Past3.3.3 Modern techniques of teaching literary characters through trials
Mock trial based on Tess D’Urbervilles
Another activity based on Tess D’Urbervilles is the one in which students are asked to read the following text: (From Phase the fifth: The Woman Pays)
[…] When he spoke it was in the most inadequate, commonplace voice of the many varied tones she had heard from him Tess!'
́′Yes. dearest′.
′Am I to believe this? From your manner I am to take it as true. O you cannot be out of your mind! You ought to be! Yet you are not … My wife, my Tess – nothing in you warrants' such a supposition as that?' I am not out of my mind, she said′
′And yet – He looked vacantly at her, to resume with dazed sense: 'Why didn't you tell me before? Ah yes, you would have told me, in a way – but I hindered you, I remember!′
These and other of his words were nothing but the perfunctory babble1 of the surface while the depths remained paralyzed. He turned away, and bent over a chair. Tess followed him to the middle of the room where he was and stood there staring at him with eyes that did not weep Presently she slid down upon her knees beside his toot, and from this position she crouched in a heap.
′In the name of our love, forgive me!' she whispered with a dry mouth. 'I have forgiven you for the same!'
′And. as he did not answer, she said again′
′Forgive me as you are forgiven! I forgive you Angel.'
′You – yes. You do.'
'O Tess, forgiveness does not apply to the case You were one person: now you are another My God – how can forgiveness meet such a grotesque – prestidigitation' as that!'
He paused, contemplating his definition: then suddenly broke into horrible laughter – as unnatural and ghastly as a laugh in hell
′Don't – don't! It kills me quite, that!' she shrieked. 'O have mercy upon me – have mercy′.
He did not answer; and. sickly white, she jumped up.
'Angel! Angel! What do you mean by that laugh?' she cried out. Do you know what this is to me?' He shook his head.
′I have been hoping, longing praying to make you happy! I have thought what joy it will be to do it. What an unworthy wife I shall be if I do not! That's what I have felt, Angel!' 'I know that.'
'I thought, Angel, that you loved me – me, my very self! If it is I you do love, O how can it be that you look and speak so? It frightens me! Having begun to love you, I love you for ever – in all changes, in all disgraces, because you are yourself I ask no more. Then how can you, O my own husband, stop loving me?
'I repeat, the woman I have been loving is not you.'
'But who?'
'Another woman in your shape.'
After reading it, the students discuss the following questions:
1. How does Angel react to Tess’ revelation?
2. What is the only thing Tess keeps as a secret from Angel?
3. What is Angel's deep-down reaction when he finds out?
4. What is the main reason for which Angel cannot forgive her?
5. What is Tess’ reaction to Angel's terrible laughter?
6. Why can’t she understand his behaviour on a rational basis?
7. What do you think about Angel's remark that the woman he has been loving is 'another woman' in Tess' shape? Can you consider Angel as being sincere?
8. The title of this part of the hook is 'The Woman Pays'. What general moral do you think Hardy was trying to express?
All these questions and answers will be used as written proofs for the Trial of Tess, a trial done from the perspective of the 21st century. To conduct this trial, I had to prepare the students very well; they were divided into groups, usually of their choice: judge, prosecutor, defence lawyer, bailiff, witnesses, and jury. I have also taught them the specific expressions used in Court, cross-examinations questions, ways of presenting the evidence (especially quotations from the novel) and asked them to think of objects they could bring along in the trial for that purpose.
After this class, I planned a new one in which at the beginning they had to brainstorm on the crimes committed by characters from the previous text. Students worked together as a group to act as the prosecution or defense for the mentioned characters, while also acting as the jury for other groups. Students used several sources to research for their case, including the computer and novel. In the end, as homework, students had to put down an eloquent piece of writing to accompany their trial work.
Dramatic activities, such as imagining a trial for certain characters, encourage students to “reflect on the experience and meaning” of the reading. Students work together to create their own meanings, an essential characteristic of constructivism. Through drama, students create a new world in which the characters, themes, and motivations of the novel combine with and affect students’ understanding of the world in which they live. Most important, students are empowered to see how the themes of literature relate to their own lives.
At the end of the trial, students had to:
• Prove they understood the class reading.
