Lesson video

Hello everyone.

It's great to meet you.

My name is Mr. Johnston.

I'm here today to teach you about "Jane Eyre".

"Jane Eyre" is a novel written by Charlotte Brontë in 1847.

It's one of the most exciting stories I've ever read in my whole life.

This is a tale full of danger, full of romance, full of mystery and full of terror.

At times it will break your heart.

At times it will make you laugh.

Other times it will scare the living daylights out of you.

I hope you learn to love this novel just as much as I do.

Let's begin.

For today's lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper and a pen.

If you do not have this equipment, press the pause button on this video now, go and collect this equipment and then we will begin our lesson.

Here is a picture of Charlotte Brontë.

Charlotte Brontë is the author of "Jane Eyre".

Charlotte Brontë wrote "Jane Eyre" in 1847.

For today's lesson, we will be learning about what life was like in 1847.

What sort of world did Charlotte Brontë live in? Now, this is the context of our novel.

The context is the circumstances and background that influence a novel.

It's very important that we understand this if we're going to analyse this story.

Now, when people talk about the context of a novel, they are really talking about two things.

First of all, we can talk about the historical context of the novel.

This is how the world around the author inspires their novel.

And secondly, we can talk about the authorial context.

This is about how the events of an author's own life inspires their novel.

Now for today's lesson, we are going to learn about the historical context of our novel.

"Jane Eyre" was written in the Victorian era.

This was when Queen Victoria was on the throne.

The Victorian era lasted between 1837 and 1901.

It's very important that we understand a few things about the Victorian era before we begin reading our novel.

In today's lesson, we're going to first of all learn about the British empire.

We're then going to learn about the rich and the poor in the Victorian times.

And then we will learn about the treatment of women in the Victorian times.

All of these different aspects of the Victorian era inspired "Jane Eyre".

Let's begin with looking at the British empire.

Here is a map of the British empire produced at the end of the 19th century.

All of the parts of the map that are coloured in red represent different territories owned by Britain.

As you can see, Britain owned a great amount of the world.

In fact, Britain was known as the empire on which the sun never sets.

At any time, somewhere in the world there was a territory owned by Britain in which it was still daytime.

Britain owned territories from the North to the South and from the East to the West.

Now, how did the empire impact Britain? Well trade links between the colonies allowed Britain to buy and sell various goods around the world.

Now that word colonies refers to different territories that were owned by the British empire.

These were very important for trade.

Through these colonies Britain was able to sell, buy and sell coffee, sugar, tea, tobacco, rice and many other goods all around the world.

Now, this trade had a huge impact on life back home in Britain.

The trade with the colonies made Britain wealthy and powerful.

And this wealth led to advances in science, technology and culture.

It is for this reason that the Victorian era is recognised as a period of enormous transformations across British society.

Now Britain gained further influence over its colonies through the work of missionaries.

Missionaries were Christians who left Britain to go to the colonies and spread Christianity.

These missionaries attempted to spread Christianity, and often encouraged loyalty to the empire.

In our novel "Jane Eyre" we are going to meet one of these missionaries.

Now let's have a think about the way that the British saw themselves.

This is what Charles Kingsley, a famous writer and priest said about Britain.

He wrote this.

"The glorious work which God seems to have laid on the English race, to replenish the earth and subdue it." That word to subdue something means to overcome something and have power over it.

What is Kingsley suggesting about Britain here? Well, Kingsley is suggesting that the British were blessed by God to rule the world.

He believed that the English race had a God given superiority over other people in the world.

Over other races of people from other countries.

Now, in 2020, we are likely to regard this idea as being rather foolish and arrogant.

However, Kingsley's perspective was widely held throughout the Victorian times.

Let's now test your memory.

Here's some sentences.

And as you can see, there are some words missing.

Press the pause button on your video now.

Go through each of these sentences and tell the screen the full sentence including the word in blank.

Off you go.

Let's now take a look at the right answers.

Number one.

During the Victorian era, Britain's empire expanded.

Number two.

The British empire ruled many colonies throughout the world.

Number three.

Trade with these colonies made Britain wealthy.

Number four.

Britain sent missionaries to spread Christianity to these colonies.

Well done if you got all of those right.

Now, I'm going to teach you a really good technique for improving your writing.

One difficulty that many pupils have is the writing simply is not detailed enough.

I'm going to show you a really simple activity that can help you write far more detailed and impressive answers.

So, in front of you right now you see a sentence fragment.

Became increasingly wealthy.

This is part of a sentence, and is not a whole sentence.

Now, by asking ourselves certain questions about the sentence fragment, we can prepare to write a very impressive, detailed sentence.

We can ask ourselves a what question.

What became increasingly wealthy? And as we've learnt it is of course the British empire.

The British empire became increasingly wealthy.

