Winter Holiday Assignment for HAMLET

Choose from one of the following topics and type a five page, double-spaced paper with a well-supported thesis statement. Please remember to use the font TIMES NEW ROMAN and the point size as 10. Please make sure that once you have quoted from the text, you explain what the quote means and how that quote supports your thesis statement. I will need one printed copy from you on January 2, and one emailed copy as well. You will be revising these papers as part of your semester final.

TOPIC CHOICES:
1) Hamlet’s madness: faked, real, or situational? So what? Does the text give clear indications, or is the issue left up to the actor and director?--- you will need to trace Hamlet's dialogue from start to finish to determine your pov on this topic. You should analyze and pay particular attention to each soliloquoy

2) Is Hamlet a tragic hero? (See me for a snippet of Aristotle’s Poetics if you choose this topic.) Consider what Ophelia, Claudius, and others say about his character.

3) Deception / Appearance and Reality
Hamlet has been called a "claustrophobic" play because of the ways the different characters spy on one another, but "spying" is only one form of deception in the play. There is also Claudius, the incestuous fratricide, playing the part of the good king, and Hamlet himself decides to "put an antic disposition on" (1.5.189). In a way, it is Hamlet's job to see through all of this deception and to discover the truth, although, to discover the truth, Hamlet himself must use deception. What point is Shakespeare trying to make by introducing all of the deception, lying, and false appearances into his play?

4) Melancholy, Madness and Sanity
Hamlet tells his mother that he "essentially [is] not in madness, / But mad in craft" (3.4.204-205) and claims to "put an antic disposition on" (1.5.189), but does he ever cross the line between sanity and insanity in the play? To complicate matters, the world of Hamlet seems insane: the king is a murderer; the queen lusts after her dead husband's brother; friends spy on friends; and one character (Ophelia) really does go insane. Could Hamlet really be sane in an insane world? And what about Hamlet's melancholy? From the beginning of the play, Hamlet is depressed, and he considers suicide several different times. What is the real cause of his melancholy? Does he ever break out of his melancholy?

Theme of Decay and Corruption
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" (1.4.98). In fact, many things are rotten in the state of Denmark, and images of decay, corruption, and disease are common throughout the play. Following the conventions of tragedy, many of the characters become corrupted in some way, and, by the end of the play, all of the corrupt characters must be eliminated so that Denmark can once again be set right. Many characters in Hamlet die. In what ways is each of these characters "corrupt"? What images in the play suggest decay, corruption, or disease?

Memorize Your Scenes

I should be receiving typed scenes from people this weekend. Please take some time to review all of the assignments on the blog.

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

Read each other's comments on betrayal and comment on each other's entries. Next, do some general thinking about the nature of friendship and betrayal in general. Who are Hamlet's "real friends'? How can he know? Who are your real friends? How do you know?

Journal Entry

Have you ever thought that someone was plotting against you? What happened? What was it like? What did you do?

AP Scenes

You should be writing modern day scenes of the "get thee to a nunery" scene and preparing to present them in class. Also, please don't forget to prepare your vocabulary words. See you Tuesday.

Hamlet Vocabulary words for 11/27/06- December 8th

Hamlet Vocabulary words for 11/27/06- December 8th

1. Purport
2. Perusal
3. Profound
4. Discretion
5. Lunacy
6. Rebuke
7. unrequited
8. Brevity
9. celestial
10. solicit

11. slanders
12. rogue
13. tedious
14. infinite
15. disposition
16. pestilent
17. faculties
18. foil
19. endeavor
20. rapiers

AP Homework Journal Hamlet

Today we decided to have people wait and post their journal entries after we've read the scene in question. We are focusing on Hamlet's "to be or not to be" tomorrow.

AP Homework Journal Hamlet

King Claudius states, "Madness in great ones must not unwatched go." (III.i.) How is this true in any age? What evidence can you find in recent news stories to support this statement? How do societies keep checks and balances in their "great ones?"

AP Vocabulary List Through 11/17/2006

Hamlet Act One



1. Apparition
2. Fortified
3. Smote
4. Emulate
5. Valiant
6. Forfeit
7. Enterprise
8. Portentuous
9. Harbingers
10. Prologue



11. malicious
12. invulnerable
13. mockery
14. lofty
15. green (not as in color)
16. dirge
17. impotent
18. coronation
19. dejected
20. obsequious

Harbor Humanities Homework: Resoutions

A resolution is an opinion about which there can be a logical debate with two opposing arguments. For example, I think smoking should be banned in public places. Smoking should be banned in public places is is a resolution. I think or I believe is an opinion indicator.
Your homework tonight is to write 5 resolutions on index cards with your names on the back of each card.

For example, the school day should only be three hours long.

AP Homework Journal Hamlet

To what extent do parents have the right to "spy" or check up on their children? What circumstances allow or prevent this?

Vocabulary Words 11/27/06- 12/8/2006

Vocabulary Words for Harbor Humanities
December Waterfront Debate
All words are from NY TIMES article

1. Decaying
2. Developers
3. Residential
4. Relics
5. Esplanade
6. Industrial
7. Surged
8. (Resurgence)
9. Proximity
10. Curtailed
11. Restricted
12. Emblematic
13. Desolate
14. Hub
15. Propelled
16. Underutilized
17. Re-zoning
18. Unanimously
19. Luxury
20. Envisioned
21. Capitalize
22. Assets
23. Neglected
24. Repository
25. Inappropriate
26. Derelict
27. Novel
28. Ambitious
29. Spruce
30. Exception
31. Prominence
32. Negotiations
33. Preserve
34. Ineligible
35. Inclusionary
36. Modifications