Richard III Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack updates 2008
3 Key Themes


LESSON 11:The role of women

(adapted from lesson 31 in your Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack)

Learning Objective
To understand the role of women in Richard III and to evaluate to what extent each of them is stereotyped or falls into a clearly-defined and narrow role

ICT Activity 24 (Female stereotypes)

Starter

  • Explain/recap what a stereotype is. (To classify someone as a type, as part of a group all bearing the same traits; to create a simple, unrefined model for them to fit into; it is how racism, sexism, xenophobia, etc. come about.) Point out that young people are often stereotyped as being yobbish, thuggish and violent. Old people are often stereotyped as nagging, frail and helpless. In reality, some people do fit into a stereotype, but not very many.
  • Display the top half of OHT 15 (the quotations are for the next stage of the lesson). Ask students whether any of these stereotypes are explored by Shakespeare in Richard III (all of them at some point!). However, remind students that they may be looking at women in the play with 21st-century eyes. Can students think of any more female stereotypes used in Richard III? Add these to the blank tiles on the OHT. Then display the quotations at the bottom of the OHT and ask students to match them to the relevant stereotype (students should ignore characters at this point). (ICT Activity 24 can be used here.)

Introduction

  • Divide the class into two groups, allocating one group Anne, and the other Elizabeth. Within these two groups, they should be further subdivided into pairs.
  • Show the mind map on OHT 16. Model how to start work on annotating their character, using the example of Elizabeth, by brainstorming all the stereotypes connected to her and giving examples from the text to support each stereotype.
  • Give each pair a sheet of A3 paper and tell them to write the name of their character in the centre before beginning. Pairs should then create their own mind map as shown.
  • When they have finished, pairs should join to make groups of four and compare ideas. Each pair should then consolidate their mind map based on this discussion.

Development

  • Ask the groups of four to further annotate their mind map by finding quotes from the text to support each of the examples – suggest they split the textual research up between them.
  • Invite them to develop this further by focusing on the relevant set section and on how their responses to the other characters tell the audience about themselves.
  • Finally, ask students to leave their group and, in their original pairs, join with another pair who has worked on a different character and compare findings.

Plenary

  • Each pair writes three statements to summarise the role of women in Richard III. They should consider what the women add to the action, mood and tone of the play. Pairs then join to make groups of four, look at their six statements and refine it to one statement. Finally, groups share statements with the class; these could be written on to strips of paper and added to a display.

OHT 15:Female stereotypes

HELPLESS VICTIM / AMBITIOUS CLIMBER
EVIL WITCH / ROMANTIC LOVER
NAGGING WIFE / MAD HAG
CARING MOTHER / RELIGIOUS DEVOTEE
FLOOZY / CHASTE VIRGIN
BITTER WIDOW / POLITICAL PAWN


OHT 16:A focus on…

ELIZABETH

LESSON 12: Blame and conscience

(adapted from lesson 29 in your Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack)

Learning Objective
To understand how Shakespeare explores the key themes of blame and conscience in Richard III, with a particular focus on Richard

ICT Activity 23 (Anne’s wrath)

Starter

  • Students work in pairs to discuss the three situations on Worksheet 17 then join up with other pairs to share ideas and feed back to the class.

Introduction

  • Then explore the following with the class as a whole:
  • What is meant by blame? (When something bad happens and someone/something is held responsible for it. Point out that blame is an act – it is directed towards something or someone.)
  • What is meant by conscience? (When a person knows the difference between right and wrong. This is usually extended to mean when someone knows that they have done something wrong and feels bad/repentant about it.)
  • Point out that during Shakespeare’s time, people generally believed that to go to heaven a person had to be sinless. Also, any bad deeds a person had done could be ‘wiped clean’ through confessing – admitting to doing wrong and asking forgiveness of God. Link this to the Starter activity by asking pairs to briefly consider who they think would feel responsible in each scenario on Worksheet 17 (possibly more people than they had held to blame).
  • Then read through Act 1 Scene 2, lines 92 –157 (I did not kill your husband… to Thou dost infect infect mine eyes) and give out copies of Worksheet 18. Ask students to work individually to complete the activity based on the extract (ICT Activity 23 can be used for feedback, or as a whole-class version of this activity.)

Development

  • Move on to look at the extent to which Richard has a conscience. With Anne in Act 1, he certainly demonstrates no conscience.
  • Give out copies of Worksheet 19and ask pairs of students to improvise the conversation that they might have. They should try to come up with some plausible excuses.
  • Explore with students the idea of the Divine Right of Kings, using OHT 20. Ask them to consider whether Richard is demonstrating the qualities of a good king.

Plenary

  • Lead a discussion on whether Richard demonstrates any evidence of a conscience by the end of the play. You could use OHT 21 to guide the discussion, if you wish.

Worksheet 17: Who is to blame?

Situation 1

A five-year-old child is hit and injured by a car driven by someone who was just above the legal alcohol limit. He was swerving to avoid a dog which had escaped from a nearby garden. At the time, the girl’s eleven-year-old brother was babysitting her, but was inside the house playing on his PS2.
  • Who is to blame for the five-year-old’s injuries?

Situation 2

While her parents are away on holiday, Susie holds a party for her friends even though she’s been told not to. One of her friends, Zoe, invites her older brother, Mike, and his mates (even though Susie tells her not to). At the party, one of Mike’s friends spills red wine all over a white sofa.
  • Who is to blame for the damage?

Situation 3

A king is fed up with a priest who seems to object to lots of things he wants to do. In a fit of anger he asks whether anyone will help get rid of this ‘problem’ person. A soldier, hearing this, goes to the cathedral and kills the priest.
  • Who is to blame for the death of the priest?

