At the start of the scene Carol is on top of the cliff. She had asked none of the teachers or told any one that she was going to the top of the cliff. She is in a peaceful state of mind in the harmony with her surrounding area on the cliff. She was showing her own personality when she was by herself. At this point of the scene Carol has her mind to stay in Wales. She didn’t want to return to her life back in Liverpool. This is because she has seen a better life in Wales compared to where she lived. This is partly to take the audience on to her view and make them feel sorry for her. But the audience also has to take account of Mr Briggs, that he is trying to keep her safe, and do his job as a teacher. This is supposed to confuse the audience and want them to continue watching or reading the play.
Then Carol starts to give a little bit more information out to Mr Briggs. Carol said ‘I want to stay here where it nice’. When Mr Briggs realised that his approach toward Carol wasn’t working and that Carol had her mind set to stay in Wales, he knew he had to try another method. At this moment of time the audience is feeling a bit more sympathetic to Mr Briggs. This is because Mr Briggs is used to children listening and doing what they were told, but for the first time a child had ignored him.
Mr Briggs started to take Carol more seriously then any other times before. You can tell that by the change of tone in his voice, as he became calmer. Also, from talking in short sentences he was starting to turn his sentences to longer, calmer and more relaxing. You can also see this from the way Mr Briggs talked. He started with an angry tone of voice and towards the end he used a calmer tone of voice. Carol starts to realise this by seeing and hearing Mr Briggs. So Carol decides that she would change her position that she was in, at that moment of time. This means that Carol decided to become more co-operative and then give out a bit more information to Mr Briggs, in a reaction of what Mr Briggs wanted to happen. This meant that Mr Briggs was getting to where he needed to get to and keep Carol safe.
When Carol accuses Mr Briggs of hating her and all the other children. Mr Briggs didn’t understand how Carol got to that conclusion. Carol said that she knew it because when she walked to her home when school finished, Mr Briggs had always passed her and other children and stared at the children in a hateful matter. Mr Briggs was confused. So he reacted calmly knowing that one mistake could get Carol to jump, and kill herself. He tried to get Carol to explain what she meant by the term “Don’t lie, you! I know you hate me. I’ve seen you goin’ home in your car, passin’ us on the street. And the way y’ look at us. You hate all kids.” So Mr Briggs tries to work on that in order to get Carol away from the cliff.
Carol asked two questions towards the end. The two questions are “Why can’t I stay out here?” and “Why can’t I live in one of them white houses?” What Carol Felt, was that she is unlucky where she lived and why couldn’t she and her family move to Wales so she could live in the beautiful countryside in the white houses. By now Mr Briggs was listening to Carol and he tried to answer the questions. His first attempt was saying that if she worked hard in school and got a good job, when she was older she could live in one of the white houses. But this is just thrown back to his face when Carol said ‘Don’t be figgin’ stupid.’ This is because Carol already knew that it is too late for her. That she will never be able to get a good job and move to one of the white houses. The Audience would feel a lot more for Carol because Carol told us more about her life and the audience could see more clearly, Carol past and how unfortunate she was.
Later on in that scene Carol started to realise what would have happened, if she had manage to stay in Wales. Then the school would send the police. The police would then have to come and send a search party out to find her. She would then be sent back and get in to more trouble. But Carol mind was still set to stay in Wales. So to try and stay Carol still moved closer to the edge. You can tell this when Carol said ‘If I stayed though, it would be no good, you’d send the copper to get me.’ When She got too near the edge of the cliff, Mr Briggs held out his hand to her. This is important to the scene because it was the turning point, which showed how much he cared. In the stage directions it says, “She moves to the very edge of the cliff”. You can see more pauses happening in the script. This is to make the audience tense and feel for them selves how both Carol and Mr Briggs felt.
With this happening, Mr Briggs started to smile. Carol saw this and told Mr Briggs that he should smile more often. Carol now started to talk about what would happen if she went back with Mr Briggs. Mr Briggs said that nothing would happen. But she said, what about school and Mr Briggs said, that nothing would be mentioned. Mr Briggs and Carol talked in a calm situation now and they were getting friendly with each other. Mr Briggs and Carol, I would say that they both have become distance friends at that particular moment of time in the play. When Mr Briggs and Carol got back to the school they would have changed a bit. But when Mr Briggs got to the school, his professional attitude came back as if he had never changed. When Carol slipped on the cliff, Mr Briggs risks his life to save her.
So part of my conclusion would be that this dramatic scene, the body language started off tense. But as the scene continued, the body language calmed down. You can see this, at the beginning when Carol turned away from Mr Briggs and later towards the end of the scene Mr Briggs was reaching out to Carol. So body language had changed thorough the scene from being tense, when Carol was facing death, then finally turning into a calm situation when Mr Briggs managed to get Carol to get away from the cliff edge. Also another example would be the way in which they spoke to each other, in the scene when it began in a tense manner and then developed in to a calm situation.
