ACT V Take Home Quiz Respond to Two of the Following in a Complete Paragraph

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

ACT V Take Home Quiz Respond to Two of the Following in a Complete Paragraph ACT V Take Home Quiz Respond to two of the following in a complete paragraph. Use lines or examples from the text to make your point. 1. Melancholy, Madness and Sanity Hamlet tells his mother that he "essentially [is] not in madness, / But mad in craft" (3.4.204­205) and claims to "put an antic disposition on" (1.5.189), but does he ever cross the line between sanity and insanity in the play? To complicate matters, the world of Hamlet seems insane: the king is a murderer; the queen lusts after her dead husband's brother; friends spy on friends; and one character (Ophelia) really does go insane. Could Hamlet really be sane in an insane world? And what about Hamlet's melancholy? From the beginning of the play, Hamlet is depressed, and he considers suicide several different times. What is the real cause of his melancholy? Does he ever break out of his melancholy? 2. Passion and Reason As Hamlet says, "What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!" (2.2.286­289). At the same time, though, we are sometimes ruled by our passions (lust, greed, gluttony, etc.). We are capable of greatness and nobility, but we are also capable of behavior fitting for a beast, so Hamlet asks another "pregnant" question (a question loaded with meaning) when he asks Ophelia, "What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven?" (3.1.128­129). All of the characters in the play are "crawling between earth and heaven," but some are drawn more to earth by their "beastly" behavior. How does the theme of passion and reason apply to some of the main characters? How does the issue of passion and reason help to determine Hamlet's views of some of the other characters and of life in general? 3. Decay and Corruption "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" (1.4.98). In fact, many things are rotten in the state of Denmark, and images of decay, corruption, and disease are common throughout the play. Following the conventions of tragedy, many of the characters become corrupted in some way, and, by the end of the play, all of the corrupt characters must be eliminated so that Denmark can once again be set right. Many characters in Hamlet die. In what ways is each of these characters "corrupt"? What images in the play suggest decay, corruption, or disease? 4. Hamlet's Character Hamlet is one of the most complex characters in literature, and Shakespeare created in Hamlet a character that defies easy explanation. What aspects of Hamlet's character are admirable? What are Hamlet's weaknesses or flaws? And what about Hamlet's mental state? Why might he be seen as an intelligent character? And how do his melancholy and feigned (or unfeigned) madness add complexity to his character? Does Hamlet see the world lucidly, or is his perception of the world too clouded by his melancholy? And why does Hamlet take so long to kill Claudius? The above questions are from the Illinois Valley Community College. 5. Explain how Hamlet’s discussion with Horatio upon finding Yorick’s skull expresses his lifeview: Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap­fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that. 6. The relationships between men and women in the play are often ambiguous. Does Hamlet really love Ophelia? Is Ophelia a weak character? Did Gertrude marry Claudius to protect Hamlet as the future king, or did she conspire against King Hamlet? 7. Hamlet has been one of Shakespeare’s most enduring plays. Give three reasons why you think Hamlet has stuck around for as long as it has with a brief explanation. 8. There are many mysteries of life that are questioned in Hamlet, but never answered. Likewise, the characters suffer throughout the play in different ways. Write a brief letter of advice to one of the characters that would help them cope with the world in which they live. .
Recommended publications
  • An Analysis of Paternal Models of Authority and Filial Duty in Shakespeare’S Hamlet
    The Dilemma of Shakespearean Sonship: An Analysis of Paternal Models of Authority and Filial Duty in Shakespeare’s Hamlet The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Mosley, Joseph Scott. 2017. The Dilemma of Shakespearean Sonship: An Analysis of Paternal Models of Authority and Filial Duty in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Master's thesis, Harvard Extension School. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33826315 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA The Dilemma of Shakespearean Sonship: An Analysis of Paternal Models of Authority and Filial Duty in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Joseph Scott Mosley A Thesis in the Field of Dramatic Arts for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies Harvard University May 2017 © 2017 Joseph Scott Mosley Abstract The aim of the proposed thesis will be to examine the complex and compelling relationship between fathers and sons in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This study will investigate the difficult and challenging process of forming one’s own identity with its social and psychological conflicts. It will also examine how the transformation of the son challenges the traditional family model in concert or in discord with the predominant philosophy of the time. I will assess three father-son relationships in the play – King Hamlet and Hamlet, Polonius and Laertes, and Old Fortinbras and Fortinbras – which thematize and explore filial ambivalence and paternal authority through the act of revenge and mourning the death of fathers.
