ENGLISH LITERATURE (CInt M-Z)
(prof. Rita Severi)
Jan. 19, 2012
Name:
Number:
1) List two similarities between Hamlet and Torrismondo:
a) Setting: both are set in the great North; Denmark & Norway
b) language; in Shakespeare we find expressions present in Tasso.
c) Alvida wants to revenge her brother (yheme of revenge); friendship theme :Torrismondo &
Germondo, but, unlike Hamlet & Horatio, Torrismondo betrays his friend with Alvida.
2) List two similarities between Hamlet and Oedipus:
a) Oedipus married his mother. Psychoanalysis has used the Oedipus myth to interpret Hamlet’s
relationship with Gertrude (E. Jones, The Oedipus Complex)
b) both seek the truth, but Oedipus is much more active than Hamlet.
c) Oedipus has been banished from his throne and has to recover it through a series of trials.
3) Catharsis means purification
4) Hamlet compares himself to Hercules
Seneca’s revenge play.
the mythological protagonist of
5) An English source for Hamlet: The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd
6) A French version of Hamlet: Belleforest, Histoires Tragiques
7) One of Shakespeare’s earliest plays: The Two Gentlemen of Verona; The Taming of the
Shrew, Henry VI, King John, Titus Andronicus
8) Probably Shakespeare’s last play: Henry VIII, The Tempest
9) Giovanni Pico’s philosophy is called Neoplatonism
10) An example from Pico’s philosophy can be found in Hamlet, in the speech that begins
“ What piece of work is a man”
,
Act,
II
Scene 2
(according to ed.: Arden ed. 303-310)
Verses 302 or 303-308 or 310
.