Nobody Panic - How to Pass the GCSE Shakespeare Exam: The Tempest (AQA or Edexcel)

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

Right. Bit of a left turn this one. But Tessa had to teach this to her teenage cousin recently and she doesn't want the information in her head anymore. She firmly believes that if you've completely failed to learn The Tempest all year and the exam is very soon, she can get you over the line in the next 30 minutes. Stevie has very graciously allowed this episode to go to air. Subscribe to the Nobody Panic Patreon at patreon.com/nobodypanicWant to support Nobody Panic? You can make a one-off donation at https://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanicRecorded and edited by Aniya Das for Plosive.Photos by Marco Vittur, jingle by David Dobson.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Carriad. I'm Sarah. And we are the Weirdo's Book Club podcast. We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival. The date is Thursday, 11th of September. The time is 7pm and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies. Tickets from kingsplace.com. Single ladies, it's coming to London.

True on Saturday, the 13th of September. At the London Podcast Festival. The rumours are true. Saturday the 13th of September. At King's Place. Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet. Hello, Julie Kirsteza wants to do this. I think you mooted it maybe a few months ago.

Yes. So, yeah, in a somewhat of a break from tradition, we are doing how to pass the GCSC Shakespeare colon the Tempest. Specifically the Tempest, yeah. I can't help you with anything else. I tried to push back. Certainly, there was a lot of pushback. And then I thought, give her a go.

Come on. Stop being such as a scrooge, Stevie. Maybe people do want to know how to sit the GCSE paper for The Tempest. It's a very broad topic, specifically The Tempest. The pushback compromise was that I suggested we do all six of the GCSE Shakespeare Tense. That's a series. And I honestly suggested that to you very sincerely. Yes.

And you were like, absolutely not. Only because that would record, because you were like, well, have you got any, like, which ones did you do? And I was like, well, I did, I think I did, um, uh, King. and I did Othello and I did Macbeth. And then you're like, any that you would tutor people on? I was like, no, obviously not. I don't know. I can't remember them.

So that would require me to revise three shakes. And I was like, this is good. I can't. It is good, but I just can't do that. I'd firmly believe in the next 30 minutes, and I assume I'm talking to you, a GCSE student, possibly their parents, as you listen to, to see if we're going to swear before you give this to your child.

And I promise we're good at any time. And I assume that it's, there's but days, if not hours to go before the exam. And I truly believe I can make the difference between you passing off failing this exam. Basically, I did do The Tempest as a teenager for my own GCSE. And then a couple of years ago, my teenage cousin was also doing The Tempest. And my auntie called up and was like, please will you come? And I was like, genuinely, it would be my pleasure. So I went to stay for a week.

We did The Tempest, but we also had to do his whole English literature and history and some Spanish. And I don't speak a word of Spanish. So it was a lot to get through. But I did have to learn. I did have to re-teach myself everything for The Tempest. And it's in my brain and I just don't want it there anymore. Understood. Let it out.

And I got to give it to you. Rade it down on me. Okay. A quote from The Tempest. I've not read The Tempest. Ever? No. I never did it in any of the exams.

and the reason I have not read it is because then I went to see it as part of like a school trip or something and was like, I like, I like, I like, this is shit. I hate it. And then 10 years later, my friend was in a Shakespeare production at the Barbican with Simon Russell Beale, huge production. But as I sat down, I was like, oh, it's the one with the fairies. It's the 10th.

One fairy, one fairy. Oh, God. But it was, it was fine. She was great and it, I'm very glad I went. but it's not my favourite. I understand. Whereas for me, I actually do like it for the same reasons. We're like, a bit of fun.

Yeah. Bit of fluff, bit of show, bit of a shipwreck, things going on. You've got your Shakespeare coming up. Teach me. You haven't grasped of a scrap. I haven't even read the temples. I haven't even read the template. So I need some help.

