...Ms. Masciantonio AP English Literature 23 February 2012 Hamlet Analysis Essay “It’s is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane”. (Philip K Dick). Hamlet is always questioning himself about his father’s murder, his mother’s guilt and his life. His obsession causes his insanity. Hamlet is depressed, confused, and paranoid the traumatizing events on his life. Hamlet is depressed at his mother’s lustful behavior towards his uncle, so he’s taking his anger out on Ophelia. In doing so, Hamlet was saying mean things that made her feel bad about her especially when he told her “Get thee to a nunnery, why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me,” (3.1. 123-126). Hamlet shows a strange way of loving Ophelia because one minute he loves her the next minute he’s rude to her. These actions prove his instability. Normal people do not love someone one minute and curse her the next because that is just unrealistic. Lidz said, “Perhaps he seeks to hide the meaning of his embittered and melancholic behavior under the guise of being depressed over Ophelia’s withdrawal of her affection, but it seems a cruel and deceitful way to treat his beloved” (Lidz, Theodore). Hamlet is depressed because of Ophelia’s withdrawal even though he is just being manipulative to her. Hamlet is confused and disorientated. He considers killing himself...
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...Literary Analysis: Hamlet In the tragedy Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, Hamlet is this young man who experiences close relation death which was his father. He later finds out it was his uncle who murdered his father just to take heir to the throne. Hamlet constant brooding about death and humanity comes ahead. (Tennen) Hamlet is arguably the greatest dramatic character ever created from the moment we meet the crestfallen prince we are enraptured by his elegant intensity. (Mabillard) William Shakespeare hamlet follows the young prince Hamlet home to Denmark to attend his father’s funeral. (Stockton) In “Hamlet” the tragedy hamlet the prince holds a great internal conflict throughout the play. (Studymode) On a dark winter night a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore castle in Denmark. (Sparknotes)The first edition of hamlet was published in 1603 from a previous sketch composed several years earlier the second one following 1604. (Bates) Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy Bernado’s question betrays the mood of uncertainty that prevails throughout the play. (George) So speaks Shakespeare’s prince hamlet of the transient nature of all mankind throughout the play humanity and frailty is a common theme. (Mortensen) In Hamlet the tragedy, hamlet, the prince of Demark with holds a great internal conflict throughout the play. (Directessays) Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play and the play responsible for the immortal lines “to be or not to be that is the question” (Taylor) The story...
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...Psychoanalysis of Hamlet’s Subconscious Psychoanalytic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet In the first half of the 20th century, when psychoanalysis was at the height of its influence, its concepts were applied to Hamlet, notably by Sigmund Freud, Ernest Jones, and Jacques Lacan, and these studies influenced theatrical productions. Freud suggested that an unconscious oedipal conflict caused Hamlet's hesitations. (Artist: Eugène Delacroix 1844). In his The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Freud's analysis starts from the premise that "the play is built up on Hamlet's hesitations over fulfilling the task of revenge that is assigned to him; but its text offers no reasons or motives for these hesitations".[83] After reviewing various literary theories, Freud concludes that Hamlet has an "Oedipal desire for his mother and the subsequent guilt [is] preventing him from murdering the man [Claudius] who has done what he unconsciously wanted to do".[84] Confronted with his repressed desires, Hamlet realises that "he himself is literally no better than the sinner whom he is to punish".[83] Freud suggests that Hamlet's apparent "distaste for sexuality"—articulated in his "nunnery" conversation with Ophelia—accords with this interpretation.[85][86] John Barrymore's long-running 1922 performance in New York was characterized as "revolutionary in its use of Freudian psychology; in keeping with the post World War I rebellion against everything...
