Suggested Topics
for
Ye Olde Hamlet Essay
Choose one essay topic and write a minimum three page essay. This will be due on the day of the final!
1.Examine the motif of disease and decay in the play, HAMLET. How does Shakespeare use these motifs to explore the dilemma of a man trying to find good in a morally corrupt world? Find specific references to disease and decay in the play and be sure to cite them in order to support your thesis.
2.Examine the motif of spying in HAMLET. Who spies on whom and for what purpose? How does that relate to the overall paranoia of the castle at Elsinore? How does that relate to the overarching theme of lies and deceit in the play?
3.Examine the role of women in HAMLET. What does Shakespeare seem to be saying about the fairer sex? By examining the behavior of the women in the play, do you think Shakespeare is right when he has Hamlet howling,”Frailty! Thy name is Woman!” Or could it be that the attitude of the men toward Ophelia and to a lesser extent, Gertrude, was so patronizing that the women could not but behave in the way that they did. Cite specific examples from the play that support your thesis on Shakespeare’s stance on women.
4.Examine Horatio as a foil to Hamlet. Hamlet was, according to Ophelia, the “glass of fashion and the mold of form”. He was the epitome of what a gentleman should be - courtier, soldier, scholar, but Hamlet looked up to Horatio and said,” Give me that man that is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him in my heart’s core, aye, in my heart of heart, as I do thee.” How are these two men alike? How, more importantly, are they different? Why does Hamlet love and admire Horatio so much? Does Hamlet feel that he is too much the slave of passion?
5.Examine Fortinbras as a foil to Hamlet. How are they the same and how are they different? How might Hamlet regard Fortinbras and did he use Fortinbras as a spur to take action against Claudius? SPOILER ALERT: Why did Shakespeare have Fortinbras assume the crown at the end of the play? What does Shakespeare seem to be saying about power and the right of ascension?
6.Explore Shakespeare’s use of language to develop the theme of delay, procrastination and ambivalence throughout the play. Cite specific examples of delay - pay close attention to Shakespeare’s placement of many clauses between the subject and the action verb in his lines, and be prepared to cite these examples in your essay. Cite examples of Hamlet’s ambivalence revealed through Shakespeare’s use of thesis/antithesis in many of Hamlet’s speeches; the most famous of which would be: “To be or not to be....”
7.Explore the motif of death in HAMLET. The first line of the play is, “Who’s there?” In Act lll, Hamlet ponders death as the “undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returned”. SPOILER ALERT! The last line spoken by Hamlet before he dies is,”The rest is silence....” From the play, what might you surmise is Shakespeare’s opinion about death? Again, be sure to cite specific examples from the play to support your thesis.
8.Is Hamlet an inherently good man driven to ruinous acts of murder from the filth and lies which surround him, or is there something else driving him? Examine Hamlet from a Freudian viewpoint. Why is he so repelled by any physical show of affection? Why does he react with such disgust towards Ophelia? Could it be displacement of revulsion towards his own mother’s behavior? Examine Hamlet’s behavior in his mother’s bedroom. Some scholars detect an inappropriate Oedipal fixation. Others maintain that Hamlet might be a repressed homosexual. Again, cite specific examples from the play to support your thesis.
9.Explore HAMLET from the perspective of a revenge play. How does it fit into the pattern of a revenge play? Analyze how a revenge play is structured and show whether or not HAMLET fits into the classic mold.
10.Explore the role of comedy in this most dark of tragedies. Although we all know Hamlet is a very dark tragedy, it is also quite humorous, albeit of a very dark humor. Think back to the jokes Hamlet makes at Polonius' expense after he knifes the old man behind the arras, his flippant attitude about bodily decay when questiond by Claudius, and reflect on all the jokes the gravedigger makes about death, decay and the dead.
11. Explore the polarity in the play, the ambivalence. In HAMLET, there is polarity between the young and the old: Polonius spying on his son, abusing his daughter; Claudius robbing Hamlet of his rightful inheritance, the throne; the jokes and flippant aegist remarks Hamlet aims at Polonius. There is polarity between men and women - the men abuse the women and the women deceive the men. Taking one of these examples of polarity and citing evidence from the play, analyze what Shakespeare seems to be saying about the question of "youth versus maturity", "innocence versus sophistication", "men versus women".
for
Ye Olde Hamlet Essay
Choose one essay topic and write a minimum three page essay. This will be due on the day of the final!
