Lesson video

Hello and welcome to this lesson about conflict and patriarchy in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

So don't forget, English lesson, therefore, we must have our pen, we must have our paper.

Make sure you've got both of those at hand please.

Don't forget as well, too clear away any distractions, please take a moment to do that.

It might mean you need to close notifications.

It might mean you need to close down any tabs that you might have open.

Just so we've got that lovely, quiet learning space.

So when you are ready, let's begin.

So we're going to start off today's learning by recapping about Theseus' character.

The image on your screen at the moment is one that we looked at last lesson and it's to help us remind ourselves that Theseus, remember, is the character on the right hand side, sitting on the throne.

And the reason why he is sitting on the throne is because he is the Duke of Athens.

He is the person in charge of Athens.

He is also the voice of law.

So it is his job to both create and maintain the laws of ancient Athens.

Theseus also maintains order in Athens.

By ensuring that people keep to the law and follow the rules in Athens, he is maintaining order.

He is making sure that there is not chaos in ancient Athens, in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

And he has authority, he has power over the citizens in ancient Athens and if you can remember from last lesson, they were called Athenians.

So we can say that Theseus is the Duke of Athens.

Theseus is the voice of law.

Theseus maintains order in Athens and Theseus has authority over the Athenians.

We're going to look today as well at Egeus as a character.

And we're going to learn a little bit about how he feels at the start of the play.

So Egeus has a daughter called Hermia.

It's important to try and remember these characters names because we will meet another female character later, who has quite a similar name and she's called Helena.

So both start with the same letter, both end with the same letter and both are six letters long so it's really important to not get these two female characters the wrong way round.

So at the moment, we're just looking at Hermia.

Egeus, at the start of the play, is also angry.

He's angry.

We're going to find out why.

And because of his anger, he complains to Theseus about his daughter.

So between Egeus and Hermia, there is conflict.

There's an argument between them.

They don't agree on something and it's not just a little argument, it's a huge argument, that can have huge consequences as well.

So the first question we need to ask ourselves is why would Egeus complain to Theseus? So we're going to see if you can fill out the gaps in this short paragraph.

So if you'd like to pause your video now and see if you can write out that paragraph, filling in all the gaps about Theseus.

off you go.

So let's have a look then.

So why would Egeus complain to Theseus? Egeus complains to Theseus because Theseus is the Duke of Athens.

It is Theseus' job to maintain order in Athens and be the voice of law.

Well done, if you've got those key words correct.

Because that's recapping that information from last lesson so that we understand Theseus' role in ancient Athens and "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

We're going to look a little bit at our setting of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and by looking at the setting, we're going to find out what type of society it was in our play.

So the first thing we can ask ourselves is what is the setting of "A Midsummer Night's Dream"? I've deliberately put a lowercase "a" and a capital "A" there because one of those words is the name of a place and one of those words is to do with how old the place is.

Well done if you remembered that it was ancient Athens.

So I've changed that to a capital this time on our bullet point but I put the lowercase before, just to give you that little clue.

So in ancient Athens, there were strict rules.

We talked about this a little bit last time.

We talked about how it was severe, ordered and there were harsh punishments.

So we can summarise that with the fact that the setting of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", ancient Athens, has strict rules.

And another key fact for that was that daughters had to obey their fathers.

So whatever the father told you to do, as a daughter, you had to listen and follow the instructions.

You had to obey.

So what your father said, if you were a daughter, what your father said was basically law, you had to follow their instructions.

And we're going to therefore introduce a new word, patriarchy.

I'm going to that again, patriarchy.

We always want to make sure that we pronounce key vocabulary correctly.

So we can say there is patriarchy in the Athenian society of "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

There is patriarchy in the Athenian society of "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

And we need to understand what that term patriarchy really means.

But when we're talking about patriarchy, we mean that the society is ruled by men.

Men were in charge.

The rules were enforced by men.

So men would make sure that people followed the rules.

Obviously we have Theseus at the top but the rules would be enforced by men.

So men would make sure that women did what they were told and women had no power.

So women had no power.

So it was a society ruled by men.

Rules were enforced by men and women had no power.

So what we need to do now is we need to think how this idea of patriarchy can link into Egeus and Hermia and the conflict that they have between them.

So we can say as a short paragraph, due to the patriarchy of Athenian society in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Hermia should obey her father.

She should accept that she has no power in society because it is ruled by men.

As Egeus' daughter, she should follow his rules.

I'm going to read that again and what I would like you to do this time is I would like you to say the words that are in bold and a different colour for me please.

