Sophocles (c. 496 B.C.E. – 406 B.C.E.) (Ancient Greek: Σοφοκλης) was one of the three great ancient Greek tragedians who, with Aeschylus and Euripides, defined the forms of drama and theater, establishing a literary tradition that influenced not only the drama of the ancient world but of the Western literary tradition to the present day. Every major dramatist—from Seneca to William Shakespeare, from Jean-Baptiste Molière to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe—has been influenced in some degree by Sophocles' conception of tragedy.
The tragedies of Sophocles are less derivative of Homeric fate or the implacable will of the gods than of inherent human limitations. Prefiguring Shakepearean tragedy, Sophocles explores human fallibility, the limits of knowledge, and the susceptibility of the human condition within the cosmic order. In Sophoclean tragedy, the violation of natural law entails its own consequences, but suffering also provides a means of redemption.
Sophocles' protagonists were admired by Aristotle as being "like ourselves only nobler." The plays express deep piety, without superstition. Arrogance, pride, impiety, and the urge for revenge lead men and women into actions that violate the divine order, yet heroic figure surmounts obstacles and injustice through virtues of reverence, courage, and deference to the gods.
Of Sophocles' more than 120 plays, eighteen won first prize in competitions, although only seven have survived. The plots which Sophocles devised have been adapted and re-envisioned countless times throughout history and across the Western world, from Grecian and Roman tragedians, to medieval and Renaissance playwrights, to adaptations of Sophocles which continue to be produced today. He is one of the most influential writers of ancient Greece and among the greatest dramatists in history.
What little is known of Sophocles' life can be gleaned from fragments of other ancient writers, whose works largely have been lost. According to the Suda, Sophocles wrote 123 plays in the dramatic competitions of the Festival of Dionysus (where each submission by one playwright consisted of four plays; three tragedies and a satyr play, a sort of ancient Greek burlesque put on after a series of tragedies to relieve the audience of grief). Sophocles won more first prizes (around 20) than any other playwright, and placed second in all others he participated in (Lloyd-Jones 1994, 8). His first victory was in 468 B.C.E., although scholars are no longer certain that this was the first time that he competed (Scullion 2002).
Only seven of his tragedies have survived complete in the medieval manuscript tradition. The most famous are the three tragedies concerning Oedipus and Antigone: These are often known as the Theban plays or The Oedipus Cycle, although they do not make up a single trilogy. Discoveries of papyri from the late nineteenth century onwards, especially at Oxyrhynchus, have greatly added to our knowledge of Sophocles' works. The most substantial fragment that has so far appeared contains approximately half of a satyr play, The Tracking Satyrs.
Sophocles was born about a mile northwest of Athens in the rural deme (small community) of Colonus Hippius in Attica. His birth took place a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C.E.: The exact year is unclear, although 497 or 496 is perhaps most likely (Lloyd-Jones 1994, 7). The nature of his family life is disputed; it is unknown whether his father, Sophillus, was a carpenter, smith, or swordmaker, of if he owned slaves who pursued such occupations. Young Sophocles won awards in wrestling and music, and was graceful and handsome. He led the chorus of boys (paean) at the Athenian celebration of the victory against the Persians at the Battle of Salamis in 480 B.C.E.
Sophocles enjoyed a public profile outside the theater. In 443/442 he served as one of the Hellenotamiai or treasurers of Athena. The Athenian people elected him as one of the ten generals for 441/440, during which he participated in crushing the revolt of Samos Island. There is some evidence that he was one of the commissioners appointed in 413 B.C.E. as a response to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily (Lloyd-Jones 1994, 12-13). Sophocles also served as a priest for a time.
Like many ancient Greek names, that of Sophocles (Σοφοκλης) has a meaning. A compound of σόφος (sophos) "wise" and κλέος (kleos) "glory," Sophocles' name translates to "famous for wisdom;" considering that his words continue to be studied some 2,500 years after his death, his name has proven to be quite apt.
The Theban Plays
The three Theban Plays, or the Oedipus cycle, Oedipus the King (also known as Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannus), Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone, were written across thirty-six years of Sophocles' career and were not composed in chronological order, but instead were written in the order Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus.
Oedipus the King
Oedipus the King (also known as Oedipus Rex and Oedipus Tyrannos, Oι̉δίπoυς τύραννoς in Greek) is often considered Sophocles’ masterpiece, written in 425 B.C.E., the play was the second of Sophocles' three Theban plays to be produced, but comes first in the internal chronology of the plays, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone. The play was highly esteemed in its time, and has gone on to be even more popular today, in part due to the significance attached to the Oedipus myth by Sigmund Freud.
Sophocles' play treats the myth of Oedipus, son of King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jocasta, also known as Iocaste. Oedipus was a figure from Greek mythology who as an infant was sent to be exposed and left for dead with his ankles bound on a mountainside in an effort to circumvent the oracle's prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. However, he was found and saved by a shepherd and raised in the court of King Polybus of Corinth and his wife Merope. Hearing from an oracle that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother, and believing Polybus and Merope to be his real parents, he left Corinth. Oedipus meets Laius by chance on a road, but does not recognize him; the two get into an argument that descends into a fight, and Oedipus accidentally kills him. Arriving in Thebes, he saves the city from the Sphinx by solving his riddle, "What uses four legs in the morning, two in the day, and three at night?" The answer, of course, is Man, who begins life crawling, then learns to walk, and in old age walks with the aid of a cane. For saving the city his reward is the kingdom of Thebes, including the hand of his mother, Queen Jocasta.
As the play begins, Sophocles joins the story in media res after Thebes has been struck with a plague by the gods in outrage over Oedipus' crimes, patricide and incest. The action of the play centers on Oedipus' investigation into the source of the plague, in which he curses and promises to exile those responsible. Although the blind prophet Tiresias explicitly tells Oedipus at the beginning of the play that he is the cause of the plague, Oedipus at first does not understand. Instead he accuses Tiresias of conspiring with Creon, Jocasta's brother, to overthrow him.
Oedipus then calls for a former servant of Laius, the only surviving witness of the murder, who fled the city when Oedipus became king. Soon a messenger from Corinth also arrives to inform Oedipus of the death of Polybus, whom Oedipus still believes is his real father, until the messenger informs him that he was in fact adopted. In the subsequent discussions between Oedipus, Jocasta, the servant, and the messenger, Jocasta discovers the truth and runs off-stage; Oedipus learns the truth more slowly, but later runs off-stage as well. The Greek chorus fills in the unseen details: Jocasta has hanged herself, and Oedipus, upon discovering her body, blinds himself with the brooches (long gold pins with a pointed end) of her dress. The play ends with Oedipus entrusting his children to Creon and going into exile, as he promised at the beginning.
The play depends heavily on dramatic irony. The irony works at several different levels. First, unlike Oedipus, the audience is already aware of the facts before the play begins. While Oedipus is searching for the cause of the plague, the audience is already aware that he is searching for himself. On another level, every step that Oedipus takes to avoid his fate brings him one step closer to fulfilling it. Then, after having already fulfilled the prophecy, Oedipus and Jocasta discuss the oracle, dismissing it as its prophecies have apparently not come to pass. Sophocles' dramatic technique, using the difference between the audience's awareness of events and those of the characters, have been deployed to create suspense by modern playwrights like Shakespeare and filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock.
Other themes in the play include the ineluctablility of fate and hubris. Oedipus' parents (and Oedipus himself) do everything in their power to avoid the prophecy of the oracle, only to have the very actions they take to avoid their destinies lead them to fulfill it. However, it is not just the capricious will of the gods that lead to Oedipus' downfall. He is a victim of his ignorance, a universal human limitation.
Oedipus at Colonus
In the timeline of the plays, the events of Oedipus at Colonus occur after Oedipus the King and before Antigone. The play describes the end of Oedipus' tragic life. Legends differ as to the site of Oedipus' death; Sophocles set the place at Colonus, a village near Athens and also Sophocles' own birthplace, where the blinded Oedipus has come with his daughters Antigone and Ismene as suppliants of the Eumenides and of Theseus, the king of Athens.
Exiled by Creon, with the collaboration of his sons Eteocles and Polyneices, Oedipus becomes a wandering beggar led by his daughter Antigone. Oedipus enters the village of Colonus and they are approached by a villager, who demands that they leave, because that ground is sacred to the Furies, or Eumenides. Oedipus recognizes this as a sign, for when he received the prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother, Apollo also revealed to him that at the end of his life he would die at a place sacred to the Furies, and be a blessing for the land in which he is buried.
The chorus of old men from the village enters, and although they promise not to harm Oedipus, they wish to expel him from their city, fearing that he will curse it. Oedipus answers by explaining that he is not morally responsible for his crimes, since he killed his father in self-defense. Furthermore, he asks to see their king, Theseus, saying, "I come as someone sacred, someone filled with piety and power, bearing a great gift for all your people." The chorus is amazed, and decides to reserve their judgment of Oedipus until Theseus, king of Athens, arrives.
Theseus arrives and sympathizes with Oedipus, and offers him unconditional aid, causing Oedipus to praise the king and offer him the gift of his burial site, which will ensure victory in a future conflict with Thebes. Theseus protests, saying that the two cities are friendly, and Oedipus responds with what is perhaps the most famous speech in the play. "Oh Theseus, dear friend, only the gods can never age, the gods can never die. All else in the world almighty Time obliterates, crushes all to nothing…" Creon then tries to remove Oedipus but is thwarted by Theseus. The arrival of his son, Polyneices, produces enrages Oedipus, who curses both sons despite the intercession of Antigone. Oedipus tells him that he deserves his fate, for he cast his father out and foretells that his two sons will kill each other in the coming battle. Oedipus soon senses his own impending death and allows only Theseus to witness the event by which he is transformed through his sufferings into a hero and a saint.
