Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to the Oak National Academy for English.

My name is Mr. James and in today's lesson, we're going to complete our final in a short unit on an Introduction to Tragedy.

So let's have a quick look at what we're going to learn in today's lesson.

Well, first of all, we're going to learn about Freytag's pyramid.

Second of all, we're going to learn about Julius Caesar, and how he fits into Freytag's pyramid.

Thirdly, we're going to learn and look a bit more at the tragic hero.

Fourthly, we're going to look at the reversal of fortune, something called the reversal of fortune.

And fifth you're going to do a quiz at the end of the lesson.

But before we get started, let's make sure you have all the correct equipment.

So firstly, make sure you've got a pen.

Secondly, make sure you've got some paper.

And thirdly, make sure you have brought your brain.

Now, if you're missing of these things, pause the video now, go and get them and then come back when you are ready.

Okay, welcome back.

So now you've got your equipment.

The first thing I would like you to do is, to write today's title.

It's on the screen now.

So take your pen, write the title, pause the video and come back when you are done.

Okay, so let's begin by looking at Freytag's pyramid.

Now, Freytag's pyramid, looks like this.

And Freytag's pyramid is a way of describing what happens in a tragedy.

So let's run through this really quickly.

On the left hand side, you can see it begins with something called the exposition.

And this is simply the introduction to the story.

Now, as the story moves forward, you can see the pyramid starts to rise.

It goes up and it's called the rising action.

This is the part of the story when things are becoming more exciting and as the rising action continues, as you see it goes to the top of the peak of the pyramid, which is called the climax.

Now, the climax is the most exciting moment in the story.

But as soon as that's happened, you can see this pyramid starts to go down again, and we get the falling action.

Now, the falling action is the moment where things start to go wrong for the tragic hero.

And now that goes down, down, down, and we end up with something called the denouement.

And the denouement is the moment at which the tragic hero dies or something terrible happens to them.

So this is at the bottom of the pyramid.

And that roughly describes the structure that happens in most tragedies.

So here's another version of the pyramid, with some slightly more easy to understand language.

It begins with introduction, story starts, then the story rises, it gets more exciting.

It reaches the climax, the story reaches the climax, the most exciting point.

Then the story gets worse for the tragic hero.

Things start to go badly for them.

So there's a return or fall or downfall we could say.

And the story ends in catastrophe, death destruction or something terrible for the tragic hero.

But we're going to stick with the language we used first, the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement.

Now, as you can see here, Shakespeare tragedies are always split into 5'acts'.

Now, it's important to know that Shakespeare himself didn't split these stories into acts.

They were done later by people who published his plays.

They split the plays into the 5 'acts'.

But that doesn't make too much difference for our structure here.

Now, think of an act as like a chapter in a book, and Shakespeare's 5 acts do fit nicely alongside the five parts of Freytag's pyramid.

You can see there's 5 acts in Shakespeare plays, and five parts to the pyramid.

And these two things actually fit together quite nicely.

So let's look Act 1 in a tragedy, is the exposition and it introduces or exposes a plot and it sets the scene.

We meet the main characters, find out where the play is happening, and we roughly get an idea of what is going to happen in the play.

We don't know exactly what's going to happen, but we get an idea of what kind of story we're watching and the kinds of things that might happen.

So Act 1, the exposition, it introduces the plot or it exposes the plot.

Now, let's have a look at this in terms of Shakespeare play, "Julius Caesar." So in Act 1, being the exposition, the citizens of Rome, celebrate Caesar's victories in war.

That's one thing that's going on at the beginning.

However, two characters, one called Cassius, and one called Brutus.

They worry that Caesar is becoming too powerful and they conspire to assassinate him, okay? That's the main things that happen in the exposition Act 1 of "Julius Caesar".

The people in Rome, because this is setting Roman in times are celebrating Julius Caesar's military victories, his victory and war, but there's another couple of characters called Cassius and Brutus who think Caesar's becoming too powerful and they think we should assassinate him.

So you can see here how the story is being introduced.

And we kind of roughly know what sort of story this is going to be.

And once we've had that information, we can say the play is now been introduced and we'll move on to Act 2, the rising action.

So Act 2 increases the tension.

The rising action increases the tension.

The conflict is often increased and the audience can see something bad or exciting is soon going to happen.

So let's have a look at what that looks like in Act 2 of Julius Caesar.

So the conspirators in Act 2 finalise their plans to assassinate Caesar.

So we can see this is coming.

This assassination is coming.

Things are getting more exciting.

Calpurnia, Ceasar's wife dreams that Ceasar will be murdered.

She tries to Caesar to stay at home, but he ignores her.

Again, we can see things are getting more exciting, because the plans have been finalised from the conspirators, from Brutus and Cassius to assassinate Caesar.