So I'm going to say the black and I'm going to pause and allow you to say those key words in those gaps.

So let's do that together.

So you can say it to your screen.

So due to the, of, in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Hermia should her father, she should accept that she has in society because it is.

As Egeus' daughter she should follow his.

Well done.

Sometimes it's really useful to say key words out loud.

It also helps us to remember them as well and not just reading them from the screen.

So we're going to pause for a moment.

What I would like you to do during that pause is I would like you to try to write out the paragraph that we've just looked at together.

So if you pause your video and try and write that down now for me, please.

All right, well done if you have managed to write the following.

Due to the patriarchy of Athenian society in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Hermia should obey her father.

She should accept that she has no power in society because it is ruled by men.

As Egeus' daughter she should follow his rules.

Well done, if you've got lots of those words correct.

Excellent, if you've managed to get all of them.

But we now need to think why is Egeus so full of vexation? So it's a new word.

Vexation.

I've put an image on the right hand side of your screen and hopefully you should see that that face looks quite angry.

Okay? Quite angry.

And.

Vexation is probably even more angry than the face on your screen right now.

If someone is vexed or full of vexation, they are really, really angry.

They're really annoyed.

They're really frustrated.

So Egeus is very angry.

He's very annoyed.

He's very frustrated.

And he says to Theseus, "Full of vexation come I, with complaint against my child." Notice even that language of "my child", she belongs to him.

We're going to come back to the idea.

Some of you might be starting to think, "Ah, that reminds me of patriarchy." We'll come back to the idea.

Well, let's have a look and try and understand why is Egeus so full of vexation? We're going to try and break that down.

So we're going to work our way down the screen at the moment.

So again, we start off with the question.

Why is Egeus so full of vexation? And we remember that Egeus has a daughter called Hermia.

Egeus has a daughter called Hermia.

Now these next two boxes, you'll notice there's two boxes and that's showing us this divide, this conflict between Egeus and Hermia.

Egeus wants one thing, Hermia wants something else.

So let's read the left blue box.

So Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius.

And the right hand box, Hermia wants to marry Lysander.

So look at the conflict, that's the conflict that we've got.

Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius.

So Hermia's father wants her to marry someone called Demetrius but the right hand side, Hermia wants to marry Lysander.

So she does not want to marry the man that her father has chosen.

And that takes us to our green box.

Hermia refuses to obey her father.

I've also put in the term patriarchy as well because if we remind ourselves about patriarchy, we remember that actually she has no power and she is expected to obey her father.

Not only because he's her father, but also because he is a man, as well.

And then that last pink box, Egeus complains to Theseus about the conflict.

So he's, Egeus is full of vexation because his daughter won't marry the person that he wants her to.

She is supposed to obey, so he complains to Theseus.

Remember it's Theseus' job to be the voice of law, to maintain order in Athens and that's why Egeus has gone to Theseus.

Right, I'd like you to pause your video, please and I would like you to explain to me why is Egeus so full of vexation? I've left some gaps for you.

You can follow your way down on the sentences.

Some of you might want to challenge yourselves a little bit further and you might want to add in your own additional sentences between the arrows or between the stages.

Some of you might even choose to write your first blue sentence, Egeus' wish and some of you might use words such as however, to bring in your sentence on the right hand side of what his daughter wants to do.

So pause your video when you are ready and see if you can write me out a paragraph on why is Egeus so full of vexation? So well done.

Well done, if you have got a paragraph together that uses the key words that are on your screen now.

Some of you might even have got some bonus ones really well done.

Always try and challenge yourself that little bit more.

And hopefully some of you have really pushed to try and talk about patriarchy as well and included that key word, conflict, at the bottom as well.

That idea of the argument between Egeus and his daughter, Hermia.

We're going to look now even more so at Egeus' complaint and we're going to look at what he says and what that really means.

So first before we can look at his language, we need to just have a quick recap.

So I'm going to ask you to answer the five or four questions, four questions that are up on your screen at the moment.

So you can pause your video if you wish to make sure that you have enough time to answer those in full sentences because if I said to you here is Egeus' daughter, I'm sure you would be able to give me a one word answer, but I would like you to pause your video, 'cause I'd like those answers in full sentences, being really careful with the spellings of characters names as well.

And number three has got a quotation in "full of vexation" so see if you can use a quotation in your answer as well.

So pause your video for me please because I'd like those in full sentences.

So let's have a look at these answers together then just to make sure that there are no misunderstandings before we truly tackle Egeus' specific complaint and the language that he uses, which isn't very nice.

