Lesson video

Hello and welcome to your English lesson today, the first in our unit on the short story.

I'm Miss Gayle, and today we're going to be focusing on a short story called "A Haunted House" by Virginia Woolf.

Have you ever wondered whether you've seen a ghost, or whether your house might be haunted? Have you ever heard a sound you couldn't explain, or thought you've seen something that wasn't really there.

In this unit, we're going to be looking at short stories and how a writer can condense complex meanings into a brief fictional narrative.

Take a moment to clear your distractions away and make sure you have everything you need at hand.

You will need a pen and paper, and I'd like you to write down today's title, Reading for meaning: A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf.

This lesson will start by introducing some key things you need to know about the short story of the genre and some contextual details about the story we'll be reading today.

We will then read the whole of a short story by Virginia Woolf, with a focus on comprehension and understanding.

In other words, on reading for meaning.

Then we will explore some of our initial interpretations of the story before completing our review quiz at the end of the lesson.

So what is a short story? A short story is a story with a fully developed theme, but which is significantly shorter and less elaborate than a novel.

The story we're going to read today is called "A Haunted House".

What might you expect from a story with a title like this? Perhaps there are some stereotypes you might expect about the surroundings, or its appearance.

You might have looked at gothic literature before.

So perhaps, you might be thinking about elements of the supernatural, like eerie and mysterious setting, the mystery or fear of the unknown.

Many of you might have pictured something like this, a remote an eerie-looking house in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fog and darkness.

But fear can come in many different forms. And in the short story we'll be looking at today, there are some elements that might surprise you.

Here's a question for you.

Are ghost stories scary? Perhaps you've shared ghost stories at sleepovers or around campfires that are designed to frighten or shock your friends and family.

Perhaps you've read or watched things that are intended to scare you.

Perhaps you know they aren't real, so they don't frighten you at all.

Virginia Woolf, the writer of the story we're going to read today, was writing in a world where people had been obsessed with ghost stories, and they'd become so popular that many writers were beginning to suggest that they were no longer having the desired effect.

In an essay, Woolf wrote concerning the ghost stories of Henry James, she stated that, "To admit that modern nerves "are immune from the wonder and terror "which ghosts have always inspired, "would be to throw up the sponge too easily." "If the old methods are obsolete, "it is the business of a writer to discover new ones." "Obsolete" just means out of date.

What Virginia Woolf is talking about is the fact that people are starting to lose interest in ghost stories.

They're not used as scary as they used to be.

And so, she's saying that if the old methods of writing are out of date, and they're not scaring people anymore, then it's the business of a writer to discover new ones, to experiment with different forms. So, pause the video to complete your task.

What did Virginia Woolf think about ghost stories? Virginia Woolf did not want modern readers to be immune to the wonder and terror which ghosts have always inspired.

She was determined to find new methods to make ghost stories work for a modern audience.

Now, what we'll find as we read this story is that she doesn't do it in a conventional way.

And so, what you might expect from a ghost story is certainly not what we get in Virginia Woolf's "A Haunted House".

Part of the reason Virginia Woolf thought in this way was because she was a modernist writer.

Modernist writers were determined to experiment with new forms and styles and methods of writing and tried to reflect the modern world around them.

It might seem strange to say "the modern world" now, since modernism came into being over a hundred years ago.

But at the time, the methods that these writers were using were radical and often experimental.

Just pause the video and note down some of these contextual ideas about modernism.

Well done.

Modernism was a literary movement that started in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Modernist writers experimented with new forms, styles and methods of writing.

They tried to reflect the modern world around them.

So, the story we are going to read today is called "A Haunted House", published in 1921.

What might you expect from a story with a title like this? Let's begin by reading the story.

Follow along as I read it with you.

If you wish to read it independently, then pause the video at the end of each slide.

"Whatever hour you woke, there was a door shutting.

From room to room, they went, hand in hand, lifting here, opening there, making sure.

A ghostly couple.

'Here we left it,' she said.

And he added, 'Oh, but here too!' 'It's upstairs,' she murmured, 'And in the garden,' he whispered.

'Quietly,' they said, 'or we shall wake them.

' But it wasn't that you woke us, oh, no.

