Richard III Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack updates 2008
4 Language and plot

LESSON 14:Imagery

(adapted from lesson 34 in your Teachit KS3 Interactive Pack)

Learning Objective
To explore Shakespeare’s use of imagery in Richard III

ICT Activities 2 &3

Starter

  • Play the Similes game. Divide the class into groups of four to six and provide each with a set of the 12 cards from Worksheet 23. Within each group, the cards should be shuffled and dealt out evenly among students.
  • Give students a few moments to think of appropriate similes for their cards; the prompt Xis like (given object) because… is given on each card. Students must decide who/what ‘X’ is and the reason why he/she/it is like the given object. For example, The goalkeeper/Harry Potter/Thierry Henry/Freddie Flintoff is like an eagle because he always swoops onto the ball.
  • Each student then takes turns to read out their cards.
  • Similes that the group feel to be particularly effective could be collected on the board. You might like to mention that the Similes game cards all use images from the play.

Introduction

  • Recap the terms simile and metaphor, if necessary.
  • Retaining the groups, provide each with a set of Imagery classification cards from Worksheet 24. Depending on the ability of the class, you could:
  • provide students with the names of the six categories (Animals, Birds, Plants, Money, Heaven/Hell, Sun/Seasons) and ask them to divide the cards into their sets
  • tell students that the cards should be divided into six categories; the groups should then organise the cards and work out the titles of the categories.

Alternatively use ICT Activity 2.

Development

  • Explore why Shakespeare concentrated on these six groups of images. Rearranging the class if necessary to form six groups, allocate one set of imagery to each. Each group is then responsible for exploring their set of imagery, using the line references on the cards if necessary to help them put each image in context.
  • Give the groups sheets of A3/A2 paper and ask them to create a poster on which they show their category. They should ensure that they include:
  • Images related to their category.
  • Quotations from the play (including examples other than those given in the starter).
  • Annotations to explain what the quotation suggests.
  • An explanation of why this particular image might have been used in the play.
  • Worksheet 25 can be handed out for prompts/ideas or retained until the end of the lesson and handed out for reference.

Plenary

  • Collect feedback from each group.
  • Then (if they have not used Worksheet 25 during the lesson) they can complete ICT Activity 3.

Worksheet 23: Similes game cards

X is like a tiger because… / X is like an old tree because…
X is like winter because… / X is like an angel because…
X is like a rosebud because… / X is like summer because…
X is like a lot of money because… / X is like a wren because…
X is like a hind because… / X is like a heavy debt because…
X is like an eagle because… / X is like a devil because…

Worksheet 24: Imagery classification cards

Animals / Birds

Dost grant me, hedgehog?
(1.2, 104) / … the eagles should be mewed…
(1.1, 135)
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.
(1.2, 156) / The world is grown so bad
That wrens make prey where eagles
dare not perch. (1.3, 69 –70)
Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog…
(1.3, 226) / True hope is swift, and flies with
swallow’s wings…
(5.2,24)
The tiger now hath seized the gentle hind (2.4, 53)
Wilt thou, O God, fly from such gentle lambs,
And throw them in the entrails of a wolf?
(4.4, 22)
Plants / Money

Why grow the branches, when the root is gone?
Why wither not the leaves that want their sap? (2.2, 41) / I never sued to friend nor enemy …
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee…
(1.2, 176 –178)
Behold, my arm
Is like a blasted sapling withered up!
(3.4, 68) / My dukedom to a beggarly denier*,
I do mistake my person all this while!
(1.3, 261)
(* = small sum of money)
The royal tree has left us royal fruit
(3.7, 166) / …tis called ungrateful
With dull unwillingness to repay a debt
Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent… (2.2, 91 –93)

Worksheet 24: Imagery classification cards (continued)

Plants (continued) / Money (continued)

Ah, my tender babes,
My unblowed flowers (4.4, 9 –10) / Ah, Buckingham, now I do play the touch
To try if thou be current gold indeed.
(4.2, 9 –10)
The parents live whose children thou hast
butchered:
Old barren plants… (4.4, 406 –407) / …she cannot choose but hate thee,
Having bought love with such a bloody
spoil. (4.4, 296 –297)
Heaven/hell / Sun/seasons

…mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.
Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
(1.2, 45 –46) / Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of
York! (1.1, 1 –2)
Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave this
world,
Thou cacodemon: there thy kingdom is.
(1.3, 141 –142) / As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by [your beauty]; it is my day, my
life. (1.2, 133 –134)
If yet your gentle souls fly in the air
…Hover about me with your airy wings
(4.4, 11 –13) / Witness my son, now in the shade of
death,
Whose bright out-shining beams thy
cloudy wrath… (1.3, 268 –269)
A hell-hound… (4.4, 48) / When clouds are seen, wise men put on
their cloaks;
When great leaves fall, then winter is at
hand… (2.3, 34 –35)
Richard yet lives, hell’s black intelligencer
Only reserved their factor to buy souls
And send them thither. (4.4, 71) / Short summers lightly have a forward
spring… (3.1, 94)

Worksheet 25: Use of imagery reference sheet

Animals

Richard is compared to less attractive animals (toad, spider) but is also linked to powerful animals (tiger, wolf). His victims are weaker animals (hinds and lambs).

Birds

Powerful characters are linked to birds of prey, which emphasises their instinct to kill. In comparison, more vulnerable characters are likened to small, weak wrens and swift, light swallows.

Plants

The king should be like a strong and mighty tree, but Richard’s physical deformity is linked to a deformed plant, emphasising his unsuitability for the crown. The young princes are seen as flowers in bud, ‘cut’ too early.

Money

Richard often thinks in financial terms, emphasising how cold and calculating he is (like a greedy miser who wants more and more). There is also reference to legal financial terms (e.g.sue), to suggest that people owe and are owed by others.

Heaven/hell

Richard is often referred to as a devil or minister of hell, indicating he is utterly merciless and without a conscience. In complete contrast, the young princes are angels, to emphasise how wrong Richard was to kill them.

Sun/seasons

Winter is associated with bad times (i.e. dark, cold, damp) while summer is the opposite: Richmond brings the hope of summer back to England. Interestingly, Richard uses summer imagery to woo Anne.

Other images

The play does, of course, include other images, but the above six groups feature most frequently.

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