Number one, Egeus' daughter is Hermia.

Putting Hermia on it's own is not a full sentence.

We need to make sure we use that nice, clear, full sentence.

Make sure you've got a G in Egeus as well.

Number two, there is patriarchy in ancient Athens.

Lowercase, a, capital- Sorry, lowercase "a" for ancient and capital "A" for Athens.

This means that the society is ruled by men.

Men enforce the rules and women have no power.

I've put all three of the things we talked about with patriarchy.

You might have just got one of them in or you might have put them together and summarised them.

Number three, Egeus is, quotation marks, "full of vexation" because Hermia will not marry Demetrius, the man he has chosen.

This creates conflicts.

So I've added that little bit extra on the end of that sentence.

I've used the word conflict.

You might have to see if you can add conflict to your answer as well.

And number four, Hermia wants to marry a different man, called Lysander.

We can see a picture of how many are in Lysander on the right hand side of your screen at the moment and the body language between those.

You can perhaps suggest that Hermia is quite upset, she's trying to be close to Lysander.

You can see that Lysander's body language seems quite sad as well because remember they can't be together because Egeus does not approve.

Let's look at Egeus' words then, his actual words that he uses.

Now, we've had an opportunity to recap a little bit of information about his character, we can look at the words that he uses, the words that Shakespeare writes for Egeus' character.

So, "And my gracious Duke, be it so she will not here before your grace consent to marry with Demetrius.

I beg the ancient privilege of Athens as she is mine I may dispose of her, which shall be either to this gentlemen or to her death, according to our law immediately provided in that case." So I've put two quotations in bold and in a different colour.

And we're going to have a look at what those quotations might suggest.

But whenever you hear Shakespearian language for the first time, remember you're not expected to understand every word that is said.

We're going to briefly talk you through this speech but don't panic on a first reading.

If you've grasped and understood about 10%, you're doing really, really well.

So let's just have a quick run through of this and then we'll look at the specific quotations that I've chosen.

So, "My gracious Duke", he compliments Theseus.

He's respecting his authority.

"Be it so she will not here before your grace consent to marry with Demetrius." So she doesn't consent, if she doesn't agree to marry Demetrius right here and agree to do it, not actually marry right there and then, but agree to, then he is asking for the law of Athens to allow him to dispose of her, to get rid of her, how he wants to because she belongs to him.

And Egeus literally says, Hermia's choices are as follows and Hermia in the image is the person on her knees.

You can see by the fact she's on her knees in the image, we can get the idea that she's quite desperate really.

And Egeus says, "Either to this gentleman" and this gentleman, he means Demetrius, "or to her death." So she literally has the choice.

She can either follow what Egeus says and marry Demetrius, or she can be killed because Egeus says, "According to our law" that's what the law says.

Because in ancient Athens, there was patriarchy, he was her father.

It is her job to obey her father's wishes, whatever they may be.

So we're going to look at, "She is mine I may dispose of her" as a quotation.

We're going to talk about what that might suggest because when we ever analyse Shakespeare, we always need to make sure we think, "Well it could suggest this or it could suggest that." so we try and give lots of ideas.

And what we're going to move towards in this lesson is you're going to have a go at writing your own paragraph.

So I'll talk you through all the key possible ideas that you could include.

I'll show you what an answer could look like.

And then I'll go back to those key ideas to allow you to have a go at writing your own paragraph.

And you can always flick onto the help paragraph if you need to.

So let's go through some of the key ideas that we could talk about with this quotation.

"She is mine I may dispose of her." Dispose almost sounds like rubbish, doesn't it? That you can get rid of her like rubbish.

So we could say that the way Egeus is talking about Hermia makes her sound like a possession, like he owns her.

"She is mine." And he treats her like an object, "I may dispose of her." "She is mine I may dispose of her." Sounds like a piece of rubbish.

This is my piece of rubbish so I will put it in the bin when I want to.

It's almost what it sounds like and that's a little bit sinister, isn't it? That's not a very nice thought that he can literally treat his daughter like an object and get rid of it whenever he wants to.

And if we want to advance that a little bit further, we can say that this changes the tone of the play.

So if you can talk about structure, the order that Shakespeare puts things in, in his play, that really allows you to analyse, to talk about the play at a much higher level.

So we can mention the fact that we've literally gone from Theseus, getting excited about a wedding with Hippolyta to Egeus forcing his daughter to marry Demetrius when she wants to be with Lysander.

And our next two bullet points talk about audience and audience is really important because remember back to when we talked about plays and novels, a play is designed to be performed to an audience.