    [Show full text]
  • Hamlet Study Guide Levels Two & Three Wilson Know the Characters: Hamlet – Prince of Denmark Claudius – Hamlet's Uncl
    Hamlet Study Guide Levels Two & Three Wilson Know the Characters: Hamlet – Prince of Denmark Claudius – Hamlet’s Uncle; he was recently crowned king of Denmark Gertrude – Queen of Denmark; Hamlet’s mother Polonius – Advisor to the King Ophelia – Hamlet’s love interest; Polonius’ daughter Laertes – Polonius’ son Ophelia’s brother Horatio – Hamlet’s best friend; voice of reason in the play Fortinbras – Prince of Norway; wants to regain land lost by his father Courtiers: Rosencrantz – Noblemen and acquaintances of Hamlet invited to cheer him Guildenstern – up Osric - Cornelius Voltemand – Ambassador charged with going to Norway Officers, Soldiers, and Servants: Francisco – Marcellus – Soldiers who first witness the ghost while on guard Bernardo – Reynaldo – Servant to Polonius Act One, Scene One 1. What is the setting for the play? Denmark; Elsinore Castle 2. What are Bernardo and Francisco doing at the beginning of the play? They are on watch waiting for their replacements. 3. What is going on that makes this necessary? There is a military threat from Norway, in the form of Young Fortinbras. 4. Why is Horatio summoned to the roof of the castle? The want him to witness and/or validate the appearance of the ghost of the dead king. 5. What decision does Horatio make after witnessing what he does? He decides to tell young Hamlet, because he thinks the ghost will speak to him. Act One, Scene Two 6. What has recently happened in Hamlet’s family? His father died and his mother married his uncle. 7. Why is Hamlet being scolded by his uncle? His uncle feels Hamlet has been mourning his father for too long.
    [Show full text]
  • Hamlet and Emotions
    EDITED BY PAUL MEGNA, BRÍD PHILLIPS, AND R . S . WHITE Hamlet and Emotions palgrave shakespeare studies General Editors: Michael Dobson and Dympna Callaghan Paul Megna · Bríd Phillips R. S. White Editors Hamlet and Emotions Editors Paul Megna R. S. White ARC Centre of Excellence ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions for the History of Emotions The University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia Crawley, WA, Australia Crawley, WA, Australia Bríd Phillips ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions The University of Western Australia Crawley, WA, Australia Palgrave Shakespeare Studies ISBN 978-3-030-03794-9 ISBN 978-3-030-03795-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03795-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018962246 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifc statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
    [Show full text]
  • Tragic Excess in Hamlet JEFFREY WILSON Downloaded from by Harvard Library User on 14 August 2019
    107 Tragic Excess in Hamlet JEFFREY WILSON Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/litimag/article-abstract/21/2/107/5450064 by Harvard Library user on 14 August 2019 August 14 on user Harvard Library by https://academic.oup.com/litimag/article-abstract/21/2/107/5450064 from Downloaded “Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar,” the aging Polonius councils his son Laertes in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1.3.60). Polonius proceeds with several additional “precepts” (1.3.57) which similarly promote the Aristotelian ideal of the golden mean, a cultural commonplace of the early-moden age which valorized the perfect middle ground between two extremes: Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.... Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy. (1.3.64–70) Polonius goes on (and on), but the principle is clear. Don’t be too hot, but don’t be too cold. Don’t be too hard, but don’t be too soft. Don’t be too fast, but don’t be too slow. In each of these formulations, there is no substantive ethical good other than moderation. Virtue is thus fundamentally relational, determined by the extent to which it balances two extremes which, as extremes, are definitionally unethical. “It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be seated in the mean,” as Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice (1.2.6–7).1 More generally, in Hamlet,ShakespeareparalleledthesituationsofHamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras (the father of each is killed, and each then seeks revenge) to promote the virtue of moderation: Hamletmovestooslowly,Laertestooswiftly— and they both die at the end of the play—but Fortinbras represents a golden mean which marries the slowness of Hamlet with the swiftness of Laertes.
