Hello, my name is Ms. Grant.

I'm so glad you've decided to learn with me today.

We are in the World at war: short stories unit, and today we're going to be looking at "The Fly" by Katherine Mansfield.

I absolutely love the short story.

And today we're going to look at two really important methods that Mansfield employs throughout the use of a character foil and her use of symbolism.

So we're gonna define these terms, really get to grips with them, and then we're gonna see how Mansfield has applied them in her short story.

I cannot wait to hear all of your fantastic ideas.

I'm gonna be your support and guide as we work through today's lesson together.

Let's get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, you are going to be able to explore Mansfield's use of character foils and symbolism.

We're gonna go through these key terms. We're really gonna get to grips with them.

And then we are going to think, well, how has Manfield used them in her story, to what effect? There are some key words today which are gonna help us achieve our objective.

We've got five of them.

I'm gonna draw out just two of them.

The first one is this word intangible.

You might not have come across this word before.

It means something that can't be touched, something that doesn't have a physical presence.

So a table, for example, would be tangible.

You can touch a table, but the idea of love is intangible.

You can't touch it.

And then I'd also like to look at this word, symbolism.

Now we're going to explore Mansfield's use of symbolism today.

So we're really going to get to grips with this term, but it means when writers use something to represent intangible ideas; the fly in this story is an example of a symbol.

So we've got the fly that is something that is tangible, it can be touched, and it is a symbol for some ideas, some big ideas that Mansfield wants to explore and the ideas she wants to explore are intangible.

We're gonna have a think today.

What are these intangible ideas? Ideas that are kind of abstract that we can't touch or see, but we can absolutely feel.

Now, if you'd like to spend some more time with our key words to make notes or just read through their definitions, pause the video now.

But we'll be referencing throughout today's lesson.

And so we will come to understand them and come to understand how they will help us achieve our objective.

Our lesson outline for today, we're gonna start off by considering Mr. Woodifield and the boss.

Now they are foils to one another, which means they're characters who contrast one another.

And then we are going to look at the symbol of the fly.

So the fly, what big ideas does it represent? Let's start off with Mr. Woodifield and the boss.

So Laura says, "Mr. Woodifield and the boss in Mansfield's 'The Fly' are presented in the same way." Now I'd like you to discuss how might Aisha and Jun have disagreed with Laura? Pause the video and discuss this question now.

Welcome back, a really lively discussion.

There are lots of people disagreeing with Laura saying, actually no, we cannot say that Mr. Woodifield and boss are presented in the same way.

Now here are the that Aisha and Jun had.

We've got, "Mr. Woodifield is frailer physically, but the boss is battling with his emotions more." Nice idea there.

And Jun says, "Mr. Woodifield seems happier than the boss." Now I'd like you to discuss what evidence might have led Aisha and Jun to these ideas.

Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back.

A really lively discussion there showing off your fantastic knowledge of the text itself of "The Fly." Let's start off with Aisha's ideas.

So "Mr. Woodifield is frailer physically." This is really established in the opening paragraph of "The Fly" where he's described as old.

We hear that he's kept in house quite a lot.

His wife and daughters are looking after him in his ill health.

Even though he is younger than the boss, he has had to retire and there's reference to a major medical event, a stroke.

So he certainly is not seeming as strong as the boss, but the boss is emotionally more fragile.

Mr. Woodifield is able to mention his son's grave.

We know that Mr. Woodifield and the boss have both lost their sons to World War I.

The boss seems unable to talk about this in the way that Mr. Woodifield does.

He talks about it says that his daughters and wife have been across to Belgium.

But the boss, when Mrs. Mentioned, has to keep alone for half an hour.

And we really go into his thoughts and we hear how he feels his life is in ruins.

He feels a broken man because of the loss of his son.

So a nice idea there from Aisha and certainly some well supported, evidence to support that from you.

Now Jun.

Jun says, "Mr. Woodifield seems happier than the boss." And again, we can see the interaction between the boss and Mr. Woodifield at the beginning.

