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I can make inferences about John Turner from ‘The Boscombe Valley Mystery’.

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Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2023), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

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Key learning points

John Turner used to be a bushranger: an armed robber that stole gold.
Some members of the public had sympathy towards bushrangers for defying the elite.
John Turner’s description has many layers to it and thus many interpretations of his character.
You can make good inferences by zooming in on key words and phrases from an extract.

Common misconception

Some students think that villains are one dimensional.

Villains have their own struggles.

Keywords

Decrepitude - In a state of being worn out due to age or neglect.
Craggy - If something is craggy, it is rugged.
Dignity - If you have dignity, you are worthy of respect or honour.
Inference - An inference is a conclusion reached based on evidence and reasoning.

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Hello, everyone.

Welcome to today's lesson where we'll be analysing John Turner from \"The Boscombe Valley Mystery\".

I'm Miss Sutherland, and we'll be learning together today.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to make inferences about characters.

And of course, as I mentioned, we'll be making inferences about John Turner from \"The Boscombe Valley Mystery\".

We have four words that are gonna be really important in our learning today, and they are decrepitude.

That means in a state of being worn out due to age or neglect.

Craggy.

If something is craggy, it is rugged.

Dignity.

If you have dignity, you are worthy of respect or honour.

And inference is a conclusion reached based on evidence and reasoning.

I'll give you a moment to make a note of any of those keywords.

Fabulous, let's get started.

So, we have two learning cycles.

And in the first, we'll be recapping just who John Turner is, looking at some of the quotes that are used to describe him and making some inferences.

In the second learning cycle, we will be forming an argument about John Turner.

You'll be deciding how you think he's presented in \"The Boscombe Valley Mystery\" and you'll be writing about him.

So, let's get started with analysing John Turner.

In order to fully understand John Turner's character, we need to look at some important historical information.

So, let's give this a read.

During the Victorian period, and that was the time in which Conan Doyle wrote Sherlock Holmes stories, the discovery of gold in Australia transformed the country economically.

It led to an increase of British immigrants entering the country to make money.

This also led to the increase of bushrangers: who were armed robbers who would steal gold, and that is exactly what John Turner used to do.

Interestingly, bushrangers actually attracted some public sympathy amongst lower classes as they were seen to be directly challenging the authorities and elite.

Now, this information is quite important because we have already in John Turner's past dualism where he earned his wealth by being a bushranger, which makes him a criminal, but he actually could have been given sympathy.

So, there we have two sides of John Turner's character already, and that might affect the way the reader views him and also the way in which Conan Doyle presents him.

Answer this question to check you understand that context information.

Why did bushrangers receive some public sympathy among lower classes? Pause the video and have a go answering the question.

Well done if you said bushrangers received some public sympathy among lower classes because they were seen to be challenging the elite.

And as we know, there was a huge divide between the rich and poor in the Victorian era.

So, some people that were poorer did not mind bushrangers stealing gold.

Today, as we mentioned, we'll be analysing John Turner.

Let's reread his description from \"The Boscombe Valley Mystery\".

\"The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure.

His slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep lined, craggy features and his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual strength of body and of character.

His tangled beard, grizzled hair, and outstanding drooping eyebrows combined to give an air of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were tinged with a shade of blue.

It was clear to me at a glance that he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease.\" There we have a description of John Turner and we are going to unpick it now.

I want you to have a think about this question.

Is John Turner's description consistent with your idea of a villain? Pause the Video and discuss that.

I heard some really interesting and thoughtful discussions there.

One thing I heard was that John Turner's description is not fully characteristic of a villain because it has many different layers to it.

For example, there's this section here where we see the words strange, slow limping step, bowed shoulders, and appearance of decrepitude.

Remember, decrepitude is essentially being in a state of ruin or neglect due to be worn out.

I want you to think about what all those highlighted words and phrases make you think about Turner.

Pause the video and have a think about that.

You may have said that those words and phrases seem to present Turner as old, frail, and potentially harmless because he can't really walk properly, he seems to have his body slightly injured, perhaps due to old age, and he looks quite worn out.

There are many other dimensions to his description that present him as either villainous or not, and we're going to have a look at those now.

So, here we have four quotes about John Turner.

We've already spoken about one of them.

It's now your job to unpick the other three quotes to make further inferences about Turner.

So, let's go through the quotes before you start the task.

The first quote I want you to look at is this one, \"Hard, deep lined, and craggy features.\" Next, \"Unusual strength of body, tangled, beard, grizzled hair, enormous limbs, and dignity and power.\" And lastly, \"His face was of an ashen white, lips and nostrils were tinned with a shade of blue.\" You have plenty within those quotes to get your teeth into and to really unpick.

So, pause the video and get analysing.

Great, let's go through what you said.

You may have said that that, \"Hard, deep lined, craggy features,\" quote presents him maybe his weary stress and potentially that he's had a difficult life.

And we say that because it seems like his face has suffered over the years and he might have quite a lot of wrinkles and a rough texture to his face because of stress.

Next, \"The unusual strength of body, tangled beard, grizzled hair, enormous limbs, and dignity and power.\" Those quotes present him maybe as powerful, strong, harsh, threatening, and animalistic 'cause we are seeing there that he is quite intimidating in his appearance.