    [Show full text]
  • Alas Poor Yorick. Hamlet and Kristeva's Maginary Father
    E. Denbo / PsyArt 21 (2017) 143–158 ‘Alas Poor Yorick!’: Hamlet and Kristeva’s Imaginary Father Elise Denbo Queensborough Community College City University of New York Most psychological approaches interpret Shakespeare’s Hamlet within a Lacanian/Oedipal revenge narrative. This paper, however, explores Shakespeare’s Hamlet through theories of Julia Kristeva, who develops a term called ‘the imaginary father,’ which she revisions from Freud’s ‘father of individual prehistory.’ The notion of an archaic/imaginary father as a hybrid locus (a mother-father amalgam) within the semiotic domain not only introduces new perspectives to consider the role of fatherhood but also the affective (and material) nature of transference/countertransference in Shakespeare’s plays. The dramatization of Hamlet’s “inner mystery” as opposed to his outer “show” has not been explored as an intrapsychic activity regarding an archaic father of imaginary ambivalence. Despite the scene’s brevity (5.1), considering Yorick as Hamlet’s father of individual prehistory reconfigures symbolic mastery to explore the unfolding development of Shakespearean character as a metaphorical process, a presymbolic activity rather than fixed representation, dramatizing the corporeal struggle for psychic and creative space. To cite as Denbo, E., 2017, ‘‘Alas Poor Yorick!’: Hamlet and Kristeva’s Imaginary Father’, PsyArt 21, pp. 143–158. Most playgoers are familiar with the unique encounter between Hamlet and Yorick, the long departed court jester unearthed from his grave, that Shakespeare positions in counterpoint to the early appearance of King Hamlet’s ghost, an event which combined with his mother’s sudden marriage to his uncle sets the play in motion.
    [Show full text]
  • Figurative Design in Hamlet the Significance of the Dumb Show
    FIGURATIVE DESIGN IN HAMLET THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DUMB SHOW LEE SHERIDAN COX OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS $8.00 FIGURATIVE DESIGN IN HAMLET The Significance of the Dumb Show By Lee Sheridan Cox Critics have long debated the significance of the dumb show in Hamlet. There is a wide divergence of opinion on the matter of its importance: to one critic, it is ''only a mechanical necessity"; to another, "the keystone to the arch of the drama." In mod­ ern performances of Hamlet, it is frequently omitted, a decision vigorously protested by some critics as detrimental to the play scene. But the presence of the dumb show in the play scene has given rise to questions that evoke little unanimity of response even among its proponents. Why does the mime directly anticipate the subject matter of The Murder of Gonzago? Does Shakespeare preview Gonzago to provide necessary in­ formation? If not, is the dumb show then superfluous? And if superfluous, was the de­ vice forced on Shakespeare, or was it merely a politic catering to popular taste? Is the show foisted on Hamlet by the visiting players? If not, how does it serve his larger plan and purpose? What is its effect on the stage audience? Does Claudius see the pan­ tomimic prefiguring of Gonzago? What does his silence during and immediately alter the show signify? The search for answers to such questions is usually confined to the play scene. But Professor Cox maintains that the true na­ ture and function of the show can be ap­ FIGURATIVE DESIGN IN HAMLET THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DUMB SHOW FIGURATIVE DESIGN IN HAMLET THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DUMB SHOW LEE SHERIDAN COX OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS Copyright © 1973 by the Ohio State University Press All Rights Reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Cox, Lee Sheridan Figurative design in Hamlet Includes bibliographical references.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 | Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival
    1 | HUDSON VALLEY SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL TABLE OF CONTENTS OUR MISSION AND SUPPORTERS EDUCATION DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT PART ONE: SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE AND TIMES William Shakespeare Shakespeare’s England The Elizabethan and Jacobean Stage PART TWO: THE PLAY Plot Summary Who is Who: The Cast The Origins of the Play Themes A Genre Play: Revenge Tragedy or Tragedy? PART THREE: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS By the Numbers Shakespeare’s Language States, Syllables, Stress Feet + Metre = Scansion Metrical Stress vs. Natural Stress PART FOUR: HVSF PRODUCTION Note from the Director Doubling Hamlet: Full Text Vs. The HVSF Cut What to Watch For: Themes and Questions to Consider Theatre Etiquette PART FIVE: CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES Activities That Highlight Language Activities That Highlight Character Activities That Highlight Scene Work PART SIX: Hamlet RESOURCES 2 | HUDSON VALLEY SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL HUDSON VALLEY SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL OUR MISSION AND SUPPORTERS Founded in 1987, the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's mission is to engage the widest possible audience in a fresh conversation about what is essential in Shakespeare’s plays. Both in production and in the classroom, our theater lives in the present moment, at the intersection of the virtuosity of the actor, the imagination of the audience, and the inspiration of the text. HVSF’s primary home is a spectacular open-air theater tent at Boscobel House and Gardens in Garrison, NY. Every summer, more than 35,000 patrons join us there for a twelve-week season of plays presented in repertory, with the natural beauty of the Hudson Highlands as our backdrop. HVSF has produced more than 50 classical works on our mainstage.