Worksheet 18: Anne’s wrath

Complete the following activity by choosing the correct word or phrase from the list at the bottom of the text and writing it in the space provided.

In this scene, Anne is following the corpse of ______to its burial. Anne blames ______for her husband’s death.
Richard tells Anne that ______killed her husband but Anne calls him a liar and says that ______saw him do the killing.
When Richard admits to the killing, Anne asks God to grant her ______. This contrasts with her husband’s place in heaven – for he was guiltless.
After telling her initially that he was provoked by Margaret’s lies about him and his brothers, Richard then tells her that he was driven to kill by ______.
Anne is determined to be reveng’d on him that kill’d my husband, but Richard continues to say that she should be glad that Edward is dead as ______. This causes Anne to spit at him.
Overall, in this extract, Anne shows nothing but ______towards Richard. This scene is important because by the end of the scene, Anne truly believes that Richard is ______that Edward and Henry are dead; it emphasises how good he is at ______.
Richard eventually accepts the blame for the deaths of Edward and Henry but lies about having a conscience and feeling remorseful for his actions – this leads Anne to accept him as ______.
sorry / Anne’s beauty and his love for her / manipulating others
Richard will make her a better husband / a husband / hatred
Edward IV / Margaret / that Richard is damned
in hell
Henry VI / Richard / the House of Lancaster
an apology from Richard / she was too pretty for him / glad
fear / Edward her dead husband / a soldier

Worksheet 19: How canst thou woo her?

Imagine you are Richard. You have decided that you want to marry Princess Elizabeth, and so you speak to her mother to ask her advice about how to go about wooing her. This is what she says:

Send to her by the man that slew her brothers

A pair of bleeding hearts; thereon engrave

‘Edward’ and ‘York’. Then haply will she weep.

Therefore present to her, as sometime Margaret

Did to thy father, steeped in Rutland's blood,

A handkerchief; which, say to her, did drain

The purple sap from her sweet brother's body,

And bid her wipe her weeping eyes withal.

If this inducement move her not to love,

Send her a letter of thy noble deeds.

Tell her thou mad'st away her uncle Clarence,

Her uncle Rivers, ay, and for her sake

Mad'st quick conveyance with her good aunt Anne.

As wooing goes, this is unlikely to be successful! Richard has to convince her otherwise.

Make a list of possible excuses for what has happened and then, in pairs, improvise a scene where Richard tries to convince Elizabeth that none of this was his fault – remember that he is a good liar, ‘subtle, false and treacherous’.

OHT 20: The Divine Right of Kings

In 1609, King James gave a speech before Parliament in which he outlined what he thought were the most important things that people should know about Kingship. He said that:

OHT 21: At the end of the play…

  • Richard is waking from a dream, a vulnerable state of being and one where the sleeper is closer to the supernatural/God/the unconscious.
  • He calls out to Jesus.
  • He begs for mercy.
  • He admits that the dream has affected his cowardly conscience – he knows that to allow himself to feel guilt will make him less effective in battle; ironically, he dies at the end of the scene.
  • When asking what he has to fear, he is rejecting God – he cannot be judged by any other than himself.
  • He seems in turmoil; he calls himself a villain then refutes it immediately.
  • He comments on his conscience and that it has a thousand tongues.
  • The fractured lines and questions suggest that he is in panic; he is agitated.
  • Does Shakespeare suggest when Richard seems to have a divided self, that he really does have a God-fearing heart?
  • It seems as if, finally, Richard’s conscience has caught up with him – he has never questioned his actions or himself before and previously revelled in his villainy.
  • In this speech all the prophecies of Margaret and the other victims seem to come true – have these innocent victims been God’s voice throughout?
  • Richard does not actually repent – he does not ask forgiveness of his victims or of God; is this because he still doesn’t believe in God, still is not sorry, or just accepts his crimes are too dire for forgiveness?
  • At the end of the speech the audience doesn’t really feel as if Richard has changed. If he were victorious on the battlefield he probably wouldn’t mend his ways and be a better king. Because of this, the audience does not sympathise with him and side with Richmond. (Tudor propaganda?)

LESSON 13: A play of many themes

(adapted from lesson 50 of Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack)

Learning Objective
To understand that Richard III brings together many overlapping themes and that one interpretation might focus on a theme and give it more prominence than another

Starter

  • Recap briefly the themes explored so far – men and women; blame and conscience. Students should be made aware that these are not mutually exclusive. For example, we see how Richard’s attempts to gain power rely on relationships.

Introduction

  • Discuss with students whether these are the only themes in the play. Other Shakespeare plays deal with love and marriage; status and honour; tricks and deception etc.
  • Divide the class into groups of four or five and give each group one of the following themes to research: love and hate; ambition, power and corruption; appearance and reality; men and women; good and evil. Then give students Worksheet 22 and ask them to work through the thematic questions in their groups.

Development

  • Each group in turn presents their ideas on a blank OHT version of the worksheet, adding any additional comments from the class as they speak.
  • Then model the following example of the opening of a written analysis:

Richard III is not just a play about ambition, power and corruption, it is a play about how people use deception to get what they want, and manipulate each other to achieve success. Richard himself is not above using love as a justification for the evil deeds that he carries out on his way to the top.

We first see this when…

Plenary

  • Set up a written task/essay in which individual students take their group’s theme (or that of another group) and complete the analysis started above forhomework.

Worksheet 22: Thematic questions

Theme:
In what ways does the story (what happens) have anything to do with this theme?
Which characters are most related to, or representative of, this theme?
How important is this theme as a whole within the play?
What quotations could be used to show this theme’s presence?
1.
2.
Any other points worth making about this theme?

Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack © HarperCollins Publishers and Teachit (UK) Ltd 2008. This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom1