Valentine's Day

Congratulations to all lovers.

Actividades de SCARY STORIES

Sequence of Events

The following events happen in the play. Put them in the correct order.

Deborah and Allan meet for the first time.         …

Allan gets angry when he sees Deborah talking to a male teacher.   ....

Deborah recites the first verse of “The Raven.”    ....

Allan reminds Deborah of her wedding vows.  ....

Allan tells the court that he is not mad and that he loved his wife. ....

Allan tells the court about the two things which have marked his life.   ...

Merce tells Allan that Deborah has not been to work that day. ....

Liz tells Lenore she doesn’t want to get involved in Allan and Deborah’s problems.    …
Allan tells Deborah he can hear her heart beating when she tells lies.    …

Allan tells Deborah that his cat ate his raven.                                                                          …

Comprehension - True or false?

Say whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F)

1)      Allan believes he is insane.

2)      Allan has very acute hearing.

3)      The first birthday present Allan asks his father for is a canary.

4)      Allan’s father used to hit Allan’s mother.

5)      Deborah is a student of English literature when she first meets Allan.

6)      Deborah is pleased to find a raven at her door.

7)      Allan is looking at the tigers when he and Deborah meet at the zoo.

8)      Deborah works as a secretary.

9)      When they first get married Deborah and Allan are happy together.

10)  Both Allan and his father believe that their wives deserve to be beaten.

Multiple choice gap-fill: verb forms

In Scene 10 Allan phones Deborah to try to convince her to come home. Fill in the gaps with one of the verb forms in brackets.

Why ............................ (aren’t/didn’t/haven’t) you here? You ............................ (said/told/tells) me you ............................ (give/would gave/would give) me another chance. Please ............................ (come/came/went) back. OK, I’m sorry I ............................ (slap/slapping/slapped) you, but you ............................ (made/did/have) me do it. You ............................ (aren’t listen/didn’t listen/isn’t listening) to me. You are my wife, you are supposed to be with me and... OK, OK. Honey, why don’t we just ............................ (start/to start/started) all over again? Let’s pretend that this quarrel never happened. Where are you ? What? You are at the zoo, by yourself? And you think I ............................ (have go to/’m going to/going) believe   that? Hello, hello.(He dials again and leaves a message) Pick up the phone, pick up the phone. All right. So if you ............................ (didn’t answer/won’t answer/haven’t answer), then I hope you listen to your messages soon, because you are going to ............................ (take/be/have) responsible for whatever happens to Pluto. So you’d better come home. Now. (He looks at the cat) Pluto, Pluto. Kitty, kitty, kitty. Come here my little kitty, my little black panther. I ............................ (have/get/had) something for you. (He takes the cat) Don’t be scared, I am only going to take one eye from you. It looks like you actually understand what I ............................ (am telling/am saying/have told). Interesting. Come on, my friend, accept your fate. Like I accept mine.

Rhymes in the poem, “A Dream.”

a)      Add one letter to each of the following words to make complete words (Note that some of the words will not be familiar to you, but you can try to guess what sounds “right”):

1)      N_ght (x 2)

2)      St_r

3)      Broken-hea_ted

4)      Lig_t

5)      _right

6)      Dep_rted

7)      D_y

8)      Afa_

9)      Gu­_ding

10)   B_am

11)  C_st

12)   R_y

13)   Pas_

14)   D_eam

15)   Ch_ding

I I) Make four rhyming pairs from the words in I)

I I I) Complete the poem with the words in I) (Note that one of the words is repeated twice):

A Dream

In visions of the dark .................

I have dreamed of joy ................. -

But a waking dream of life and .................

Hath left me .................- ..................

Ah! what is not a dream by .................

To him whose eyes are .................

On things around him with a .................

Turned back upon the .................?

That holy dream- that holy .................,

While all the world were .................,

Hath cheered me as a lovely .................

A lonely spirit ..................

What though that light, thro’ storm and .................,

So trembled from ................. -

What could there be more purely .................

In Truth’s day-.................?

IV) Check your answers to I I I) with the poem in Scene 8 of the script, look up any words you don’t recognise and then discuss as a class what the poem could be about.

Synonyms

Traditional poetry uses more elaborate language than ordinary prose. Match the vocabulary on the left, from the poem, “The Raven” (Scene 2), with its more usual equivalent on the right.

a)      Dreary (adj.)                                                                          1) Knowledge

b)      Weary  (adj.)                                                                           2) Beg

c)      Pondered (v. past simple)                                                 3) Book

d)      Volume (n.)                                                                              4) Knocking

e)      Lore (n.)                                                                              5) Sad

f)        Rapping (v. gerund)                                                                        6) Thought

g)      Chamber (n.)                                                                          7) Tired

h)      Implore (v.)                                                                               8) Hardly

i)        Scarce            (adv. – in this context)                                              9) Bedroom

Vocabulary: “A Dream Within A Dream”

I)                   Match the vocabulary from the poem, “A Dream Within A Dream” (Scene 11) with its translation in Spanish (in this context.)

