Friday, November 8, 2019

For Monday: Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act One



The "Revenge" Group (Group 2) should answer TWO of the following questions. The members of the group are Liv C, Marissa M, Tara S, Jordan H, Kele P, Cody T, Estelle L, Anthony J, Casi B, Zach W, Brookelyn L

Q1: What did watching the 2009 BBC Hamlet help you see, notice, or understand about the play as you started reading? How did the performance “solve” some aspect of the play that might have otherwise confused you? Would you recommend other students watch this version first before reading the play?

Q2: One of Hamlet’s most famous speeches occurs very early in the play: Act One, scene 2, which begins, “O, that is too, too sullied flesh would melt” (29). What is he complaining about in this soliloquy (poetic monologue)? Try to read this speech like a poem and find a metaphor that can help you interpret his complaint as a whole (for example, why should “sullied flesh” melt?). Since this is our first big moment with Hamlet, does this speech make us sympathetic for him? Or wary of him?

Q3: Why do Ophelia’s brother (Laertes) and father (Polonius) distrust Hamlet so much? Why don’t they encourage his attentions (and as she thinks, love) towards her? Wouldn’t it be a good match for her to marry a king’s son, the Prince of Denmark?

Q4: Why might Polonius strike you as a Machiavellian figure, or at least someone who has read The Prince thoroughly? Consider the advice he gives both his son and his daughter, and how he comes across in the play in general.

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Final Exam Paper, due by December 9th

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