Both of them seem quite happy.

Mr. Woodifield is envying the boss a little bit, but they're in the office, they're enjoying being in the office and the boss is enjoying showing off some of his expensive items. But Mr. Woodifield is able to maintain this happiness in the way that the boss cannot.

So Mr. Woodifield enjoys the whiskey.

He talks about his wife and daughters going across to France and makes a joke about how much the jam costs there, sorry, not to France, to Belgium where the son's graves are.

And he makes a joke about how much the jam costs there.

Whereas the boss, just the reference to his son's grave, sends him into this kind of spiral of despair.

And then of course, the end of the story, this interaction with the fly.

So Mr. Woodifield seems more content than the boss, even though the boss is showing off at the beginning.

This is swiftly undermined by the rest of the story.

So really, really great references to the text, they're showing off your fantastic knowledge to support two arguments there.

And certainly I think Laura will re-look at that idea that the boss and Mr. Woodifield are presented in the same way.

So Mansfield uses Mr. Woodifield as a foil to the boss, is one of our key terms for today in the focus of this learning cycle.

A foil is a character who contrasts another character.

Usually a character and their foil have similar experiences, but their reactions and choices in response to these experiences contrast.

So Mr. Woodifield and the boss have both lost their sons in World War I, but their reactions to it contrast, and that is why their character foils.

Writers create foils in order to help us understand a character, often the protagonist in more depth.

So we can say, I can see that the protagonist and this other character have the same experiences, but the protagonist has acted in this way and the other character has acted in that way.

So I can now understand the protagonist in a bit more detail.

So I'd like you to discuss in what ways is Mr. Woodifield the boss's foil and what does Mansfield's use of a foil help us understand about the boss.

Pause the video and discuss this question now.

Welcome back.

A lovely discussion there showing off your deep understanding of this method already, the idea of creating a character foil.

So Mr. Woodifield and the boss, they do have some similar experiences.

They both worked in the same place even though Mr. Woodifield is now retired and the boss is still working there.

So they're roughly the same age.

They both had sons who were killed in World War I.

However, those similarities are shown in sharp relief to their contrast.

So initially we think the contrast is well, we can see that the boss is very robust, whereas Mr. Woodifield is a bit more fragile and he has had to retire and he spends a lot of time at home.

But the real contrast comes their reaction to their son's death, where we see the boss's, the depths of his despair, his inability to talk about his son's death, even six years on, his feeling that his life is never going to be the same and that the purpose of his life has been completely destroyed.

Whereas Mr. Woodifield seems to be able to talk about his son going and talk about his wife and daughters visiting his son's grave in Belgium.

And he seems to be able to enjoy the aspects of life that the boss seems unable to enjoy.

So he's really referencing the whiskey.

He's looking around with envy at the boss's office, whereas the boss, maybe these items in his office are actually more representative of the emptiness of his life.

So we can really start to understand the boss a little bit more because we have this contrast.

If we just had the boss in the story, we wouldn't be able to see as clearly the depth of his unhappiness compared to Mr. Woodifield.

So check for understanding before we do some independent work about this idea of character foils.

In what ways is Mr. Woodifield the boss's foil? I would like you to read through the four possible responses and then select the one that you think is correct.

Pause the video and complete this check for understanding now.

Well done if you selected C.

The boss can't talk about his son, but Mr. Woodifield is able to talk about his son, Reggie.

If we look at a, the boss has been to Belgium, but Mr. Woodifield is too frail, incorrect.

We know that Mr. Woodifield's wife and daughters have been to Belgium.

We know that the boss has not been to Belgium.

B, the boss fought in World War I, but Mr. Woodifield was too old.

We know that Mr. Woodifield is younger than the boss.

Neither of them fought in World War I.

It's actually very important that it was their sons at the younger generation who fought in World War I.

And we are now seeing the older generation kind of react to the loss of that younger generation.

D the boss is close to his colleague, Macy, but Mr. Woodifield has no one to look after him.

We know that Mr. Woodifield cared, cared for by his wife and daughters.