Let's ask ourselves another question to help us write a detailed answer.

When? When did the British empire become increasingly wealthy? And as you know, this was throughout the 19th century.

Let's ask ourselves another question.

How? How did the British empire become increasingly wealthy throughout the 19th century? As you know, this was through trade with its colonies.

Now, these are some questions that I ask myself whenever I take a look at a sentence fragment and whenever I write.

Here's two other questions that I sometimes ask myself but I'm not going to ask myself these questions for this particular sentence fragment here.

I'm just going to ask myself a what question, a when question and a how question.

Now, I am going to take my answers to these questions alongside the sentence fragment to write a really impressive and detailed sentence.

Let's see.

Throughout the 19th century, the British empire became increasingly wealthy through trade with its overseas colonies.

As you can see, that is a very impressive sentence.

It is full of detail.

It is a sort of sentence that if you wrote this in an exam your examiner or your teacher would be very, very impressed.

Now, as you can see the words in pink answer the what question, the words in green answer the when question and the words in blue answer the how question.

If you would like more time to look at this sentence here, press the pause button on your video now.

Let's continue.

Let's a look at the rich and poor in the Victorian times.

It's very important that we analyse this aspect of Victorian society before we begin to read our novel.

The Victorian period.

Oh, I'll say that again.

The Victorian era was a period of great social inequality.

What does that phrase social inequality mean? Well, that means there's a great difference between the lives of the rich and the lives of the poor as you're now going to see.

During the Victorian era, there were many poor people in Britain who had to suffer a life of hardship and want.

As we learnt earlier on today, Victorian Britain was transforming at a very great rate.

As a result of the industrial revolution, many towns and cities were expanding very quickly.

This led to a huge amount of overcrowding.

Many people moved from a countryside to the city and had to live in very terrible conditions.

Whole families had to live in very, very small houses and accommodation.

And as a result of this overcrowding, many poor people in these towns and cities suffered from terrible diseases, such as tuberculosis and cholera.

These diseases spread throughout many slums in these poor areas of the city.

These poor areas of the city are often described as slums. Now, many poor families became so desperate for money and food that they were forced to send their children to work.

Now, some of you may have studied "Oliver Twist" before by Charles Dickens.

This is exactly what happened to Charles Dickens when he was 12 years old.

His father got into a huge amount of debt and Charles Dickens had to stop going to school and instead work at a blacking factory for a long, long time in terrible conditions to help his father get out of prison.

Many poor children were forced to therefore go to work.

As you can see, life for poor people in Victorian Britain was very difficult indeed.

In comparison, life for the rich in the Victorian era was often very pleasant and easy.

Many rich people in the Victorian era owned large country estates.

Now these were large properties which often came with a lot of land.

Many rich people had private servants.

And they were also able to afford private education for their children.

While many of the rich lived a life of ease and luxury, the poor lived a life of hardship and want Here's another sentence fragment for you on the screen.

Was characterised by great social inequality.

As you can see, that is a very, that's not a full sentence, it's just part of a sentence.

Now let's ask ourselves some questions about the sentence fragments to help us write a really good, detailed sentence.

So what? What was characterised by great social inequality? It was of course British society.

Let's ask ourselves another question, When? When was British society characterised by great social inequality? This was of course throughout the Victorian era.

Let's ask ourselves another question, How? How was British society characterised by great social inequality throughout the Victorian era? It was of course because since the poor endured far more hardships than the rich.

Now here's two other questions that I sometimes ask myself, are Who? and Why? But in this particular situation, I don't need to ask myself these questions in order to write a really good detailed sentence about this sentence fragment.

Let's now take a look at the sentence that I've written using these ideas.

Throughout the Victorian era, British society was characterised by great social inequality since the poor endured far more hardships than the rich.

As you can see, in pink I've got the answer to the what question.

In green, I've got the answer to the when question and in blue, I've got an answer to the blue, to the how question.

Press the pause button on your video now if you would like to take a longer look at how I have written this detailed sentence Let's continue.

We're now going to look at the treatment of women during the Victorian times.

Now I can imagine in 2020, many of you like to think to yourselves that a man is equal to a woman.

If you imagine a relationship or marriage between a man and a woman, I'm sure many of us think to ourselves that the man should be equal to the woman in that relationship.

But this was not the case in the Victorian times.

In the Victorian times, in a marriage, the man was supposed to have more influence and more power than the woman.

The man was supposed to be the head of a household and the wife was expected to be obedient and submissive to her husband.

Let's now learn a little bit more about how women were viewed in this period.

Victorian society expected women to devote themselves to domestic chores and child-raising.

Now, that word domestic refers to something related to the home.

A domestic chore would therefore be cleaning or cooking.

Women were expected to devote their lives to the house and to their family.

Women were therefore not expected to have a career.