Please help me, Tessa. So here we go. And I firmly believe if you haven't Jenny read it, we can do it. Here we go. Okay, so you're going to go in. This is you're either doing AQA or edXL. Oh my God. You're already stressed.

Yeah. Not to worry. Yeah. And the questions will be worded only fractionally different. Great. And you will be combining this with either your modern poetry or your 19th century book. Sure. I can't be helping you.

I'm just telling you there's other stuff going on in the exam. Absolutely. So don't blow your entire load. Right, on the tempest. On the tempest. Because you've got to turn the page and do your other bits. There's poetry. There's other stuff.

Well, that's why I haven't read the tempest because I've been blowing my load on the other stuff. So I'll smash that. Now I need to get the tempest-soid. Right. Perfect. And then. Exactly. Whole load blown. So we're going, where it's an hour and 45 minutes, of which I would say, you need to be spending half of that on the Shakespeare and half of that on the poetry.

So we're moving at pace. Okay. You're going to go in, there's going to be five different questions in front of you on the five different Shakespeare's, turn to the tempest. Don't answer all of them. Do not answer all of them. Do not do what a girl in the year above famously did, and do Macbeth. It was question one. She thought, oh, God, I guess it's Macbeth.

Why did we learn the tempest for a year? Oh, no. Okay. If you turn the page, there will be The Tempest. Okay. So important thing about English literature is the Mark scheme says to reward all valid interpretations. Okay. Okay. So no matter what, what they're testing you on is your ability to have an opinion and then to back it up. Okay. So throw it in. Literally anything that you can possibly think of that might be here, throw it in. And then if you can back it up, prove it in any way, gorgeous. With a quote. If you can, but don't panic. Are you able to have the text? with you. Okay, so here's the fantastic thing about it. The question will be broken up like this. You will have a piece of text, a whole big extract from the play, quite a lot of it. Great. And then it will say, explore how Shakespeare presents dot, dot, dot, and then either a character or a theme. So I'll either say, explore how Shakespeare presents Prospero in the

Tempest, or the theme of revenge. Interesting. Or something like that. And then it'll say, in this speech and in the play as a whole. Great. So you could do it. just focus on the speech really, even if you haven't done, you can't remember anything, you've got that speech there. Yes. You've got that speech.

We're passing this exam. And you can say things like, as in, you can quote the paragraph and then say, and of course, as well, in the players a whole.

Yeah, exactly. I'll start to being specific. Exactly. So your mark scheme will either be 30 marks or 40 marks, and then it will say, so you want to be spending about 30 minutes or 40 minutes

on it, depending probably a mark a minute. And then it will say after that brackets, A-O-1, four marks. And A-O-1 stands for assessment objectives, one. And that just means, can they spell? Right.

There are four marks available just for you doing nice spelling and punctuation. So please do so. Okay, great. That's four easy marks. Come on, come on, let's get. Look, four marks. And it's your dyslexic, in which case, it's only four marks. It doesn't matter.

Forget the four marks. Leave them behind. We haven't the time. Exactly. Do not stress about them if you can't get them. But if you can get them, come on, pick them up. If you can't, who cares. It'd be embarrassing to get them.

Okay? So then they are A1, two and three. So I'm just telling you what the mark scheme is. So you've seen behind the curtain. What they are testing you on in this exam is, one, can you read? Great. Yes. Ideally, yes. And again, and if you can't, not to worry.

Number two, can you argue? Okay. And number three, and this is why I'm saying like, there's easy marks to be had here. Can you tell me when the play was written? Really? Yeah. We're literally just a big chunk of this is just what is the context of the play?

What else was happening in the world? right now. So if you can just prove that, which you can... Well, not right now back then. Crucially. Grusially. Yeah, if you can prove that you know that, sorry. It's not now. But it's not now. So you can throw things in like...

So obviously the tempest, which was not written now... Yeah, well, this is how... And I'm going to say this in a nice tone. I want you to go in there and I want you to write this as your opening sentence. Written between 1610 and 1611, the tempest is generally accepted to be Shakespeare's last play. There we go. Wow. sometimes considered to be his farewell to the stage. Shit.

