, my career, my ideas, these were the subjects from the occasional utterances of elevated sentiments.

The shade of the original curse frequented the bad side of the hollow sham, whose fate it was to be buried presently in the mould of primaeval earth.

But both the diabolic love and the earthly hate of the mysteries it had penetrated, fought for the possession of that soul satiated with primitive emotions, avid of lying fame, of sham distinction, of all the appearances of success and power.

Now, over to you, pause the video, complete the task.

If you wish, please do go back and just have a look at any of those details for yourselves, but Kurtz is presented and try and fill in your decision.

What type of character is he? Select an anchor quotation, expand your comment to say what the reader learns from this characterization.

Okay, and welcome back.

We're just going to read a little bit more now.

And I'm going to ask us to think about the same questions.

Kurtz is presented as what type of character? Thinking about an anchor quotation from this next little section, and then thinking about expanding on your comments.

But what I am going to introduce is this idea that Kurtz might be considered to be something of a tragic hero type figure, because he experiences a moment of realisation.

And within the characterization of a tragic hero, one of the key qualities is that at the moment of death, they realise their wrongdoing.

So I'm going to give you that additional vocabulary of a tragic hero.

And attached to that is the concept that at that point of death, they realise, that they cannot continue to live, they have done too much wrong and therefore they do not deserve to live.

And we have a moment of realisation, whereby they take on board everything, all the mistakes that they've made, and equally, as a reader, we are satisfied that good has overcome evil.

So with that in mind, we're going to have a look at the next section.

And I've entitled this A Moment of Realisation.

His was an impenetrable darkness.

I looked at him as you peer down at a man who is lying at the bottom of a precipice where the sun never shines.

One evening, coming in with a candle, I was startled to hear him say a little tremulously, "I'm laying here in the dark waiting for death." The light was within a foot of his eyes.

I forced myself to murmur "Oh, nonsense!" and stood over him as if transfixed.

Now, you can see here that Marlow and obviously because they're on the steamboat, it's taking them a long time to travel back up the Congo.

And he is trying to try and humour his passenger as best he can.

But we can see the Kurtz knows the reality of his situation.

Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again.

Oh, I wasn't touched.

I was fascinated.

It was as though a veil has been rent.

Riped away.

I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror of an intense and hopeless despair.

Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some vision, he cried out twice a cry that was no more than a breath.

"The horror, the horror!" I blew the candle out and left the cabin.

So again, an opportunity for you to think about what I've just mentioned with regards to a tragic hero.

Is there a sympathy to be had for Kurtz at this last moment? Where would your anchor quotation come from from the passage? And then explain your answer.

The line, the horror, the horror is the most famous line from this novel.

And I really wanted you to experience that during our reading of the extracts.

What happens to Kurtz, from this point, you can tell it's quite inevitable, isn't it? Conrad has signalled that very clearly, okay.

Opportunity now for you to take control, finish off your thinking, link it back wherever possible to those literary models that we looked at at the beginning of the session.

As soon as you ready.

I'll be waiting for you to just tie all of these details together and go back to our image from the start of the session.

And here he is, so this was my selection of an image, a character who I think is Kurtz experiencing that moment.

And you have to decide sort of what level of anguish he's in.

But I wanted to capture a figure in contemplation, a figure in pain.

So, have a little think about it, you might want to make some adjustments to your planning so far, but I would like you to do it alongside another technique.

So let's have a look at this technique.

Imagine you are looking through a sequence of five photographs.

The image of this man is number five.

What did the other five photographs show? Now as a technique, this is quite interesting, this idea that you can have a structure where you have snapshots.

So you can go back as far in time as you want, or as little as you wish.

But imagine the sequencing falling with this image as number five, what has happened to this character to leave them in this situation? Let's just add a few more details to our task.

So as you're reviewing your planning, I want you to think about the sequence of your images that you're generating now, so five images, you're going to have the same look, are you going to have the same location for the photograph to be taken each time? Okay, so that's an interesting one.

If you imagine a photographer taking a picture of the man, and he goes there five times in his lifetime and he sits in the seats and the photographer captures him at five different points, what has happened in his life to get into this point? Or are we going to have different locations, we're going to have the man as a child, and then moving through two different stages in his existence.

Or could it be for the length of the time, if it were Kurtz that we're thinking about, from when he first arrived in the Congo to this moment in time.

So consider the sequence, think about the location, and the different snapshots.

And also think about how you're going to link from one paragraph to the next, are you going to use cohesive devices that suggest a camera snapping, click on the face, face froze one small, could be a little bit of a line for you there? so again, we've got the image, imagine it as five still photographs, think about what your photographs are going to tell.

I'm going to hand control over to you, and you are going to end up with a sequence of five images.

And we're just planning.

I don't need you to write anything but I would love you to explore this idea.

Because we can re-sequence things you can think about a non-chronological order, but it's quite a fun, innovative way of approaching a picture stimulus.

Okay, so I'll go back to the beginning and hand over control to you.

You can work through the slides.

And as soon as you're happy with your planning, and you've considered things and you've made all those design choices, what would happen if I started with picture three at the beginning, et cetera.

Then we are ready for us to reunite at the other side.

Thank you for your focus today.

I hope you quite enjoyed that activity.

I just wanted to give you another technique to consider and I hope you have tried to incorporate some of the features of the everyman, Faustin character who makes an impact for power and influence in the present, and then finally meets the moment where he has to deal or she has to deal with the consequences.

To finish the learning for today you have a recap quiz to complete.

All that remains for me to say is, thank you for your focus, and enjoy the rest of your learning today.