This is mentioned in paragraph one of the story.

So C is the correct answer.

Alright, we're gonna do our independent task.

Now, I know you have fantastic knowledge of "The Fly" because of our discussion earlier in this lesson, but skim and scan "The Fly".

It's found in the additional materials and then you're gonna complete the sentence starter showing off your brilliant knowledge of this idea of a foil.

So Mr. Woodifield is the boss's foil because Mr. Woodifield is the boss's foil, but Mr. Woodifield is the boss's foil.

So, and there are some prompts there in order to help you think about how to complete those sentence starters.

Pause the video and complete this task now.

Welcome back.

Well done for completing those sentence are to showing off a very clear understanding of Mansfield's use of the method character foil.

Let's do some feedback.

I'd like you to self-assess each of your sentences using the questions to guide you.

So Mr. Woodifield is the boss's foil because.

Have you considered their contrast, for examples, their ability to discuss their sons? Pause the video and complete the self-assessment for that first sentence now.

Alright, let's move on to this second sentence.

Mr. Woodifield is the boss's foil but.

Now have you considered the similarities between these characters in terms of their experiences, for example, their age, occupation, or loss? Pause the video and complete this assessment now.

And final one, Mr. Woodifield, is the boss's foil so.

Have you identified one or more aspects of the boss's character you understand more deeply because of Mansfield use of a foil, for example, his fragility or confusion? So really focus on this one.

This is the one where you're starting to think, well, what is the effect of this use of a character foil? So using this question, make sure that you self-assess your final sentence.

Pause the video and complete this assessment now.

Welcome back.

Well done.

Those three sentences show your fantastic knowledge of this term character foil.

We're gonna move on to our second learning cycle now.

We're gonna think about this symbol of the fly.

Another very important method in this short story.

So symbolism is when writers use something tangible to represent intangible ideas or feelings.

So tangible meaning something that you can touch, intangible meaning something that you can't physically touch.

So love or grief would be examples of intangible ideas.

For example.

So we're gonna look to a Shakespeare play rather considering "The Fly" at this moment.

So in one of Shakespeare's tragedies, "Macbeth", the main character, Macbeth, feels extremely guilty after killing his king.

So we've got this feeling, this intangible feeling of guilt.

Now you can't touch, guilt is intangible.

So Shakespeare has to think about a way to represent guilt on stage.

Shakespeare chooses blood to symbolise the character's guilt.

Blood is tangible, you can see it and touch it.

When Macbeth asks if an ocean of water will wash the blood clean from his hand, Shakespeare is symbolising Macbeth's overwhelming feelings of guilt.

It is much more subtle than Shakespeare having him say, having Macbeth say, I feel guilty, let me tell you about it.

So we can see here an example of a symbol, blood, something tangible.

It is representing an intangible idea, guilt.

So let's apply this to "The Fly." In "\The Fly", the fly is Mansfield's most important symbol.

And I would like you to discuss what might Aisha and Jun say when they're discussing what the fly might actually symbolise.

So Aisha started her idea with The fly symbolises the boss's son, and the idea that.

whereas Jun started The fly symbolises the boss's feelings of.

So they both have some ideas here about what the fly might symbolise.

And I want you to really think, well, what might the fly symbolise? How might Aisha and Jun complete their sentence starters? Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back.

A lovely discussion interpreting the symbol of the fly.

So important to Mansfield's work.

There'll be lots and lots of different interpretations of this symbol.

Let's have a look at what Aisha and Jun said.

So Aisha said, "The fly symbolises the boss's son and the idea that his life was short and perhaps even needlessly wasted." Whereas Jun said, "The fly symbolises the boss's feelings at powerlessness and despair over his son's death, the ink, his grief, overwhelms him." Just as it overwhelms the fly and actually ends up killing the fly.

Two very different interpretations there.

Now I'd like you to discuss who do you agree with more and why? Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back.

A really lively discussion there about this symbol of the fly.

Some people saying, I really agree with Aisha.