It's very good. I'm giving that an A. Yeah, already. Already. Opening line. They're like, wow, don't even need to read the rest of it. Somebody's got this shit under control. And that's all I want you to remember.

You've got that. We've done it. Then we're going to start looking at our piece of text that we've got in there. So I'm going to say, in this extract in the play. And then if you possibly can, say when this is. In the play. Within the play. Right.

If you're like, gun to my head. Couldn't tell you. Last scene, first scene, never seen it. Don't guess at this point because then you'll give yourself away. Don't, we've entered so strong with between 1610 and 1611. Let's not throw it away by saying this extract, which is the end. If you don't know, vague, vague, vague, vague, vague, vague. Also, if in doubt just refer to the place it comes in the play is pivotal.

Everything's pivotal. That's why I learned in English. It's just an extended around towards me. Like a dementia. Okay, right. Okay, right. I'm adding that in, straight in. This extract, which brackets, which comes at a pivotal

moment in the play, oh my God. Yeah. We are climbing up the mark scheme. And we've never even read the play. You've already got an A. We've got an A, mate. At this point, the examiners are just passing it around, being like, what's coming next? And then just say, at a guess what you think is happening in this scene.

Great, perfect. They know that you can read, and now we're going to begin to start to argue. So this is our arguing. Or not. Or not. What they say? What? And then you describe what you...

Bivitle or not? Yeah, you describe what's happening in the scene and they go, or it isn't happening like that. Or it isn't. Well, this is the thing about reward all valid interpretations. Whatever the question is about and whatever you are being asked to explore, if you can say this shows this and this is why I think that. Yes.

We're like, oh my God. Yeah. Oh my God. So how are we arguing? Who are we arguing against? Well, exactly. just, we're arguing with ourselves. Some may argue that Prospero is seen as this sort of character.

However, oh, because of the X, Y, Z. So because of X, Y, Z is always, if you can get a because of to back up your play. You've got to have that because of in there. The Tempest is a play about revenge. Full stop. You're like, okay, I'm giving that a D. The Tempest is a play about revenge, as can be seen in this line from so, now we're up to a B.

Some may argue it's not because of this line. I know. But I believe it's this because of the third line. A-star, it's-star, I'm just had a flash in my brain, which is my English teacher, I think it was A-level, with an acronym, so you'll enjoy it. I love acronyms. And also a bit of fun.

P-E-E-E-E-E-explanation evidence. Points? Or is it point-evidence explanation? Yes, point-evidence explanation. So I think this, because of this bit, and that could be in the extract. It doesn't have to be the play. And this is what that means.

You're peeing all over the place. Oh, my God, Stevie. And every time you say anything, you want to try and pee. If you can't pee, that's fine. But every time you pee, you will get the full marks for that statement. So, yeah. So you're looking at about sort of, what is it? So for a 30 mark question, you're peeing 10 times.

We're looking for 10 p's and we're out of here. Yeah, yeah. And we've already got, we've already, we only need nine because we've already used our thing about 1610. I was going to say, yeah. pivotal moments. Now we're down to eight. So at this point, you're like, right, but what is the tempest about? Sure. So the player's going to begin with a shipwreck. Okay. Ooh, but we really need to begin 12 years before that in Milan, where Prospero, sort of an old Gandalfe character. 12 years ago, Gandalfe, he's got a...

Let's not call him Gandalfe. No, that's right. That's important. Thank you. Use the names. Right. Prospero. Old wisdom. arrives as and when he wishes. An old wizard called Prospero. Who's not a wizard? He's got some magical abilities. It's never explicitly said what he can do is ousted as the rightful Duke of Milan. Oh, a bit of treachery by his brother Antonio. I didn't get any of this when I watched it.

