Teach me Lit Podcast

What does the Ghost of Christmas Past teach Scrooge? A Christmas Carol explained for GCSE English Literature

Looking at what Scrooge learns through seeing scenes of his lonely childhood, his generous boss Fezziwig and the heartbreaking time when Belle broke off their engagement.

What does Marley teach Scrooge? A Christmas Carol explained for GCSE English Literature

What does Marley teach Scrooge? How Dickens shows the ghost of his old partner to be judged in the afterlife for what he failed to do in his lifetime.

What's wrong with Scrooge? Explaining A Christmas Carol for GCSE English Literature

What's wrong with the way Ebenezer Scrooge chooses to live his life anyway? Surely it's his business if he wants to keep his money to himself? This podcast gives an overview of why Dickens suggests that Scrooge's attitude is problematic.

My Mother’s Perfume by Pascale Petit - GCSE Poetry explored

Discussing the themes and images in 'My Mother's Perfume', particularly the sinister tone and atmosphere as the persona has a toxic relationship with the mother.

Who is trapped and powerless in Of Mice and Men?

GCSE English Literature podcast exploring who is trapped and powerless in Of Mice and Men, looking at George's predicament in having to shoot Lennie to save him from Curley.

Justice in To Kill a Mockingbird

A GCSE English Literature revision podcast exploring how imperialism and the legacy of slavery affect justice in the novel and how this theme connects the threads of Boo Radley and Tom Robinson's stories.

Analysing Romeo: impulsive and fighting for masculinity

How impulsive is Romeo in Shakespeare's tragedy? In this podcast I explore some different critical viewpoints, such as Romeo as a character fighting for masculine identity, and Romeo as 'tamed' by Juliet.

GCSE English Literature, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

”Change is at the heart of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell”

Unpacking how Elizabeth Gaskell's novel is structured as a Bildungsroman around the change of Margaret Hale, and also how Thornton changes too from a Malthusian autocrat to someone prepared to make a difference in the lives of his workers.

A Level English Literature, North and South

What is the role of Lady Catherine in Pride and Prejudice?

Looking at how Austen satirises her society's obsession with social rank, and shows how Darcy changes and develops through comparing him with his aunt and her traditional views on marriage.

Which writers influenced Jane Austen and is there a moral to her stories?

This podcast explores the way that Austen differs from other female novelists of her time, who often wrote melodramatic stories of virtuous heroines, kidnapped, and forced to suffer, before being rewarded with happy marriages. Austen's realism means that she avoids some of the black-and-white simplicity of Miss Prism's pronouncement: "The good ended happily; the bad ended unhappily. That is what Fiction means." (Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest) Lydia is a morally transgressive character, and she has to live with the consequences of her actions... Though she is not punished in the way that Lady Catherine and Collins suggest she should be. Austen's preferred method of didacticism is through satire and wit.