While the two other plays about Oedipus often bring up the theme of a person's moral responsibility for their destiny, and whether it is possible to rebel against destiny, Oedipus at Colonus is the only one to address it explicitly. Oedipus vehemently states that he is not responsible for the actions he was fated to commit. Despite being blinded and exiled and facing violence from Creon and his sons, in the end Oedipus is accepted and absolved by Zeus.
Oedipus at Colonus suggests that, in breaking divine law, a ruler’s limited understanding may lead him to believe himself fully innocent; however, his lack of awareness does not change the objective fact of his guilt.
Nevertheless, determination of guilt is far more complex than this, as illustrated by the dichotomy between the blessing and the curse upon Oedipus. He has committed two crimes which render him a sort of monster and outcast among men: Incest and patricide. His physical suffering, including his self-inflicted blindness, and lonely wandering, are his punishment. However, in death, he will be favored; the place in which he dies will be blessed. This suggests that willful action is in some part of guilt; the fact that Oedipus is “rationally innocent”—that he sinned unknowingly—decreases his guilt, allowing his earthly sufferings to serve as sufficient expiation for his sins.
In Sophocles’ drama Antigone, Oedipus’ daughter Antigone is faced with the choice of allowing her brother Polyneices’ body to get eaten by savage dogs or to bury him and face death. The king of the land, Creon, has forbidden the burial of Polyneices for he was a traitor to the city. Antigone decides to bury his body and face the consequences. Eventually, Creon is convinced to free Antigone from her sentence of death, but his decision comes too late and Antigone commits suicide. Her suicide triggers the suicide of two others close to King Creon, his son, Haemon, who loved Antigone, and his wife who commits suicide after losing her only son.
Antigone focuses on the conflicting duties of civic versus spiritual loyalties, the clash of values between Creon and Antigone. Creon advocates obedience to man-made laws while Antigone stresses the higher laws of duty to the gods and one's family. The play is thus one of the most commonly cited supports in Greek tragedy for the supremacy of Natural Law. Creon, the dramatic hero, realizes only after he loses the lives of all his family that he was mistaken to place the law of the state above the law of the gods.
Antigone's determination to bury Polynices arises from a desire to bring honor to her family, not just to the gods. She repeatedly declares that she must act to please "those that are dead" (An. 77), because they hold more weight than any ruler. In the opening scene, she makes an emotional appeal to her sister Ismene saying that they must protect their brother out of sisterly love, even if he did betray their state. Antigone makes very few references to the gods, and so it is very easy to interpret much of her reasoning for honoring higher laws as referencing laws of family honor, not divine laws.
While he rejects Antigone's actions based on family honor, Creon appears to value family heavily himself as well. This is one of the few areas where Creon and Antigone's values seem to align. When talking to Haemon, Creon demands of him not only obedience as a citizen, but also as a son. Creon even goes so far as to say "everything else shall be second to your father's decision" ("An." 640-641). This stance seems extreme, especially in light of the fact that Creon elsewhere advocates obedience to the state above all else. While it is not clear how he would handle these two values in conflict, it is clear that even for Creon, family occupies a place as high if not higher than the state.
Sophocles' plays Ajax, Electra, The Trachiniae, and Philoctetes were adapted from the Homeric cycle. Ajax and recounts the life of the Greek hero, second only to Achilles among the Achaeans who fight against the Trojans. Of heroic strength and valor, Ajax is stained by arrogance and impiety. Claiming that "any coward could win victories with the help of the gods," he dismisses the goddess Athene who comes to encourage him in battle. He is then enraged because the armor of the fallen Achilles armor is awarded to Odysseus. Planning vengeance, he is tricked by Athena into believing that sheep and cattle taken as spoil are the Greek leaders who disgraced him. He slaughters some of them before realizing his folly, and then takes his life out of his humiliation.
Electra is the story of the murders of Electra's father, the Greek king Agamemnon, and mother, Clytemnestra, both involved in treacherous personal betrayals. The story is was also presented by Aeschylus and Euripides, but Sophocles concentrates less on the dark and violent acts than on the character of Electra, whose desire for revenge for her father's murder leads her to conspire in her mother's murder. The Trachiniae concerns the jealousy of Deianeira, the wife of Heracles, but emphasizes her gentleness and devotion in contrast to the volcanic Heracles, who appears near madness in the mistaken belief that his wife sought to kill him.
Philoctetes is a psychological study of a relatively minor Homeric figure. The Greeks had abandoned Philoctetes on the island of Lemnos, because of an incurable wound to his foot. But they learn from an oracle that they cannot capture Troy without his assistance. Represented by Aeschylus as embittered by his sufferings and betrayal, Philoctetes for Sophocles is far more sympathetic, a figure of warmth and generosity who scorns deceit.
In Sophocles' time, the Greek art of the drama was undergoing rapid and profound change. It had begun with little more than a chorus, but earlier playwrights had added first one and then two actors and thereby shifted the action of the plays away from the chorus. Among Sophocles' earliest innovations was the addition of a third actor, further reducing the role of the chorus and creating greater opportunity for character development and conflict between characters. In fact, Aeschylus, who dominated Athenian theater during Sophocles' early career, adopted this third character into his own playwriting towards the end of his life. It was not until after the death of Aeschylus in 456 B.C.E. that Sophocles became the preeminent playwright in Athens. Thereafter, Sophocles emerged victorious in dramatic competitions at 18 Dionysia and 6 Lenaia festivals.
In addition to innovations in the structure of drama, Sophocles' work is known for deeper development of characters than earlier playwrights, whose characters are more two-dimensional and are therefore harder for an audience to relate to. His reputation was such that foreign rulers invited him to attend their courts, although unlike Aeschylus who died in Sicily, Sophocles never accepted any of these invitations. Aristotle used Sophocles's Oedipus the King as an example of perfect tragedy, which suggests the high esteem in which his work was held by later Greeks.
Throughout the The Theban cycle, Sophocles explores the inadequacy of knowledge, the baffling problem of evil visited on the just, and man's capacity to endure suffering. For Sophocles, the world is orderly and follows natural laws, and the violation of natural law necessitates punishment and suffering. Human knowledge is limited, and even the just violate natural law out of ignorance. Suffering follows from wrong actions, but through suffering man can achieve nobility and dignity.
Only two of the seven surviving plays have securely dated first or second performances: Philoctetes (409 B.C.E.) and Oedipus at Colonus (401 B.C.E., put on after Sophocles' death by his grandson). Of the others, Electra shows stylistic similarities to these two plays, and so was probably written in the latter part of his career. Ajax, Antigone, and The Trachiniae are generally thought to be among his early works, again based on stylistic elements, with Oedipus the King coming in Sophocles' middle period.
- The Tracking Satyrs
- The Progeny
- Aias Lokros (Ajax the Locrian)
- Akhaiôn Syllogos (The Gathering of the Achaeans)
- Nauplios Katapleon (Nauplius' Arrival)
- Nauplios Pyrkaeus (Nauplius' Fires)
- Poimenes (The Shepherds)
- Syndeipnoi (The Diners, or The Banqueters)
- Troilus and Phaedra
- Tyro Keiromene (Tyro Shorn)
- Tyro Anagnorizomene (Tyro Rediscovered)
Fragments of The Progeny (Epigonoi) were discovered in April 2005 by classicists at Oxford University with the help of infrared technology previously used for satellite imaging. The tragedy tells the story of the siege of Thebes.
- Sophocles, Sophocles I: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, 2nd ed., David Grene and Richard Lattimore (eds.) (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1991).
- Sophocles, The Three Theban Plays, trans. Robert Fagles (New York: Penguin Books, 1984).
- Freeman, 242-243.
- Aristotle, Ars Poetica.
- Lloyd-Jones, Sir Hugh (ed.). Sophocles. Ajax. Electra. Oedipus Tyrannus. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994.
- Scullion, Scott. “Tragic Dates.” Classical Quarterly new sequence 52 (2002): 81-101.
- Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1870.
All links retrieved November 16, 2019.
- Works by Sophocles. Project Gutenberg
- Studies in Sophoclean Fragments
- Films based on Sophocles plays
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Mark Helmsing and Andrew Vardas-Doane
George Mason University, Fairfax VA
Although the period in human history we call the medieval period ended around the year 1500 CE, we are surrounded by medievalism in our lives today. For most history and social studies educators, a claim such as this does not make sense. We accept the end of the medieval period with the Renaissance, ushering in what we teach our students as the early modern period in our human history. Historians and educators position the medieval period, as a “middle” period used to demarcate Western history, occurs after the end of ancient history and before the period in which we currently live (Arnold, 2008). And yet, as we explain in this paper, medievalism—the icons, images, tropes, and representations of how humans think of that time period—permeates our lives today. Learning to understand medievalism in relation to the broadly defined medieval period and from the specific construct of the European Middle Ages enables our students to develop a sharper sense of periodization and significance within their broader historical thinking.