Okay, yes. Because it's happened 12 years in the past. Prospero's been outed as his position as the rightful Duke of Milan by his younger brother, Antonio. And Antonio has cast him out to sea to die. on a boat with his young daughter at the time a baby, Miranda. And he's sent him off to die. But a kindly assistant has loaded the boat with food and his magic books and all of this stuff. So rather than dying, they're just sort of cast a sea for a long time

where they eventually wash up on an island. Where they live together, just the two of them, Miranda and Prospero, for 12 years. With here come our cookie characters. And this is the point that Stevie thinks, boo! done with this. We've got Caliban in various interpretations, a sort of mountain man. So he just sort of like,

in the plays I've seen, he just like hangs off something and talks to himself while looking at everyone. Well, he's gone mad. He just lives on an island alone. He's gone mad, right. I didn't get that. He's not gone mad.

He's sort of implied that he's this mad character. And so he has this mother who we never meet. She's again in the pre-story. Him and his mother lived there quite contentedly until Prospero and his baby daughter came along.

Right. The mother's a witch and then Prospero sort of kills her and then he enslaves Caliban. So obviously Caliban's having a bit of a tough time of it all.

Honestly, now I'm thinking I didn't watch this play. I'm like, this sounds great. Right? So that's the thing you don't really get any of this

because none of this is sort of happening on screen and by screen I mean stage. It was just it was just Prospero walking around doing a lot of talking.

Oh, I won't, shut up. And then at the end, well, I won't spoil it. Oh, well, also I can't because of a wafer. I don't know. So, Caliban, again, we don't see any of this, but Prospero kills the mother, the witch character, and then enslaves Caliban.

And then Caliban has this sort of like, a questionable, like, father, master relationship with Prospero, you know, a weird sort of respectful yet a desiring relationship towards Miranda. Yeah, that's what you're seeing in the play, is it? Because the whole time I was just like, who's that? Who's that? So now Miranda has now grown up to be a 16-year-old. Sexy girl. But again, she's never met anyone. She's like, I suppose that's man, is it?

Right, yeah, so she's bad shit. So then my dad or this weird. Yeah, these are my options, is it? You know? Right. Well, no, third option. Oh, the nice kindly assistant. Kindly assistant, who you probably don't like,

because in various iterations, they are called Ariel. Right. And in various situations, they're portrayed as a fairy. Okay, no, I don't mind Ariel being a fair. Well, is it, his assistant's a fairy? Mm-hmm. That's nice. Right.

So both of these characters, Caliban and Ariel are under Prospero's control. Okay. So now he's been sort of planning this revenge. for all this time and he finds out, how does he find out from the shipping forecast? I mean, how does he know that who should be sailing not far from his island? It's going to be Antonio, isn't it? It's going to be bloody Antonio.

And who are we going to pop on the boat with Antonio? Caliban. No, because he's on the island. Right, I thought he'd just throw him on. No, yeah, throw him on. Oh, the current Duke? Yes, so the current Duke, Antonio. And with him is his son, Ferdinand.

Okay, yeah. Sorry, so it's actually. It's Ferdinanda Fitty. I'm hoping that Ferdinand and Miranda are going to probably, if they see each other, it's happening. Well, at this point, Maran's like, hello! Yeah. So it's her dad or that, or a fairy.

And then so the time Ferdinand arrives, you'd be like, Jesus fucking Christ. Yeah, that, please. Obviously that. Right. She has this line, Miranda, if should Miranda or love, or any of these themes come up for you,

she has this line that says, oh, brave new world that has such people in it. But she says like, but the Brave New World is a reference, is that you hear reference in other things is about Miranda looking at Ferdinand being like, what? Right.

This is available? One of these. It's, oh, just the word oh, the letter O, sorry, O brave new world that has such people, and... Perfect. Okay.

We're doing it. Right, so sorry, we've got the Antonio, the bad brother. Then we've got the king, but he's not going to be particularly fun, so don't ignore him. Okay, fine. And then we got the king's son.