And his wife is telling him not to go out because she's dreamed he will be assassinated, and we know she's right, but Caesar chooses to go anyway.

So things are getting more exciting, the tension is now increasing.

So then we move on to Act 3, which is the climax.

And the climax is the moment of greatest tension.

It's also the turning point.

The tragic hero will do to something from which he cannot return.

So let's have a look at what happens in the climax of "Julius Caesar".

Well, the conspirators do assassinate Caesar at the climax.

And this is the moment of greatest tension in the play, when Caesar gets assassinated.

Now, Brutus, the tragic hero has done something from which he cannot return, because he's joined the assassination of Caesar and this is going to cause his downfall.

So he's done something from which he can't return.

And Antony, Caesar's friend gives a speech against Brutus.

During his time, after the conspirators assassinate Caesar.

Caesar's friend, Anthony gives a speech to the citizens of Rome to say, "Look, this was really bad.

"They shouldn't have done this.

"It was wrong to assassinate Caesar." Now that seems obvious, but the conspirators actually believed they were doing something that was right because Caesar was becoming too powerful.

So the climax is the moment of greatest tension.

Caesar gets assassinated, and a tragic hero, Brutus, his things start to go bad for him because Anthony turns citizens of Rome against him.

So things have now turned against Brutus.

Then we get on to Act 4, the falling action.

And Act 4 is where we see the tragic hero start to struggle.

Things get worse for the tragic hero.

And he begins his downfall, things start to get worse for him.

So in Act 4 of Julius Caesar, Anthony raises an army against Brutus and the conspirators.

So you can see that things are getting worse.

Certainly, they assassinated Caesar, tried to get away with it, but someone has now raised an army against them.

So Brutus, he prepares for war, but argues with the other conspirators.

So he's preparing for war, things are getting bad.

He wasn't expecting to have to go to war.

And not only that, he starts falling out with the other conspirators, the other people who assassinated Caesar.

So things are definitely getting worse here for Brutus.

And then we move on to Act 5, the denouement.

Now, Act 5 or the denouement is the resolution of the story.

It's where everything's tied up at the end, so the tragic hero usually dies or faces some other terrible fate.

And it's the end or the resolution of the story.

So the denouement in "Julius Caesar", Brutus is army is defeated and Brutus kills himself, so that he has not captured.

The tragic hero is now dead, that's Brutus.

And the story is resolved and that's the end of the story.

So the denouement is simply the end, is everything we've been working towards, the end of the downfall for the tragic era.

So what I would like you to do now is, take your pen and rearrange these stages, so they're in the correct order.

This is one exposition, two denouement, three falling action, four climax and five rising action.

We've just been through these stages, but here on the screen, they're in the incorrect order.

What I would like you to do is, pause the video, place them one, two, three, four, five in the correct order.

And come back to me when you are done, off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a look at the correct answer and it is one, the exposition that introduces the plot.

Number two, the rising action, things get more exciting, more tense.

Number three, the climax, the moment of greatest tension, number four, the falling action, where things start to go wrong for the tragic hero and number five, the denouement, the resolution, or the end of the story where the tragic hero dies or faces some kind of terrible fate.

So hopefully you got those all correct.

But if you didn't perhaps update them on your work now.

Okay, moving on.

What I would now like you to do is, match the stage to the correct definition.

So you can see we've got one exposition and on the right, you've got A, moment of greatest tension.

Those two things don't go together.

So I want you to match the stage with the correct definition of the stage on your paper.

Pause the video, do that now and come back when you're completed and I'll show you the correct answers.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a look at the correct answers.

Well, one exposition should have gone with C, the plot is introduced.

Number two, rising action should go with B, the tension increases.

Number three, the climax should've gone with A, the moment of greatest tension.

Number four, the falling action, should go with E, the tragic hero struggles, and number five, the denouement, there is D story gets resolved.

So hopefully, you've got all those correct.

But if you didn't, you can pause the video now, and you can update your answer so it matches what is on screen.

Okay, let's move on.

What I would like you to do this time is, match the correct stage to the correct plot point in "Julius Caesar".

So same thing apart from this time, instead of definitions, you've got plot points, for "Julius Caesar".

So which plot point is the exposition? Which is the rising action? Which is a climax, et cetera.

So pause the video, complete this task and come back when you are done.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a look at the correct answer, and hopefully you've got something like this.

Number one, exposition should go with B, Brutus and Cassius plot against Caesar.

Number two, the rising action goes with C, Brutus and Cassius finalise that plot.

Number three, the climax should go with A, Brutus and Cassius assassinate Caesar.

Number four, the falling action goes with E, Anthony raises an army against Brutus, and number five, the denouement is D, Brutus kills himself.