Because of the elision between fact and fiction, reality and fantasy, history and social studies educators should take seriously the need to point out medievalism with their students and strive to make more visible and explicit the historical inspiration for such representations. In the first half of this article we provide some ways of thinking about medievalism. In the second half of this article we take these aspects of historical thinking related to medievalism and examine how they work in a popular video game and film franchise, Assassin’s Creed, a form of medieval world building that is popular amongst adolescents and young adults (Gilbert, 2017; Hammar, 2017). Our aim with this article to encourage educators to consider some implications for history and social studies educators related to the intersections of popular culture and medievalism as history education.
Approaching Medievalism for Historical Thinking
To assume that the medieval is irrelevant or antiquated, or to discount how medievalism effects our contemporary thought and shapes so many images and ideas in popular culture, is to neglect the significance of properly understanding and accounting for historical periodization (Cole & Smith, 2010). One may think that historical periodization is cut-and-dry as a commonplace of historical thinking. Say “medieval” and we think of courtly love, knights in shining armor, kings and queens residing in large castles (often with moats and drawbridges). My (Author 1) thinking about medievalism as an issue worthy of considering in relation to historical thinking occurred in early 2017 when I spent a semester away from my university duties teaching 7th graders. The topic of the HBO television series Game of Thrones came up in conversation one day and a student remarked that he thought “it must have been awful living back then.” It took me a few seconds to realize that he was engaging in two aspects of historical thinking. First, he assumed that the time period in which the Game of Thrones world is set was a long time ago, ostensibly linking it to the history of the Middle Ages. Secondly, and more importantly (or pressingly, depending on how you look at it), the student was conflating the imaginary fantasy world of Game of Thrones—and entirely fictional world and text—with ‘actually existing’ medieval history from real life. When I pressed him on the matter he said that of course he knew the dragons and White Walkers were not real, but that he assumed what he saw on the television series was what life was like “back then, with all of the kings and stuff.” This conversation set me about to think about what it is we may need to be more explicit about in our curriculum and pedagogy to help students not only to separate fact from fiction, works of fantasy from works of history, but also to help our students be more perspicacious and attentive to when, how, and why aspects of medievalism appear to us throughout art, literature, music, film, theater, and popular culture at large. In this section we offer some reasons for why history and social studies educators should investigate (both professionally for their own historical thinking and with their students) aspects of medievalism and the medieval world.
Examples of Encountering Medievalism in Popular Culture
First, we need to help our students see that we engage with medievalism when we consume media about actually existing persons and events from the medieval period, as in Kingdom of Heaven (2005), a feature film about the Crusades in the 12th century, or in Pippin (1972/2013), a Broadway musical about the eldest son of Charlemagne in the 8th and 9th centuries. Yet we also engage with medievalism when we consume media that is speculative fiction and fantasies using icons, images, tropes, and representations of the medieval world, as in Game of Thrones, a massively popular book and television series about feudal royal houses warring with each other, or in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017), only the latest of several feature films inspired by the Arthurian legends of Camelot, the Round Table, and the Lady in the Lake.
Secondly, we and our students engage with medievalism when we encounter phrases, concepts, and iconographies that remain embedded in Western thought long after the end of the medieval period. For example, when teaching about torture that occurred in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq or the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, we may describe documented examples of torture as “medieval” in their barbarity, despite the fact that much of what we think of as medieval torture did not actually exist until the Tudor period that began with the end of medievalism in the 1500s (Matthews, 2015). To use another example, our notions of chivalry, courtship, and courtly love are concepts that took on distinctive forms as part of a complex code of rules and conduct in the medieval period (Emery & Utz, 2017). These concepts remain in our thought today, as evidenced by news headlines such as “Chivalry isn’t dead” (Fuller-Hall, 2018) and “Stanford professor puts desire in a medieval context” (Marian, 2013). Educators can select some medieval phrases, concepts, and iconographies for students to identify in our current social and political discourse, helping students map these concepts back to the actually existing historical medieval world. For example, in their edited volume Medievalism: Key Critical Terms, Emery and Utz (2017) survey the significance of terms such as feast, gothic, heresy, humor, love, purity, and troubadour, connecting how these concepts existed within the medieval world and how they have maintained their medieval legacy in our contemporary cultures. In investigating these and other concepts of the medieval, students are able to examine the continuity and change of the history of medieval thought in our world. In some cases, regrettably, medieval concepts, ideas, and iconography are taken up to promote repellant nationalist, racist, and supremacist beliefs, such as the adoption of the Templar Knights and runes with Norse warrior mythology and other medieval marks used to signify racial purity by white supremacists (Devega, 2017; Livingstone, 2017; Weill, 2018). Such uses and abuses should also be interrogated and critiqued in history and social studies education, ranging from how we describe something as violent or regressive as being “medieval” to invoking language and associations to the Crusades as Holy Wars with jihads and ISIS/ISIL.
Thirdly, educators and students should realize we place ourselves within contemporary medieval worlds that we often visit in the present, such as medieval fairs and Renaissance fairs or “Ren Fests,” which are anachronistic for many reasons, least of which is that they visually blur and blend the High Middle Ages with Elizabethan England and the European Renaissance. I (Author 1) studied the history of the Middle Ages as a sixth-grade student in a project-based social studies unit where I and my fellow classmates created and hosted a “medieval faire” for the entire school (my contribution was learning to walk on stilts and recite ballads and folk poems). A popular choice for some high school history and/or British literature classes, Renaissance fairs allow visitors to dress in robes, boots, and bodices and converse with strolling troubadours and jolly court jesters. When I (Author 1) taught high school social studies and English courses, I chaperoned a number of field trips to such fairs, often cringing at what I perceived as historically inaccurate cross-periodizations of Elizabethan England, medieval France, and 17th century swashbuckling seafarers and pirates. Nonetheless, watching students marvel at medieval blacksmiths and singing troubadours may make up for the lack of precise periodization.
We also consume medievalism when we cheer on jousting knights while feasting on drumsticks and drinking frothy ales at one of the Medieval Times Dinner and TournamentÒ locations throughout Canada and the United States, notable for their scripted performance’s references to the medieval worlds of the Iberian Peninsula in the characters of King Don Carlos, Princes Catalina, and Lord Ulrich. These and other examples of medieval worldbuilding at public events and themed amusement parks offer ample opportunities for educators to have their students challenge the accuracy, veracity, and legibility of medieval representations in these spaces, calling upon students to think critically (and historically) about how such places and spaces evoke and ‘use’ medievalism.
Finally, medievalism and fantasy as a genre for fiction and popular culture is fully entangled. The many dragons, elves, and giants in the fantasy franchise Dungeons & DragonsÒ have no existing evidence in historical fact, but the bards, monks, and paladins of the fantasy role-playing game are based on actually existing classes of people in the medieval period. Indeed, paladins, (with a name that derives from Palantine, a Latin word for servant) were high-ranking warriors in Charlemagne’s court (Freeman, 2017). The paladins did not, however, roll multi-sided dice when engaged in battle to the best of historians’ knowledge. Because representations of fire-breathing dragons often appear in literature and other mass media in landscapes occupied with castles, villages, dense forests, and feudal farms and fields. In the following section, we investigate the play of the medieval in one example: Assassin’s Creed.
Overview of Assassin’s Creed
With a global gaming market of $70.6 billion in 2012 to a soaring $121.7 in 2017, the market for games and gamers is climbing at an exponential rate. Projections for 2021 peak at over $180 billion dollars spent worldwide. Of the games produced and developed, many carry a medieval theme that draws millions of players each year. One game, Assassin’s Creed serves as an example of how our students may confront medievalism in their everyday lives. Operating as a medieval historical and science fiction twist on real-world events, Assassin’s Creed has sparked a franchise that as of September 2016 has sold over 100 million copies (Makuch, 2016). The latest of ten installments, Assassin’s Creed: Origins ranked as the eighth bestselling game of 2017. Therefore, based upon these numbers and our anecdotal experience of having middle and high school students express their fandom for the video games series and its film adaptation, we use it as an example of popular culture primed for some historical thinking about medievalism.
Plot Structure of Assassin’s Creed
Released in 2007, the first Assassin’s Creed game features a character, Desmond Miles, who is kidnapped by Absergo Industries. This multinational corporate conglomerate forces Desmond to use a device called an animus to (re)live the memories of his ancestors through memories stored in his genes. He is thrown back in time to the twelfth century following the Third Crusade to Masyaf Castle (an actual medieval castle in present-day Syria) where he must live out the life of his ancestor who belongs to the Assassin Order. The plot revolves around a historical conflict between the Assassins and the Knights Templar, suggesting that students actively confront historical markers and significance about the Knights Templar, the Crusades, and Holy Wars in medieval Europe and what we now identify as the Middle East. In the video game, the goal of the Templars is to create world peace by subjugating the human race who they believe are incapable of ruling themselves without barbarism. The assassins fight against this stripping of free will and believe in the progression of new ideas and individuality. As a character in the game, the player progresses the storyline of his forefather, learning more about the history of the world and the conflict between the two factions (IGN, 2012).
As the player continues through the game, Desmond finds out Absergo Industries is the modern face of the Knights Templar who are attempting to have Desmond lead them to ancient objects of power called Pieces of Eden. These artifacts were created by a primeval race of Homo sapiens divinus, a highly advanced humanoid species. This race, termed the Isu, genetically modified the homo genus species in order to create a force of slave-labor. Using the Pieces of Eden, devices interacting with neurotransmitters in the minds of humans, they controlled humans until Adam and Eve escaped and began humanity as it is known today. The epic battle between the Templars and Assassin Order exists as a repercussion to the fall of the Isu and the eventual use of Pieces of Eden by humans against humans. The Templars, believing freedom leads to chaos, hope to use the artifacts to eliminate autonomy. The Assassins exist to prevent that dream from becoming a reality (Assassin’s Creed Wiki, 2018).
