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Record of a lesson (03.11.99)

Now I’m going to tell you what we did in the last lesson. We talked about the text " The Choice " which was written by George Bernard Shaw. First of all we talked about the red text on page 51 which provides some general information on George Bernard Shaw. The most important information is that he was a socialist and a member of the socialist Fabian Society. "The Choice" is an extract from his collection "Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant". It is the end of the three-act-play Candida (1895). We started to discuss the four W´s. Candida, the central character, is the wife of the very popular clergyman Morell, who, not unlike Shaw himself, is a firm believer in socialism. Morell is devoted to his wife. However, Candida is also loved by the young poet Marchbank. The story plays in the 19th century. The place where the story takes place is a living room. The story is about Candida who has to choose between Morell and Marchbanks. Both of them love her. Finally Candida decides to choose the weaker one. She realizes that Morell is weaker than Marchbanks and chooses him. Marchbanks leaves the room with disappointment. After we talked about the four W´s we read the questions on the pages 270 and 271. These were also questions of the text " The Choice ". Finally we tried to answer the second question. The questions were " How do Marchbanks and Morell portray themselves in their bids ? How does this compare to their characters as revealed in the rest of the extract ? ". After 20 minutes we presented our results. We realized that Morell says that he is strong and honest, but in reality he is a coward who starts to weap in front of Candida. Morell says that he is weak and vulnerable, but in reality it is the other way round. Morell is strong and confident. These are the differences between Morell and Marchbanks.

Noman