...writing depth and makes it something to remember. In fact, it is the very concept that makes Hamlet stand out from other pieces of literature. The intense struggle between the two main characters make it one of Shakespeare’s most well-known pieces of writing. From beginning to end, two characters have the power to create, mould and exemplify countless themes throughout Hamlet. The fierce conflict between Claudius and Hamlet is essential to develop the action and inaction, revenge, the impossibility of certainty and appearance vs. reality themes. The contrast between action and inaction is emphasized between Claudius and Hamlet due to the conflict between these two characters. To begin, Claudius sends Hamlet to an almost certain death immediately after he suspects Hamlet’s knowledge of his father’s murder. Quickly, he confides in Rosencratz and Guildenstern that, “[Claudius likes Hamlet] not, nor stands it safe with [everyone] / [t]o let his madness range” (III.iii.1-2), and demands, “therefore prepare you. I your commission will forthwith dispatch / [a]nd he to England shall along with you” (III.iii.3-4). It seems Claudius proceeds impulsively, however his calculated and rapid actions are the key to the development of the theme of action. Claudius smoothly uses “[Hamlet’s] madness” as the source of his nephew’s departure, though it is his own safety that concerns Claudius. Next, Hamlet cannot find the strength to kill his father’s murderer throughout most of the play. ...
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...Activity 1 – Imagery and Symbolism Discussion: Symbols and Images - Formative Dropbox: Poetic Verbal-Visual Collage (5%) Activity 2 – Diction Dropbox: Event Poem/Reflection - Formative Activity 3 – Form Discussion: Forms - Formative Activity 4 – Sound and Sense Dropbox: Poetry Analysis – Formative (5%) Activity 5 – Theme and Understanding Discussion: Battle of the Critics - Formative Activity 6 – ISP Reflective Journal Dropbox: Reflective Journal - Formative Activity 7 – Culminating Activity Dropbox: Best Poem in the World (5%) Discussion: Best Poem - Formative Unit 3 – 25% Activity 1 – Culminating Assignment Essay Module Discussion: Integrated Quotations - Formative Discussion: Elaboration of Evidence - Formative Activity 2 – Worldviews and Interpretations Dropbox: “The Return” Response (Parts A, B, and C) - Formative Activity 3 – Text Attack Discussion: The 5 ‘W’’s - Formative Activity 4 – Dramatic Irony Dropbox: Incidents of Dramatic Irony – 2.5% Activity 5 – Target the Audience Discussion: Cultural/Political Passage - Formative Activity 6 – Allusions in Hamlet Dropbox: Allusion Chart – Formative Discussion: Posting Allusion Chart - Formative Activity 7 – Hamlet Act IV & Preparing to Write the Literary Essay Dropbox: Cause...
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...clarified by way of his soliloquies, throughout Hamlet. More specifically, Hamlet’s first, fourth, and sixth soliloquies, raise the question of how Hamlet views his relationship with God in accordance to his relationship with the state of Denmark. It is evident the Hamlet is particularly religious. Although Hamlet does not explicitly discuss his ideas regarding the significance of religion and state in relation to one another, they can be inferred through his decisions and actions throughout the play. Precisely, Hamlet’s actions regarding Old Hamlet’s Ghost and Gertrude’s marriage, in addition to his thoughts regarding Purgatory and suicide, provide evidence for how he understands this relationship to be balanced....
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...Jonathan Nottage Cusick English IV 1 November 2015 Clarifying Questions 1. We never learn how long the implied affair between King Claudius and Queen Gertrude lasted, for or if it was even an affair before King Hamlet died. How long if at all, was the affair? Hamlet makes many remarks of incestuous activities with his mother through the play Gertrude wastes little time before re marrying (therefore possible that they were already in a relationship) 2. Especially in 5.2 there are a lot of stage directions involving the actor speaking [Aside] . With this, are most of these lines supposed to be interpreted as happening in the actors head? Or perhaps to another actor onstage, just in a secret manner? I think it's most likely in the actors...