Problematizing the Knights Templar in Assassin’s Creed
Using the Assassin’s Creed plotline as a teaching tool for exploring medievalism encourages teachers and students to enact a critical media literacy with existing historical thinking skills and approaches. Throughout the gameplay, many deaths of actually existing historical figures are changed to assassinations to keep in with the themed narrative of the storyline. Acknowledging this plot device as an adaptation of history helps students identify historical errors, but also to be alert to when popular culture gets the history of the Middle Ages right and when it gets it wrong. Shifting students’ historical perspectives to view a real military order, the Knights Templar, portrayed as a power-hungry collection of world dominating fanatics can confuse and inspire conspiracy where no evidence is evident. The disbanding of the Knights Templars in 1312 at the behest of Pope Clement V marks the end of their historical timeline, despite, however, their continued presence in (questionable) usage amongst contemporary subgroups and populations as mentioned earlier in this article. This, unsurprisingly, takes on what we deem to be a concerningly problematic stance within the video game. The assassinations necessary to complete the game are made out to be necessary evils in order to protect the human race from the Templars. The historical record from the Middle Ages informs us that the real ‘assassins’ were a small Muslim Shiite sect, the Nizari Ismailis. Known as heretics by both Sunnis and Shiites, this group’s origin can be traced to immediately preceding the First Crusade during the crisis of the Fatamid Caliphate (Liebel, 2009).
Contextualizing History in Assassin’s Creed
Almost all the historical content in the movie is a complete fabrication. Claims that major players in history such as Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, Mahatma Gandhi, and Genghis Khan used Pieces of Eden to further their agendas can leave players questioning their understanding of historical reality. There are, however, two accurate representations that can be used in the social studies classroom to help further students’ understanding of medieval times and see medievalism in action.
First, as mentioned previously, students can learn about the real Masyaf Castle. This castle exists in partial ruin and is in modern day Syria near the Mediterranean Sea. It served as a base of operations of sorts for a guild of assassins identified as the Nizari Ismailis during and following the Third Crusade (1189-1192 CE). The game’s developers worked tirelessly to make their depictions of main cities (Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus) as accurate as possible. Ubisoft hired a team of historians to advise on their gameplay and narrativization to make sure the layout and worldbuilding appear historically suitable. Using the game as an exploration and inquiry tool would be an application of critical media literacy for exploring medievalism in popular culture.
Standing alone without an educator to intervene in offering some historical contextualization, Assassin’s Creed is, unsurprisingly, a weak classroom resource for history and social studies educators. As an example of medievalism for our students in the 21st century, it offers much to consider, deconstruct, and critique. We argue the game can be used as a springboard for students interested in history resulting from their engagement in the game’s fictitious portrayals of historical events through elements of historical fantasy and fiction. We urge educators to be cautious in discounting the game’s appeal to student, suggesting instead that educators become more alert to which aspects of medievalism appeal to our students and to find out how and why. Expanding upon this foundation and using the inaccurate storyline as a method for introducing historical accuracies could be exciting for students. With ten games set in time periods ranging from Ptolemaic Egypt to the American and French Revolutions to the Industrial Revolution and the Russian Revolution, a curriculum created around something akin to “The Truth Behind the Assassin’s Creed Histories” could be an engaging and productive avenue for educators. The curriculum would have the added benefit of exploring historically accurate renditions of cities such as London, Venice, Florence, Alexandria, Memphis, Jerusalem, Spain, Istanbul, and Paris.
In closing, we offer a final thought from medievalist Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. The idea of the medieval and its immortal memorialization and representation across our cultural, political, and experiential encounters in everyday life can cultivate in students the idea that the medieval is “alluringly strange” and also “discomfortingly familiar” (Cohen, 2000, p. 3). It is something we hope will keep our students’ interests in the past alive.
Arnold, J.H. (2008). What is medieval history? Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.
Assassin’s Creed Wiki. (2018). Retrieved from http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Assassin%27s_Creed_Wiki
Cohen, J.J. (Ed.) (2000). The postcolonial Middle Ages. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Cole, A. & Smith, D.V. (Eds.) (2010). The legitimacy of the Middle Ages: On the unwritten history of theory. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Devega, C. (2017, December 1). Alt-right catches knight fever—but medieval scholars strike back. Salon. Online.
Emery, E. & Utz, R. (2017). Medievalism: Key critical terms. Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer.
Freeman, E. (2017). Charles the Great, or just plain Charles: Was Charlemagne a great medieval leader? Agora, 52(1), 10-19.
Fuller-Hall, S. (2018, February 13). Chivalry isn’t dead. The Sundial. Online.
Gilbert, L. (2017). “The past is your playground”: The challenges and possibilities of Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate for social education. Theory & Research in Social Education, 45(1), 145-155.
Hammar, E.L. (2017). Counter-hegemonic commemorative play: Marginalized pasts and the politics of memory in the digital game Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry. Rethinking History, 21(3), 372-395.
IGN. (2012, October 26). Assassin’s Creed in 5 minutes [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnfg1rDmNIw
Kain, E. (2018, January 19). The best-selling video games of 2017. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2018/01/19/the-best-selling-video-games-of-2017/#31d639366226
Kim, D. (2017, August 28). Teaching Medieval Studies in a time of white supremacy. In the Middle. Online.
Liebl, V. (2009). The caliphate. Middle Eastern Studies, 45(3), 373-391.
Livingstone, J. (2017, August 15). Racism, medievalism, and the white supremacists of Charlottesville. The New Republic. Online.
Makuch, E. (2016). Assassin’s Creed Franchise Reaches 100 Million Copies Sold. Retrieved from https://www.gamespot.com/articles/assassins-creed-franchise-reaches-100-million-copi/1100-6443544/
Marian, V. (2013, February 11). Stanford professor puts desire in a medieval context. The Stanford Report. Online.
Matthews, D. (2015). Medievalism: A critical history. Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer.
Sapieha, C. (2015). How historians and artists crafted a ‘highly authentic impression’ of London for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Retrieved from https://business.financialpost.com/technology/gaming/how-historians-and-artists-crafted-a-highly-authentic-impression-of-london-for-assassins-creed-syndicate Weill, K. (2018, July 27). The alt-right is taking over Renaissance fairs. Daily Beast. Online.


Week 25 - 16.03.20
Please see below links to find out what we have been learning in maths and English.
Friday 20th March 2020
Thursday 19th March 2020
Week 24 - 09.03.20
We've had a very busy week this week!
We celebrated Science Week and began the week by coming into school dressed as scientists! On Monday, we had a brilliant Science workshop with 'Supersonic Sue' and learnt all about sweets! We experimented with some of the ingredients and flavours used in sweets, and then looked at diffusion using skittles and water.
Week 23 - 02.03.20
This week, we celebrated World Book Day! On Thursday, we came into school dressed in our pyjamas and brought along our favourite books from home. We had a fabulous day sharing our favourite stories! Thank you to all for taking part!
In English, we have been retelling the story of 'Beegu'. We discussed that fiction books have a beginning, middle and ending. We began by writing the beginning of the story and focused on using the skill of adding the suffixes (-ed and -ing) to words. We discovered that a suffix is a letter or group of letters that can be added to the end of a word to make a new word.
- by adding -ed to the root word crash, we can make a new word - crashed.
-by adding -ing to the root word fly, we can make a new word - flying.
We then moved on to writing the middle of the story, ensuring we used conjunctions such as and, but and or. Following this, we wrote the ending of the story, with a focus on including verbs, and as a challenge some of us tried to include adverbs.
In Science, we have been learning about the different foods that animals eat. We discovered that animals can be grouped in three ways, depending on their diet.
1. Carnivores - only eat meat.
2. Herbivores - only eat plants.
3. Omnivores - eat both meat and plants.
We completed jigsaw puzzles to match facts to the correct animal group.
Week 22 - 24.02.20
It has been a busy first week back for Kingfisher Class!
We performed our Class Assembly on Tuesday afternoon - a production of Jack and the Beanstalk. The children were absolutely magnificent and did incredibly well to learn their parts and remember the songs after the half term break. We were very proud of each and every one of them. Thank you to those of you who came to watch and join us for our afternoon of learning.
Kingfisher Class had a shock when we arrived at school on Wednesday morning because there had been a mystery visitor to the classroom over night! We searched for clues to work out who it could have been, and came to the conclusion it was somebody from another planet! It just so happens that our new text in English s about an alien called Beegu - we decided that it must have been her that had made the mess in our classroom!
After we cleaned up, we looked at the front cover of 'Beegu' and made some predictions about what the book could be about. We then read part of the book and realised that Beegu speaks another language. We used inference skills to think about what Beegu could be saying when she finds herself lost and alone on Earth. Following this, we used role play to act out the story, before sequencing the story using pictures from the book.
In history, we started our topic - The Queen's Memories. We learned about the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan. We watched a video of the wedding and then re-enacted it using role play. Following this, we did some hot seating, where we interviewed Harry and Meghan to find out more about them. We then recorded a timeline of events, including different key dates.
Week 21 - 10.02.20
In English this week, we have been learning about Question Poems. We found out that these poems include a range of questions and a repeated statement. We looked at a picture stimulus and came up with different questions we would like to find out the answer to. We then started to use these questions in our own poems. For example:
Where is the house?
I need to find out.
Who lives in the house?
I need to find out.
When was it built?
I need to find out.
