Purpose: active engagement with the text. When reading a play, a reader must interact more with the text in order to grasp the visual and verbal cues that would be appear on stage.
In addition to bringing your response to class, please submit your reading response to our class Wiki. www.wikispaces.com, under the appropriate heading.
In your reading response, please include the following component. Please label them.
Summarize the act, provide a brief summary scene by scene of essential information. Highlight main character’s development, any new characters, and main action.
Questions for class discussion: interpretive, evaluative
Interpretive: reading between the lines; more than one possible answer; what we think the author says
Evaluative: judging and evaluating the validity of a concept or point; what we think about what the author says; taking a position on an issue and support that issue, establishing criteria for judgment
One significant quotation: include page number, act and scene, and speaker
Reaction/Response
Additional class notes.
Hamlet Assignments:
(Seems like a long list, but really this is just an overview of what we will be doing in class, etc.)
Reading Responses
Reading Quizzes
Memorization, explication, analysis, and presentation of one passage. Present a formal, written outline to me due the day of your presentation.Memorization and Explication Assignment
Watch one version of Hamlet in its entirety—The Branagh (Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet), Zefirelli (Mel Gibson as Hamlet) , or Almereyda (Ethan Hawke as Hamlet)
Below are the questions that you will have to choose from for a graded discussion on Hamlet. You should have notes on your answer. You should be able to support your answer with examples from more than one place in the place. (i.e. You have at least two examples from different acts/scenes in the play.)
Disease and decay are mentioned numerous times throughout the play. Give specific examples and then explain how this is an important theme.
Hamlet exhibits madness in many ways throughout the play; explain how this madness is both artificial and real and what this says about Hamlet’s character.
Compare and contrast Hamlet’s soliloquies.
Explain how Gertrude is more than just a simple victim of circumstances.
The idea that things/people are not always as they seem is a dominant theme in Hamlet. (i.e. The ghost comes in “questionable shape.”) Identify and explain three examples from the play that support this argument.
Much of Hamlet revolves around Hamlet’s internal conflicts, and he often compares himself to others. Explain how these comparisons reveal important information for the reader’s understanding of Hamlet.
There are three characters who want to avenge their fathers’ deaths. Compare and contrast the methods they use to achieve their revenge.
Are Hamlet’s actions toward his mother and dead father acts of obedience or loyalty?
Identify and explain the main events that finally lead Hamlet to take action.
Does Hamlet truly love Ophelia?
Analyze the different aspects of betrayal within the play.
How does Hamlet view women? People in general? What has lead him to these opinions?
Explain how Laertes and Fortinbras are used as Hamlet’s foils.
Hamlet is sometimes regarded as the most intelligent character in all of literature. What is it about Hamlet that could make us regard him as being so intelligent? Try to find specific passages in the play that you think may reflect Hamlet's intelligence.
Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, Prince of Emo
Link to Last Action Hero Hamlet clip: http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/134674/Last_Action_Hero.html
Introduction to Hamlet
Reading Responses
Act I Act II Act III Act IV Act V
Reading Response Guidelines for HamletPurpose: active engagement with the text. When reading a play, a reader must interact more with the text in order to grasp the visual and verbal cues that would be appear on stage.
In addition to bringing your response to class, please submit your reading response to our class Wiki. www.wikispaces.com, under the appropriate heading.
In your reading response, please include the following component. Please label them.
Hamlet Assignments:
(Seems like a long list, but really this is just an overview of what we will be doing in class, etc.)
Possible Hamlet Essay Discussion Questions
Below are the questions that you will have to choose from for a graded discussion on Hamlet. You should have notes on your answer. You should be able to support your answer with examples from more than one place in the place. (i.e. You have at least two examples from different acts/scenes in the play.)
- Hamlet is sometimes regarded as the most intelligent character in all of literature. What is it about Hamlet that could make us regard him as being so intelligent? Try to find specific passages in the play that you think may reflect Hamlet's intelligence.
from http://www.ivcc.edu/rambo/question_Hamlet.htm and S. Fjetland