So he's actually, as I was thinking then, wait, it can't be Antonio's brother. because he's got me, the cousins. Yeah, great. No, he's totally separate. It's the king. It's prince. Yeah, because Antonio's a duke, not a king.

So he's been made the duke. And then the king is that. So we've got the duke and the king. People are going off to, I don't know, do some stuff. A cruise or something. A cruise or something. A royal or something. A royal. And they get way laid along the way because Prospero sends Ariel out to sea to be like,

fuck this shit up. Oh, great. Yeah. So the openings. And now this is when we, this is when we join the action is Ariel making this shipwreck and like making a huge storm. A tempest. A tempest. A tempest.

Impirst, if you will, and getting all the characters onto the island safely, but separately. Okay. So now the play begins with everybody separately on the island. Everyone believes themselves to be the only ones there. Great. Yeah. Again, did not get this. Right.

Great, yes. And then at this point, the play. Right. You know, you simply don't need to know. Like, obviously Miranda and Ferdinand are going to get together. Okay. Obviously, the bad duke is going to have to have his comeuppance and, like, like, oh, I'm sorry, you know.

And then for a bit of comedy fun, we've got these guys called Stefano and Trinculo, we're just doing a little bit of comedy. Okay. Right. What are the main themes? The themes that will come up will be about revenge, power, love, magic. Okay. I would say those are your big hitters.

And characters, Caliban, Prospero, Miranda, Ariel. If they gave you one of the, like, the king, you'd be like, oh, come on. But just know, everybody in the country. is going, the king, right, back to your main bit of text. It's given you everything that you need. You're looking at it. Okay, so whatever the theme is or the question or the character, you go back through and you're like, okay, what's in here?

And this is how specific you can be. Like, are any of the letters in capital letters? Like, is anything shouted? Is there question marks? Are there exclamation marks? Is anything rhyming? Is anything to be delivered off stage and is supposed to be mysterious? Is anything supposed to be said affectionately?

Are there words like mild and calm and soft and sweet? Or are there words like sharp and barb and thorny and like ugly? And you're like you're literally being that prescriptive and that you're going through it at that extent of just like go through everything in there. And again, I'm assuming you don't know anything. So you're just like take anything you can. Yes. Take anything you can. Right.

And this is how you're going to blow their mind. Oh my God. You're going to use the word enjambement. I remember enjambement. In jambement. In jambiment. Right. Yes.

Okay. And that's when it runs on. That's when it runs on. Oh, yeah. Honestly, throw that in. We're passing this exam. Right. So let's give us, give me a way that you would use it.

So rather than being like, Stevie went to the shops, full stop. Then she came home, full stop. There's no full stop at the end of the line. It just runs on into the next line. I would put Stevie went and then I would end it there. And on the next line I would put to the shops to add this sort of element of like confusion of like Stevie went. I'm like, where? And then to the shops.

And so I'm like, oh. The pace is quick. The pace is now. we're using our big words like pace and quick. Honestly, this is enough. Like, this is all you have to say is these sort of impressive, like pace, tone, rhythm, rhyme, like this sort of word, you know, punctuation. You can be whatever you can find to put in there.

If you can say it, even if there isn't some enjonbemort, you can say. There will be. There's always a bit of Injon. They're desperate to help you with Injean Bermont. And it's Shakespeare. If there truly isn't, you can perceive the lack of enjambamont at this pivotal moment. It allows us to sort of, the pace to rest and allows us to really. really focus on what's going on rather than always racing forward with the constant genre of one elsewhere,

am I right? You're like, that's all stuff. I've given this girl an A star. Yeah, thank you. How, more. Am I right? Am I in it? Ending your examines.

Am I right, lads? Am I right, lad? I remember the couplet thing being so important. So if you see a couplet, a rhyming couplet in your extract, it means, Shakespeare is really, it's sort of the equivalent of just highlighting that bit and being like, look, this bit's important. So it's showing the importance of a pivotal moment has occurred in the character's psyche or in or in or it's really trying to like what's the word signal it to the audience. This is, you really need to take notice of this basically, isn't it?