Why is it in a forest?
I need to find out.
Week 20 - 03.02.20
This week in English, we have been planning our own diary entries, based on Owl Babies. We used talk for writing to create a story map of a diary entry from Mother Owl's point of view. We revisited time conjunctions, and remembered that these are used at the beginning of a sentence to tell the reader when something is happening. We discussed that they are important in a diary entry because a recount of the day must be in chronological order. We created our own bank of time conjunctions, which included: First, Next, Then, After that and Finally.
In maths, we have been learning about subtraction. We remembered that when subtracting, we always take the smaller number away from the bigger number. We subtracted using pictorial representations, before moving on to subtraction using a number line.
On Friday, we celebrated Number Day. Our day was based on the maths book 'How Big is a Million?' and we enjoyed a whole day of maths activities!
Week 19 - 27.01.20
It's a been a busy week of learning in Kingfisher Class!
In English, we have been learning about the features of a diary entry. We discussed what we would expect to see in a diary entry, and started to explore how we would write our own, from the point of view of Mother Owl in Owl Babies. We used hot seating to explore where Mother Owl could have gone when she disappeared from the nest, and discussed how she may have felt when she was away. Following this, we learned about the skill of writing in the past tense, as this is an important part of writing a diary entry.
In maths, we have been learning about addition. We added 1-digit and 2-digit numbers in different ways, using numicon, a number line, part-part whole models and ten frames. We remembered that when adding two numbers together, it is easiest to start with the biggest number and then count on forwards to add the smaller number.
This week it has been Art Week! We have been learning all about Vincent van Gogh, and focused on learning about his famous painting 'Sunflowers'. At the beginning of the week, we learnt the skill of sketching and started to sketch our own vases and sunflowers, focusing on line and shape. We then learned about primary, secondary and tertiary colours, and experimented with colour mixing. We moved on to using acrylic paint to paint our own versions of Van Gogh's Sunlfowers, on a canvas! The results were absolutely fantastic - Miss Curtis and Mrs Dove were very proud of Kingfisher Class!
Week 18 - 20.01.20
What a brilliant week we have had!
In English, we have been writing a retell of the story Owl Babies. We learned that a fiction story is made up of a beginning, middle and end. We discussed that the beginning is where the scene is set and the characters are introduced, the middle is where a problem arises and, at the end, a solution is found. We identified each of these features in the story and then retold each part, focusing on different skills.
For the beginning of the story, we included adjectives to describe the setting, and also challenged ourselves to use adjectives ending in -er (comparatives), and -est (superlatives). We then went on to lean about different conjunctions, such as 'and', 'but' and 'or', which can be used to join word or clauses together.
In maths, we have been finding one more and one less of numbers up to 100! We used number lines and hundred squares to support us with this, until we became more secure with working the answer out mentally. We remembered that when finding one more than a given number, we count forwards one, and when finding one less, we count backwards one.
We answered some varied fluency questions and some of us moved onto reasoning and problem solving questions.
In Geography, we have been learning about the capital cities of the United Kingdom. We found out their names and identified where they are located on a map. We were also lucky enough to have a visit from Steve, who came in and did a drama workshop with us, based on the the countries and cities of the United Kingdom. We really enjoyed ourselves!
Week 17 - 13.01.20
It's been another busy week in Kingfisher Class.
In English, we have been learning how to write a setting description. We found out that a setting is the place where a story is taking place, and we based our writing on the woodland setting of our key text 'Owl Babies'. We went for a walk to Trent Mill Nature Reserve to experience the things we might see, hear, and feel in a woodland. We gained lots of ideas and vocabulary for our writing. We focused on including adjectives and verbs in our setting descriptions, and we started to include a variety of sentence openers to make our sentences more interesting for the reader.
In Geography, we celebrated the start of our new topic 'Our Queen's Country' by having a WOW afternoon tea party! We found out who the Queen is and enjoyed some afternoon tea treats! During our party, we wore royal crowns, waved British flags and sang the National Anthem!
Thank you for your contributions - they were very much appreciated!
Week 16 - 6.1.20
We have a had a busy first week back!
In English, we started our new key text 'Owl Babies'. We began the week by reading the story and retold the main events using role play. We then sequenced the story using talk for writing and independently ordered images from the text. Following this, we thought about the different emotions the Owl Babies would have been feeling when Mother Owl disappeared from the nest, and thought of some questions we could ask the Owl Babies during our hot seating lesson! Finally, we wrote a character description of Mother Owl, focusing on her appearance and the things she does. We thought of lots of adjectives and verbs to include in our writing!
Week 15 - 16.12.19
What an amazing week we have had to end a fabulous half term!
A massive well done to Kingfisher Class for their wonderful performance in our KS1 production 'Christmas Around the World' - you made us very proud!
This week, we have been showcasing our creativity by making our own calendars for the year ahead, and we also designed our own Christmas/winter-themed cards to take home.
In RE, we learned about the Nativity Story. We sequenced the story and created our own storyboard to retell the main events. We also researched the history of the Christmas tree, and found out that this idea came to the UK from Germany!
Finally, we had an end of term party to celebrate what has been a brilliant term of hard work and progress!
Enjoy a well-earned rest over the Christmas break and we will see you next year!
Week 14 - 09.12.19
This week has been very busy indeed! Alongside our lessons, we have been finding time to rehearse our KS1 nativity play 'Children of the World'. Kingfisher Class have worked extremely hard to remember all of the words to our songs, and we have shown how beautiful our singing voices can be! We cannot wait to perform our production on Monday!
Week 13 - 2.12.19
We have had a fantastic week of learning in Kingfisher Class.
In English, we have been writing our own non-chronological reports about brown bears. We began by researching the appearance of brown bears and thought of lots of adjectives we could use to describe them. Afterwards, we moved onto describing their diet, making sure to include different verbs (e.g. eat, catch and hunt). Finally, we described their habitat, and we focused on including conjunctions such as 'and', 'but' and 'or'.
Week 12 - 25.11.19
It has been another busy and exciting week in Kingfisher Class!
In English, we have been learning about non-chronological reports. We found out that these are non-fiction texts which are not written in time order. We looked at some examples of non-chronological reports to see if we could identify the different features.
Following this, we started to write our own reports all about brown bears! We researched some interesting facts and wrote an introductory paragraph.
In Maths, we have been learning about multiplication. We have been focusing on counting in multiples of 2, 5 and 10. We began by counting in 2's, 5's and 10's using pictures, and then moved onto varied fluency questions such as missing number problems.
In Science, we carried out an investigation to find out which everyday materials are waterproof. We discussed which materials we should test, and how we would make sure the experiment was fair. We each made a prediction to guess which material would be most waterproof and then carried out our experiment. We dropped water on top of different materials to see if they let the water absorb through or not. We recorded our results in a table and then wrote a conclusion.
We found out that plastic and tin foil were both waterproof.
Week 11 - 18/11/19
We have had a fantastic week in Kingfisher Class!
On Wednesday, we were treated to a trip to the cinema to watch Abominable, thanks to our magnificent class attendance! The children thoroughly enjoyed their morning out and their behaviour was exemplary. We are now aiming to beat our current attendance record!
In English this week, we have been learning how to use adjectives to describe Goldilocks' appearance, and how we can use verbs to describe her behaviour and actions. We will be applying what we have learnt to create a 'Wanted' poster, to help the three bears find Goldilocks!
Week 10 - 11/11/19
This week in English we started our new key text - Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We began the week by using role play to act out the story and correctly sequence the main events. We then started to retell the story in our own words. For the beginning of the story we discussed that it is important to describe the setting, so we focused on the use of adjectives to describe where the three bears live. For the middle part of the story, we focused on trying to include adjectives that end with -er (comparatives) and -est (superlatives). We came up with words such as bigger/smaller and biggest/smallest to describe and compare the size of the bears' bowls, chairs and beds. For the ending of the story, our focus was on using words containing the prefix -un, such as unhappy and unkind. Many of these concepts were new to the children, and all did amazingly well to include them in their writing!
In maths, we have been learning about number bonds (two numbers that add together to make a certain number). We used practical apparatus such as numicon, cubes and counters to help us find different number bonds for a given number. We began by looking for number bonds within 10, before moving onto number bonds within 20.
This week was Design and Technology week! As our topic is Street Detectives, we decided to spend our D & T lessons designing and making our very own bottle kilns! We began the week by researching what bottle kilns are, what they look like and what they were used for. We then designed our own bottle kilns, focusing on the main features, and thought about what materials and equipment we would need to make them. On Friday, we had a special visit from a ceramic expert, who taught us how to make bottle kilns and factories using clay! We had so much fun learning new skills and the finished pieces were amazing! Well done to everyone!
Week 9 - 4.11.19
A warm welcome back to all of Kingfisher Class - I hope you have had a fantastic break!
This week in maths, we have been learning about fractions. To begin with, we learned how we would find one half of an object. We did this by cutting a piece of food into two equal halves, and were then able to explain that one half is just one of those pieces. Following this, we were finding one half of a quantity. We learned that in order to find one half of a number of objects, we would need to equally share the objects between two groups. To find one half we then counted how many objects there were in one group.
We then moved onto finding one quarter of an object, by cutting an object into four equal parts and selecting just one. Afterwards, we found one quarter of a quantity, by sharing objects fairly between four groups, and then counting how many we have in just one group.
In English, we have been writing our own bonfire night senses poetry! We watched some videos of fireworks to help us copy the movement of fireworks in our role play. We then used instruments to copy some of the sounds that fireworks make!