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...Angela Romero 1226344 English IX Tim Keppel An analysis of the characters of Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, revenge is the central topic, which breathes life into the play. As his main objective in life, Hamlet craves to avenge his father’s death, the king of Denmark, betrayed and killed by his own brother. Throughout the play, Hamlet comes across two other main characters in Shakespeare’s tragedy, Laertes and Fortinbras, whose fathers are also murdered. Even though there are differences between these 3 characters, this series of unfair deaths puts them in the same situation and makes them have aspects in common. Thus, the purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras in terms of behavior, the honor for their beloved fathers, the desire to revenge their fathers’ death and their modus operandi of vengeance; as well as to explain the perception they have of each other. On one hand, Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, is characterized by his eloquent behavior, his philosophical thinking, which constantly leads him to questions that cannot be answered easily, such as his famous one “to be, or not to be”. He is smart and lets others think he’s just mad. One of his other characteristics are his constant thoughts about existence and the duties of a man. “What is a man, if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.” “For there are actions...
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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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...Travelling Players in Hamlet: New Historicist Issues Travelling Players in Hamlet: New Historicist Issues In Hamlet, Shakespeare makes use of a play within a play, as the device through which Prince Hamlet hopes to prove King Claudius’s guilt in the murder of the old King Hamlet. This idea suggests itself to Hamlet in Act 2, Scene 2, when Rosencrantz tells him that a group of actors will soon be arriving at Elsinore, at which point their conversation digresses briefly to the circumstances surrounding these itinerant players. In the space of the next 45 lines, Shakespeare informs his audience of several important issues affecting the real actors of his time. This is of particular interest from the viewpoint of New Historicism, which treats literature as a part of history, and as an expression or representation of forces on history (Holman and Harmon, 318). New Historicism emerged as a theoretical movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s with one of the earliest proponents being Louis A. Montrose. In his essay “Professing the Renaissance: The Poetics and Politics of Culture,” Montrose says that the focus of New Historicism “…has been upon a refiguring of the socio-cultural field within which canonical Renaissance literary and dramatic works were originally produced; upon resituating them not only in relationship to other genres and modes of discourse but also in relationship to contemporaneous social institutions and non-discursive practices”...
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...insecurity. The epigraph of Dante’s Inferno is the first hint of meaning in the poem. By having this piece of the Inferno included we assume the poem will be dark and hellish. The Inferno basically states that the speaker would not have shared his story if he had known that it would be taken out of Hades. The speaker realizes that Dante will not leave so he relates his secrets to death. The information may seem irrelevant until it is placed in the context of the entire poem, but by comparing his poem to the story told to Dante, Eliot warns the reader that this is not an ordinary monologue. In this case, the epigraph reveals that Prufrock himself could not have articulated his introspection of the poem, but this will not be evident until an analysis of the other images Eliot uses (Norton, 2140). The first three lines of the poem have an unusual use of imagery that you would not see in any other love poem. He describes the setting sunlit sky as looking “like a patient etherized upon a table” (Eliot 3). This is creepy image but it gives insight into Prufrock’s views of the outside world. He is afraid of the increasingly industrialized and impersonal city surrounding him, and he is unsure of what to do and afraid to commit to any particular choice of action (Mays 112). We know that it is a dramatic monologue because of the use of “you” and “I.” Prufrock is a character going through his mid life crisis and looking back on all of the choices he has made that he regrets and also all of...
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...Horatio, to watch with them. When he sees the ghost, he decides they should tell Hamlet, the dead King's son. Hamlet is also the nephew of the present King, Claudius, who not only assumed his dead brother's crown but also married his widow, Gertrude. Claudius seems an able King, easily handling the threat of the Norwegian Prince Fortinbras. But Hamlet is furious about Gertrude's marriage to Claudius. Hamlet meets the ghost, which claims to be the spirit of his father, murdered by Claudius. Hamlet quickly accepts the ghost's command to seek revenge. Yet Hamlet is uncertain if what the ghost said is true. He delays his revenge and begins to act half-mad, contemplate suicide, and becomes furious at all women. The Lord Chamberlain, Polonius, concludes that Hamlet's behavior comes from lovesickness for Ophelia, Polonius's daughter. Claudius and Gertrude summon two of Hamlet's old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to find out what's wrong with him. As Polonius develops a plot to spy on a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia, Hamlet develops a plot of his own: to have a recently arrived troupe of actors put on a play that resembles Claudius's alleged murder of Old Hamlet, and watch Claudius's reaction. Polonius and Claudius spy on the meeting between Ophelia and Hamlet, during which Hamlet flies into a rage against women and marriage. Claudius concludes Hamlet neither loves Ophelia nor is mad. Seeing Hamlet as a threat, he decides to send him away. At the play that night, Claudius runs...