We don't choose the pace.

It's the pace that's chosen by Shakespeare, by the actors and actresses performing Shakespeare's play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

So we always need to think about how the audience might react and I've split that into two different bullet points deliberately.

So let me explain why.

So I've said it would be shocking for a modern audience.

So a modern audience is us watching the play at the time that we're watching it.

So I've said that's quite shocking.

For a father to talk about his daughter, like an object and to be able to just get rid of it when he wants to, that's quite shocking for us to hear.

We wouldn't expect a father to act like that nowadays because there are more laws and rules in place of how a father can act towards a daughter and how people can act towards each other.

However, that next bullet point, not shocking for an Elizabethan audience.

So remember Elizabethan audience are the people watching the play in Shakespeare's time, not in ancient Athens, that was 2000 years before Shakespeare, but not shocking for an Elizabethan audience, the people watching the play when it was performed in Shakespeare's time.

And we can remind ourselves of those dates very quickly, as well, our years.

So Queen Elizabeth the First, remember, who the Elizabethan Era was named after, was on the throne from 1558 until 1603 and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written in 1595.

So it's the audience sitting watching the play at the time and they wouldn't find it shocking.

And the reason why they wouldn't find it shocking because there was still patriarchy in Elizabethan society.

So in Elizabethan society, there was still the expectation that daughters would obey their fathers, women would obey men, men were in charge and women had no power.

Those same rules applied.

So actually for an Elizabethan audience, they're going to be on Egeus' side because they'll think, "Actually Hermia should do what she's told, she should obey her father." But for us as a modern audience, we're more likely to side with Hermia and think that Egeus is been really unfair, not letting his daughter marry the person that she wants to marry.

And what we'll come on to learn in later lessons is the actually Demetrius and Lysander are both very equal.

They're both very equal with their status.

They're both equal with their wealth.

It's just the fact that Hermia has chosen Lysander and Egeus has chosen Demetrius.

And I've put that extra quotation at the bottom, "Either to this gentleman", remember this gentleman is Demetrius because that's who Egeus has chosen, "Or to her death." So her choice is, agree to marry Demetrius or die.

They are her options.

It's a little bit limited, isn't it? So, let's have a look then how we could write that as a paragraph.

And I've split this over two slides, so you can read it nice and clearly and I've put the quotation in pink that we said we were going to use.

And in purple, you'll have to forgive my colour choices, if they're not quite what they look like to you.

I'm going to say the purple-blue colour is some of the ideas from the bullet points that we've just looked at.

So you can see how I've put those into the paragraph all the way through.

And I've shown off with some little extra bits and you might be able to do the same in your paragraph.

So let's read this through together then.

So Shakespeare shows that Egeus treats his daughter like an object when it says, "she is mine I may dispose of her".

This suggests that she is a possession which he can get rid of really easily.

And remember that idea of getting rid of her really easily, just like an object.

This changes the tone of the play and sounds quite sinister.

If you wanted to show off more there you could talk about Theseus and Hippolyta and how they were- You know, Theseus was excited about the wedding and now we're getting a forced marriage been shown to us.

Shakespeare might have done this to show how the setting is strict and severe.

And that's using some of the vocabulary that we looked at earlier in this lesson and in previous lessons as well.

Continue.

For a modern audience, this would seem really shocking that a father would talk like this about their daughter, but an Elizabethan audience would agree with Egeus.

They would think that Hermia should obey her father because he does own her.

This is because they support patriarchy, patriarchy, sorry, so the threat of "death" is fair.

And I've just added that little reference to death in quotation marks just so I've shown off that I've used that second quotation that we had before.

So we're going to pause in a moment.

We're going to take a pause point and what I would like you to try to do is to write a paragraph about the pink quotation at the top of your screen.

I've listed all the bullet points we've started off with and you've got that bonus quotation at the bottom as well.

I'm going to suggest that you write your paragraph by using what is on the screen at the moment, those key bullet points but don't forget while you're writing, if you begin to struggle or you can't think how to phrase something then please go back to the last two slides where I gave you that example paragraph as well.

So if you'd like to pause your video and have a go at writing your analytical paragraph, please.

If you'd like to, you can go back and check those model paragraphs against your own but well done.

Writing analytical paragraphs about Shakespeare, huge amount of detail and talking about the audience.

So that brings us to the end of today's learning on conflict and patriarchy.

Well done today.

Some really impressive work.

You should have a real sense of achievement after your writing today and the paragraphs that you've been able to complete so well done.

Thank you very much.

Enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy the rest of your learning.

Thank you very much.