Afterwards, we began to discuss what adjectives we can use to describe what fireworks and bonfires look like (e.g. dazzling, bright, shimmering and colourful), and then used onompatopoeia (e.g. boom, bang, pop and crackle) to describe the sounds that they make.
Using the senses, see, hear, smell and feel, we wrote some descriptive sentences about bonfire night and used features such as repetition to create our poetry.
In Science, we started our new topic of 'Everyday Materials'. We went on a material hunt in our classroom to find as many different materials (e.g. wood, plastic, glass, metal and fabric) as possible. Once we had collected a range of objects, we sorted them into different groups, based on the material they were made from. We recorded our findings in a table.
Week 8 - 21.10.19
Our final week of this half term has been a busy one!
Thank you Kingfisher Class for all of your hard work over our first half term - I hope you enjoy a well deserved break!
In maths, we have been learning about shapes. We began the week by naming a variety of 2D shapes and went on a shape hunt around school to see how many different 2D shapes we could spot in our environment. We even made a tally chart to show which shapes were the most common! We then investigated the properties of 2D shapes, and looked at features such as number sides, number of corners and the length of sides. After this, we named some 3D shapes, and as a class, identified some properties, which included: number of faces, number of vertices and number of edges.
In English, we have been doing some creative writing. We asked ourselves the question 'If you could climb to the top of a beanstalk, where would you go?'. We discussed the things we may see, hear and feel in our chosen place.The children came up with some fabulous ideas! We then produced a piece of descriptive writing to describe our magical destination at the top of the beanstalk, and made sure to include lots of adjectives and verbs in our writing.
Week 7 - 14.10.19
We've had a fun week of learning in Kingfishers Class!
In Maths, we have been learning about subtraction. We started the week using bead strings to help us solve subtraction problems, before moving onto using a number line. We learnt that when subtracting we count along the number line backwards. After this, we used ten frames to subtract pictorially, and finally had a go at solving some subtraction word problems!
In English, we have been learning about how to write a letter. We found out about the features of a letter and labelled the different features on a letter of our own. We then imagined that we were Jack (from Jack and the Beanstalk) and wrote a letter of apology to the giant for stealing his belongings! We remembered to include all of the features we learned about.
Week 6 - 07.10.19
Once again it's been a busy week in Kingfishers Class.
In English, we carried on learning about instructions. We started the week by finding out what time conjunctions are. We discovered that they tell us when something is happening, and in a set of instructions, they usually come at the very beginning of the sentence.
1. First, hang your coat on your peg.
2. Next, put your reading book in your tray.
3. Finally, sit on the carpet.
We then started to plan how we would write our own set of instructions (how to grow a magic beanstalk), ready for our published write! We decided that our instructions should include time conjunctions and imperative (bossy) verbs, and our sentences should start with a capital letter and end with a full stop.
Week 5 - 30.09.19
It has been another exciting week in Kingfishers Class!
In English we have been learning about instructions. We began the week by looking at the features of instructions, and then moved on to learning about imperative (bossy) verbs. We found out that imperative verbs are used near the beginning of a sentence and tell the reader what to do. We then worked in teams to follow a set of instructions and planted our very own magic beans! We can't wait to find out what grows!
Week 4 - 23.09.19
In English - this week we have been using adjectives (describing words) to describe the giant in our story Jack and the Beanstalk. We created a bank of vocabulary to describe his appearance - what he looks like and then his personality - what type of person he is. There were some brilliant ideas that Kingfishers came up with together and next week we will be writing a character description including all of their ideas!
In Maths - we have been finding one more and one less than a number. It's important to remember if we are finding more than a number it is going to get bigger as we count forwards and if we are finding one less than a number it is going to get smaller as we count backwards.
We have practised this practically, pictorially and finally solved some challenging reasoning problems.
In Science this week we have continued to learn about the four seasons and which months of the year are found in each season. We learn a season song and played a great game to test our memory!
Week 3 - 16.09.19
It has been a busy and fun week in Kingfishers class! In English this week we have been completing our retell of the story Jack and the Beanstalk. We have really got to know the story well and Kingfishers have been working hard to put their ideas into sentences.
Our steps to success for super sentences include: Using finger spaces between words, starting sentences with capital letters and ending sentences with a full stop. We have spent some time this week revisiting those important full stops and why we need to use one after each idea we write.
In Maths we have been counting forwards and backwards to 100. We have used number lines and numicon to help us and remembering that when we count forwards the number gets larger and when we count backwards the number gets smaller.
In Science this week we were lucky to have a workshop with Steve who helped us to role play the 4 different seasons. This was a brilliant start to our topic and got us all thinking about the weather in each season and what important events happen.
Week 2 - w.c. 09.09.19
This week we have been very busy getting stuck into our Year 1 timetable! Kingfishers have all worked really hard this week to be focused on learning tasks and work hard - well done!
In Maths - we have been representing numbers in a variety of ways. We have represented numbers as objects, we have represented numbers with numicon, we have represented numbers with pictures and finally written numbers as words.
In English we have been learning all about our story Jack and the Beanstalk! We have practised our role play skills by creating freeze frames from the story. We practised using our bodies to create a character and our facial expression. Towards the end of the week we have begun to write our own version of the story remembering those all important capital letters, finger spaces and full stops that are needed in every sentence.
During our afternoon Encompass we have discussed where we live and the wider world around us. We now know that Hanley is a town, Stoke-on-Trent is a city, England is a country and finally Earth is a planet!
Great learning this week, well done!
w.c. 02.09.19 - Week 1
Welcome to Kingfisher class!
We have had a wonderful first week together with the children finding their feet and settling into their new year 1 classroom. We have had lots of fun getting to know each other and I have loved learning all about each Kingfisher with their 5 items from home. Thankyou for your support with this parents/carers it was a great opportunity for speaking and listening!
We have been very busy creating pieces of writing and art to make our new classroom personal and looking fabulous. We have also been for a local walk around our school and the surrounding environment to make ourselves familiar. We had a great walk in the sunshine and spotted places such as a doctors surgery, Emma Bridgewater factory, bottle kilns, schools, the canal, church and local shops. All of this research will help us with our new Street Detectives topic.
Things to remember in Year 1:
Our P.E. day is Wednesday
Reading and Spellings need to be practised 5 times a week to support learning
1 piece of Maths homework will be given on a Friday to be completed over the weekend and returned for the following Wednesday.
If you would like your child to be able to drink water throughout the day they need to bring a water bottle to school.
Thankyou for your support with this, the practise at home will get your Kingfisher off to a flying start at Waterside!
It has been another busy week full of fun in Kingfishers class!
In English - we have been putting our instructions together for How to be a Pirate. We have written the introduction, list of equipment, instructions and finally a top tip for the reader! Next week we will be publishing our final instructions ready to share with the rest of the class!
In Maths - we have been measuring mass. We have measured in non-standard unit using cubes, we started by predicting how heavy we thought a range of classroom objects would be from teddies to glue sticks and then tested out our predictions.
In Music this week we had a special treat Adam in our class confidently taught us a wonderful song in Polish! Kingfishers loved learning from their friend.
This week we have also been on our trip to the park! Kingfishers loved learning all about the boggarts that can be found in the park and making their own boggart friends! We have also enjoyed Sports day, thank you to all parents that were able to come and support Kingfishers had the best morning!
Week 35 - w.c. 17.06.19
It has been an exciting week in Kingfishers class! In English - we have been describing Jim the pirate! Using expanded noun phrases but still trying to make our sentences as interesting as possible!
Rather than simply say: Jim has long, unwashed hair. We can extend this to become: Jim has long, unwashed hair that has never been cut before. Jim has long, unwashed hair that is crawling full of tiny bugs!
In Maths we have been solving place value problems. Answering true or false problems and giving explanation for our answers.
False because 11 + 14 = 25. The Kingfishers then proved their brilliant answers with dienes.
We have also had so much fun celebrating Pirate Day this week! Kingfishers created their own pirate names, drew a treasure map for hidden treasure in Waterside school, met a real pirate, completed a treasure hunt, pirate obstacle course and finally found a giant treasure chest pinata full of treats to share!
Week 34 - w.c. 10.06.19
In English this week we have been writing our retell of the story - The Pirates Next Door. Now we are in Summer term and approaching the end of year one and two we are focusing on including all of our wonderful writing skills. Kingfishers have worked extremely hard this week to ensure that they have included as many of our key writing skills as they can:
After Kingfishers had wrote their amazing retells of the story, on Friday we worked as a class to edit and improve sentences that sometimes need a sprinkle of magic!
In Maths we have been continuing with our fraction work. This week we have been focusing on finding 1/4 of amounts! This follows the same rules as finding 1/2 except this time we look at the denominator which is 4 and share into 4 parts. We have practised this using objects, shapes, pictorial representations and finally solving word problems!
During our afternoon curriculum in Art we have been learning all about the famous artist Georges Seurat. He became famous for his technique of pointillism. This involved using dots with pens or paint to create an effect. Kingfishers have been practising their pointillism skills
and creating their own piece of art in this style. Here are some of Georges Seurat's pieces:
Week 33 - w.c. 04.06.19
It has been a great week back in Kingfishers class! Alongside Eid celebrations we have enjoyed getting stuck back into learning!
In English - we have been introduced to our new story - The Pirates Next Door.
Kingfishers have loved learning about the pirates in our new story and we have spent the week getting to know and understand the story. We have hotseated characters, role played the story, answered a range of VIPER questions all ready to retell and improve the story next week!