That is what a rhyming couple of does, isn't it? Absolutely. But look at like, see, he was used of like signal to the audience. Like, oh my God. We're dealing with a pro. This is meant to be, meant to be seen in the theatre, of course. It's not meant to be read. Exactly.

And say that three times. Relentlessly. Of course. Of course. It's supposed to be red, not about to be red. So then they're like, oh, they do understand this is a play. Yes. This is meant to be. As soon as you're saying, this is a play, we're like, this is a play.

But if you're like, I couldn't think of any stuff. Can you see any question marks? Yeah. They'll do. Oh, and an exclamation mark. That's something. He's upset. Thank you.

Nor is aroused. Yeah. Pee.E. P. Point. He looks upset. Evidence. There's an exclamation mark. Explain.

You'd shout it. You'd shout it. Okay, yes, right. So always be P-E-E-E, like always don't just say, there's an exclamation mark. Be like, so? Like, tell us. Showing his agony and also tying it in with the theme. Also, as well, you could tie the characters, if it's about like a character,

then bring those themes into the character, because obviously those themes are in the play. And every character will be experiencing revenge, love, whatever. So then you've got your magic or whatever. Then you can explore, if it's a character, you basically go through all the things. via the character, don't you? Is that what you're meant to do? Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. And if it's a theme, then you go through all the characters showing what the theme is.

So it's basically they're just, they're the same question. They're all the, that's the thing, they're all the same question. And they're all just asking you to pee everywhere, to be like, please just tell us anything you can remember and then back it up. But the thing is, the 90% of it is already in you. Yes. And then 5% of it, we've told you with the plot. And then the rest, I can't help.

I can't help. Okay, so go on more. Okay, so now that we're going now to the play as a whole And this obviously we're getting into the tricky text And because now we're like, well, I don't know the players Oh, of course That's why you're all listening to this episode Have you got anything in the tank?

Have you got anything? And if you've got minutes to spare before you go into this exam Could you open the text and could you just have a little look? Just have a little look for anything in there That after the year of learning this at school Has anything gone in that anybody says at any point And even if you're like, that doesn't feel relevant to the, yes, yes.

You can make it relevant. You can make it relevant. Remember four quotes. Like, just like memorize four really short quotes. Yeah. Just be like, right, I'm going to throw that in. Just throw them in. And write them down on the front of your paper with the moment you go in so that you remember them.

Exactly. The moment you go in, you just write, like, here are my four quotes. I've memorized these. They're nice and short. You've got, oh, brave new world. Great. And now we're not, now we can look at love through that. We can also look at colonialism and exploration, because of course, this is 1610, people are traveling to new places, people are bringing back potatoes,

people are, you know, there's all kinds going on. You know, it's a whole new world out there. Jam it, just throw it in. The famous Caliban one is, and this is Caliban's more famous speech, he says, be not afeard, the aisle is full of noises. And then he's got a bigger old bit that's how, like, about how nice the island is. If you're talking about Caliban, you're like, he's not a bad guy. He said, like, be not afeard.

You know, he's telling them like, hey, don't worry, the is full of noises. Multi-layered. He's multi-layered. And he's showing them and he's saying, don't panic. But also he's proud of his island. He's a man of the earth. He's, you know, he wants to show off what he's got going on. What he's got going on on on this island. And then it has the line that, had I waked after a long sleep,

and when I waked, I cried to dream again. Now we can talk about like his sadness, his enslavement, how his magical world is nicer than his real world. How it shows that Prospero is not a very nice character either. He's a complex. He's a complex character. Also, the best thing is, like, I remember when trying to learn quotes and stuff, I'd be like, oh, but you've got to kind of like present your quote in a particular way.

