Lesson video

Hello and welcome to this lesson about Theseus and Athens.

Today, you will need a pen and you will need some paper or something to write on.

So don't forget to clear away any distractions that you might have, any tabs you might have open on your computer, any chats you might have running, any notifications.

Clear away all those distractions.

Make sure you got a lovely quiet space where you can concentrate fully on today's learning and when you are ready, let's begin.

We're going to begin our learning today by looking at Athens.

On your screen, you will see a picture of Ancient Greece and in that image, you may be able to see Athens written in capital letters.

That's because Athens is the capital of Greece.

On your screen now, you will see a picture of what ancient Athens would have looked like at the time "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was set.

When we think about the Ancient Greeks, we have to remember that Shakespeare learned about the Ancient Greeks and Romans whilst he was at school.

And that this was about 2,000 years before Shakespeare and Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616.

So he's writing about a time that was around 2,000 years before he was even alive.

And it's particularly important for our play because ancient Athens is the setting of "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Let's see if we can now remember some of this information.

So on your screen, you will see some sentences with some missing spaces.

If you'd like to pause your video and write down those sentences, those three pieces of key information.

So let's check our answers for those sentences.

So, for our first sentence.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is set in ancient Athens.

And it's important to remember, it's not set in the same time that Shakespeare was writing.

Our second sentence.

This was about 2,000 years before Shakespeare was alive.

And our final sentence.

Shakespeare's plays were performed to an Elizabethan audience.

That really important piece of information that we looked at in our previous lesson.

And if you remember, it was called the Elizabethan audience because Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne whilst Shakespeare wrote "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Some of you might even be able to remember that "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written in 1595.

Some of you might be able to show off even more and remember that Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne from 1558 until 1603.

So, let's test ourselves again then.

So, when was "A Midsummer Night's Dream" set? Make sure that last word is checked really carefully.

When was it set? Well done if you put ancient Athens.

It couldn't be option one because option one was when Shakespeare was born.

Option three was the time when the play was written and option four, 1595, was the year that "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written.

So, ancient Athens in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

what we need to know is we need to understand what kind of place ancient Athens was in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

And there are three key ideas that we need to try and remember when we think about where the play was set.

So, we have severe.

If something is severe, it's really, really horrible.

Really, really nasty.

You might have a severe punishment, for example.

A really, really bad punishment for something you've done.

Ordered.

Ancient Athens in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was an ordered place.

That means there were lots of rules and those rules have to be followed because if you did not follow the rules in ancient Athens where "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was set, there were very harsh punishments, really, really horrible ones.

And some of the punishments that would have happened in ancient Athens were things such as people were trapped inside of bronze bull, criminals, people were put inside of bronze bull and then a fire was lit underneath the bull.

Really, really cruel.

You can see, therefore, really, really severe, really, really harsh.

So it was always best to follow the rules in ancient Athens.

So now we know where our play is set, we need to think about one of our key characters, Theseus.

So Theseus is one of our key characters.

He's actually the first character to speak in the play as well.

So on the right hand side, you can see an image and that image has Theseus who is the person sitting in what looks like a throne, the high up chair.

And then we can see that there are some other characters talking to Theseus.

That's because Theseus is that duke of Athens.

The duke of Athens.

That means he's the person in charge of Athens.

He is the voice of law in ancient Athens in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

That means what he decides has to happen.

He is the voice of law.

The only person above Theseus is God.

But Theseus is the person who carries out all the laws, he's the one that keeps order, he keeps control.

So we can say that Theseus maintains order in Athens.

You can imagine what would happen in a society if nobody was in charge enforcing the rules.

And that's Theseus's job in the play in ancient Athens.

And therefore, he has authority.

Authority.

That means he has the power to tell people what to do and people are supposed to listen to him.

So we can say Theseus is the duke of Athens.

He is the voice of law, his voice is law.

Nobody can argue with him.

He maintains order in Athens.

He's the person who makes sure that the rules are followed.

He sets the rules, he decides what they are and he makes sure that they happen as well.

And he has authority.

