Michael Rossi
Hamlet Act II Wrapup Activity
Time Constraints: 45 minutes
Rationale: Students require a grasp of the way W.S. creates complex character dynamics based on the reality of his
time and his understanding of the human condition. The analysis of Act II will assist students in laying a strong
foundation for interpreting complex literature.
Objectives: Students will identify characters, their traits, and their motivations by participating in analytic
discussion.
Students will interpret the meaning of Shakespeare’s text by participating in group reading s and discussions.
Students will investigate monologues and soliloquys across various genres.
Standards:
1.2.9.E: Read, understand, and respond to essential content in a variety of informational texts and documents across
all academic content areas.
1.3.9.C: Analyze the use and effectiveness of literary elements used by one or more authors, including
characterization, setting, plot, theme, point of view, tone, mood, and style
1.3.9.B: Analyze the characteristics of poetry, prose, drama, novels, short stories, essays, and other basic genres,
explaining the appropriateness of the form chosen by an author for a specific purpose.
1.6.9.A: Listen critically and respond to others in small and large group situations.
Respond with grade level appropriate questions, ideas, information or opinions.
Materials:
-
List of Guiding Analytical Questions (see attached)
Soliloquy and Monologue Activity (see attached)
o http://stanfaryna.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/the-final-speech-of-the-great-dictator-by-sircharles-chaplin/
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyRB00Xe5-E
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=RC6sMFbL288
Anticipatory Set: Students will read the texts provided to them in groups and attempt to answer as many questions
as they can.
Procedures and Assessment: Students will watch the video and attempt to analyze whether their understanding of
the text has changed. Students should complete all questions by the end of class.
Reflection:
Monologue or Soliloquy?
Answer the following questions as a group about your text. Answer these questions as completely as
possible:
1. Highlight all the words that you don’t know. Record these words and their meanings here.
2. What literary devices are used throughout this text? List them.
3. List and examine any allusions that you may find within the text.
4. If someone was saying these words to you, what do you imagine their tone would be?
5. Whom is this speech directed at?
6. If you had to guess, what is this text from? Who is the speaker/author?
7. What is this speaker’s view of the world? How can you tell?
8. What is the main theme the speaker is attempting to convey?
9. Do you think this text is a monologue or a soliloquy? Why? Where do you think that this text
came from?
Follow up Questions:
10. Now that you have taken the time to analyze this text and seen it spoken, what difference does
hearing/seeing a text make? What does reading provide that hearing cannot? What does hearing a
text read add to a text? Come up with as many answers as possible.
11. Is this a monologue or soliloquy? What clues do you have to point you in that direction?
12. What is the value of Hamlet’s soliloquys? Why are they important to the play as a whole? Can
you use draw any similarities from your text and the rhetorical strategies that the young prince
employs? What are some of these strategies?
Text #1
I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone.
I should like to help everyone if possible- Jew, Gentile, black men, white…
We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others’ happiness, not
by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for
everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful,
but we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men’s souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and
bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left
us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind.
We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery ,we need humanity. More than cleverness, we
need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane
and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness
in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all.
Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little
children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.
To those who can hear me, I say “Do not despair.”
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human
progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to
the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell
you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as
cannon fodder!
Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men—machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You
are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have a love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t
hate!
Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural.
Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!
In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it’s written “the kingdom of God is within man”, not one man nor a
group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the
power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this
life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power.
Let us all unite.
Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future
and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not
fulfill their promise. They never will!
Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people!
Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To
do away with greed, with hate and intolerance!
Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.
Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!
Text #2
Contrary to popular belief this is not a love song it's a sonnet
Damn, it feels good to have people up on it but
I'm just a fool playing with the Master's tools
Learning how to break the rules of this record company pool
Hallucination, I see with my eyes but my heart's telling me lies
Why do I fantasize? Why am I telling lies to the people from the stage
Pretending it's all good when inside there’s fire and rage
'Cuz I can't understand how a man lives off the life of another man
Tryin' to pimp the universe, that's a joke
I stay rockin' the boat down to my last note it's murder she wrote
Assassination vocabulary, I see your termination is heavily necessary
I should have known they do it for Forbes alone
I do it to break the walls if I fall off then let me know people
Lyrical optometrists with 20-20 vision, I’m serving rhymes
Like my granny used to serve provisions chaotical
Amneotical fluid the rap druid is fluent with the art
Of onomatopoeia
metaphysical, microscopic topic dropper
When I was a kid I wanted roller skates and a bike chopper
But alas, pop never thought to keep me in style
That's why I'm schizophrenic now so God bless the
Child that has his own the harvest we reap is what we sow
Chrome microphone, shoot it, towrads a dome of computer
Digital clones that mimic philosopher stones
Sayin' a style's their own when they bite like Mike Furounsville
The sounds ill,
a relationship is a mirror that you see yourself with
and the picture is clearer, that's why I'm on the scene
With a mic like Ernesto Guevara while they exploited nights
Like Geraldo Riviera, they just
It's easy not to care what people say
it's harder to pretend and try
'Cuz they can only love you from yesterday
I'm looking at the now they pose high
I'm just a man who's walking they stand around and keep talking
They tried to clip my wings but wisdom fills so many things
Say it again, I'm just a man who's walking
They stand around and keep talking they tried to clip my wings
But wisdom fills so many things, love
It's funny how life can go
First you ride high then you might lay low
Don't get high off your own supply
Someone said first before a fall comes pride
This is my message to the world
Just tryin' to reach every boy and girl
Not tryin' to say if it's right or wrong
This is not a love song
Text #3
Slip the jab will ya. Slip the jab. That's right. That's it.
Hey I didn't hear no bell. Alright that's right slip the jab. That's it mentalize.
See that bum in front of you, you see yourself doing right and you'll do right.
That's pretty, that's very pretty, TIME!
Come here Rock. My God, you’re ready ain't you? That Apollo won't know what hit him.
You’re gonna roll over him like a bulldozer, an Italian bulldozer.
You know kid I know how you feel about this fight that's coming up, cause I was young once too.
And I'll tell you something if you wasn't here I probably wouldn't be alive today.
The fact that you’re here and doing as well as you’re doing gives me what do you call it motivation. Huh, to
stay alive.
Cause I think that people die sometimes when they don't want to live no more.
And nature is smarter than people think: little by little we lose our friends.
We lose everything.
We keep losing and losing until we say, “Aw what the hell am I living around here for I got no reason to go
on”.
But we do kid, boy I got a reason to go on. And I'm gonna stay alive.
And I will watch you make good. And I'll never leave you until that happens.
Cause when I leave you you'll not only know how to fight, you'll be able to take care of yourself outside of
the ring too. Is that ok?
Now I got a little gift for you. Wait a minute, wait a minute now, wait a minute. Look at this, See that:
This here is the favorite thing I have on this earth and Rocky Marciano gave me that. You know what it was?
His cufflink.
And now I'm giving it to you. And it's gonna be like an angel on your shoulder. If you ever get hurt and you
feel like you’re going down, this little angel is gonna whisper in your ear he's gonna say, “Get up you son of a
bitch, Cause Mickey loves you”.
Ok, go after him kid. Go after him.