But if you use the quote as part of a sentence, you can use really small quotes. So, like, as when Caliban speaks of in quotation marks, I cried to dream, that obviously shows that the difficult relationship he has with Prosper or whatever. You've only used three words of that quote. So if you don't know exactly the quote, just go in with one word sometimes. If you put little quotes around it, people will. think, well, she knows the quote so intimately. She's now using extracts of the quote.

Exactly. It just says, and of course, with the use of dream, you know, and we move on. Oh, oh, of course, oh, of course. Says everything we need to know about this piece. Move on. Move on. Move on. Move on.

Next point. Move on. Yeah. When I wait, I cried to dream again. You're like, yeah, just put a tiny amount of it. If you're like, I couldn't remember what those stupid girls were saying on the podcast. Okay, you got Prospero in there. Uh-oh.

We're talking about magic. Magic. We're talking about revenge. We're talking about being a father. We're talking about enslavement. Like, why did you do all these things? Okay, so crucially, at the end of the play, Miranda and Ferdinander in love, fantastic. The Duke's giving back is dukedom, gorgeous. Prospero sets Caliban and Ariel free. Oh, that's nice. They've done their service and he lets them go. I will tell you now a very sexy thing I saw as a teenager. Not relevant to what we're talking about. But to help you remember, like, what happens to Ariel? So a production at the boys' school of thing,

theirs was at, they were, the boys' school was incredibly fancy. Anyway, it was at the end of their big garden by a river, which tells you everything you need to know. Outdoor production of Shakespeare, where they must have been in year 10. But Ariel was played by an extremely beautiful and topless boy. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Whole men's running wild.

In this production, Prospero sets him free. The beautiful topless boy turned on his heels. Like there was like one beat and then he turned out and he ran and he ran across the garden onto the river he ran onto the water

and then he dived into the water and he ran about like he walked on water he walked on he walked on he ran onto the water and he dived into it I mean what yeah wow what there was some wood

underneath it obviously you didn't have to explain that yeah no I'm expecting there was something underneath he wasn't Jesus but it was that's amazing I think about it all the time.

Okay, this is my final one for you, and this is about Prospero. So obviously he's our big hitter. It's probably going to be about, even if it doesn't come up specifically, you can still talk about Prospero. It's Shakespeare's very last play, as we've said right at the top. And sometimes Prospero's final speech that he gives all alone on the stage to the audience, and he breaks the fourth wall for the first time. He does, yeah.

He comes forward, and by breaking the fourth wall, I mean he talks direct to the audience and throw that in, for God's sake. He breaks the fourth wall, he talks direct to the audience, and it's sometimes considered to be Shakespeare talking to the audience. God, I wish I could watch it again now, because that's... You probably won't enjoy it. No, I probably won't. I wish I could come in right at the end and watch the final bit.

Yeah, and he does this big speech, which is like basically thanking everyone. Yeah, he does. He thanks everyone for coming like he's an usher or something. Like he's an usher. He just lets them go. He lets Ariel go and Caliban go. And then does he just stay on the island forever? He goes back to Milan to be the Duke.

Sure. Right. Okay. Sorry. So he says, let me not, since I have my dukedom got and pardoned the deceiver, dwell in this bear island by your spell. So he's saying, now I've let Ariel and Caliban go. But can you, you're now in charge of me. So please let me go. Don't leave me here. And then he does this. But release me from my bands with the help of your good hands. Gentle breath of yours, my sale must fill or else my project fails, which was to please. He says, my ending is despair unless I be relieved by. prayer. And this is a nice bit because it doesn't just mean praying. He means a little Shakespeare thing. Praying as in put your hands together multiple times please and clap. Oh, okay. Yeah. So you can have this one. Try and get this way. And my ending is despair

unless I be relieved by prayer. As you from crimes would pardoned be, let your indulgence set me free. Oh, that's great. And that's the last final bit. And so what he's saying... And he's indulged himself throughout the entire play. Frankly. Too much. And now you are able to... Right. So if you can get in about the bill and like,

And you don't need the whole thing, but if you just put the word prayer at the end to be like, is a metaphor from Shakespeare to say, it was actually, I meant clapping. But I didn't say it because I'm a little kook. But the famous one from Prospero, if you can get it into your head is, as you from crimes would pardoned be. So like revenge, all the stuff, here we go, I'll be like, I'll set you free from your crimes. Okay. If you, it'll all, here we go, coming full circle, let your indulgence set me free. And even if you can just get the set me free part, there's all this stuff about freedom, blah, blah, blah, blah. it's all in there.