So again, hopefully you got all that right.

But if you didn't, you can pause the video now to update your answer.

Okay, let's move on.

So next up, we're going to have a look at the tragic hero and something called the reversal of fortune.

So a key element in a tragedy, is the tragic heroes reversal of fortune.

And this is sometimes called the peripeteia, but don't worry too much about that.

Now, it's important to make sure we're aware of what the reversal of fortune is.

Now, the reversal of fortune is the section of a tragedy play, where things go wrong for the tragic hero.

So essentially, the reversal of fortune is mainly that downward slide in Freytag's pyramid, is the times when things are going wrong for the tragic hero.

And we call it the reversal of fortune because for the first half of the play, roughly, things seem to be going well for the tragic hero.

But in the second half, they don't seem to be going so well, because the tragic hero has made some kind of error or there's some kind of flaw in their personality that leads them to do something that causes that downfall and death ultimately.

And that the focus of that is mainly the second half of the play.

So the reversal of fortune usually begins shortly after the climax.

It usually begins shortly after the climax.

You can see the climax highlighted here on the diagram.

Things get worse for the tragic hero throughout the falling action.

So that's why you've got the falling section of the pyramid.

Things are going down like getting worse.

And the reversal of fortune is completed when the tragic hero dies or serves as a terrible fate in the denouement because things have started to go bad for them.

And they finished going bad at the moment where the tragic hero dies or suffers that terrible fate at the end in the denouement.

Now, so we're going to have a look at the reversal of fortune in "Julius Caesar" and how it works.

So Brutus' reversal of fortune, remember Brutus' is a tragic hero.

Brutus' is reversal of fortune begins when Anthony gives a speech to the citizens of Rome.

And so Brutus has just assassinated Caesar.

And that's an action from which he can't return, he can't take that back, and then Ceasar's friend Anthony gives a speech to the citizens of Rome, and that speech turns the citizens of Rome against Brutus.

And when the citizens of Rome turn against Brutus, that's when things start to go bad for him.

So that's when his reversal fortune begins.

And this happened shortly after the climax, which as I said, is the moment where Brutus and the other conspirators assassinate Caesar.

So Anthony convinces the citizens of Rome that what Brutus did was wrong, and that begins his downfall.

So that's the beginning of the reversal of fortune.

Now, we move on to the falling action.

This is the downward portion of the pyramid on the right.

Anthony raises an army against Brutus, so we can see things are getting worse.

Can't we? Things are now getting worse for Brutus.

So his reversal of fortunes getting worse.

This is in the falling action stage, and things as we've said are getting worse.

So after that in "Julius Caesar", we reached the denouement.

And at the denouement, Anthony defeats Brutus or Anthony's army defeats Brutus' army.

and Brutus kills himself.

So now that downward slide is complete in the denouement.

So his downfall and reversal of fortune are complete.

And we could say the story is resolved.

So that's how it works in "Julius Caesar".

And now we're going to have a look at it in "Oedipus Rex", which is the story we looked at last lesson.

So Oedipus's reversal of fortune begins when the messenger informs Oedipus that he is adopted.

Oedipus realises he's killed his father and marries his mother and Jacosta kills herself and Oedipus blinds himself using her broach.

So we can see how these three events, follow the same structure.

The reversal of fortune begins.

That's just after the climax, when the messenger informs Oedipus that he is adopted, then things get worse.

We get the downward slide.

Oedipus realises he has killed his father and married his mother.

And we get the denouement at the end.

Jacosta kills herself, that's his wife, and Oedipus takes her broach and uses it to stop himself in the eyes and blinds himself.

That's the denouement, a terrible fate has happened to him and his downfall is complete.

So here's another example in "Macbeth", under the play by Shakespeare.

Macbeth's to reversal of fortune begins when Banquo was assassinated, but Fleance escaped.

Remember again, we looked at "Macbeth" last lesson.

So his reversal of fortune begins when he assassinates Banquo but Bunquo's son, Fleance escapes.

He hasn't managed to assassinate everyone he needs to.

This leads to Macbeth's visions and paranoia, and leads to his reign of terror.

He kills many including Macduff's families.

So things are getting worse, he's becoming paranoid.

And he's also doing things that are turning people against him.

So things are getting worse for Macbeth.

And eventually lots of people turn against Macbeth and he is defeated and he dies, so his downfall is complete and his death has been achieved in the story.

So what I would like you to do is copy and complete this paragraph.

So there's some missing word along the way, but all the missing words you need are at the bottom of the screen in bold.

So pause the video now, write out this paragraph, filling in the gaps with the missing words at the bottom of the screen.

When you're done, come back to me and we can continue.