'They're looking for it;' 'They're drawing the curtain,' one might say, and so read on a page or two.

'Now they've found it,' one would be certain, stopping the pencil in the margin.

And then, tired of reading, one might rise and see for oneself, the house all empty, the doors standing open, only the wood pigeons bubbling with content and the hum of the threshing machine sounding from the farm.

'What did I come here for?' 'What did I want to find?' My hands were empty.

'Perhaps it's upstairs then?' The apples were in the loft.

And so down again, the garden still as ever, only the book had slipped into the grass.

But they had found it in the drawing room.

Not that one could ever see them.

The window panes reflected apples, reflected roses, all the leaves were green in the glass.

If they moved in the drawing room, the apple only turned its yellow side.

Yet, the moment after, if the door was opened, spread about the floor, hung upon the walls, pendant from the ceiling.

What? My hands were empty.

The shadow of a thrush crossed the carpet.

From the deepest wells of my silence, the wood pigeon drew its bubble of sound.

'Safe, safe, safe,' the pulse of the house beat softly.

'The treasure buried, the room.

' The pulse stopped short.

Oh, was that the buried treasure? A moment later, the light had faded.

Out in the garden then? But the trees spun darkness for a wandering beam of sun.

So fine, so rare, coolly sunk beneath the surface, the beam I sought always burnt behind the glass.

Death was the glass.

Death was between us, coming to the woman first, hundreds of years ago, leaving the house, sealing all the windows.

The rooms were darkened.

He left it, left her, went North, went East, saw the stars turned in the Southern sky.

Sought the house, found it dropped beneath the Downs.

'Safe, safe, safe,' the pulse of the house beat gladly.

'The Treasure yours.

' The wind roars up the avenue.

Trees stoop and bend this way and that.

Moonbeams splash and spill wildly in the rain.

But the beam of the lamp falls straight from the window.

The candle burns stiff and still.

Wandering through the house, opening the windows, whispering not to wake us, the ghostly couple seek their joy.

'Here we slept,' she says.

And he adds, "Kisses without number.

' 'Waking in the morning.

' 'Silver between the trees.

' 'Upstairs,' 'In the garden.

' 'When summer came.

' 'In winter snowtime.

' The doors go shutting far in the distance, gently knocking like the pulse of a heart.

Nearer they come, cease at the doorway.

The wind falls, the rain slides silver down the glass.

Our eyes darken.

We hear no steps beside us.

We see no lady spread her ghostly cloak.

His hands shield the lantern.

'Look,' he breathes.

'Sound asleep.

' 'Love upon their lips.

' Stopping, holding their silver lamp above us, long they look and deeply.

Long they pause.

The wind drives straightly.

The flame stoops slightly.

Wild beams of moonlight cross both floor and wall, and meeting, stain the faces bent.

The faces pondering, the faces that search the sleepers and seek their hidden joy.

'Safe, safe, safe,' the heart of the house beats proudly.

'Long years,' he sighs.

'Again you found me.

' 'Here,' she murmurs, 'sleeping, in the garden reading, laughing, rolling apples in the loft.

Here we left our treasure.

' Stooping, their light lifts the lids upon my eyes.

'Safe! Safe! Safe!' the pulse of the house beats wildly.

Waking, I cry, 'Oh, is this your buried treasure? The light in the heart.

' How did that story make you feel? Don't worry if you didn't understand all of it yet.

We are going to go back and look at some of the key sections.

But I want your initial responses.

And so, you can use some of these words on your screen if they apply to you.

If you've got your own words, feel free to include those.

Use the sentence stem on your screen, just to write down in your notes how that story made you feel.

That story made me feel a little bit uncertain the first time I read it, and a little bit uncomfortable and on edge, because I wasn't entirely sure what was going on all the time.

It's difficult to know who's speaking, who's speaking to who, what the ghosts are doing, what the ghosts are saying.

And the ending is quite ambiguous.

We don't really know what happened after the narrator wakes up.

It's not your typical ghost story, is it? I don't think many of you are hiding in a corner, unable to listen anymore.

So let's think about what that story is trying to do.