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...Hamlet Motif Analysis Assignment Appearance or Reality “Horatio says ‘tis but our fantasy,/ And will not let belief take hold of him” (I,1,23-24) “In the same figure, like the king that’s dead.” (I,1,41) “Seems, madam! Nay, is is; I know not “seems.”[…] Nor the dejected haviour of the visage, / Together with all forms, modes, shapes of grief, / That can denote me truly: these indeed seem, /But I have that within which passeth show; / These, but the trappings and suits of woe. (1,1,76 and 81-86) “The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen;” (I,5,47) “That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;” (I,5,109) “for there is nothing / either good or bad but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison” (II,2,249-251) “The spirit that I have seen / May be the devil: and the devil hath power / To assume a pleasing shape” (II,2,596-598) “’Tis too much proved that, with devotion’s visage, And pious action, we do sugar o’er/The devil himself” (III,1,47-49) “he weeps for what is done”(IV,1,27) “Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. / I had my father’s signet in my purse, / Which was the model of that Danish seal: / Folded the writ up in form of the other; / Subscribed it; gave’t the impression; placed it safely, / The changeling never known.” (V, 2, 48-53) Clothing “Such was the very armour he had on / When he the ambitious Norway combated;” (I, 1, 60-61) “Good Hamlet, cast thy knighted colour off, / And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark...
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...leads the hero into the unknown (Hall 2017). After receiving the call, the hero will encounter their supernatural aid. This is the first encounter the hero will make on his journey. It is a “protective figure” who will aid the hero in their journey (Hall 2017). In this play, the ghost of king Hamlet starts Hamlet’s journey and is his supernatural aid. According to “An Analysis of a Hero’s Journey in William Shakespeare’s Play Hamlet”: Hamlet’s heroic “Journey begins with the ordinary world in which Hamlet is in a very melancholy mood due to the untimely death of his beloved father” (2). Then Hamlet “...follows Horatio to the woods where he does meet the ghost of his father. His father then tells him that his death was at the hands of Claudius and that Hamlet must avenge” (3). This is Hamlet’s call to adventure. Before hearing this request, Hamlet lived a normal life, studying in England. Until, a mysterious ghost prompted him to kill his uncle for revenge. Hamlet has never, presumably, killed anyone in the past, and the ghost is expecting him to kill. The ghost is also his supernatural aid. The ghost only directly conversed with Hamlet twice. One was in the forest where the ghost told Hamlet that a...
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...calmly I can tell you the whole story. -Edgar Allen Poe; The Tell-Tale Heart An Analysis of Hamlet's Unraveling The madness of Hamlet is prevalent within each page of the beloved play. Stemming from his acute paranoia, distrust of others, and melancholy outlook, there is a great unraveling of his psyche as the play rolls on. He can be observed as a victim of Psychotic Depression with paranoid tendencies. In Hamlet, the key character is characterized by his suicidal tendencies, grandeur delusions, and highly conflicted personality, therefore he can be classified as depressive, paranoid, and psychotic (Zimbargo, et al 580). While Hamlet's initial sadness itself brings little alarm to the audience, his eventual distressed nature becomes an apparent issue: O, that this too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world! (1.2.5) Oatley 2 Initializing Hamlet's distressed nature and suicidal thoughts; Hamlet's spoken words brings the audience up to pace with his distress over his mother's marrying of his potentially murderous uncle. With this we pick up a certain instability in Hamlet's mental functioning and displays a rather melancholy and depressive vibe to his persona. From the beginning Hamlet is distressed and desires for his "flesh" to "melt" and become "dew". This anguish...
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...ANALYZING NOVELS & SHORT STORy Good feedback is kind, thorough and timely. It’s professional and focused. It leaves the writer feeling challenged to do better but great about their strengths. Even if that just means the location they chose was cool. Give your feedback relative to the skill set of the writer. Never lie or obfuscate. Just serve it up gently. An upset writer isn’t going to hear your points anyway. But an encouraged one will. Trust me on this. — Julie Gray PRINTER FRIENDLY PAGE Literary analysis looks critically at a work of fiction in order to understand how the parts contribute to the whole. When analyzing a novel or short story, you’ll need to consider elements such as the context, setting, characters, plot, literary devices, and themes. Remember that a literary analysis isn’t merely a summary or review, but rather an interpretation of the work and an argument about it based on the text. Depending on your assignment, you might argue about the work’s meaning or why it causes certain reader reactions. This handout will help you analyze a short story or novel—use it to form a thesis, or argument, for your essay. Summary Begin by summarizing the basic plot: “Matilda by Roald Dahl is about a gifted little girl in small town America who learns to make things move with her mind and saves her teacher and school from the evil principal.” This will help ground you in the story. (When you write your paper, you probably won’t include a summary because your readers...
