How to Train Your Dragons Lilly Moffat, a woman of elegant age, rode into a small village in Wales on a two-wheeled bicycle, which, on the way from the station to the house she inherited, immediately began to crush all the traditional notions of the locals about the role and place of women in history. Looking at the altruistic environment with a mountain of books brought, a maid - a former thief, the illegitimate daughter of this maid, passing by children-miners, Miss Moffat decides to establish a free school. By a happy combination of circumstances for this, in addition to desire, she had her own remarkable intellect, good education and uncle's inheritance. Written in 1938 by British playwright and actor Emlyn Williams, The Corn is Green is semi-autobiographical, as the image of Miss Moffat was projected by the author from the character of Williams' real-life teacher from his childhood in Wales. In the play itself, which premiered in London the same year, Williams played the role of a young talented guy-miner, in the person of whom Miss Moffat found a “diamond without flaw” and whose life she turned upside down, showing the way from the coal mine straight to Oxford. The play attracted the attention of theater directors, film and television directors repeatedly in later periods - until 2007 - primarily because of the stunningly interesting and integral image of the main character. The material was so good that the role of Miss Moffat willingly performed by various actresses, including Bette Davis in the version in question, Catherine Hepburn in the 1979 television movie. The picture, created in 1945, has a certain similarity with theatrical production: a limited number of scenes, shallow spatial perspective, perfectly staged speech of the actors, honed gestures. But most importantly, the text of the play remained as the primary element that fills the picture with life-giving power.
An Englishwoman who came with her charter to a village where the life of any resident from birth to death is endowed with inertia, rushing to the slope of a loaded trolley, begins to teach local Welsh “dragons” arithmetic, grammar and reading. Here everything is rougher, more ruthless and simpler: at the age of 12, the child becomes an adult and goes to work in the mine. The Universal Primary Education Act of 1870 was passed in England and Wales. From entertainment there are fist fights, drinking in a squash and choral singing in the rich vowels of the Welsh language. In some ways, the image of Lilly Moffat is consonant with the character of Mary Poppins from books written a little earlier and gaining popularity in the late 30s: the presence of will, charisma and pedagogical talent. Surprisingly, books about the perfect nanny are listed on Wikipedia in the list of literary illustrations on the topic of “suffragettes”. Clearly, Miss Moffat is one of the most advanced women of her time, for whom the question of the rights of men and women in obtaining a full education, free choice of profession has long been solved in the formulation of “equal”. In support of this fire-resistant character, Williams endowed his heroine with a bright and figurative speech, samples of which can be safely supplemented by various citations, use them as statuses, tips for every day and witty answers. A couple of times in the course of the action, this lady with the grace of rehearsed impromptu gave master classes on the topics “How to make friends and like-minded people”, “How to properly motivate yourself and your students”.
And one of these motivators for her teaching work suddenly became the passion of the locals singing. The moment of unity, the possibility of creativity, the way of rest is all for them, having timbres from bass to falsetto, removing their rough protective armor at these moments. This non-random feature is a reference to the traditional for Wales and revered there still the art of male choral singing. In a country where minstrels and bards are sincerely respected, and the best are celebrated at the annual Eistedvod competitions, talented people will always be born. It's great to have someone around to help break the shell of predestination. Then, like red dragons, they can spread their wings to fly over the greenery of a cornfield. To fly and to come back.