Lesson plan:

View His Master's Ghost

This film provides a useful opportunity to teach or revise the concept of exposition - the way in which the opening of a text prepares the reader or viewer for the story to follow. After viewing re-examine the title sequence and some of the opening scenes up until the end of the female teachers' opening address.

Discuss the expectations generated about plot and atmosphere by the choices of location, lighting, sound effects and objects.
Discuss the way in which the use of the camera contributes, such as in the close-ups of gargoyles. What expectations are generated by the teacher's warning that the caretakers' cottage and the dam are out of bounds? How are the main characters, especially Flea, established?

Discuss the role of stock characters

His Master's Ghost uses a range of stock characters (characters who appear in a lot of stories), including the prankster, the intellectual nerd, the mysterious stranger, the pompous teacher and so on. Teach the concept of stock characters and discuss how they contribute to the narrative, by adding humour, suspense and so on. Ask students to suggest examples of similar stock characters from other texts.

Discuss character development

As with many texts, some of the narrative interest in this film lies in the way the characters develop. Discuss which characters develop over the course of the film as well as how and why they develop.

Explore the plots

His Master's Ghost has a quite complex plot structure with a number of different sub-plots: Flea learning to take his music seriously, Jason's struggle to have his composition performed, the mystery of the caretaker, and the caretaker-Mrs Kean plot. Ask students to draw up a diagram showing the different plots and the relationships between them. Examine the use of parallel plot lines. Discuss the similarities in the Beethoven-lover, caretaker-Mrs Kean, and Jason-Greta plot lines.

Discuss the concept of open texts

His Master's Ghost is an interesting blend of realism and the supernatural. The film is a relatively open text in that it is not quite clear whether there really is a ghost or whether the caretaker is merely play-acting as a way of helping the students develop. Teach the concept of open texts - those which are left open to a range of interpretations and ask students to suggest a number of different ways of interpreting the film.

Discuss the theme

Discuss how the theme of friendship is treated in this film. Compare it to the treatment of the theme in The Other Facts of Life ACTF
What are the different sorts of friendships which develop in the film (ie. between ages, between genders etc)?