He has power, he's in charge.

Well let's pause.

Let's see if we can complete these sentences.

If you'd like to pause your video now and see if you can write down these sentences about Theseus.

So let's have a look at our answers together then.

So, we can say Theseus is the duke of Athens.

He is the voice of law.

It is his duty to maintain order in Athens.

He has authority over the citizens.

The citizens, the people who are living in Athens.

You see a word on your screen now, Athenians.

Athenians.

The people who lived in ancient Athens were called Athenians.

So we can go beyond just calling them people or citizens, we can name them by the place that they live.

They live in ancient Athens so they are called Athenians.

So let's test ourselves now with some of these key points that we've looked at so far today about Athens and Theseus.

So what do we know about ancient Athens? Life in Athens was strict or life in Athens was all about freedom? Have a quick think.

Excellent if you put strict.

Because then you're reminding yourself of those three key points we had before.

The fact that it was severe, it was ordered and there were harsh punishments.

All those things together don't mention freedom at all.

So strict, that is our correct answer.

Look at the next one.

So what do we know about ancient Athens? If an Athenian doesn't follow the rules of Athens, they will have harsh punishments or no punishment? Have a think about what we've just said on our previous sentence.

Well done if you put harsh punishments.

If an Athenian doesn't follow the rules of Athens, they will have harsh punishments.

Look at the next one.

What do we know about Theseus? Theseus is the king of Athens or Theseus is the duke of Athens? Be really careful here because king and duke both suggest that he could be in charge but only one of them is correct.

Excellent if you put duke of Athens.

Theseus is the duke of Athens.

Next one.

In the play, Theseus's voice as the duke of Athens is law or is unimportant? Have a think.

Law.

Remember, his voice is law.

That's what we had before so well done if you put law.

So our sentence then reads in the play, Theseus's voice as the duke of Athens is law.

No one can argue with him.

Remember the only person above Theseus is God.

Let's look a little bit more a Theseus then.

So, Theseus is the first character to speak in the play.

He has just returned from war and he is eager for his wedding with Hippolyta.

So he's the first character to speak, just returned from war and he's eager for his wedding with Hippolyta.

So let's look at that key information now then.

So we're in our pause point.

We're going to think about our three key points down the left hand side.

The first character to speak returned from war and eager for his wedding.

What you now think about, on our right hand side, we have some key sentences.

Shakespeare could be suggesting that love is important to Theseus.

Shakespeare could be suggesting that Theseus is important and powerful and Shakespeare could be suggesting that Theseus is strong and brave.

So we need to think which sentence on the right hand side matches with the idea on the left hand side.

So let's look at the first one.

The first character to speak.

What does that suggest about Theseus's character? Does it suggest that love is important? Does it suggest that Theseus is important and powerful? Or does it suggest that Theseus is strong and brave? Have a think.

The first one, it would make sense to say that Shakespeare could be suggesting that Theseus is important and powerful.

That's because he's the first character to speak.

He dominates the start of the play.

He's the first character, therefore, the start of the play is all about him.

So that could be Shakespeare's way of suggesting that he's important and powerful.

Because remember, he's the duke of Athens, the man in charge of Athens.

So look at the second one then.

Returned from war.

So, to put with that one, we could say Shakespeare could be suggesting that Theseus is strong and brave.

So Shakespeare is telling us right from the start of the play that Theseus has returned from the war.

And the fact that he's come back from war and the fact that he survived as well could be Shakespeare's wife suggesting that Theseus is strong and brave.

Then that only gives us one option left for our last one but let's work out how we can explain that and make sure that's really clear.

So our third idea that Theseus is eager for his wedding.

So we could say Shakespeare could be suggesting that love is important to Theseus because he can't wait to get married to Hippolyta.

So, his love could be seen as important to Theseus.

But if we're going to take those three key ideas about Theseus, that he could be seen to be strong and brave, that it could be seen that love is important to him and that he seems eager to marry Hippolyta, we need to look at some of the words that Theseus uses at the start of the play to suggest some of these ideas that we've just looked at.