So just these tiny little bits will do us. Dreams, free, oh, put it in. Yeah. Let your indulgence set me free. And that's the final bit. And if you can get in, is it Shakespeare talking? At the end when Prospero says, and your indulgence set me free, he is asking us to free him, which is rather rich, considering he kept Caliban and aerial enslaved for so long,

maybe he's learnt from his ways. Perfect. And by us, we mean the audience. Because he is, of course, breaking the first. Fourth Wall. Because it is, of course, a play that was meant to be seen and not to be read. And often people think that it is Shakespeare himself. Goodbye.

You always end the exam saying goodbye. We've come to the end. Great. How do you end? How do you summarise? In conclusion. Thank you. Both in this text and in the play as a whole.

Oh, great. The theme of slash the character of is portrayed in many complex ways. There we go. all of which would have resonated with the audience at the time, because it was a play, who would have enjoyed the themes of or the character of, etc., etc. Great. And this particular theme is a central or crucial, if I say crucial tenant.

Is that right? Tenet. Tenet, T-E-N-E-T, like the disappointing film. I quite liked it. I couldn't grasp it. This theme is a crucial tenant of the... Tenet. of the play

or this character is multifaceted and allows many different complex human emotions to be portrayed on the stage. Ending with on the stage. On the stage. Brackets.

Tesset exits. Brackets. Exused by bear. Exit pursued by a bear. And then draw a little bit of yourself running off. They really like that. And ideally diving

and pointing teenage boy. Teenage boy. Although you were probably also a teenager, so you probably wouldn't say a teenager. You'll be fine. Boy. Hot boy. Just for the invigilator. Anyway.

Yeah. I feel like I might not get a good mark. But I think you can pass. I'd get a mark. Yeah. What is it? What's the percentage of pass rate? It's like 40.

I was no idea. I don't know where the pass line is. But I believe I could get you to cross it. I think it. Without knowing it for sure, I am confident that you can pass this exam. It'd be a low grade, yeah. Oh, it's low. Oh, it's low grade.

No one's saying it's high grade. No. In Jean-Germont. 1610. The state. I could refer to interpretations I've seen on the stage as well. I mean, I don't know how I do that. I was very bored and I can't remember any of it.

People like that. Yeah, you can talk about that. Absolutely. Anything you can get out of that little brain. Thank you so much. Thank you, Stevie, very much for my indulgence. By your indulgence, set me free. Truly set me free from this prison of my own making.

Do you feel like it's now... Oh my God, I can breathe again. Okay, great. I've been carrying this around for so long. Did they get a good mark? Yeah, we got them through. Oh, great, amazing. That is the main thing. But I also did correctly guess what was coming up as a question.

Oh, excellent. But I'm not doing that for you guys, because I don't know when you're listening, and I don't want to panic anybody. Of course. But I do have a sneaky suspicion about what it is. Oh, Christ. I'll write it down quietly. Okay, it's helpful to nobody.

No one, as this episode was. No, it is helpful. It is helpful. I think you should do a little series, but then I don't want to do it. Well, I could tell you about it. I'd love to listen to you, tell me about things. Okay, what should we do next? Maybe we get the listeners to tell us what they would like.

Yeah. Then they'll say like maths or something. We're like, not that. We can't do maths. It's only Shakespeare plays. We can do English literature and we can do history. God, that's good. Whether you're AQA or EdXL, I hope that helps and fairly well.