NOVEL PERMISSION FORM

Dear Parent or Guardian,

This semester your student will be reading from multiple novels in English IV and may watch the films that accompany them in part or in their entirety. Each text progressively introduces students to complex texts with equally complex themes. These themes will require us to explore, investigate, and sometimes question human values and the nature of society.

Novel List:

Much Ado About Nothing- William Shakespeare

A Doll’s House- Henrik Ibsen

The Scarlet Letter- Nathaniel Hawthorne

Macbeth- William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing- William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright the world has seen. Much Ado About Nothing is Shakespeare's play about two people who are determined and claiming that they will never marry, before their friends throw them together. Being each told that they both harbor feelings for each other they begin to question what is behind their sharp-tongued repartee. As their friends scheme and the misunderstandings proliferate as their match is made in this sparkling comedy.

A Doll’s House- Henrik Isben

A Doll's House (Norwegian: Et dukkehjem; also translated as A Doll House) is a three-act play in prose by Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having been published earlier that month. The play is significant for its critical attitude toward 19th century marriage norms. It aroused great controversy at the time, as it concludes with the protagonist, Nora, leaving her husband and children because she wants to discover herself. Ibsen was inspired by the belief that "a woman cannot be herself in modern society," since it is "an exclusively male society, with laws made by men and with prosecutors and judges who assess feminine conduct from a masculine standpoint." Its ideas can also be seen as having a wider application: Michael Meyer argued that the play's theme is not women's rights, but rather "the need of every individual to find out the kind of person he or she really is and to strive to become that person." In a speech given to the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights in 1898, Ibsen insisted that he "must disclaim the honor of having consciously worked for the women's rights movement," since he wrote "without any conscious thought of making propaganda," his task having been "the description of humanity." The Scarlet Letter- Nathaniel Hawthorne

The red letter A on her dress marks young mother Hester Prynne among her Puritan neighbors, who demand to know who fathered her child. Rumors swirl, but the shunned and shamed Hester keeps her secret—and his—for years, until a guilt-ridden confession reveals the truth, with unexpected consequences. Set in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, Hawthorne’s masterwork was originally subtitled “a romance,” though its themes include the limits of law, the power of religion, and the nature of sin. Equal parts tragic love story and social commentary, The Scarlet Letter brings to life the undying human need to keep secrets. Macbeth- William Shakespeare Macbeth (full title The Tragedy of Macbeth) is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, and is considered one of his darkest and most powerful works. Set in Scotland, the play illustrates the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. The play is believed to have been written between 1599 and 1606, and is most commonly dated 1606. The earliest account of a performance of what was probably Shakespeare's play is the Summer of 1606, when Simon Forman recorded seeing such a play at the Globe Theatre. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book. It was most likely written during the reign of James I, who had been James VI of Scotland before he succeeded to the English throne in 1603. James was a patron of Shakespeare's acting company, and of all the plays Shakespeare wrote during James's reign, Macbeth most clearly reflects the playwright's relationship with the sovereign. What Parents Need to Know: Parents need to know that the characters in these novels focus on some violent and desperate situations for survival as well as complicated emotional issues that occur as a result of these conditions. The issues present in the novels could spark great moral discussion in how we as people formulate the boundaries between right and wrong. These discussions could also bring about emotional opinions and questions that will need discussion and explanation.

Please respond by indicating your refusal and have your student return the form to my classroom by August 11, 2017. If you have any questions or would like to make an appointment to preview the novels, please email me at [email protected].

Thanks, Rachel Wacker

I DO NOT give my student, ______, in block ___ to read and discuss the following novels and watch all or clips of the movie:

Signature ______Date ______