And lastly, \"His face was of an ashen white, his lips and nostrils tinged with the shade of blue.\" We have a lot of colour imagery in that quote there, and that quote is presenting as ill and weak and therefore maybe a victim, a victim of an illness.

Well done on your work there analysing John Turner.

We're now going to move on to the part of the lesson where we form an argument about John Turner.

So, we're going to take all our ideas that we just came up with and put them together to discuss how overall is John Turner presented? The students are having a discussion about John Turner.

They've gathered all of their quotes and they've analysed them just like you.

And now, they are thinking about who John Turner is.

Aisha says, \"John Turner is presented as pitiable.\" So, Aisha thinks that John Turner is a character that a lot of people would feel sorry for, feel pity for.

Jacob says that, \"Turner is presented as authoritative,\" meaning John Turner is presented as someone who demands respect, who seems in control.

And Andeep thinks that, \"Turner is a character who reflects the conflicted nature within the human conscience.\" So, Andeep's saying that Turner is someone who shows the good and bad side to humanity and how we can sometimes get stuck between the two.

What an interesting discussion those students are having.

I hope you can join them.

Which student do you agree or disagree with and why? Pause the video and have a think.

Interesting.

Perhaps you have your own ideas about Turner, perhaps you have come up with something completely different, very well done.

True or false, John Turner's description presents him as pure evil? Pause the video and answer that question.

Well done if you said false.

John Turner's description does not present him as pure evil.

There's a very multifaceted description that Conan Doyle gives of him.

Now, justify your answer.

How do you know that John Turner is not presented as pure evil? Pause the video and answer that question.

Well done if few said that John Turner is not presented as pure evil, and that's obvious because he's also shown to be weak with his own struggles and stresses and illness.

We do not have any indication that he's presented as someone who did not mean to kill McCarthy.

In fact, we know that he did mean to kill McCarthy.

Now, I want you to choose a point below to write an analytical paragraph about.

So, there we have the students, three students ideas about who John Turner might be.

We have the point that he is presented as pitiable, we have the idea he's presented as authoritative, and we have the idea that he is a character who reflects the conflicted nature within the human conscience.

We also have there obviously your idea that you may have come up with that may be completely different.

What you have to do is choose one that you most agree with or choose your own and write an analysis of John Turner.

You must use a range of evidence from the extract.

So, go back to that grid that we used and use those quotes to justify your point.

As well as that, in the paragraph you're going to need to mention the author's name, to have a really clear answer to the question.

Of course, as we've said, use a range of appropriate quotes to also analyse and make sure that analysis includes single word analysis and give the reader response, so talk about how the reader might react to that character.

Now, just to recap, you'll be writing an analytical paragraph about John Turner using one of the three ideas on the screen there as your point.

So, choose the one you most agree with and follow the checklist on the right to make sure you hit the success criteria for an analytical writing task.

Pause the video and write your response.

Brilliant writing.

Let's go through a self-assessment task.

Now, you must reread and check your work.

Have you included everything to form a complete analytical response? Make sure that you now check that you've included the author's name, a key idea to answer the question, a range of appropriate quotes, analysis, including single word analysis.

So, that means have you delved into the quote and unpicked one word and talked about what that word suggests? It's a really tricky thing to do, so I hope that give this gives you an opportunity to go back and check that you've done it.

And if not, you can add it in now.

And lastly, have you made sure to talk about the reaction the reader might have to that character? Pause the video and self-assess your work well done for being so thorough in your self-assessment.

Whilst you were writing, I also had a go at that task, and I want you to compare what you wrote to what I wrote so you can see if there's any tips and tricks that you could add to your work.

So, I wrote, \"Although he is the perpetrator of McCarthy's murder, John Turner is presented as pitiable in his physical description as he has a 'slow, limping step, bowed shoulders, and an appearance of decrepitude.

' The limping and bowed shoulders suggests he's growing weak and frail.

This is confirmed by the word 'decrepitude,' which suggests that Turner is on the verge of death.

Overall, the reader gets the impression that he has been stressed throughout his life and has taken a toll on his appearance.

Initially, Turner does not strike the reader as a murderous villain.

Perhaps Conan Doyle presents him in a sympathetic light to highlight conflicting public attitudes towards bushrangers and show that there are two dimensions to both victim and villain, as we later learn is true of McCarthy's character too.\" Now, think about how your answer compares.

For instance, did you add anything about the historical context of bushrangers in your answer? Perhaps you may want to, or did you include reference to McCarthy and how he's also presented as multifaceted? Those things may be things that you want to add to your response, and you are welcome to do that now.

So, pause the video and give your work another check.

Amazing, you can never check your work too many times.

It's always best to give it two or three checks to make sure that you're happy with it.

Excellent, let's go through what we've learned today.

John Turner used to be a bushranger, which was an armed robber that stole gold.

Some members of the public had sympathy towards bushranger for defying the elite.

John Turner's description has many layers to it, and some possible interpretations of John Turner's character are that he's pitiable, he's authoritative, and he represents conflicting human nature.

Lastly, you can make good inferences by zooming in on keywords and phrases from an extract.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson on analysis in \"The Boscombe Valley Mystery\", and I hope to see you in the next one.

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