In Maths - we have been recapping fractions! We have spent the week finding half 1/2 of objects, shapes and pictorial representations.
It is important to remember when finding a 1/2 we are interested in 1 part of the whole amount 2.
In Encompass we have been investigating lighthouses, where they began and why they are mostly white and red! Kingfishers loved becoming researchers and writing their ideas.
Have a lovely weekend
Week 31 - w.c. 13.05.19
This week in English we have been to the rainforest! The setting of our story - Grandad's Island. We have been taking our time with presentation and vocabulary to become wonderful writing wizards! We have been using verbs and adverbs to describe what the plants and animals in the rainforest are doing. Look at this amazing word bank we created together:
We have also looked at what happens to the verb when it has happened in past tense:
In Maths - we have been problem solving! We have worked on reading the questions carefully to understand what the question is asking us to do. We also have to check we have answered all parts of the question, because some maths questions can have 2 or 3 parts!
In Encompass and Science - we have explored the different habitats there are around the world - desert, Arctic, grasslands, ocean, rainforest, pond and woodland. We hunted around the room for the animals and plants that belonged in our habitat, lots of great team work skills from Kingfishers! We have also looked at the human features that are found at the seaside.
We have discussed as a group why these features have improved the seaside. Lots of lovely suggestions were given such as: "The fishing boats mean that people can go and catch fish for people to eat!" "The lighthouse helps to keep everybody safe." "The shops mean give jobs to the people who live there."
Have a great weekend!
Week 30 - w.c. 3rd May
Well it has been a busy week this week for Kingfisher class! In English we have been completing our retell of Grandad's Island. We are working hard to include all of our year 1 and year 2 writing skills now we are in


The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. It tells the story of Pip, who is able to leave behind his humble origins and fulfil his ambitions of becoming a gentleman thanks to the largesse of an unnamed benefactor. It has inspired numerous film and television adaptations, including a BBC mini-series in and a feature film in Charles Dickens was one of the best-known and most acclaimed novelists of Victorian England.
He was also a prominent social critic, and frequently used his writing to denounce the injustices faced by the poor and vulnerable in 19 th -century Britain, as well as campaigning tirelessly for social reform. He was a prolific writer, and published many novels, novellas, short stories and non-fiction articles. Tags: 19th century literaturearistocracyBildungsromanBritish literatureCharles Dickensguiltpovertysocial classessocial criticismunrequited love. He was also a prominent social critic, and frequently used his writing to denounce the injustices faced by the poor and vulnerable in 19th-century Britain, as well as campaigning tirelessly for social reform.
This clear and detailed page reading guide is structured as follows Read more. Already subscribed? Click here. Find the right plan for you. BrightSummaries Standard. BrightSummaries Premium.Charles Dickens was no stranger to criticizing society or social commentary in his writings and Great Expectations is no exception. Throughout the novel, Pip meets all sorts of people that either help guide him or hinder his journey along the way.
This includes everything from something as unassuming as their names to descriptions of their physical appearance or a narration of their background. The language that is used to describe each character is also important, as it reveals even more about the character that is being described.
The language that Dickens uses to describe each character gives the reader more insight into their place in society and gives more knowledge of their identity. The use of imagery conveys more about character identity and adds to the commentary of English society during this time period.
Character names are an important part of the class politics and the theme of identity that is found in Great Expectations. Each main character has a name with a specific meaning that adds to who they are in the story.
For example, the main protagonist of the story, Pip, has a nickname that translates to a small, hard seed.
This is important to the story because the entire novel is focused around his journey of growth. Some of the characters that he interacts with represent the ground around him while others represent the water that will help him grow. As for societal commentary, Pip represents the vertical economic climb that the lower class was now able to achieve during the industrial revolution. Along with this leap came a change in the way he is perceived in society. When Pip first encounters Herbert Pocket, shortly after acquiring some of this wealth, he suggests that Pip does not have a name fitting for a London gentleman.
His class identity shifts in the narrative during this point. Pip is nothing more than a nickname, but it is hard on the ears of his high society fellows.
Even his birth name Phillip does not suit that of a gentleman in the eyes of Mr. Stella, in Italian, means star. This is exemplified by the way she treats those around her. Can the candle help it? She knows that she is pretty and uses that to her advantage. This leads to the commentary on identity that is present when describing Estella. She is a representation of the stereotype that the rich are snobby and disrespectful to those that are part of a lower class than they are.
Apart from names, Dickens also uses other characters to point out the changes in identity for the main characters. The way that other characters interact with the protagonist reveal more about the shifts in identity that take place in the novel.
In this scene, Pip is putting a knife in his mouth to secure it while his hands are full, but this action is portrayed as un-gentlemanly in the eyes of Mr. This is a feeling that is inescapable for him throughout the novel. Dickens successfully portrays this concept that it is impossible to shed yourself of your identity, even if that identity changes. Beyond the use of other characters in the story to explain this concept of identity, Dickens has a clear obsession with how the human hand can be used to portray identity.
One of the most important pieces of imagery that Dickens uses throughout the novel to showcase class identity is the portrayal of the human hand. He lists multiple instances in the text where a character is described as using their hand to accomplish a task or illustrate an emotion.
These examples break both Pip and Estella down into their respective roles. The hand is the allusion to the two classes that the characters belong to.
In the novel, characters that are in a higher class in society are almost always represented by authoritative hand gestures, while characters that are part of the lower classes are represented using violent, or animal like, imagery. This subtle use of imagery is what makes the commentary on society and identity so deep.It is a very well-known fact that by the time they get to the end of their novel, many writers start to have second thoughts about how to conclude it.
The history of literature is filled with examples where critics found alternative endings to famous novels. This essay analyzes the two alternative endings for the novel Great Expectations and argues that the initial one was both more aesthetically appealing and philosophically profound. The events leading up to the final scene in the film and in the novel with the initial ending are the same.
In both cases Pip, or Finn as he is called in the film, ends up without his wealth while Estella is divorced and has lead an unhappy life. However, the very ends of the two versions differ sharply. The ending that Dickens initially intended for the novel is rather gloomy.
What this sentence reveals is that too much suffering can turn an innocent and loving person into a being incapable of loving in the same way as it can break the arrogance and selfishness of a spoiled one.
Hard Times By Charles Dickens Literary Analysis
The ending in the film is rather different. When the final accidental meeting of Estella and Finn takes place, the dynamics between them is apparently positive. One kind statement by Estella is enough to awaken all the love that Finn has been feeling for years.
When it comes to giving a value judgment about which of the two endings is better, the answer is bound to come either from the aesthetics of the scene or from the philosophical understanding of the nature of love and emotional suffering of the person who answers the question.
It seems that the scene that was initially intended for the novel is much better according to both of these criteria. First, aesthetically, the moment at which Finn answers an apparently difficult question such as whether he is willing to forgive Estella in a statement that is so devoid of emotion and second thoughts, the viewer immediately feels betrayed. The question that comes to mind is whether the kind of suffering that Finn underwent before was real at all when he could pretend as if it never happened and give it no second thought.
Secondly, philosophically, the unofficial ending for the novel gives a much more profound and interesting view about the effects of suffering on human beings. In conclusion, the ending that was initially intended for the novel was better than the one that was finally used and presented in the film. The unofficial ending is aesthetically more appealing as there is no dissonance between what the audience would naturally expect and what actually happens.
Also, the unofficial version gives a much more profound statement about the effects of suffering on human beings.
Dickens, Charles, and Edgar Rosenberg. Great expectations: authoritative text, backgrounds, contexts, criticism. New York: Norton, Great expectations.
Great Expectations - Literary Analysis
Pip Philip Pirrip narrates the tale from an unspecified time in the future. He grows up in the marshlands of Kent, where he lives with his disagreeable sister and her sweet-natured husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery.
Pip brings him food and a file, but the fugitive and Compeyson—his former partner in crime and a supposed gentleman who is now his enemy—are soon caught. Living with Miss Havisham at Satis House is her adopted daughter, Estella, whom she is teaching to torment men with her beauty. Pip, at first cautious, later falls in love with Estella, who does not return his affection. He grows increasing ashamed of his humble background and hopes to become a gentleman, in part to win over Estella.
Several years later a lawyer named Mr. Jaggers appears and informs Pip that an anonymous benefactor has made it possible for him to go to London for an education; Pip believes that the money is from Miss Havisham, who does not dissuade him of the notion.
Also receiving instruction is the slow-witted and unlikable Bentley Drummle. The increasingly snobbish Pip is later horrified to discover that his mysterious benefactor is Magwitch. Pip reveals the situation to Herbert, and it is decided that Magwitch and Pip should leave England. Before departing, Pip visits Satis House, where he confronts Miss Havisham for letting him believe she was his patron. He also professes his love to Estella, who rejects him. Knowing that Drummle is pursuing her, Pip warns her about him, but she announces that she plans to marry him.
He also grows close to Magwitch, whom he comes to respect. As Pip and Magwitch attempt to leave London via a boat, the police and Compeyson arrive.
The injured Magwitch is arrested, convicted, and dies awaiting execution. A despondent Pip is arrested because of his debts, but his failing health prevents him from being jailed. Joe subsequently arrives and nurses Pip back to health.
Joe also informs him that Miss Havisham has died. After Joe leaves, Pip discovers that his brother-in-law has paid all of his bills.