So fly is a small insect and we know that millions upon millions of young people were killed in World War I.

And what Mansfield is saying is, or is expressing or symbolising the death of these young people and the needless waste of it.

So a kind of criticism there of going into war and the way in which the younger generation was really, really impacted by this worldwide conflict.

And others saying, no, I actually agree with Jun's idea.

The ink here, this idea of this black ink overwhelming the fly that really speaks to me of the boss.

The boss is the protagonist, the central character in "The Fly." And so that's why I think the fly is symbolising the boss's feelings of grief because that is what Mansfield is really interested in exploring.

She's exploring this emotion rather than looking at the younger generation.

They are not the central focus of this story.

It's actually the boss himself.

So two compelling ideas there.

Nobody is correct.

It is up to you to decide what you think the fly is symbolising.

Now, a check for understanding before we start to think about the symbol of the fly in a little bit more detail and start getting used to using that word symbol.

So Manfield writes that the fly was "struggling feebly but desperately to clamber out" of the ink pot.

What do you think this could symbolise? Read through the responses and select the one that you think is correct.

Pause the video and complete this check now.

Well done if you selected C, the boss trying to emerge out of his grief and despair.

If we look at a, the boss's son who used to use the ink pot, that is an incorrect reading of the short story.

It's the boss's ink pot.

And b, the boss's son trying to clamber out of a trench that is too much of a stretch, too much of a literal interpretation.

A symbol is actually representing abstract ideas.

And the abstract idea here, the intangible idea is grief and despair.

Whereas clambering outta a trench, that is something that you could actually touch.

That is a literal idea.

And symbolism is used to represent intangible ideas.

And here we've got those examples, grief and despair.

So I would like you to complete this table with bullet pointed ideas to prove each argument.

We've got Aisha's argument and Jun's argument from earlier in this learning cycle.

An example has been done for you.

So for that second idea, the fly symbolises the boss's feelings of powerlessness and despair over his son's death.

The ink, grief, overwhelms him.

The example we've got is when the boss drops ink on the fly, it is described as stunned symbolising how the boss felt when Mr. Woodifield mentioned his son's grave.

So you can see that use of that word symbol or symbolising there really shows that this student is exploring the idea that Jun has put forward and finding some really good evidence for that.

So using that as a model, return to this interaction between the boss and the fly and think, what is this symbolising? Pause a video and complete this task now.

Welcome back.

Lovely to see some really full tables in front of me.

And to see people really get into grips with this idea of a symbol along with some very close reading of the text in order to prove that Aisha and Jun have a correct or certainly valid interpretation of the symbol of the fly.

So here is a section of Jun's table.

He was proving that the fly is a symbol of the boss's feelings of powerlessness and despair over his son's death.

The ink, grief, overwhelms him.

Now he has written "Help, help, said those struggling legs" that is his quotation.

This is attributed to the fly.

The fly apparently saying, help help with those struggling legs trying to get outta the ink pot.

This exclamation seems to symbolise the boss's need for emotional support rather than what the fly is saying.

So why is this such a good note? Well, we've got a well-selected quotation, and then he explores its symbolism.

So he used that word at this exclamation seems to symbolise and really showing off his ability to understand this concept and saying, look, this applies to the boss, not the fly.

So we'd like you to self-assess each of your bullet points, ensuring that it meets this checklist.

Pause the video and complete the self-assessment now.

Welcome back.

So some fantastic tables, all of which have been self-assessed using this checklist.

So you've got lots of different quotations and then you've really explored this idea of symbolism.

Well done.

In summary, Mr. Woodifield and the boss are foils to one another.

Symbolism is when writers use something to represent intangible ideas.

The fly is a powerful symbol in "The Fly".

The fly could symbolise the boss's son and the idea that his life was short and perhaps even needlessly wasted.

The fly could also symbolise the boss's feelings of powerlessness and despair over his son's death.

It has been such a pleasure to look at these two methods with you today and explore how Mansfield has applied them in "The Fly." I look forward to seeing you next time.