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...|[pic] |Syllabus | | |College of Humanities | | |ENG/125 Version 3 | | |Literature in Society | Copyright © 2010, 2008, 2006 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This course introduces themes in literature and provides guided study and practice in reflecting on themes which describe the human experience across cultural and societal boundaries. The course includes readings from literature in different genres and cultures. Students study the literature in thematic units and are asked to make connections to their own lives and cultures. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: • University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. • Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies...
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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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...emotionally intense play. It is one of the shortest and bloodiest tragedies written by Shakespeare. It is not as complex as other plays like The Merchant of Venice, Othello and Hamlet which explores the fine nuances of the characters but is a drama with a sharp and jagged theme which flows rapidly from the beginning to the end. Macbeth is a story of a brave and courageous Scottish general (Macbeth) who on receiving a prophecy of becoming the future king (by witches) and instigated by his wife goes on to murder the king (Duncan) and seize the throne. The fear of losing the throne and to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, Macbeth commits even more murders and soon becomes a tyrant. The bloodbath finally drags Macbeth and his wife to madness and death. Character Analysis: Of the many characters in the play, two characters form the core of the whole play namely Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth – The play introduces Macbeth as a Scottish general and the thane of Glamis. Macbeth’s initial image from the play is that of a brave and courageous soldier. The following speech from the Captain illustrates Macbeth’s bravery: For brave Macbeth -well he deserves that name- Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Which smoked with bloody execution, Like Valor's minion carved out his passage Macbeth is also shown as a very loyal kinsman of the king. His devotion to his duty is illustrated from the following lines: The service and the loyalty lowe, In doing it, pays...
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...higher priorities than are considerations of profit or commercial appeal. * Literature is literally "an acquaintance with letters" as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning "an individual written character (letter)"). The term has generally come to identify a collection of texts. The word literature as a common noun can refer to any form of writing, such as essays or poetry; Literature as a proper noun refers to a whole body of literary work, world-wide or relating to a specific culture... * lit·er·a·ture n. 1. The body of written works of a language, period, or culture. 2. Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value:"Literature must be an analysis of experience and a synthesis of the findings into a unity" 3. The art or occupation of a literary writer. 4. The body of written work produced by scholars or researchers in a given field: medical literature. 5. Printed material: All the available collected literature on the subject. 6. Music: All the compositions of a certain kind or for a specific instrument or ensemble: the symphonic literature. Good literature has something important to say about life. If we take the time to read and understand the literature, it should help us to learn more about life. It may be that we do not agree with what the writer says. Nevertheless, the act of studying it will have made us think more carefully about the topic...
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...names and the third-person pronouns “he,” “she,” “it,” and “they.” • Omniscient narration: The narrator knows all of the actions, feelings, and motivations of all of the characters. For example, the narrator of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina seems to know everything about all the characters and events in the story. • Limited omniscient narration: The narrator knows the actions, feelings, and motivations of only one or a handful of characters. For example, the narrator of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has full knowledge of only Alice. • Free indirect discourse: The narrator conveys a character’s inner thoughts while staying in the third person. Gustave Flaubert pioneered this style in Madame Bovary, as in this passage: “Sometimes she thought that these were after all the best days of her life, the honeymoon, so-called.” Objective narration: A style in which the narrator reports neutrally on the outward behavior of the characters but offers no interpretation of their actions or their inner states....
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...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 an author’s syntax and discuss the relationship it has to the content of the passage. Authors may use: a. specific patterns of phrases and sentences b. divisions within a piece with different syntax for each c. parallel structure d. different sentence types e. specific kinds of punctuation f. other syntax techniques...
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