Which of these statement do you agree with? "The story creates an eerie and mysterious atmosphere." "The sleeping couple are never able to see the ghosts." "The ghostly couple seem harmless." And "The house seems to have thoughts of its own." I think I agree, definitely, that the story creates an eerie and mysterious atmosphere.

It's not scary as such, but it is certainly unusual and mysterious.

With the second statement, the sleeping couple often look for the ghosts.

And at the end of the story, it's as if the bright light allows the narrator to understand that the ghosts are standing over her.

The ghostly couple do seem harmless.

They're looking for something.

And it seems at the end of the story, that what they're looking for is the joy of their lost love.

And I definitely agree that the house seems to have thoughts and a voice of its own.

So, let's read the story again now, making sure we're clear about the meaning.

This time I want you to read independently.

So I will read the summary, and then pause the video, so that you can read the paragraph that follows.

"Whenever the narrator wakes, she hears a ghostly couple whispering together, looking for something.

The narrator puts her book down and tries to find the ghosts, but sees nothing.

When the narrator tries to see the ghosts, all she finds are reflections of everyday things.

The narrator hears the voice of the house as it seems to drop hints about 'treasure'.

The narrator continues to search, but understands that they are kept separate by death.

We learn that the male ghost left the house after the death of his wife.

The weather outside seems wild.

The ghostly couple wander through the house, whispering about their memories.

The ghosts stand, looking on at the sleeping couple in the bed.

The ghosts look for their treasure of 'hidden joy' in the faces of the sleeping couple.

The narrator wakes suddenly and realises that the light in the heart is the treasure the ghosts are looking for.

So hopefully, you understand the story a little bit more now.

What are some of the key themes that the story explores? Well, I think that there's definitely these three key themes in the story.

And a theme, remember, is a recurring or central idea that runs all the way through a text.

First theme, I think, that we can see in the story is love.

Through the two couples and their relationship, the writer reflects on the nature of love, even after death.

I think there's also evidence of the theme of the supernatural in this story.

Woolf explores unexplainable experiences on the periphery or edge of consciousness and understanding.

So the idea that the ghosts exist just out of sight and just out of reach of the narrator.

And I think the story also reflects ideas about memory.

Through the ghostly couple, the writer reflects on how the house still holds the treasure of their lost love.

I'd like you to answer the question, "What are the key themes in the story?" using the information on your screen.

Well done.

We're now going to go through a series of questions, just to check your understanding.

The first one, where is the story set? Please make sure you answer in full sentences, using the sentence stems on your screen.

The story is set in a house, surrounded by "wild beams of moonlight", gardens and trees, with wind and rain roaring wildly outside.

The story is set in the present tense, and the ghostly couple seem to be there, in the silent empty house, "whenever" you wake.

Make sure you've added any details you've missed to your answer.

Second question, who are the key characters? Again, remember to answer in full sentences.

The main characters are two couples: a ghostly couple revisiting their old home and searching for "treasure", and a living couple, one is the narrator, who can sense their presence.

The house also seems to have a voice.

Again, check your answer, and make sure you've added any details that you've missed.

Third question, how would you describe the relationship between the ghostly couple? The ghostly couple are very much in love.

They "murmur" and "whisper" to each other as if they have secrets.

They're searching for something that they've lost, and share memories of the hoe where they used to live.

Again, check your answer and add anything you've missed.

Next question, what happens when the narrator tries to look for the couple? Pause the video and answer in full sentences.

When the narrator senses the couple's presence and tries to look for them, she can only seem to find the empty house.

The movement is sometimes is explained by a pigeon or a thrush.

At the end of the story, she seems to hear and see them standing over her as she sleeps.

Finally, what is the treasure the ghostly couple are looking for? The ghostly couple are looking for "the light in the heart", possibly a reference to the joy and happiness they shared through their love.

The ghosts find it in the love of the narrator and her partner as they watch them sleep.

Well done.

I'd like you to write a summary now of the story we've read today, just to check your understanding.

Use the sentence stems on your screen and the details that we've just talked about, to summarise your interpretation of the short story.

Well done, and thank you for your focus today.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your learning.

But before you get onto that.

remember to complete the quiz at the end of the lesson.