English IV - CCCC
Mr. Scheef
April 20 - May LRSDOTNW
Hamlet - W. Shakespeare
Hamlet is the most famous, most often staged of Shakespeare’s plays but also the most ambiguous,
having inspired centuries of critical debate and dozens of different interpretations and adaptations. Apart
from its sensational aspects—murder, ghosts, treachery, insanity (madness) how do we explain the play’s
attraction for some of the most important thinkers, writers, actors, and directors of all time?
We explore this question in two distinct sequences, or units, each providing a different view of the play
and its cultural significance. Just as each unit provides a different approach, each also presents a
different writing challenge, so that by the end of the unit on Hamlet you will have prepared two prevalent
types of academic responses. Each unit provides you with opportunities for substantial revision of your
writing before you submit your final essay.
DUE DATES:
Individual Act Responses:
Group Act Summations
Act I
Act II
Act III
Act IV
Act V
Group A Act I
Group B Act II - III
Group C Act IV - V
April 24
April 28
May 1
May 4
May 6
Group Essay:
Pre Draft
Final
May 8
LRSDOTNW
April 23
April 24
April 28
Summations using power point include:
a.
Complete Character Descriptions
b.
Theme Analysis
c.
Plot Sequence - Include all major speeches-soliloquies
d.
Complication Description
e.
Conflict Development
f.
Crisis Implications
g.
h.
i.
Title slide, Works Cited Slide
No more than 4 bullets per slide
No more than 4 words per bullet
Overview of Hamlet Writing Elements
1.
Individually: At the conclusion of each act prepare a short essay for each of the corresponding
questions. Each essay question is to be completed in the assignment side of your notebook
in black or blue ink.
Each essay question is to be a minimum of one (1) full page (SP). Leave the last two lines
of your paper clean. Be sure state specific evidence from the text to support your responses.
REMINDER: Use of MLA in-text citation is required.
NOTE:
E4’s Select One (1) and C2’s complete both questions.
Act I
a.
Contrast the attitudes towards the death of the old King as expressed by Claudius
and Hamlet.
b.
Compare the advice given to Ophelia by Laertes with the advice by Polonius.
Act II
a.
Prepare a character profile of Polonius from his interactions in this act with Reynaldo
(scene 1), Ophelia (scene 1), Gertrude and Claudius (scene 2), Hamlet (scene 2) and
the Players (scene 2).
b.
Compare and contrast the relationship which the King and Queen have with Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern, to the relationship which Hamlet has with Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern as defined in scene 2.
Act III
a.
Discuss the connection between Hamlet’s scene with Ophelia where he speaks of
honesty, his speech to the Players on acting, and his speech to Horatio on flattery.
b.
Compare Claudius’ thoughts on his own guilt as he tries to pray to Gertrude’s
recognition of her own guilt when confronted by Hamlet.
Act IV
a.
Using specific detail from the play trace the way Claudius tries to manipulate the
following characters in this act in order to achieve his own ends:
Gertrude, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet and Laertes.
b.
Write down Ophelia’s song lyrics. Using specific detail from the play discuss the
implications of Ophelia’s song lyrics…what do they mean, what do the lyrics forecast?
What do the lyrics suggest about her relationship with Hamlet, and her grief for her
Father, especially as causes for her apparent madness?
Act V
a.
Compare Claudius’ use of the “arranged” fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet
to Hamlet’s use of “The Mousetrap,” and his rewriting of the letters carried by
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
b.
Discuss the professions of love and grief expressed at Ophelia’s funeral by Laertes
and Hamlet, as compared to similar scenes featuring Claudius, in terms of their
implications for the play’s outcome: who is honest, deserving, and just among the play’s
key players?
2.
Group Assignment: Choose a speech from Hamlet of at least twenty-five lines and
offer a detailed interpretation that focuses on something problematic about the speecha contradiction, incongruity, obscurity, gap, tension, or some other problematic feature
that your group deems worthy of exploration.
Pre-Draft Writing Assignment (to be typed)
a.
List five (5) genuine questions you have about the selected speech?
b.
In specific detail respond to each of the five (5) stated questions.
c.
Why did your group select this particular speech? Why does it interest your group?
What do you see as the theme of the speech? What do you see as the strengths and
weaknesses of this speech. What specific impact does this speech have on the plot of the
specific act that the speech is recited?
Thesis Statement: As it specifically relates to the premise
Pre Draft: Typed 2 to 4 pages in length (MLA)
Project Length: Typed 6 to 8 pages in length (MLA)
Translation: (individually) Rewrite the speech in your own words
Video: Present to the class the video version of the speech
a.
You Tube
b.
Rental (get together and rent the movie Hamlet)
Source Documentations: Minimum of three (3) outside sources
Format: Text (MLA) Works Cited Page (MLA)
GROUP A
Act I
Brandon
Cole
Sarah
Kory
Jessica
Robert
Advice:
GROUP B
Act II - III
Lucas
DB
Jordy
Taylor
Heather
GROUP C
Act IV - V
Dylan
Kortnei
Scott
Sammie
Nate
Richard
The best speeches for this assignment are complex and meaty. A speech to avoid is
Claudius’s in Act III, scene iii (“O, my offense is rank…”)
Goals of the Essay:
Writing this group essay will help you learn to…
a.
Provide a close reading with a thesis and a motive. A close reading is not a line-by-line
analysis of a passage but rather a coherent analysis of the entire speech considering all
elements.
b.
Structure the group essay according to the argument stated in your thesis statement.
Avoid a plot summary, (telling us what happens in the speech…we already know that
information).
c.
Orient your reader. You should address your essay to readers who have read or seen
Hamlet, but not recently and not in-depth. You will need to orient them with appropriate
reminders (quick summaries of scenes, explanations of the context of quotations), always
making sure those explanations serve a purpose in your group essay as whole.
d.
Use active verbs and limit your use of “to be” verbs. “To be” verbs include is, are, was,
were, be, to be, been and being. This simple style will invigorate your prose.
e.
Document sources using the MLA in-text citation method. This citation method requires
that you cite your sources in the text of your essay (as opposed to using footnotes or endnotes)
and that you append a correctly formatted list of Works Cited to your essay.