Act 3

• Engels
• Further Education (Key Stage 5)

Lesson objectives 

Comparative grade 

Concepts and conceptual questions 

Considering the stage directions in Act two 

Investigating symbols and some of the thematic ideas in the play 

Reading Act 2 and investigating 

AWL

Concepts HL Literature 

Some concepts addressed in this text:

justice, revenge, corruption, greed and moral compromise

vengeance 

justice ( an eye for an eye) 

appearance versus reality 

Conceptual questions 

What effect do revenge and greed have on justice? 

What is the relationship between morality and revenge? 

What is the role of morality in justice? 

What is the difference between revenge and moral 

corruptibility ? 

In silence: Re-read pg  (5 mins)

Take notes on these questions in your exercise book: 

1. Structure: what is the impact of having an interval at the end of Act 2?
   
2. Stage setting at the start of Act 3: “Enormous outspun spiders’ webs” and Claire in her wedding gown. What ideas or concepts do you feel are being highlighted through the stage setting? 
   
3. How is visual irony manifested in the stage setting? 
   

Opening Act 3 

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

Allusions: First Corinthians thirteen - New Testament

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/search=1%20Corinthians%2013&version=NIV

Allusion: Bach’s St Matthew Passion

this sets the 26th and 27th chapters of the Gospel of Matthew to music. These chapters talk about the plot to betray and sacrifice Jesus Christ

What concepts or ideas do these two allusions focus on?

Betrayal 

Hypocrisy 

appearance versus reality 

"Madam, we are not poor; we are merely forgotten. We need credit, confidence, contracts, then our economy and culture will boom" 

Complete the table on language and style in your groups. 

You will share your table and present to the class your thoughts 

The teacher: the last voice of morality?

Just like in Act 2, there is a scene in Act 3 which features the townsfolk talking in Ill’s General Store.Create a T-diagram poster comparing and contrasting these two General Store scenes

Use quotes from the play and comment on:

What is the same? 

What has changed? 

What is being highlighted? 

Act 3: changing loyalties 

Act 2 

Act 3

1. What do Claire and Ill discuss in Konrad’s Wood? Do you find this scene sad or moving in any way?
   
2. What is the effect of introducing a radio commentator, announcer and cameraman join the townspeople? What is the role of the press and media during the final act?
   
3. What comment is Durrenmatt making about the role of media in this Act? How does the depiction of the journalists compare to the situation at present?
   
4. What are Claire and Ill’s last words in the play respectively? Why are their final lines appropriate for each character?
   

Act 3: Answer these questions in your exercise book 

Discuss their lost child and lost love. Shows a slightly emotional side to Claire. She held on too long to her idea of love that it transmuted to something else. Compare to Gatsby’s love for Daisy.

Pages 94 and 95 show the farce that is the media.

Role of the media: (un)covering the truth?

Ill’s last words: “Pray for Gullen”; Claire: “The Cheque”

Tragedy 

• Hand-out on Tragedy
  
• Noble character
  
• Tragic flaw (hamartia) 
  
• Reversal of fortune (peripeteia)
  
• Fall from grace
  
• Moment of realisation (anagnorisis)
  
• Death (which evokes pity)
  

1. Read the information about tragedy 
   
2. Complete the table in your groups 
   

ILL: Your Honor! I've been through hell. I saw you all going into debt, and with every sign of prosperity I felt death creeping closer. If you had spared me that anguish, that horrible fear, it would have all been different, we could speak on different terms, I would take the rifle. For all of your sake. But then I shut myself in, conquered my fear. Alone. It was hard; now it's done. There is no turning back. Now you must be my judges. I will submit to your decision, whatever it turns out to be. For me it will be justice; I don't know what it will be for you. May God help you live with your judgement. 

Pg 90

ILL: The hour has come. For the last time we're sitting in our evil forest full of cuckoos and sighing winds. The town's holding a meeting this evening. They'll sentence me to death, and one of them will kill me. I don't know who he will be or where it will happen, I only know that I'm ending a meaningless life.

Pg 98

Listen to the podcast and answer these questions in your exercise book: 

Restorative justice 

www.theguardian.com

Choose one of the following prompts (or use another prompt you have been given)

1. In what ways can the term ‘artificial’ be applied to literary works you have studied?
   
2. Works of literature can often function as social or political commentary. Discuss this idea with reference to literature you have studied.
   
3. Consider how works of literature employ humour, and to what effect.
   
4. It is not always easy to ‘forgive and forget.’ Illustrate this observation with reference to literary works you have studied.
   

Paper 2 practice