    [Show full text]
  • Editing David Foster Wallace
    ‘NEUROTIC AND OBSESSIVE’ BUT ‘NOT TOO INTRANSIGENT OR DEFENSIVE’: Editing David Foster Wallace By Zac Farber 1 In December of 1993, David Foster Wallace printed three copies of a manuscript he had taken to calling the “longer thing” and gave one to his editor, Michael Pietsch, one to a woman he was trying to impress, and one to Steven Moore, a friend and the managing editor of the Review of Contemporary Fiction, whose edits and cuts Wallace wished to compare with Pietsch’s. The manuscript, which Little, Brown and Company would publish as Infinite Jest in 1996, was heavy (it required both of Moore’s hands to carry) and, Moore recalled, unruly: It’s a mess—a patchwork of different fonts and point sizes, with numerous handwritten corrections/additions on most pages, and paginated in a nesting pattern (e.g., p. 22 is followed by 22A-J before resuming with p. 23, which is followed by 23A-D, etc). Much of it is single-spaced, and what footnotes existed at this stage appear at the bottom of pages. (Most of those in the published book were added later.) Several states of revision are present: some pages are early versions, heavily overwritten with changes, while others are clean final drafts. Throughout there are notes in the margins, reminders to fix something or other, adjustments to chronology (which seems to have given Wallace quite a bit of trouble), even a few drawings and doodles.1 Wallace followed some of Pietsch and Moore’s suggestions and cut about 40 pages from the first draft of the manuscript2, but before publication he added more than 200 pages of additional material, including an opening chapter that many critics have praised as the novel’s best and more than 100 pages of (often footnoted) endnotes.3 Editing Wallace could be demanding, and those who attempted it found themselves faced with the difficulty of correcting a man with a prodigious understanding of the byzantine syntactical and grammatical rules of the English language.
    [Show full text]
  • "One Never Knew": David Foster Wallace and the Aesthetics of Consumption
    Bowdoin College Bowdoin Digital Commons Honors Projects Student Scholarship and Creative Work 2016 "One Never Knew": David Foster Wallace and the Aesthetics of Consumption Jesse Ortiz Bowdoin College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/honorsprojects Part of the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Ortiz, Jesse, ""One Never Knew": David Foster Wallace and the Aesthetics of Consumption" (2016). Honors Projects. 44. https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/honorsprojects/44 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship and Creative Work at Bowdoin Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of Bowdoin Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “One Never Knew”: David Foster Wallace and the Aesthetics of Consumption An Honors Paper for the Department of English By Jesse Ortiz Bowdoin College, 2016 ©2016 Jesse Ortiz Table of Contents Acknowledgements ii 0: Isn’t it Ironic? 1 1: Guilty Pleasure: Consumption in the Essays 4 2: Who’s There? 28 0. The Belly of the Beast: Entering Infinite Jest 28 1. De-formed: Undoing Aesthetic Pleasure 33 2. Avril is the Cruellest Moms 49 3. “Epiphanyish”: Against the Aesthetics of the Buzz 65 ∞: “I Do Have a Thesis” 79 Works Cited 81 ii Acknowledgements This project, of course, could not exist without the guidance of Professor Marilyn Reizbaum, who gave me no higher compliment than when she claimed I have a “modernist mind.” Thank you. I’d also like to thank my other readers, Morten Hansen, Brock Clarke and Hilary Thompson, for their insightful feedback.
