William Shakespeare’s
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG0l2eQ
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iSplprkz
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Hamlet is without question
the most famous play in the
English language.
Probably written in 1601 or
1602,the tragedy is a
milestone in Shakespeare’s
dramatic development; the
playwright achieved artistic
maturity in this work through
his brilliant depiction of the
hero’s struggle with two
opposing forces: moral
integrity and the need to
avenge his father’s murder.
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Hamlet endures as the
object of universal
identification because
his central moral
dilemma transcends the
Elizabethan period,
making him a man for all
ages. In his difficult
struggle to somehow act
within a corrupt world
and yet maintain his
moral integrity, Hamlet
ultimately reflects the
fate of all human beings.
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Prince Hamlet of Denmark is urged by
his father’s Ghost to avenge his
murder at the hands of the dead king’s
brother, now King Claudius; to make
matters worse, Claudius has married
the widow, Hamlet’s mother, Queen
Gertrude.
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Denmark is under threat of invasion
from young Fortinbras, who seeks to
regain lands lost to Hamlet’s father by
Fortinbras’ father. Claudius sends
word to the King of Norway to curb
Fortinbras’ aggression.
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You will keep a labelled and organized Records Journal on your
own paper. This assignment is worth 60 points.
For each scene of every act, you must record the following
information:
 Summary: Provide a brief summary of what happens in the scene in your
own words.
 Quote: Write down the line numbers to correspond to an important quote
that you may want to refer to again.
 Response: Each reader/viewer has his or her own experience with a play or
literature. What are you thinking? What connections can you make to your
own experiences, other books/movies/plays, and to society? What questions
do you have? What predictions can you make?.
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There will be checkpoints to evaluate your progress.
How can we read and understand William Shakespeare?
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Read and complete your first entry of Act I,
Scene i of Hamlet.
 http://nfs.sparknotes.com/hamlet/page_2.html
 http://ia700809.us.archive.org/13/items/hamlet_1
209_librivox/hamlet_1_shakespeare.mp3
Literature and Theatre Terms
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Unrhymed verse
especially the
unrhymed iambic
pentameter most
frequently used in
English dramatic,
epic, and reflective
verse.
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An utterance or discourse by a
person who is talking to himself
or herself or is disregardful of or
oblivious to any hearers present
(often used as a device in
drama to disclose a character's
innermost thoughts).
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them:
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Part of an actors
lines supposedly
not heard by others
on stage and
intended only for
the audience.
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A part of a drama
in which a single
actor speaks alone,
at length.
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Irony that is
inherent in
speeches or a
situation of a
drama and is
understood by the
audience but not
grasped by the
characters in the
play.
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A dramatic composition,
often in verse, dealing
with a serious or somber
theme, typically that of a
great person destined
through a flaw of
character or conflict with
some overpowering
force, as fate or society,
to downfall or
destruction.
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A figure of
speech in which
a spoken phrase
is devised to be
understood in
either of two
ways.
A double
meaning.
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A play on words.
A joke.
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A passing
reference, without
explicit
identification, to a
literary or historical
person, place, or
event, or to
another literary
work or passage.

A part of
something
used to signify
the whole.
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The literal term for
one thing applied
to another with
which it has
become closely
associated
because of a
recurrent relation in
common
experience.
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Either an inanimate
object of an
abstract concept is
spoken of as
though it were
endowed with life
or with human
attributes or
feelings.
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Contrary ideas
expressed in a
balanced sentence.
O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st,
A damned saint, an honourable villain!
O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell,
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
In moral paradise of such sweet flesh?
Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell
In such a gorgeous palace!
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A paradoxical
utterance that
conjoins two terms
in that in ordinary
usage are
contraries.

A statement which
seems on its face
to be logically
contradictory or
absurd, yet turns
out to be
interpretable in a
way that makes
sense.

A person who
composed
and recited
epic or heroic
poems.