Themes and Ideas

Nursery Rhymes

Ring o Rosies:
Ring-a-ring o’ roses,
A pocket full of posies, 
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down

• The Plague theory
• Children skipping along to the rhyme -Turns dark and when they fall, they die
• Starts off positive: "Ring o Rosies": Girl on date with boyfriend, (spinning around: links to the spinning of the children's response to the rhyme), Boyfriend pulls wedding ring out of pocket, the new fiancée walking across the road on the phone telling people about her engagement, collapses or is hit by a car.

Humpty Dumpty:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, 
Couldn’t put Humpty together again

• Literal: Man on a wall, falls, no one can put him back together again (Have you noticed how the rhyme doesn't mention he is an egg? Where did that idea come from?)
• A person starts with great power but tragically falls -tragic flaw
• A man with a huge ego, one day gets rejected in front of a lot of people, is shamed

Little Miss Muffet:
Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey, 
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

• Someone sat next to an overweight girl while she was eating, the spider-looking man scared the girl, she tried to run away from fear but couldn't -she had to waddle away
• A girl/lady gets scared by a spider-looking man but they realise that he was just grabbing his phone/newspaper from next to her

Jack and Jill:
Jack and Jill went up the hill,
To fetch a pail of water,
Jack fell down and broke his crown, 
And Jill came tumbling after

• Jack and Jill were on a mission, Jack was killed failing his part, Jill failed her part of the mission also due to her grief of Jacks death
• Jill went to help suicidal Jack, Jack committed suicide in the end, Jill got into deep depression/or suicide (came tumbling after) 
• Jack and Jill are running a race up a hill, Jack gets there first and runs through the "First Place" ribbon, Jack is so tired that he falls down the hill and collects Jill on the way

Orange and Lemons:
Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement’s
You owe me five farthings, 
Say the bells of St. Martin’s

• Owing someone a lot of money, not paying them back in time and resulting in that person being in a lot of trouble -A drug deal idea could apply to this also