Hamlet - another perspective

Today in class we listened to this radio broadcast:

I hope you found this look at the play from a perspective rather different from your own to be helpful in pushing your own thinking.

Conclusions about Hamlet

To start off this final week of Hamlet I gave you this set of questions about the play.  Our discussion covered a wide range of ideas, including why Fortinbras and Horatio are the ones left standing at the end of the play.  What conclusions does that suggest?  We also talked about the ways in which Hamlet himself changed, and whether the way he behaves in Act V shows a progression or not.
What do you think?

The essays and projects for Hamlet are due Monday, Nov. 3 at 11:59 p.m.  Late work will start to incur a penalty just after that.

Please contact me if you want to arrange a time to meet to discuss your work!

Hamlet's soliloquies - Approaching conclusions

Please click here for the plan for today

Hamlet - Act 4 - Motives, Money, Murder, Madness

In last week's look at Act 3 we saw Hamlet confirm Claudius as the killer of his father, but decide not to kill him yet, preferring to do so when he is in the act of committing a sin or crime. Later, in a conversation with his mother Hamlet stabs Polonius, thinking it was the king.

In the first two days of this week we watched Act 4. Hamlet is sent off to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, along with a sealed letter in which Claudius asks for him to be killed. Along the way he comes across the armies of Fortinbras, leading to the soliloquy in scene 4:



We then raised questions about Ophelia - what is the nature of her madness and the reasons for her death? Was it a suicide?  Why is it reported to us by Gertrude?

Also, why might it be that Hamlet does not appear in these scenes - what is the effect of Shakespeare shifting the focus to other characters: Ophelia, Laertes, Claudius, and Gertrude?

Hamlet - Act 3 and Journal Entries Reminder

This week our work with Hamlet included:

• Watching 2.1 - 3.1 of the film in E116
• Writing our own version of Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy, transplanting a line from it to create something new
• Creating a rebus version of Claudius's speech in 3.1 following these directions:
  

Also, please remember to be writing your journal responses. The requirement is one per act. Use your journal as an opportunity to explore ideas. You could continue to write about ideas we raise in class, to ask and answer questions about parts of the text we have not covered, to make connections to personal or other issues, or to generate a creative response to characters and / or actions and / or concerns in the text.  Each entry should be about a page long, and must include text. Writing about it while it is fresh in your mind will be helpful when it comes time for your essay / project!

Hamlet - Act 2

We started our day with a discussion of our favorite movies and the best scenes from them. Why? Because in Act 2, scene 2 the Players appeared, sharing a performance of one of Hamlet's favorite scenes. Soon this becomes much more than just something to watch and enjoy as it serves as inspiration for an idea, the means to an end.  For the next two days we'll be watching the film version of it in E116.

In class we made a list of the 8+ events in act 2, scene 2 - be sure you are keeping track of these. Any one of them may be an inspiration for a journal response!