How does my good Lord Hamlet?

British Literature. Mon, Sep 14th, 2009 at 3:30 pm

Themes: Discussion, Hamlet, Reading, Writing

You can catch up on your reading here.

Our main goal with this play is to gain a better understanding of Shakespearean language, snag a few allusions, and take an in-depth look into the motivations of each character. The first two are happy side-effects of the last. There are two questions we should keep in mind as we watch:

1. At what point does Hamlet’s sanity become questionable?

2. Why doesn’t Hamlet kill Claudius right away?

Of course, as with all questions worth asking, our initial attempts will raise more questions than answers, and will become more complex as we look deeper into the story. This is a good thing.

We’ll have a quick quiz tomorrow over the action so far. This will do several things for us:

• Help me see how you are understanding the story as individuals.
• Help you organize your thoughts about the play so far (you may use your notes; this quiz could be a good resource for you when you begin writing—a very rough draft of sorts).
• Help me check on how your writing is progressing. (Hint: it will not be fill-in-the-blank.)
• Help you decide whether the in-class discussions are sufficient for you to understand the play. You may decide to track down a copy to study from on your own (we have a few in the classroom, or you can use the link at the top of this post) if you have trouble answering the questions.

One Response to “How does my good Lord Hamlet?”

1. lezleigh marshall says:

   September 15, 2009 at 6:36 am

   hamlet chart?
   i was going to print it off.
   jeez stalllinggssss >.<