After more than 10 years away, he returns to England and visits the place where Satis House once stood. There he encounters Estella, who is now a widow. As they leave, Pip takes her hand, believing that they will not part again. Great Expectations works on a number of levels: as a critique of Victorian society and as an exploration of memory and writing. However, it is perhaps more importantly a search for true identity.
Great Expectations was also noted for its blend of humour, mystery, and tragedy. In the original ending of the work, Pip and Estella were not reunited, but Dickens was persuaded to write a happier conclusion. The novel was an immediate success upon its publication in the s. Article Contents. Print print Print. Table Of Contents.
Facebook Twitter. Give Feedback External Websites. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article requires login.In this book, many literary elements are employed to develop a cleverly blended story.
To create a unique effect, comedy, tragedy, and garish features are mixed together throughout. The wide array of writing patterns used by Dickens can be found over the course of the entire book and exemplified in many different chapters. From the instant this novel starts, Dickens establishes himself as a valid writer and his work as a piece worth literary attention.
He accomplishes. This idea explores a text founded on who profits from it — concerning class, culture, and social matters. Reverend George and Cassandra Austen. Her father, Rev. George Austen of the Steventon Anglican parish, was an educated member of the clergy and the descendant of a family in the business of wool manufacturing. Great Expectations Human nature is the psychological and social qualities that characterize humankind.
Human nature separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. The underlining theme of human nature is evident in Great Expectation by Charles Dickens use of his characters. A main characteristic that Dickens displays is friendship.
The friendship between Pip and Herbert is strong. Where I have used source material, it is acknowledged in accordance with departmental requirements.
I understand what plagiarism is and I am aware of the departmental policy on it. What is it about a book that will have generation after generation reading it?
English Literature majors could spend hours theorizing the answers to this question. One series of texts that has received publicity and wide-spread acclaim over the past seven years is the Harry Potter collection. Rowling could never have possibly imagined how her little book about a boy with broken glasses and a scar on his forehead.
Fascinated by the popular analysis, and multiplex of themes, ranging from jealousy and love, or perhaps honor and betrayal, Othello has become intrinsic to the way one lucubrates the literary and theatrical arts, and has become indispensible in understanding Shakespearean literature.
However, taking the analysis further than the ostentatious front put on by Shakespeare. While working on Great Expectations, …show more content… In London, Pip views his past actions very negatively, and very seldom does he ever give himself credit for good deeds he has done in the past. As a gentleman, Pip starts to act as he always imagined a gentleman would, this adds to him treating his family poorly.
Many of the characters throughout the story do not seem to be very realistic, it is almost as if they were meant to come across as being quite fictional. She has absolutely no ability to express emotions to the extent that it seems completely unreal. Despite this, Estella almost does come across as being quite sympathetic for her being the way she is. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape. Miss Havisham has stopped every clock in her mansion at twenty minutes to nine, and.
Show More. Read More. Popular Essays. Outline the Structure of the Main Tissues of the Body. Open Document.Also I will mention about Thomas Gradgrid, imaginary and emotions. Charles was a very prolific author. Also, he was a journalist, novelist, editor, illustrator and social commentator. The guilt that each character feels effects of they live their lives and how they plan to live it in the future.
Great Expectations author Charles Dickens does an exceptional job portraying the result that guilt has on the human psyche and on the diverse cast of characters that it.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Book Analysis)
With any book, article, propaganda, etc. However, there are several authors that choose a different route. Charles Dickens, an author with many award winning novels and plays from the 19th century, used a different approach when creating his characters for his writings. Sung-hune, Kang Eleanor Surridge English 11 HL 30 November Embodiment of language in dystopia Dystopian novels presents to the readers of an unpleasant society, in which is often convinced to be utopian and authors take in consideration of many factors to construct a dystopian novel.
Most often, the authors of future dystopian novels exert themselves to using factors such as satire in which, draws the readers to think about their society in contrast to the novel. In presenting such satirical aspect, language becomes a key factor that emphasizes what the author may illustrate. Charles Dickensone of the famous writers of Victorian erawho wrote basically about the struggle of the poor and middle class people.
Himself beinghe knows the struggle a person has to face when there is provided a limited oppurtunities to them. Hence this is one of his novelaboutthe life of Piphow he realizes that it is not necessary to be a gentlemen or have a high class and leads to a happy life.
In Jane Eyre, this is clearly depicted through two important characters. Her traits and actions correlate to the dark side of Rochester, and it is clear that she reflects his past. Even though there are some instances in the novel where Steinbeck seems to mirror the attitudes of the past, there also are several instances where the author he displays the need for societal change.
He uses characters in the novel, such as Lennie, to demonstrate the mistreatment of the mentally disabled. He also shows the desperate plight of the economically disadvantaged during the Great Depression.
The novel was Originally published as a serial from to and it was Dickens ' third novel. As Like many of charles Dickens ' works, the novel has a very contemporary setting. Ironic social satire is the main tone of the work, with Dickens taking aim at what he perceives to be social injustices. In his attempt to bring about social reform of the appalling conditions of the working class, Charles Kingsley turned his fictional works into serious instruments of social justice and used his novels as a platform to spread his views to the public.
He envisioned his novels, as opportunities for readers to see with new eyes the possibilities of cooperation between classes, and called for a change of heart and for the prevailing of fellow-feeling and human brotherhood. The shadowy and degraded figures of Alton Locke and Yeast, are shown as victims of the prevailing social class division and morally irresponsible industrial relationships. Kingsley draw attention to their miserable conditions but does not delve deep into their problems.
He makes touching pictorial description that lies in the strong feature of his social protest for the sake of raising his readers ' pity and he uses them as instruments of bringing about social reform. Also I will mention about Thomas Gradgrind, imaginary and emotions. Dickens started his career anonymously.
In this article, I try to explain the wrong educational system and importance of feelings and imaginary. Feelings is an integral part of our live. Generally, emotions direct our life. People cannot live without emotion. In this novel, Dickens emphasizes the Utilitarian education, the arrogance of the middle and upper class, and the industrial revolution.In November 2011 we have opened a new rolling CASP experiment for all-year-round testing of ab initio modeling methods: CASP ROLL Details of the experiments have been published in a scientific journal Proteins: Structure, Function and Bioinformatics.
CASP proceedings include papers describing the structure and conduct of the experiments, the numerical evaluation measures, reports from the assessment teams highlighting state of the art in different prediction categories, methods from some of the most successful prediction teams, and progress in various aspects of the modeling.
Summary of numerical evaluation of the methods tested in the latest CASP experiment can be found on this web page. The latter paper also contains explanations of data handling procedures and guidelines for navigating the data presented on this website.
Some of the best performing methods are implemented as fully automated servers and therefore can be used by public for protein structure modeling.
Conference in memory of Anna Tramontano, University of Rome, July 14, 2017Dear CASP Community: We are writing to share the announcement of the upcoming Conference dedicated to the memory of Anna Tramontano. The Conference will be hosted by the University of Rome on July 14. Anna Tramontano Dear members of the CASP community, We write with the very very sad news that Anna Tramontano died last night. As you probably know, Anna was a mainstay of CASP from almost the beginning, first.
The arrival of Donald Trump in the White House and elections in France and Germany will highlight the increasing power of new communication channels as traditional media continues to lose both influence and money.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) takes over from mobile as the hottest topic in technology, though the practical and ethical dilemmas around how it will be used become ever more apparent through the year. Sign up for the Snopes. Know of a rumor you want investigated.
Lonely and just want to chat. Select from one of these options to get in touch with us: A video documents that The Simpsons anticipated in 2000 how Donald Trump would announce his presidential candidacy in 2015. See Example( s )In August 2015, a video claiming that episodes of the Fox animated series The Simpsons had made some eerily accurate predictions about future events began circulating via social media.
Most notable among those predictions was a clip purportedly taken from a 2000 episode that showed business magnate Donald Trump announcing his candidacy for President of the United States:I want people to realize the synchronicity here and all the connections. This was put out in 2000. Now this is happening. While the above-displayed video touches on a wide variety of Simpsons related conspiracy theories, the main issue was highlighted in September 2015 with a photograph one that not only documented that The Simpsons had depicted Donald Trump running for President back in 2000, but that they did so by showing him in a setting and pose (riding an escalator while waving to supporters and onlookers) identical to one he would assume fifteen years later:The images from The Simpsons shown on the left-hand side of the above-displayed graphic did not originate in 2000, however.
Burns and a dog kneeling in front of an electoral map is real, but it has little to do with Donald Trump it was taken from a 2012 clip in which the greedy billionaire of Springfield endorsed Republican candidate Mitt Romney:Furthermore, this Simpsons screenshot is being compared to an electoral map that does not match the genuine map of the 2016 presidential election. Updated Allegations of a "quid pro quo" deal giving Russia ownership of one-fifth of U.
Updated A rumor that Starbucks refused free product to Marines serving in Iraq, saying the company didn't support the war or anyone taking part in it, is both old and false. Updated Rumors that service station customers are getting stuck by HIV-loaded syringes affixed to gas pump handles are a hoax. We are experiencing some issues with our feedback form. We are experiencing some issues with our forms.
Our development team is working on a solution. Select from one of these options to get in touch with us: Submit a Rumor Website Feedback Advertising Inquiry cancel 28K Fact Check Entertainment 28K CLAIM A video documents that The Simpsons anticipated in 2000 how Donald Trump would announce his presidential candidacy in 2015.
See Example( s ) EXAMPLES Collected via e-mail, September 2015 Did the Simpsons actually air an episode predicting Donald Trump's presidential campaign kickoff fifteen (15) years ago.
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