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...a given course, and the second is to encourage learning of the broader topic. Alonso explains that the first goal of most examinations is to see the level of student achievement for various rewards such as honors within the institution. The second purpose is to make the student connect the smaller topics and comprehend what the larger ideas are. She notes that students feel a greater sense of achievement from examinations than from papers, however exams are not without flaws. Factors such as the teacher/professor's mood when correcting, and how far into the stack the grader is, can give some students an unfair advantage. Exams can also point out flaws of the instructor, which make them an even more useful tool. The article shows that though there are drawbacks, exams are a useful tool for students and instructors as each one can evaluate his/herself. Joy Alonso aims to show the place of examinations in collegiate courses, through a series of pro and con analysis. In the beginning of her argument, she explains, in detail, the way an examination fulfills the two purposes of tracking achievement and encouraging learning. The first purpose serves both the students and the professor. She mentions that, through examinations, students obtain self-reassurance of their performance in the course. The article states that a professor will know if his/her instruction is effective and clear in a way that the majority of the class understands the material. When grading the exams, both students...
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...Elements of Drama by: Christina Sheryl L. Sianghio Character Most simply a character is one of the persons who appears in the play, one of the dramatis personae (literally, the persons of the play). In another sense of the term, the treatment of the character is the basic part of the playwright's work. Conventions of the period and the author's personal vision will affect the treatment of character. Most plays contain major characters and minor characters. The delineation and development of major characters is essential to the play; the conflict between Hamlet and Claudius depends upon the character of each. A minor character like Marcellus serves a specific function, to inform Hamlet of the appearance of his father's ghost. Once, that is done, he can depart in peace, for we need not know what sort of person he is or what happens to him. The distinction between major and minor characters is one of degree, as the character of Horatio might illustrate. The distinction between heroes (or heroines) and villains, between good guys and bad guys, between virtue and vice is useful in dealing with certain types of plays, but in many modern plays (and some not so modern) it is difficult to make. Is Gregers Werle in The Wild Duck, for example, a hero or a villain? Another common term in drama is protagonist. Etymologically, it means the first contestant. In the Greek drama, where the term arose, all the parts were played by one, two, or three actors (the more actors, the later the...
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...Early European Theater • The writings of this period were primarily hymns, sermons and similar theologically oriented works. • Latin became a literary medium. • Major preserves of learning are the monasteries. • 8th century Europe returned to greater stability under the Carolingian kings. ➢ Charles Martel – defeated the Moslems at Tours in 732 AD, through his innovative use of armored horsemen as the principal military force, initiating the development of knighthood. ➢ Charlemagne – extended his realm into the Slavic territories and converting non- Christians on the way. Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope and pronounced him as the successor to Constantine. The scenario was the first attempt to establish the Holy Roman Empire. • Charlemagne’s death caused Europe to break into small units isolated from each other and from the world. • Moslem controlled the Mediterranean and the Vikings, still pagans, conquered the northern seas. Early Middle Ages • Life was relatively simple. • Feudalistic patterns were fully established. ➢ Manor (large estate)- headed by a noble man, assumed absolute authority over the peasants who worked his land collectively. ➢ Vassals – supplies the lords a specified number of knights upon demand and the lords in return were bound to protect their vassals. The Theater (500- 900 AD) • The theater revived during the early Middle Ages. • After the Western Roman...
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...MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Title As a title, Much Ado About Nothing fits neatly with those of Shakespeare’s other plays written around the same time: the titles seem whimsical and even flippant. Twelfth Night was alternatively titled What You Will, and As You Like It seems a much less informative title than, say, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Still, the capricious titles are actually as reflective of their content as any history or tragedy title. The plot of Much Ado About Nothing centers on a lot of hubbub over little misunderstandings; there’s a whole lot of fuss about stuff that ultimately isn’t that important. For the bigger issues in the play, though, we turn to the fact that, in Shakespeare’s day, "nothing" was often pronounced the same way as "noting." The play is built around the process of "noting," which has myriad meanings. It can mean "to take notice of" something, to eavesdrop, to observe, or to write something down – but these notings aren’t necessarily accurate. A person can misunderstand a meaning, or mishear, or misreport something, in the process of noting too. The foibles that result from noting (and misnoting) are central to keeping the play spinning. If that wasn’t interesting enough for you, you might want to note that "nothing" was also an Elizabethan slang term for the vagina. "Much Ado About Vagina" makes sense as a title, right? After all, the highs and lows of the play revolve around men and their relationships with, suspicion of, and...
