The Emperor’s New Clothes

Essential questions: Why is it important to speak your mind? What can make it difficult to speak up? How can vanity be harmful?

Do-Now: Theme Anticipation Guide.  (15 minutes)

Project or distribute the Theme Anticipation Guide and have students indicate whether they agree or disagree with each statement. 

Preview vocabulary. (5 minutes)

Project or distribute the Vocabulary Words and Definitions. Review the words as a class. Highlighted words: coat of arms, confrontation, conscience, exemplary, exude, lavish, mannequins, sublime 

• Read the “As You Read” box on page 11.
• Assign parts and read the play as a class.
• Break students into groups to discuss the following questions.

Close-Reading Questions

• Why won’t anyone tell the Emperor the truth? (character) No one trusts his or her own eyes. They all worry that they are, in fact, fools, and they don’t want anyone else to know. Some, like the Royal Dresser, may also keep quiet to avoid being punished by the Emperor. 
• Why do the tailors get away with their con? (development of events) The tailors get away with their con because they understand what the Emperor’s weakness is—vanity—and they know how to prey on that weakness. The tailors are good at manipulating everyone else as well by appealing to their egos and stoking their fears. 
  
• Why do you think a child says what no one else will? (inference) Young children are generally more inclined to say what they think; they don’t filter their thoughts the same way that adults do because they are not as aware of what might be considered an embarrassing or inappropriate remark. And perhaps children have more self-confidence than many adults. 
• At the end of Scene 1, the Lord Chancellor says, “A dangerous trait, vanity.” How is the idea that vanity is a dangerous trait developed throughout the play? (development of an idea) Vanity makes the Emperor susceptible to the tailors’ con: His desire to be a part of the “small and elite” group of the “most stylish royals,” as the tailors put it, is what drives him to hire the tailors despite their preposterous claim. It is also the Emperor’s vanity that leads him to walk out in front of his subjects dressed in his underwear; he does not want to be thought of as foolish, so he does not admit that he cannot see his own clothing. The vanity of most of the Emperor’s advisers and subjects, who also keep quiet out of fear of appearing foolish, ultimately makes all of them look foolish. 
• What kind of person is the Lord Chancellor? Name a few qualities that you think he possesses and explain your ideas. (character) Answers will vary. Students may say that the Lord Chancellor has (1) confidence: He is not persuaded by the tailors or by the Emperor that what he knows to be ridiculous is anything other than ridiculous; (2) integrity: He stands by his beliefs and tries to do his job of serving the Emperor even when what he (the Lord Chancellor) says angers the Emperor to the point of banishing the Lord Chancellor from the court; (3) graciousness and humility: At the end of the play, he graciously tells the Emperor, “I am humbled and honored to serve you.”

• Break students into groups to read “How to Speak Up” on page 15. 
• Come back together as a class and invite students to share their reactions to the article. Do the suggestions offered sound reasonable? Do they sound difficult? Encourage students to be candid. Invite volunteers to share personal experiences that relate to the article’s advice. 
• As a class, discuss the following questions.
  

Critical-Thinking Questions

• In “How to Speak Up,” Mackenzie Carro offers five pieces of advice for finding the courage to speak up. Choose two. Explain how those two pieces of advice could have helped a character or characters in the play find the courage to speak up. Answers will vary. Sample answer: Carro offers the advice to listen to the voice in your head. The Royal Dresser could have used that advice; he clearly did not see the Emperor’s clothes, but instead of listening to the voice in his head telling him that there were no clothes, he asked himself, “Am I a fool?” Carro also gives the advice “Enlist allies.” Perhaps if the Royal Dresser and the courtiers had confided in each other after seeing the Emperor get “dressed” in his new clothes, they would have felt confident that the clothes didn’t exist and could have warned the Emperor not to go outside.
  
• In the play, one person—the child—finally speaking the truth quickly leads to everyone speaking the truth. Do you think this happens in real life? Explain.  Answers will vary. Students may say that in real life it’s not quite as simple as in the play—that just one person speaking out doesn’t usually cause every person who has been silent to immediately speak up as well—but that the general principle does reflect real life: If one person speaks up, it may inspire one other person to speak, and then those two people may inspire someone else to speak up, and so on until many people are raising their voices to speak the truth. 

Featured Skill: Integrating Ideas (15 minutes)

Break students into small groups to complete the Integrating Ideas: Speak Up! activity sheet. This activity will prepare students to respond to the writing prompt on page 15. For alternate culminating tasks, see the boxes below.