• Write interpretive presentations of the literary characters.
• Use previous knowledge of persuasive devices to a writing piece and a presentation.
• Articulate persuasive arguments about literature.
• Write an essay using a persuasive style.
• Find, interpret and manipulate textual evidence to stand and support one side of an argument.
• Work effectively in groups.
• Prove oral presentation skills.
• Analyze the quality of information used to support an argument.
• Assess objectively their own work.
Development of the mock trial
1. I asked students to brainstorm on what they already know about courts, trials, cases and roles of the people involved within a trial. They used the handouts I previously gave them. (Annex 13)
2. I tried to make students remember famous trials they have knowledge about from media, books, movies etc and describe them.
3. I asked students to identify the similarities and dissimilarities between the trials presented in these different media.
4. I explained the mock trial activity to them: they will take part in a trial inspired by Tess’ situation.
5. When students proved they knew the legal vocabulary provided previous and related information as well as roles in trials, I asked them to brainstorm characters and situations from their current piece of literature that would require a trial. I created an example to begin the discussion.
6. While the students were brainstorming, recording their ideas, they were also asked to make a poster for each character who could have an involvement in the trial. They wrote the character’s name as the main heading of the poster over a two-column chart — one for crimes they committed, the other for its motivation. They hung the charts around the room so the groups could use them during later sessions.
7. I divided the class into small groups, four to five students each.
8. Students kept gathering information on the character criminals and their crimes by moving through the room, from poster to poster. Students were able to list potential crimes—anything the character did that caused problems in the reading.
9. After the students had filled out the character charts, I asked them to examine all of the information that had been compiled. When students completed work on the charts, I invited each group to choose a character to try at the mock trial. I reminded students the roles to pursue and asked each group member to choose a role for the trial. Alternatively, I assigned individual characters along with a role to each group by distributing cards with the character’s name and either “defend” or “prosecute” randomly.
10. Once characters and roles had been selected or assigned, I discussed the expectations and requirements of the trial and the accompanying persuasive writing piece.
11. I walked students through the process, using a think-aloud process that demonstrates for students why they chose the main arguments, how they found information in the text, and how they put it together in a summary of the case.
12. As students were discussing characters and situations from the text, they listened for comments that indicate students were able to identify specific evidence from the story that connects to their trial. The connections that they made between the details in the novel and the details they chose as their supporting reasons for their mock trial and persuasive writing piece would reveal their understanding and engagement with the novel. I monitored student interaction and progressed during group work to assess social skills.
Mock trial based on Julius Caesar
The teacher asks students to read the following fragments from Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare.
BRUTUS
Good countrymen, let me depart alone,
And, for my sake, stay here with Antony:
Do grace to Caesar's corpse, and grace his speech
Tending to Caesar's glories; which Mark Antony,
By our permission, is allow'd to make.
I do entreat you, not a man depart,
Save I alone, till Antony have spoke.
…….
ANTONY
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest–
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men–
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
First Citizen
Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.
Second Citizen
If thou consider rightly of the matter,
Caesar has had great wrong.
Third Citizen
Has he, masters?
I fear there will a worse come in his place.
Fourth Citizen
Mark'd ye his words? He would not take the crown;
Therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious.
After reading, students are asked the following questions:
If you could assign Antony a role in the mocking trial, which one would you choose? What about for Brutus?
What is the role of the rhetorical questions in the fragment? Can you give an answer for them?
Does Antony’s opening speech differ from Brutus’? What does this tell about the characters?
What does Antony feel for the conspirators?
Choose one of the fragments below and say with which one do you agree more?
′ Antony cheapens the ruth, he flatters, he persuades, he deceives, he mocks and he manipulates the sentiments of the crowd.′
′Antony genuinely feels what he is saying and he knows what the crowd is really feeling.′
Which of the participants in the mock trial should use them?
The advantages of using mock trials to analyze a literary character in class are:
– Students improve their use of spoken, written and visual language (e.g. style, vocabulary, literary terms etc.) in order to communicate effectively with numerous audiences and for different reasons.
– Students use a wide range of strategies while learning different writing process elements meant to communicate with different audiences for different purposes.
– Students take part in them as knowledgeable, reflective, creative and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
– Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g. for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
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