BRITISH LITERATURE

The Opposite of What is Expected
• VERBAL
• Opposite of what someone has said is meant
• SITUATIONAL
• The outcome is opposite of what is expected
• DRAMATIC
• The audience knows more about the situation than the characters

• Opposite of what someone has said is meant. It is intentional to say one thing and mean the opposite.
• “Soft like concrete”
• “Clear like mud”
• “Pleasant like a root canal”
• Verbal irony sounds sarcastic but the purpose of
sarcasm is to cause pain or harm. Verbal irony is just to imply the opposite meaning.
• Sarcasm can be a form of verbal irony but verbal irony is not necessarily sarcastic.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiR-bnCHIYo

IS NOT JUST COINCIDENCE .
• Situational irony occurs only when the exact opposite of what is meant to happen, happens.
• When you wash your car and then it rains…Is that ironic?
• There MUST be something that leads a person to think that a particular event or situation is unlikely happen for it to be ironic.
• When a meteorologist washes their car and it gets rained on would be ironic because a meteorologist would expect it to be sunny since it is his/her job to predict the weather.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqg6RO8c_W0

• The audience knows more about the situation than the characters.
• This form of irony is used as a tool for engaging the audience by building curiosity about what will happen since the audience knows something that the characters don’t.
• By allowing the reader and audience to know more things ahead of the characters, the irony puts the reader and audience above the characters and encourages them to hope, to fear, and anticipate the moment when the character would find out the truth behind the situations and events of the story.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZFYuX84n1U

ACTORS
• Entertain us with your interpretations of your role.
• Remember to clip your name tag in a clear, visible place.
• Use a different accent each time you accept a new role.
AUDIENCE
• Enjoy the show and jot down notes in your Records Journal.
For each scene, record a summary of the scene, significant quotes (key word with line numbers), and a reaction
(question, comment, prediction, analysis)

We are going to watch five different versions of Hamlet’s famous “To Be or Not to
Be” soliloquy. In your journal, analyze each version and record your conclusions in the following chart:
Version What makes this version unique compared to the others?
What is your opinion of this performance? What is done well? What is missing?
Kenneth Branagh
(1996)
Lawrence Olivier
(1948)
Mel Gibson (1990)
Richard Burton
(1964)
David Tennant
(2009)

• Read Act III, Scenes ii-iii and complete
Records Journal entries for class on
Monday after break.
• We will be finishing the play for finals week. If you know you will be studying for other classes, it might be a good idea to read as much of Hamlet as possible over break.