Off you go.

Okay, then guys, welcome back.

So let's have a look at what you should have written and it should read like this.

The reversal of fortune usually begins shortly after the climax.

In "Julius Caesar", for example, Anthony gives a speech just after Caesar has been assassinated, which is the climax that turns to citizens of Rome against Brutus.

Things start to get worse for Brutus, the tragic hero during the falling action.

When Anthony raises an army to fight against him, when Brutus has kills himself in the denouement, the story is resolved because his downfall and reversal of fortune are complete.

And if you've got all those right, I'm really impressed because that's quite tricky and you can give yourself a little pat on the back.

Right, what we're going to do now is, we're going to move on to some questions before the end of the lesson.

So keep your eyes on the screen.

And the first one says, is this order correct? Is the order here correct? Or is there a mistake? I was going to give you about 10 seconds to read it.

So you can think about it and make your choice.

Is it correct? Yes or no.

Okay, three, two, one.

And the order is not correct, because falling action and rising action are in the wrong places.

Look we got exposition then falling action.

But it should be rising action.

This is what it should look like.

Exposition first, rising action, then climax, then falling action, then the denouement.

So here's the second question.

What do we call the moment of greatest tension in a tragedy? So one of the five sections, what do we call the moment of greatest tension in a tragedy? So say the name in your head to yourself now, say it your head.

And hopefully you are saying climax.

Yes, we call the moment of greatest tension in a tragedy the climax.

So next question just says, what is the denouement? What's the denouement? Is it A, the part of the introduces the plot? Or B, is it the part that resolves the plot? I'll give you five seconds to make your choice.

What's the denouement? Okay, hopefully you chose denouement is the moment that resolves the plot.

Yes, the denouement is at the end of the play and resolves a plot.

Next question says, what is the exposition? The exposition.

Now, does the exposition introduce the plot or does it resolve the plot? You've got five seconds to make your choice.

And the exposition does introduce the plot.

Hopefully you got that one correct as well.

Well done if you did.

Next question, is the denouement at the beginning or the end ? Is the denouement at the beginning or the end? Five seconds to make your choice.

And the denomination is at the end of the play.

Yes, because it resolves the plot, it completes the plot.

It sorts everything out.

So it must be at the end of the play.

Again, I'm sure you got that right.

Well done.

Is the exposition at the beginning or the end of the play? What you're saying? Exposition, beginning or the end? And hopefully you chose that the exposition is at the beginning of the story or the plot.

Yes, because it introduces the story, it exposes the plot.

That's why we call it the exposition.

Next question says, when does the reversal of fortune usually begin? When does the reversal of fortune usually begin? In which stage? Say the stage in your head now.

Say the point of the plot.

When does the reverse of fortune usually begin? And hopefully the word you are saying is, shortly after the climax.

Yes, it usually begins in the climax or shortly after the climax.

So if you've got that well done.

Next up, it says what happens to the tragic hero during the falling action? You've got two choices.

Number one, he dies, or number two, things get worse.

And what happens to the tragic hero in the falling action? He dies or the things for him get worse.

Few seconds make your choice.

And hopefully you chose the answer, that things get worse.

Yes, because he doesn't die in the falling action.

He dies in the denouement.

So during the falling action, things are getting worse for him.

That's why we say there falling.

Okay, now guys, we're onto the final question.

And that question says, what happened to the tragic hero during the denouement? Now you have two options.

The first one says, his reversal of fortune is completed.

He dies or suffers a terrible fate.

And the second option says, things get worse.

He has sustained someone important, and people come after him.

So which one is correct? What happens to the tragic hero during the denouement? Option one or option two? About five seconds to make your choice.

Okay, and hopefully you chose option one.

Yes, that is the correct answer.

During the denouement, his reversal of fortune is completed.

He dies or suffers a terrible fate.

So that's the end of today's lesson guys.

And indeed the end of this short unit on an Introduction to Tragedy.

Hopefully, you'll join me for the unit on "Julius Caesar", it begins next.

But if not, it's been a real pleasure.

I'm privileged to teach you for these three lessons.

Now, the only thing that I need to remind you to do is, today's quiz, and you'll find the button to do the quiz near the bottom of the screen.

It's really important to do the quiz because it helps you consolidate everything you've learned in today's lesson, as well as reminding you of all the great stuff you have learned.

So do that next, and there is just one more thing for me to remind you of, and that is that if you would like to share your work with Oak National, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging in at Oak National and hashtag Learn with Oak.

Now, that's it from me guys.

You've done it really well today, as you always do.

It's been a real pleasure, I'm privileged to teach you, and hopefully I'll see you for a unit on "Julius Caesar", but if not, take care, work hard and it's been a pleasure.