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...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...
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...Senior English Curriculum Map: 2010-2011 School Year English IV * Note: “Sacred Book List” Addendum is at the end of this document Quarter #1 August 23 to October 22 Essential Questions: 1. How do writers and artists organize or construct text to convey meaning? 2. What does it mean to be a stranger in the village? Unit Goals 1. To understand the relationship between perspective and critical theory. 2. To apply critical theories to various texts studied and created. 3. To control and manipulate textual elements in writing to clearly and effectively convey a controlling idea or thesis. Student Published Portfolios: For each of the first three quarters, students are required to complete three to four published writing portfolio products. Quarter 4 is devoted to completion of the Laureate Research Project. . Pacing: This map is one suggestion for pacing. Springboard pacing guides precede each unit in the “About the Unit” sections and offers pacing on a 45-minute class period length. Prentice Hall Literature – Use selections from Prentice Hall throughout the quarter to reinforce the standards being taught as well as the embedded assessments within the SpringBoard curriculum. QUARTER #1 SpringBoard Curriculum Pacing Guide August 23 – October 22 Standards and Benchmarks | Unit Pacing Guide | SpringBoard Unit/Activities | Assessments | SpringBoard Unit 1Literature * The students will analyze and compare significant works of...
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...Syntax AP English Language and Composition What is syntax? SYNTAX The term syntax refers not only to the structure of sentences, their types, their uses, their connection, and the variations authors choose, but also to smaller structures within sentences. Phrases (any group of words) and clauses (groups of words that contain a subject and a verb) are also syntactic elements that require a reader’s attention. Syntax affects the pace of a piece. • Short, clipped phrases, sentences and clauses tend to create a feeling of quickness, decisiveness, and speed to a piece. It is important to be aware of the content of a piece and look for connections to syntax. Pay attention to how pacing relates to the action and purpose of a particular piece. • Long, convoluted sentences, especially with subordinate clauses at the beginning tend to slow the pace of a piece. Often they are connected to a contemplative section, a heavy or serious subject and the writer wants to emphasize it. Sometimes, however, they are placed in a piece for the purpose of demonstrating the ramblings of a character, the ludicrousness of an idea, or the ridiculousness of a situation. Watch for occasional satire or irony in these long sentences. Key Questions: • How does syntax contribute to and enhance the meaning and effect of language? • How does syntax contribute to tone? 1. “Syntax” refers to the ways words and phrases are arranged to form sentences. The reader must identify...
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...As You Like It Summary How It All Goes Down Sir Rowland de Boys has recently died, leaving behind sons Oliver and Orlando. Since Oliver's the eldest son, he's inherited just about everything. This includes the responsibility of making sure his little bro finishes school and continues to live the kind of lifestyle he's become accustomed to as the son of a nobleman. (By the way, this lifestyle looks like a sixteenth-century version of MTV's Teen Cribs.) Oliver, however, treats his little bro like a servant – he refuses to pay for Orlando's education and never gives the kid any spending money. Also, he tells the local court wrestler it would be a good idea to snap Orlando's neck, but Orlando doesn't know about this. Naturally, Orlando is ticked off that Oliver treats him so badly and he's ready to "mutiny" against his older bro. Instead, he channels all of his pent up anger into a wrestling match, where he beats the court wrestler to a bloody pulp. Orlando's wrestling skillz catch the eye of a local girl named Rosalind, who has her own family drama to worry about. (Ros is the daughter of Duke Senior, who used to rule over the French court but was overthrown by his snaky, backstabbing brother, Duke Frederick. Because Rosalind's dad is living in exile in the Forest of Arden, Rosalind has been crashing at the palace with her BFF/cousin, Celia. Did we mention that Celia is the daughter of snaky, backstabbing Duke Frederick? And you thought your family had issues…) Rosalind...
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