HAMLET Essay
To be given after the Third Act:

Your assignment is to choose a theme from Hamlet, and write an essay using the rhetorical devices and/or literary devices employed by Shakespeare to explore and develop the theme. Some possible examples of themes you might want to address would be: the theme of spying; the role of women in the play HAMLET; the theme of revenge; the theme of fortune; the theme of young versus old; the theme of the ubermensch; the theme of existential despair; and any other possible theme you might want to address. This assignment will be due at the end of class. You may use the book and your notes to write this essay.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A.P. Blitz, Saturday, March 24, 2018

Image
Musee des Beaux Arts  W. H. Auden About suffering they were never wrong, The old Masters: how well they understood Its human position: how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting For the miraculous birth, there always must be Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating On a pond at the edge of the wood: They never forgot That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must h
Read more

Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 1

Image
Hamlet Act 2, Scene 1: In this scene Polonius is giving instructions to his servant Reynaldo to spy on Laertes, his son, in Paris. (Again, note the theme of spying) Polonius is giving Reynaldo money to give to his son, but tells him to “to make inquire of his behavior”. “Inquire me first what Danskers are in town….” This is an example of elision or omission of words (words are intentionally left out to insure the lines scan in iambic pentameter.) What word or words are left out? Dansker: Danes Polonius tells Reynaldo to inquire about Laertes’ behavior in a roundabout general way: “encompassment and drift of question” and by this way will arrive at the truth faster and more completely than by asking directly (“…come you more nearer / Than your particular demands will touch it.”) Do you think that’s true? Polonius further instructs Reynaldo, the servant, to say that he doesn’t know him well, but has some “…distant knowledge of him…” Mark: Listen well! Are
Read more

Middlemarch Essay

Image
How to Approach the A.P. prompt for MIDDLEMARCH How does Eliot portray characters? How does she portray complex relationship between husband and wife? Literary devices: Narrative perspective (Pov) and selection of detail. Middlemarch: underline novels!!!!! Rosamond’s personality: She was not given to weeping and disliked it. Lines 14 – 16: Rosamond thinks….. Go through the entire prompt and find examples of pov (narrative perspective) of Rosamond. Find at least three examples. Lines 77 – 79: “The thought in her mind was if she had known what he was going to be like she would never have married him.” Lines 87 - 90: “She was determined to make no further resistance or utterance.” Lines 23 – 26: This sudden trial was to a creature who had known nothing but indulgence. 52 – 53: His self blame gave her some hope that he would attend to her opinion. Tertius: Lines 48 – 50: Lydgate was bowing his neck like a creature……” Lines 34 – 35: That she had
Read more