Hamlet Act One
Color coding:
Notes,
Hamlet Odds & Ends (doc/paper),
Hamlet's Soliloquies (doc/paper),
Hamlet Motif (doc/paper).
Read 1.1 at home (due Friday, November 14)
* Take notes on your motif/thread.
* Take notes on characters and characterization; situation, events, and plot; essential question and other themes; interesting literary and rhetorical language.
* Take notes on the three family trees. [In Denmark's Elsinore castle: King Hamlet-Gertrude-Claudius-Prince Hamlet; Polonius-Laertes-Ophelia. In Norway: King Fortinbras-Uncle/Old Norway-Prince Fortinbras]
* In your "Hamlet Odds & Ends" Google Doc, answer this question: How does Shakespeare throw the audience
into mystery, uncertainty, and doubt in the first scene (before we even
meet Hamlet the protagonist)?
Read 1.2 in class Monday, November 17.
* Take notes on your motif/thread.
* Take notes on characters
and characterization; situation, events, and plot; essential question
and other themes; interesting literary and rhetorical language.
* Understand what Hamlet's responses to Gertrude and Claudius and his soliloquy reveal about him and his response to tragic loss; understand what Claudius' speech and words to Hamlet reveal about him and his response to tragic loss; understand how Claudius responds to Norway; understand how Claudius responds to Laertes; understand how Claudius responds to Hamlet.
* In a document called "Hamlet's Soliloquies" follow the directions for writing five responses to Hamlet's 1.2 soliloquy. Due Monday, November 24 (before class time).
Read 1.3 at home (due Wednesday, November 19)
* Take notes on your motif/thread.
* Take notes on what Polonius says to Laertes, what Laertes says to Ophelia, and what Polonius says to Ophelia.
* Understand how what is said contributes to characterization, plot, and theme.
* In your "Hamlet Odds & Ends" document, show an understanding of what Polonius says to Laertes, what Laertes says to Ophelia, and what Polonius says to Ophelia. After class discussion, add an brief explanation of how each conversation is significant in terms of characterization, motifs, and/or theme.
Read 1.4 and 1.5 at home (due Thursday, November 20)
* Take notes on your motif/thread.
* Take notes on characters
and characterization; situation, events, and plot; essential question
and other themes; interesting literary and rhetorical language.
* Understand how these two scenes contribute to plot (particularly what happened in the past and what Hamlet pledges to do next) and theme (responding to traumatic loss, mystery, and wrongdoing).
* In your "Hamlet Odds & Ends" document convey your understanding of the above [^^^]. Also, explain and analyze a stylistically and thematically interesting sentence from 1.4 and 1.5. (You choose the sentence.)
In a document called "Hamlet Motif" do the following by class time on Monday, November 24:
1. Write down your motif.
2. Write down the act, scene, line of every place you noticed your motif in the play so far. (If you're thin on notes: Here you'll find searchable text.)
3. Write a paragraph in which you explore the role and significance of the motif in play so far.
4. Write down a quotation from act one that involves your motif. (Include act, scene, and line.)
Write a thorough explanation of what the quotation means (in context)
and how the quotation develops the significance of the motif.
opening shot: looks like a b/w security camera video.
ReplyDeleteModern royal furniture.
Reflective floor.
Hamlet walks into the frame slowly from the bottom.
Image switches to color and is shot from a lower angle.
Hamlet faces away from the viewer as he speaks his first lines
“solid” (not “sullied”) flesh
Hamlet hunches over and cries “thaw”
and the crouches at “resolve itself in a dew” [He is dissolving.]
rocks back and forth at “self-slaughter” line
seems to switch from sadness to simmering anger at “unweeded garden”
Becomes more pensive at “that it should come to this” (mom’s remarriage)
At “but two months dead” Hamlet addresses the camera directly from the first time and he seems to revive a bit. [He is struggling with a response to what has happened with his father, mother, and uncle.]
Anger when comparing his uncle to his father (hyperion to a satyr).
Sadness, despondency when talking about mother
Stands up at “Let me not think on’t.” (Anger again. In his language he is fixated on “month” repeating it)
Fluctuates between facing the camera and walking away to compose himself and back to the camera again.
As he does this he is framed by the furniture behind him. The scene is skillfully composed.
As he composes his emotions he approaches the camera and at “post with such dexterity to incenstuous sheets” he is bitter and sardonic.
Then, he pauses letting that linger as he thinks on the implications of the marriage and the marriage bed but determined this time to keep himself together