At the start of the clip we are presented with the character of Merlin, he is obviously poor as we can immediately see from his costume he is dressed in browns and other un-exciting colours, his clothes appear to be tatty as well, immediately ruling him out of the upper or middle class categories. When Merlin is in the room the music starts to pick up and climaxes as he rushes to hide what he had been doing as a woman enters, this shows that he should not be where he is showing him to be working class as all areas of the castle he is placed in are not available to him or people of his class. We are shown with an over the shoulder shot from Merlins perspective a brief conversation between him and the lady who enters, she speaks "What are you doing in hear" in a commanding questioning voice showing that she has obvious power over Merlin and is of a higher class than he. Her dress is also a much more vibrant purple colour and is expensive putting her into the upper class Social group.
When Merlin leaves the castle and enters the street the tense music that has been present throughout the entire opening of the scene ceases and the sounds of worklife outside pick up. At this point Merlin stands tall and stops moving with uncertainty, this shows that he is in his element in the working class areas rather than the upper class grounds which are the castle. He is however disrupted by a blonde male named Arthur, Arthur is dressed in armour immediately showing that he has power over Merlin because although Merlin does not seem at all frightened by him the armour makes arthur much less vulnerable than Merlin himself. the two men that stand behind arthur represent the connections and power he holds as an upper class citizen whilst as a working class boy merlin relies on his wit to stay safe and protected. Arthur is clearly upper class as he has a strong sense of his own importance and abilities which is obvious throughout his ffight scene with Merlin. as Merlin falls Arthur breaks everything in his path as if it does not matter to him whatever damages he causes to those around him. Throughout the fight scene low angles are used on Arthur to portray his power over Merlin as high angles are used on Merlin himself to show his weakness compared to Arthur.As Merlin begins to use magic the camera angles change bringing Merlin and Arthur up to the same level. Merlin is shown as the dominant figure during this part of the fight as he has more screen time and more prominance over Arthur. When the fight scene ends Arthur chooses to allow Merlin to stay free showing his power as an upper class stereotype, during this short discussion the camera is steady in comparison to the fight scene showing the contrast between the manical violence and the calmness of the upper class. the music in this scene however is very tense as we view merlins face which shows the upper class character of Arthur still holds the power over him.
The final character we are untroduced to is an old man who starts shouting at Merlin for using magic in the fight agasinst ASrthur telling Merlin that it is not safe and that it must be learnt. This character is dressed in clothes equally as dull and ragged as Merlins showing that he is from the same working class as Merlin. this is why during their discussion the old man although telling Merlin that he has done wrong does not seem to have any power ovber him as the two of them are on the same level of class. this is very different to when Arthur had previously been speaking wit Merlin as it had been obvious after the fight tat merlin had to respect Arthur and his wishes. The old mans clothes are somehwate more ragged than Merlins and during their conversation which consistently uses shot reverse shot merlin is given muchmore dialogue, and much more screentime showing his rominance giving the idea that he may be able to go up a class as he is alreasy more important than this man much older than himself.
The upper class stereotype is reinforced as Arthur obviously has power over Merlin from when we meet him to when he exits the clip, he is obnoxious and does as he pleases because he knows that he is of greater importance than all of those around hi as he is royalty. the character of Merlin however somewhat challenges the stereotype of working class as Merlin is evidently clever and although he has to take orders from upper classes and wear ragged clothes he is often throughout the clip in positions of greater power than those who should be easily above him in terms of social class. Merlin seems confident in his blatant disregard for the orders of Prince Arthur which is the main factor in why he challenges the stereotypes of a working class character.
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