A career was for the husband.

A career was for the man.

Women were instead expected to devote themselves to the family and to cleaning and cooking in the house.

And women were not even able to vote during the Victorian times either.

They were expected to play no role in public life.

And as I said before, they were expected to be submissive and obedient to their husband.

And Victorian society piled many expectations for how women were supposed to conduct themselves when they were socialising with others.

Women were expected to be gentle and meek in their interactions with other people.

They were expected to conduct themselves with kindness and grace.

Women who were therefore outspoken or assertive were therefore often looked down upon.

Now "Jane Eyre" is used by Charlotte Brontë to criticise many of these values held by Victorian society about the sort of lives that women were supposed to live.

Charlotte Brontë wanted to criticise her society for its treatment of women.

Now here is one of the most famous quotations from the whole book.

This is what Charlotte Brontë writes in Chapter 12, about her society's treatment of women.

Let's read.

"Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags." This is one of the most famous examples in Victorian literature of a writer criticising their society for its treatment of women.

Let's look, take a look at this first phrase here.

"Women are supposed to be very calm generally." Here, Brontë is criticising her society's belief that women should always be meek and calm and gentle.

She is suggesting that a woman's emotions should be, women should be allowed to express themselves and express a full range of emotions that they feel in exactly the way that a man should be able to express themself.

And next of all, Charlotte Brontë, in this highlighted phrase here, she criticises all the domestic chores that are expected of women.

She talks about them having to make puddings and knitting stockings and playing on the piano and embroidering bags.

Here, Brontë is suggesting that women are captivated or imprisoned to a life of domestic chores by their society.

She is calling for women in her society to enjoy a greater amount of freedom.

Okay, let's now test your memory upon some of these ideas.

There's three sentences in front of you with some words missing.

Tell the screen the full sentence including the words in blank.

Press the pause button on your video now and complete this task.

Okay, let's now see the right answers.

Number one.

During the Victorian era women were expected to devote themselves to domestic chores and child raising.

Number two.

During the Victorian era, women were forbidden from public life.

They did not even have the right to vote.

Number three.

During the Victorian era, women were expected to be submissive and obedient to their husbands.

Well done if you got all of those right.

I now want you to write your own detailed sentence from this sentence fragment.

Now, before you begin, let me give you a little bit of help.

Let's read the sentence fragment.

Did not play a role in public life.

Let's ask ourselves a who question.

Who did not play a role in public life? It is of course, most British women.

I don't write all British women because that would be a huge generalisation.

I don't want this to apply to all British women, just most British women did not play a role in public life.

When? When did most British women not play a role in public life? It is of course, throughout the 19th century.

And why? Why did most British women not play a role in public life throughout the 19th century? And this was of course because they were expected to devote themselves to child raising and domestic chores.

Now, we can also ask yourselves how or what questions but we don't need to ask ourselves these questions for this particular sentence fragment here.

You can now complete the sentence fragments in your book or on your paper.

Use the sentence fragment, the questions and the answers to the questions to write a really good, detailed sentence.

Press the pause button on your video now and complete the sentence fragment in your book or on your paper.

Off you go.

Let's now take a look at our exemplar answer.

Here's our exemplar sentence.

Throughout the 19th century, most British women did not play a role in public life because they were expected to devote themselves to child-raising and domestic chores.

Well done for all of your work there.

To finish lesson, I have got a series of true or false questions for you.

Let's begin with option one.

Option A.

Britain had little influence over the world during the Victorian era, true or false? B.

Britain became the most powerful country in the world during the Victorian era.

C.

There was a big difference between the lives of the rich and poor.

D.

Women were expected to obey their husbands.

And E, Victorian society praise women who spoke their mind and stuck up for themselves.

Press the pause button on this video now and tell the screen whether each of these options are true or false.

Let's now take a look at our answers.

A is false.

Britain did, Britain did not have influence over the world during the Victorian era.

In fact, Britain had a great deal of influence over the world during this era because of the British empire.

B is true.

Britain did become the most powerful country in the world during the Victorian era.

C is also true.

There was a big difference between the lives of the rich and poor during this time.

D is true.

Women were indeed expected to obey their husbands during the Victorian era.

And E is false.

Victorian society praised women who spoke their mind and stuck up for themselves, that is not true.

In fact Victorian society would have criticised many women who spoke their mind and stuck up for themselves.

Victorian society generally expected women to act with grace and meekness.

Well done if you got all of those right.

Here is our credits for all of our pictures in today's lesson.

It has been a pleasure teaching you in this lesson.

I hope that you've learnt a huge amount about the Victorian times.

In our next lesson we will be learning about Charlotte Brontë's fascinating life.

I'll see you next lesson.

And before you go, make sure you complete the end-of-lessons quiz.

I'll see you next time.