Hamlet by William Shakespeare As we study this Shakespearean tragedy, we will be responsible for activities for each of the language arts strands. When the play concludes, we will participate in a full class discussion (a version of the Socratic seminar).

Speaking and Listening Assessment: Shakespeare Passage (May 15) Choose one passage from the list below to prepare. We will recite (hopefully, from memory), it as our weekly speech on the due date.

Claudius (Act I-Scene II) Hamlet (Act II-Scene II) 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, I'll have these players To give these mourning duties to your father: Play something like the murder of my father But, you must know, your father lost a father; Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks; That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench, In filial obligation for some term I know my course. The spirit that I have seen To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever May be the devil: and the devil hath power In obstinate condolement is a course To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief; Out of my weakness and my melancholy, It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, As he is very potent with such spirits, Take it to heart? Fie! 'Tis a fault to heaven. Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds More relative than this: the play 's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

Hamlet (Act I-Scene II) Hamlet (Act III-Scene I) O, that this too too solid flesh would melt To be, or not to be: that is the question: Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, IMPORTANT NOTES: His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; Students are encouraged to Seem to me all the uses of this world! No more; and by a sleep to say we end re-watch these scenes before Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation tackling each speech in order Possess it merely. That it should come to this! Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; to make note of: But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; So excellent a king; that was. For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come -tone of voice; When we have shuffled off this mortal coil. -mood created by the scene; -changes in volume; Polonius (Act I-Scene III) Hamlet (Act III-Scene II) -changes in pace; Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to -pausing and emphasis. Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, as many of your players do, I had as lief the But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air When we deliver our For the apparel oft proclaims the man, too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; And they in France of the best rank and station for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, speeches, more value is Are of a most select and generous chief in that. the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget available if students can Neither a borrower nor a lender be; a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it For loan oft loses both itself and friend, offends me to the soul to hear a robustious deliver the speech without the And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to use of notes (shows This above all: to thine ownself be true. very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings. commitment and rehearsal time well-spent). Ophelia (Act II-Scene I) Hamlet (Act V-Scene I) He took me by the wrist and held me hard; Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow Then goes he to the length of all his arm; of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath Speeches will be assessed And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow, borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how according to: He falls to such perusal of my face abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so; it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know -Verbal Delivery At last, a little shaking of mine arm not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your -Non-Verbal Delivery And thrice his head thus waving up and down, gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, He raised a sigh so piteous and profound that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one As it did seem to shatter all his bulk now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Students get three attempts And end his being: that done, he lets me go: Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd. her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must at their passage. We’ll count come; make her laugh at that. the best one.

Reading and Viewing Assessment: Choose an Assignment (due May 14) Option #1: Moral Dilemmas Every story or play (especially this one) involves some difficult moral questions (the sorts of questions you struggle with your conscience over). ForHamlet, pose SIX difficult moral questions and then provide possible answers to those questions, drawing on specific and relevant ​ evidence from the play. (250-word response)

Option #2: Explore the Soliloquy Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy in Act III-Scene I is the undisputed number one question posed in all literature. Examine this speech, take it apart line-by-line and get to the heart of its meaning. What events of the play prompt this speech? What do you take from it? Do you agree or disagree with his notions of death? Explain and offer your own. (250-word response)

Writing and Representing Assessment: Hamlet and Me: A Personal Essay (due May 14) While today’s reader is probably not descended from royalty and has never been visited by a ghost, there are many circumstances in Hamlet that are common in any person’s life. Stuff like: - losing a loved one; - losing faith and trust in a close family member or friend; - navigating romantic relationships; - wondering about the uncertainty of life; - wondering about what happens after we die; - having someone steal something from you; - dealing with rejection, depression, or disappointment; - being caught in the middle of a conflict or issue between two people you love; - wanting revenge or justice for a wrong done to you or your family; - seeing circumstances of life differently than your parents do; - protecting someone you love; - having to wait for something you want; - having to prove yourself right about something; - challenging someone else’s authority; - getting caught for doing something wrong or illegal; - confronting someone for doing something wrong; - questioning your faith in God or something/someone; - supporting a friend in a time of trouble; - breaking bad news to someone.

Hamlet is a play with many universal themes about people and about life. Few who have experienced the play would disagree that there is something in the play that relates to them as readers and viewers.

Writing Directions Write a letter to a friend or family member about how you personally relate to some part of the play Hamlet. Consider the following: - to which character do you relate and why? - what circumstances does the character go through that reminds you of your situation? - narrate the specifics of the plot as it relates to the character you have chosen. - narrate the specifics of the similar situation that you find yourself in as the characters in the play. - reflect on how the circumstances in the play are a mirror to your own circumstances. - include two or three quotes from the play that demonstrates the character’s feelings (and how they’re like your own). - end the essay/letter with a reflection about how the play has changed or shed light on your own situation.

Papers should be in the 500-750 word range, in proper MLA format, with a word count at the bottom of your last page.