So, we have looked so far, Shakespeare, could be suggested that love is important to Theseus because, look at the three options.

Theseus is the first character to speak in the play.

He's just returned from war.

He's eager for his wedding with Hippolyta.

Say your correct answer to the screen now.

Well done if you've said he is eager for his wedding with Hippolyta.

So we're going to look at this one in more detail.

We're going to look at Theseus's words, Theseus's language to see how we can explain this a little bit further.

I would have said he's eager for his wedding with Hippolyta.

That's what we've said is our answer.

So let's look at Theseus's words.

This is Theseus's opening lines at the start of the play.

Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour draws on apace.

Four happy days bring in another moon but, oh, methinks how slow this old moon wanes! She lingers my desires, like to a stepdame or a dowager, long withering out a young man's revenue.

They're the opening words that Theseus uses at the start of the play.

And remember that we focus our idea that love is important to Theseus because he can't wait to marry Hippolyta.

He wants the wedding to happen even sooner.

And that's what he's saying in these words here.

Our nuptial hour.

The idea of nuptial, the idea of a wedding coming together.

And he can't wait for the time to come.

Four happy days bringing another moon.

So he's got to wait four days and he can't cope.

He says, "How slow this old moon wanes!" You can even hear from the words there and how I've said them particularly that he shows that these days of dragging on and on and it feels like forever it's going to pass before he can marry the person he wants to be with.

She lingers my desires.

he's blaming the moon, she's taken too long.

She's making his desire wait and want to marry Hippolyta.

And the moon's making him wait longer and longer.

And that last little bit, that little bit at the end, like to a stepdame or a dowager, long withering out a young man's revenue, sounds a little bit like he's talking about money at that point.

The idea that this wedding is a little bit like waiting for your money to arrive.

But we're going to focus particularly on the start of this speech of Theseus at the start of the play.

And we're going to look at certain phrases.

Now, first was nuptial hour.

So this first phrase tells us that the start of the play, Theseus is focused on his marriage, his upcoming wedding to Hippolyta.

And another two quotations that we're going to look at are how slow this old moon wanes and lingers my desires.

And remember, those two phrases, remember what I've said that those phrases show how slow time is passing and how eager Theseus is to marry Hippolyta.

So we're going back to our original sentence now.

And our original sentence said that Shakespeare could be suggesting that love is important to Theseus because he's eager for his wedding with Hippolyta.

That was our original sentence that we started off with.

We're now going to see if we can improve that answer further.

And we're going to do that by trying to add some key quotations into our ideas.

So our original sentence to repeat again.

Shakespeare could be suggesting that love is important to Theseus because he is eager for his wedding with Hippolyta.

Into that answer, we're going to try and include nuptial hour and how slow this old moon wanes and lingers my desires.

So we're going to try and use some quotations, some words or phrases copied from the text from "A Midsummer Night's Dream", to help support our answer.

Let's look what a good answer would look like.

We're going to try for more but we're going to start off with a good answer first.

A good answer could say Shakespeare could be suggesting that love is important to Theseus because he's eager for his wedding with Hippolyta.

Theseus's first words in the play are about his nuptial hour which shows the audience he's thinking about Hippolyta.

Theseus also seems really impatient when he says how slow the old moon wanes, suggesting time is moving too slowly and lingers making him wait too long to marry Hippolyta.

So that's what a good answer would look like and you can see from the three different colours that we've got off three ingredients that we wanted to include in our answer.

But we can make this answer even better.

So an even better answer.

And what you'll notice is that these three key ingredients that we want to include in our answer don't all have to come in the same order.

So what I've done this time is I have moved around the ideas and the paragraph a little bit and I've put some extra phrases in.

So we'll start off by reading it through together and then I'll explain how this is better.

Hopefully, while you're listening, you'll be able to think, ah, that's a little bit better than before because that phrase has been used or that word has been used.

So Shakespeare could be suggesting that love is important to Theseus because Theseus's first words in the play are about his nuptial hour, which shows the audience he is eager for his wedding with Hippolyta.

