‘The Tower’

By: Marghanita Laski

 Starter Activity

Create a short fact-file on the author Marghanita Lanski. Be

prepared to share your research with the class.
Below are some useful links to get you started:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/94924.Marghanita_Laski
https://persephonebooks.co.uk/pages/marghanita-laski
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/l/marghanita-laski/
https://www.jewishlivesproject.com/profiles/marghanita-laski

(10 minute activity)

 Pre-Reading Task

Take a moment to think about the scariest film

or book you’ve ever seen or read. If you are
unable to think of a scary book or film, think
about the scariest thing that has ever happened
to you. Share your story with your partner.
Your partner will then share your story with
the class if you allow them.

(15 minute activity)

 Pre-Reading Task

How do our bodies react when we get a fright? For example, when I’m nervous or tense,
my hands sweat. Can you think of other reactions that our bodies have when we are
frightened? Share your answers with the class.
What reaction do you most dislike?

(5 minute activity)
 Pre-Reading Task

What are common features found in horror stories?

Think of scary movies you may have seen or
frightening books you read. Share your ideas with the
class.

(5 minute activity)
 Vocabulary Task

Read the short story ‘The Tower’ as a class, making note of any difficult vocabulary.

Make note of the challenging words in the vocabulary section of your exercise book.

As a class, research the meaning of the words and share your findings with the class.

(10 minute activity)

 Summary Writing Task

Read the short story ‘The Tower’ as a class.

Write a brief summary of the text. Your
summary should be approximately a
paragraph in length.

(10 minute activity)

 Plot
1. Characters and
Setting
Complete the grid by putting these sections
of a short story in the correct order. The first 2.
one is done for you.
 Denouncement
3.
 Falling Action
 Problem 4.
 Character and Setting
 Rising Action 5.
 Climax
(5 minute activity) 6.
 Tension Graph

As a class, list the important events in the story.

Individually choose the five most important parts of the story.

In your exercise book, create a tension graph including the most important parts of the
story.

(10 minute activity)

 Relationship Analysis

Analyse the relationship between Caroline and Neville in the story ‘The Tower’. Complete
the grid on the next slide. Identify the language and structural features used by Laski and
discuss the effects these have on the reader. The first row is done for you.

(20 minute activity)

 Relationship Analysis
Evidence
“She had been proud to accompany
Neville to castles and palaces
privately owned to which his work
gave him entry, and there to gaze
with what she hoped was pleasure.”
- “What more natural
than that he should wish to share –
perhaps even to show off – his
discoveries to his young wife?”
Technique Effect
Verb “hoped”. Stresses that Caroline is not
interested by the things Neville
shows her but is unable to state
this. There is an element of
pretense and deception to their
relationship. Caroline behaves how
she is expected to; the dutiful and
attentive wife.
rhetorical question and dashes
– perhaps even to show off –
 Stretch and Challenge Activity

Can you find additional evidence about Caroline and Neville’s relationship in the text?
Explain the effect that this evidence has on the reader.
Continue the grid.
 Theme of Fear

Laski skilfully creates a sense of fear and apprehension in the story ‘The Tower’. Complete
the grid on the next slide. Identify the language and structural features used by Laski and
discuss the effects these have on the reader. The first row is done for you.

(20 minute activity)

 Theme of Fear
Evidence Feature Effect

“a thin white face with deep-set black Visual imagery. Laski’s use of visual imagery and adjectives create a disturbing
eyes that stared intently into hers.” Adjectives. Verbs vision in the reader’s mind. The visual imagery, coupled with Laski’s
Personification. use of personification further establishes the frightening and
intimidating nature of the painting of Nicollo di Ferramano.

“He laughed uneasily.” Adverb.

“Caroline knew that she wanted to

take the fork to the left, to Florence
and home and Neville and – said an
urgent voice inside her – for safety.”
 Stretch and Challenge Activity

Can you find additional strategies that Laski uses to create a sense of fear and trepidation in
the text? Explain the effect that these features have on the reader
Continue the grid.
 Drawing Activity

Based on your reading of the text, draw how you

imagine the tower to look. Complete the image in your
exercise book. Label the different parts of your
drawing with quotes from the text.

(15 minute activity)

 Depiction of Disorientation

Once inside the tower, Caroline quickly becomes disorientated. Identify how Laski creates
this sense of disorientation. Explain the effect of Laski’s writing on the reader. Complete
the grid on the next slide.

(20 minute activity)

 Depiction of Disorientation
Evidence Feature Effect

“far far above, the deep blue evening
sky, a small circle of blue framed in a
narrowing shaft round which the
narrow staircase spiralled.”
Repetition “far”. The features used by Laski create a deeply disorientating effect for
Adjectives the reader. Repetition of the word “far” emphasises the height of the
“narrow”. Verb tower. The verb “narrowing” establishes the width of the stairs that
“narrowing” and Caroline must climb. The verb “spiralled” creates a dizzying effect
“spiralled”. for the reader. We imagine Caroline circling around the tower again
and again as she climbs to the summit.
 Stretch and Challenge Activity

Can you find additional strategies that Laski uses to create a sense of disorientation in the
text? Explain the effect that these features have on the reader
Continue the grid.
 Caroline’s Character Development

‘The Tower’ is widely regarded as a feminist text. Track Caroline’s growing independence
and perseverance over the course of the story. Identify how Laski depicts Caroline’s
character arc to the audience and explain the effect of this on the reader. Complete the grid
on the next slide.