1.Examine the motif of disease and decay in the play, HAMLET. How does Shakespeare use these motifs to explore the dilemma of a man trying to find good in a morally corrupt world? Find specific references to disease and decay in the play and be sure to cite them in order to support your thesis.
2.Examine the motif of spying in HAMLET. Who spies on whom and for what purpose? How does that relate to the overall paranoia of the castle at Elsinore? How does that relate to the overarching theme of lies and deceit in the play?
3.Examine the role of women in HAMLET. What does Shakespeare seem to be saying about the fairer sex? By examining the behavior of the women in the play, do you think Shakespeare is right when he has Hamlet howling,”Frailty! Thy name is Woman!” Or could it be that the attitude of the men toward Ophelia and to a lesser extent, Gertrude, was so patronizing that the women could not but behave in the way that they did. Cite specific examples from the play that support your thesis on Shakespeare’s stance on women.
4.Examine Horatio as a foil to Hamlet. Hamlet was, according to Ophelia, the “glass of fashion and the mold of form”. He was the epitome of what a gentleman should be - courtier, soldier, scholar, but Hamlet looked up to Horatio and said,” Give me that man that is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him in my heart’s core, aye, in my heart of heart, as I do thee.” How are these two men alike? How, more importantly, are they different? Why does Hamlet love and admire Horatio so much? Does Hamlet feel that he is too much the slave of passion?
5.Examine Fortinbras as a foil to Hamlet. How are they the same and how are they different? How might Hamlet regard Fortinbras and did he use Fortinbras as a spur to take action against Claudius? SPOILER ALERT: Why did Shakespeare have Fortinbras assume the crown at the end of the play? What does Shakespeare seem to be saying about power and the right of ascension?
6.Explore Shakespeare’s use of language to develop the theme of delay, procrastination and ambivalence throughout the play. Cite specific examples of delay - pay close attention to Shakespeare’s placement of many clauses between the subject and the action verb in his lines, and be prepared to cite these examples in your essay. Cite examples of Hamlet’s ambivalence revealed through Shakespeare’s use of thesis/antithesis in many of Hamlet’s speeches; the most famous of which would be: “To be or not to be....”
7.Explore the motif of death in HAMLET. The first line of the play is, “Who’s there?” In Act lll, Hamlet ponders death as the “undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returned”. SPOILER ALERT! The last line spoken by Hamlet before he dies is,”The rest is silence....” From the play, what might you surmise is Shakespeare’s opinion about death? Again, be sure to cite specific examples from the play to support your thesis.
8.Is Hamlet an inherently good man driven to ruinous acts of murder from the filth and lies which surround him, or is there something else driving him? Examine Hamlet from a Freudian viewpoint. Why is he so repelled by any physical show of affection? Why does he react with such disgust towards Ophelia? Could it be displacement of revulsion towards his own mother’s behavior? Examine Hamlet’s behavior in his mother’s bedroom. Some scholars detect an inappropriate Oedipal fixation. Others maintain that Hamlet might be a repressed homosexual. Again, cite specific examples from the play to support your thesis.
9.Explore HAMLET from the perspective of a revenge play. How does it fit into the pattern of a revenge play? Analyze how a revenge play is structured and show whether or not HAMLET fits into the classic mold.
10.Explore the role of comedy in this most dark of tragedies. Although we all know Hamlet is a very dark tragedy, it is also quite humorous, albeit of a very dark humor. Think back to the jokes Hamlet makes at Polonius' expense after he knifes the old man behind the arras, his flippant attitude about bodily decay when questiond by Claudius, and reflect on all the jokes the gravedigger makes about death, decay and the dead.
11. Explore the polarity in the play, the ambivalence. In HAMLET, there is polarity between the young and the old: Polonius spying on his son, abusing his daughter; Claudius robbing Hamlet of his rightful inheritance, the throne; the jokes and flippant aegist remarks Hamlet aims at Polonius. There is polarity between men and women - the men abuse the women and the women deceive the men. Taking one of these examples of polarity and citing evidence from the play, analyze what Shakespeare seems to be saying about the question of "youth versus maturity", "innocence versus sophistication", "men versus women".
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