He is so eager that he complains about how slow the old moon wanes suggesting time is moving too slowly.

His impatience is emphasised when Shakespeare writes, lingers my desires.

Now, you can see that that answer, hopefully, is better than the first one and it's particularly better because what it's done is where our quotation is added, our first quotation, that's been built into the pink section of our writing.

So we've brought in that example from the text that little bit sooner.

So we haven't just said because he's eager for his wedding, we've given the example of the quotation from the text before we even finish off that sentence.

And towards the end of this answer, it says his impatience is emphasised when Shakespeare writes.

So let's break that sentence down.

So impatience is when you just can't wait for something to happen and you get a little bit annoyed that it's not happening when it should, if something's not happening very quickly.

And for Theseus, it's his wedding.

He can't wait that long.

You might be impatient on Christmas Eve, for example, because you can't wait the Christmas Day.

You might be impatient when you're waiting for something nice to happen or you're going to see a friend and it seems like ages away and it's a little bit frustrating.

We've got our keywords beginning with E in that sentence.

Emphasised.

That's if we emphasise something, that's when a writer makes something more obvious, it makes it stand out.

I might emphasise a word in the way I speak.

I might say that word a little bit louder, I might say that word a little bit slower.

I might emphasise an idea by using a bigger font or bold.

That's how we most commonly it but emphasise in writing is when the writer makes an idea more obvious.

Emphasised when Shakespeare writes, lingers my desires.

And that's, therefore, saying that the idea of lingers my desires is another example of how Theseus can't wait for time to pass so he can marry the woman that he wants to be with.

So what I'm going to ask you to do now is I'm going to ask you to pause the video in a moment and when you pause the video, I'd like you to keep your screen on.

The screen that it's on at the moment, write in an answer because on this screen, I've put in the three key ingredients that I'd like you to try and include in your answer.

They're the ones that we've just talked about in those two examples that we've looked at.

So our first one.

Shakespeare could be suggesting that love is important to Theseus because, see if you can finish off that sentence.

We then got our two key quotations.

Nuptial hour and how slow this old moon wanes.

So how slow the moon changes and lingers my desires that it's making his desire hang around for ages when all he wants to do is marry Hippolyta.

Remember, for a good answer, we can follow each of these steps.

So we can start off with the first box, we can go onto the second and we can add in the third.

But remember what I did for an even better answer.

An even better answer added a quotation nuptial hour and even sooner.

And don't forget that idea of Shakespeare emphasises, see if you can get that phrase into your answer as well.

So when you're ready, pause the video and I would like you to have a go at writing your own answer using all three boxes on your screen.

Off you go.

So now that you've written your answer, I'm going to show you again that even better answer that we had before.

So I'm going to read through this for you one more time and think about your paragraph, think about this piece of writing and please feel free to make any improvements on your own that you'd like to.

But just remember, the one on your screen at the moment as an example, it doesn't mean yours has to read exactly the same way but see if you can make sure you've included some of those key ideas and phrases that this answer uses.

So Shakespeare could be suggesting that love is important to Theseus because Theseus's first words in play are about his nuptial hour, which shows the audience he's eager for his wedding with Hippolyta.

He is so eager that he complains about how slow the old moon wanes suggesting time is moving too slowly.

His patience is emphasised when Shakespeare writes, lingers my desires.

So that brings us to the end of today's learning on Theseus and Athens.

Well done, really well done.

We have covered a lot of information today.

We've learned loads.

We've literally looked at the setting of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", we've looked at a character and we have looked at how to write about Shakespearean ideas.

Wow, well done.

Really have worked hard today.

If you would like to, ask your parents or carers to take some pictures of your work and you could send them, ask them to send them to your teachers for you and I'm sure your teachers would be incredibly impressed and very, very proud of what you've learned today.

You might also ask your parents and carers if they are able to share your work at Oak National on Twitter and that then allows me to be able to have a look at your work as well so I can see all the fantastic achievements that you have made today.

So, final words for me.

Thank you very much, well done, wow and enjoy the rest of your day.