a)      Brow (n.)                                                                  1) Despiadado

b)      Parting (v. gerund)                                                            2) Por lo tanto

c)      Avow (v.)                                                                   3) Separarse

d)      Deem (v.)                                                                   4) Frente

e)      Fly away (v. flew, flown)                                     5) Llorar

f)        Therefore (adv.)                                                   6) Considerar

g)      Amid (prep.)                                                                         7) Irse volando

h)      Roar (n.)                                                                  8) Orilla

i)        Shore (n.)                                                                  9) Declarar

j)        Creep (v.)                                                                   10) Agarrar

k)      Weep (v.)                                                                   11) Entre, en medio de

l)        Grasp (v.)                                                                   12) Deslizarse

m)    Pitiless (adj.)                                                               13) Rugido

II) Discussion:  What do you think this poem is about? Can you identify any metaphors or any other poetic devices in the poem? Why do you think the playwright has included it at this point in the play? What is the “mood” of the poem?

Oral Work

Group Discussion - poetry

There are several poems or extracts from Edgar Allan Poe’s poems included in the play. In small groups disuss the following:

·        Do you read poetry? Why? Why not? If you do, tell the other members of the group what type of poetry/which authors you read and why you like it. If you don’t, is it because you think poetry is boring, or perhaps because you don’t understand it? Do you have any preconceived ideas about poetry and poets? What would encourage you to read (more) poetry?

·        What do you know about Edgar Allan Poe? Had you heard of him before? Do you like the extracts from his poems included here? Does his poetry inspire you?

·        Have you ever a written a poem? If so, tell the rest of the group what it was about and why you wrote it, and, if you remember it, recite it!

Note: If you liked the extracts from Poe’s work in this play why not try and read more of his work?

Roleplay

In the play it is notable that both Allan and his father are violent towards their wives. Imagine that Allan and his father meet up as adults. In pairs, roleplay the scene between them. Some points to think about are:

·        Do either of them regret their physical and verbal abuse of their wives or will they maintain that the women deserved it – “you made me do it”?

·        Will they make the connection between how Allan saw his father behaving towards his mother when he was a boy and his later relationship with his own wife?

·        Do they still believe they loved their wives?

Class Discussion

As a class, discuss the following quotation from Scene 11, adapted from Poe’s work, “The Black Cat”:

“Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, like painting graffiti on the walls, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is law, merely because we understand it to be such? In other words: to do wrong for wrong’s sake only.”

Some points to think about are:

·        Have you ever “done wrong for wrong’s sake only”?

·        What do you think motivates people to do this?

·        Are such actions an innate part of human nature?

·        How do you think these actions should be punished (if at all)?

Pair and Class Discussion

In pairs, examine the attitude of the secondary characters in the play to Allan’s crime; the Judge’s sentence - is it too lenient? too strict? how would  you punish this crime? etc. - and Lenore and Liz’s reluctance to intervene in the situation – “I don’t want to get involved ... Deborah is more your friend”, Lenore giving a false name when she calls the police and then saying she will be out when they arrive, etc.

As a class, compare your pair’s reactions to the characters’ stance with those of the other class members and then discuss the following:

Are you concerned about domestic violence?

Does “domestic violence” imply only physical acts to you, or also verbal abuse?

Why do you think domestic violence is becoming more common in Spain?

Why do you think people commit violent acts against their partners?

Do you think the government is doing enough to stop it or do you believe that it is a private matter?

Synopsis

Synopsis

Scene 1

Allan is in a courtroom about to be tried for the crime of Domestic Violence. Flashback scene with Allan as a boy between him and his father. Allan sings a rap song.

Scene 2

We see how Allan met Deborah, his wife, through one of his pets, a raven. Lenore, Deborah’s calls for her neighbour, Lenore.

Scene 3

Allan fetches his raven from Deborah’s room.

Scene 4

Allan and Deborah get stuck in the elevator (lift.) Allan tries several times to get Deborah to go out with him, but she keeps making excuses.

Scene 5

Deborah and Allan meet at the zoo.

Scene 6

Deborah and Allan get married and after some time their relationship worsens as Allan becomes possessive and violent.

Scene 7

Two neighbours of Allan and Deborah’s, Liz and Lenore, hear Allan shouting at Deborah and so they call the police.

Scene 8

Lenore and Deborah meet in the elevator (lift.) Deborah recites the poem, “A Dream” in her flat. Deborah tells her friend, Merce, that she can’t go out with her that evening.

Scene 9

Allan enters and shouts at Deborah about the telephone conversation she has just had. Deborah leaves Allan.

Scene 10

Allan ´phones Deborah to try to convince her to go back to him. He cuts out one of the cat’s eyes.

Scene 11

Deborah returns to get the cat and discovers that Allan has hurt the animal. Allan tries – and fails – to convince Deborah to stay. He recites the poem, “A Dream Within A Dream” and then strangles Deborah.

Scene 12

Liz and Merce call in on Allan to try to find out if Deborah is all right. A policewoman arrives to investigate the situation. Allan believes he can hear Deborah’s heart beating and he confesses that he murdered her.

Scene 13

Courtroom scene where Allan tries to justify his actions and the Judge declares that Allan is insane and pronounces sentence.