English 3 - shakespeare

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As you read Hamlet you'll employ the following process:

FILM: Watch the scene/s in the 2008 Gregory Doran production with Patrick Stewart and David Tennant, staged at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon. You can access the production here. You’ll need to use our log in credentials (strakejesuit, crusaders).

SUMMARY: Read The RSC Shakespeare's scene-by-scene analysis of the corresponding scene so that you’re absolutely clear on the plot as it appears in the original text and have some thematic insight. Use this summary and ONLY THIS SUMMARY.

TEXT: Read it. Slowly. Carefully. Attentively. Resist the urge to skim. You may even consider rereading (Heed Nabokov’s words!), perhaps thinking about any questions I post under the nightly reading. Read the play aloud, with friends, if you can.

FILM: Watch it again, thinking about and explaining why the production does what it does. Be an actor-director.

monday, november 5 (4)

Today we’ll work together to understand one of the more famous speeches in all of drama, Hamlet’s third soliloquy, “To be or not to be”. We’ll also move through the remainder of 3.1, the so-called nunnery scene. We’ll provide answers to these three questions by the end of class:

(1) Why do you think director Gregory Doran swaps the second and third soliloquies in his production with David Tennant? What does the sequence in your text suggest about Hamlet that the production does not? What makes "To be or not to be" so memorable?

(2) Why does Hamlet act the way he does toward Ophelia. Is he legitimately concerned for her future? Is he angry with her because of her betrayal? Is this part of his "antic disposition" because he knows he's being watched? How can we know?

(3) Does Hamlet know that he's being watched? Does he determine that during the scene? Can you spot a place where he might?

By our next class, I’d like you to watch and read 3.2, the famous play-within-a-play scene. What, if anything, makes this plan on the part of Hamlet ingenious? Or, what makes this too heavy handed? Does Hamlet (at least in the Tennant production) give away what he knows in too obvious of a way? Is this a misstep?

Is the play-within-a-play there for anything more than to add thematic value?

Notice how energized Hamlet is at the end of the scene, after the play. Is there a change in tone in the play when Hamlet accuses Guildenstern of playing upon him like a pipe? I think we start moving in a very dark direction here...

wednesday, november 7 (6)

Hamlet, 3.2

By our next class, I’d like you to work through 3.3. What new information do we definitively learn about Claudius in his soliloquy? Is Claudius truly repentant? Why doesn’t Hamlet kill Claudius when he has the chance?

thursday, november 8 (7)

Hamlet, 3.3

By our next, longer class next week, work through the remainder of Act 3.

monday, november 12 (green)

Set Hamlet thematic essay; Hamlet, 3.4

By our next class, please work through 4.1-4.4. Also, I’d like you to bring the body paragraph handout I gave you earlier this year.

wednesday, november 14 (1)

Today I want to review body paragraphs since it’s been a while. We’ll use the body paragraph packet I handed out earlier this year. Then we’ll move to discuss the first four scenes of Act 4.

Remember that you have a vocabulary quiz on Friday. Also, please work through the remainder of Act 4. We’ll discuss it after the vocabulary quiz.

friday, november 16 (3)

Vocabulary Quiz, units 7-8; Hamlet, 4.5-4.7

Have a happy, happy Thanksgiving! Priorities for the impending, perennial, protracted pause:

(1) Work through 5.1. What do we learn thematically about the nature of death? How has Hamlet’s attitude toward his own fate changed from the beginning of the play?

(2) Remember, remember the third of December. Your independent novel is due.

(3) Remember your Hamlet thematic essay is due on Monday, December 10. It might not be a bad idea to have a thesis by the time you get back. I’d love to give you some feedback.

monday, november 26 (4)

Hamlet, 5.1; We’ll look at linking your body paragraphs with logic glue or word glue. By our next class, finish the play!

wednesday, november 28 (6)

Hamlet wrap-up

thursday, november 29 (7)

How to write an introduction and a conclusion

what's due?

Monday, November 5 - Hamlet Assignment #1

Monday, November 12 - Book Check 1

Friday, November 16 - Vocabulary Quiz, Units 7-8

Monday, December 3 - Long-term Novel Project Due

Wednesday, December 5 - Hamlet thematic essay DRAFT

Monday, December 10 - Hamlet thematic essay FINAL

Monday, December 17 - Fall Final Exam

current text to bring daily

Hamlet study links

The RSC Shakespeare's scene-by-scene analysis

Revenge tragedy

Hamlet discussion questions

Hamlet study guide

ONGOING EXTRA CREDIT

Required reading can at times feel like drudgery. And while it's important to do the reading I set for the class, I fully recognize that you'd rather have a say in what it is we read. Unfortunately the freshman curriculum has little student choice built in, so your ongoing extra credit gives you the opportunity to read an outside text in your own time at some point during the semester. I'm very happy to reward you with additional course credit if you take it upon yourself to read a text outside of class and meet with me to discuss it. A few things:

(1) This must be a text you've never read before.

(2) It should be imaginative and of recognized literary merit. The text must be approved beforehand.

(3) The amount of credit awarded is variable depending on the chosen text and how our follow up conversation goes.

(4) While you may read as much as you'd like, I will only award extra credit once per semester.