(20 minute activity)

 Caroline’s Character Development
Evidence Feature Effect

“hesitantly, haltingly, she had Alliteration of Caroline’s lack of confidence and her uncertainty is emphasised
managed to piece out enough of the the adverbs through Laski’s use of alliteration. The adverbs “hesitantly” and
language to choose a route”. “hesitantly” and ‘haltingly” depict Caroline’s indecision and her trepidation. However,
“haltingly”. it is important to note the Caroline is undeterred and eventually
chooses a route to travel, which is evidence of her growing
confidence.
“forgetting what was due to politeness Verbs
she caught her husband’s arm and “demanded” and
demanded, ‘Neville, who’s that girl “caught”.
over there?’”
 Stretch and Challenge Activity

Can you find additional evidence of Caroline’s development in the story? Identify the
features used by Laski and explain the effect that these features have on the reader
Continue the grid.
 Exam Style Question

On slide 24 and 25 you will find extracts from the short story ‘The Tower’.
Answer the questions on both slides.

(90 minute activity; 45 minutes on each question)

The Assessment Objectives (AOs) are included on slide 26.

 Extract 1
How does Laski make you strongly sympathise with Caroline at this moment in the story?

She was immeasurably, unbelievably high and alone and the ground below was a world away. It was not credible, not possible
that she should be so far from the ground. All her being was suddenly absorbed in the single impulse to hurl herself from the
sloping platform. ‘I cannot go down any other way,’ she said, and the she heard what she said and stepped back, frenziedly
clutching the soft rotten wood of the doorway with hands sodden with sweat. There is no other way, said the voice in her
brain, there is no other way.
‘This is vertigo,’ said Caroline. ‘I’ve only got to close my eyes and keep still for a minute and it will pass off. It’s bound to
pass off. I’ve never had it before but I know what it is and it’s vertigo.’ She closed her eyes and felt very still and felt cold
sweat running down her body.
‘I should be all right now,’ she said at last, and carefully she stepped back through the doorway on to the four-hundred-and-
seventieth stop and pulled the door shut before her. She looked up at the sky, swiftly darkening with the night. Then, foe the
first time, she looked down into the shaft of the tower, down to the narrow unprotected staircase spiraling round and round
and round, and disappearing into the dark below. She said – she screamed – ‘I can’t go down.’
She stood still on the top step, staring downwards, and slowly the last light faded from the tower. She could not move. It was
not possible that she should dare to go down, step by step down the unprotected stairs into the dark below. It would be much
easier to fall, said the voice in her head, to take one step to the left and fall and it would all be over. You cannot climb down.
She began to cry, shuddering with the pain of her sobs. It could not be true that she had brough herself to this peril, that there
could be no safety for her unless she could climb down the menacing stairs. The reality must be that she was safe at home with
Neville – but this was the reality and here were the stairs; at last she stopped crying and said ‘Now I shall go down.’
 Extract 2
How does Laski make this such a powerful ending to the story?
‘One! She counted and, her right hand tearing at the brick wall, she moved first one and then the other foot down to the second
step. ‘Two!’ she counted, and then she thought of the depth below her and stood still, stupefied with terror. The stone beneath
her feet, the brick against her hand were too frail protections for her exposed body. They could not save her from the voice that
repeated that it would be easier to fall. Abruptly she sat down on the step.
‘Two,’ she counted again, and spreading both hands tightly against the stop on each side of her, she swung her body off the
second step, down on to the third. ‘Three,’ she counted, then ‘four’ then ‘five’, pressing closer and closer into the wall, away
from the empty drop on the other side.
At the twenty-first step she said, ‘I think I can do it now.’ She slid her right hand up the rough wall and slowly stood upright.
Then with the other hand she reached for the railing it was now too dark to see, but it was not there.
For timeless time she stood there, knowing nothing but fear, ‘Twenty-one,’ she said, ‘twenty-one,’ over and over again, but she
could not step on to the twenty-second stair.
Something brushed her face. She knew it was a bat, not a hand, that touched her but still it was horror beyond conceivable
horror, and it was this horror, without any sense of moving from dread to safety, that at last impelled her down the stairs.
‘Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five –‘ she counted, and around her the air was full of whispering skin-stretched wings. If
one of them should touch her again, she must fall. ‘Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight-‘ The skin of her right hand was
torn and hot with blood, for she would never lift it from the wall, only press it slowly down and force her rigid legs to move
from the knowledge of each step to the peril of the next.
So Caroline came down the dark tower. She could not think. She could know nothing but fear. Only her brain remorselessly
recorded the tall. ‘Five hundred and one.’ It counted, ‘five hundred and two – and three and four-‘
Assessment Outcomes