    [Show full text]
  • To Be Or Not to Be (Dangerous): Mental Instability in Branaghâ•Žs and Almereydaâ•Žs Film Adaptations of *Hamlet*
    Coastlines To Be or Not to Be (Dangerous): Mental Instability in Branagh’s and Almereyda’s Film Adaptations of Hamlet by Cory Joiner Just as Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, so, too might prince Hamlet be one of his most controversial characters. Many of the questions central to Shakespeare’s original play revolve around the sanity of the play’s eponymous character, and the danger which he may or may not pose to his fellow constituents of the court of Denmark. Much of Hamlet’s character is, however, left open to interpretation, as Shakespeare’s play can be read in a myriad of different ways. So, too, can Hamlet be adapted to film variously, with just as many different versions on the possibly-insane Danish prince. Filmic adaptations of the play may choose to portray Hamlet in a traditional manner by closely following the original text, or may choose to firmly cement his character as being either quite sane or entirely deranged. These filmic visions of Prince Hamlet are, as representations of the director’s vision for the film, a sort of interpretive depiction of Shakespeare’s play (or, in some cases, interpretive depictions of a staging of the play). Two such adaptations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet – one directed by Kenneth Branagh (1996), and the other directed by Michael Almereyda (2000) – present entirely different interpretive visions of the Shakespeare’s play, especially in regards to the depiction of Hamlet himself. Almereyda’s film presents a genuinely dangerous and highly unstable Hamlet, while Branagh’s film, in more closely following the intricacies of the original text, chooses to focus instead on Hamlet’s performance of insanity while still presenting the Prince as conflicted and at least somewhat disturbed.
    [Show full text]
  • The Comedy of Hamlet
    THE COMEDY OF HAMLET Manfred Draudt Universität Wien Just before the end of the millenium, The Sunday Times declared Hamlet the outstanding masterwork of the past 1000 years. It may not be generally recognized that a defining characteristic of the world's most popular tragedy is, in fact, its comic elements —although discerning critics have long pointed to the significance of these comic elements. What "distinguishes [Hamlet] from the rest" of Shakespeare's plays is, according to the eighteenth-century critic Dr Johnson, its "variety.... The scenes are interchangeably diversified with merriment and solemnity", he argues, and continues that "the pretended madness of Hamlet causes much mirth", i.e. laughter (1968: 1010-11). Some modern critics and editors take a still firmer line on this issue. In her introduction to the New Penguin edition Anne Barton claims that "Hamlet contains many more comic characters and episodes than Othello, Lear, [and] Macbeth". She not only briefly surveys the comic characters of the tragedy but also comments on the uniqueness of the central character: Hamlet ... seems to be the only one of Shakespeare's tragic protagonists ... who possesses —and demonstrates— a sense of humour. Like the witty characters of the comedies, he likes to play games with language, to parody other characters' verbal styles, and he has a predilection for puns, bawdy double entendres, and sophisticated badinage which links him [even] with figures like ... Touchstone and Feste. (1980: 23) One may add that Hamlet's wit and humour, which distinguish him from Claudius and Gertrude, contribute to the antagonism between him and the royal couple.
    [Show full text]
  • Touring Spring 2020 Across the State of Washington by William Shakespeare | Directed by Ana María Campoy
    Touring Spring 2020 Across The State of Washington By William Shakespeare | Directed by Ana María Campoy All original material copyright © 2020 Seattle Shakespeare Company CONTENT HAMLET Welcome Letter..........................................................................1 Plot and Characters...................................................................2 Articles Why Bilingual Shakespeare?................................................................3 About William Shakespeare.................................................................4 Theater Audiences: Then and Now.....................................................5 Educator Resource Guide Resource Educator At a Glance Modern Shakespeare Adaptations......................................................7 About the Play.......................................................................................8 Themes in Hamlet.................................................................................9 Soliloquies....................................................................................11 Our Production Director’s Notes..................................................................................12 Central Components of a Día de los Muertos Ofrenda/Altar............14 Activities Cross the Line: Quotes........................................................................15 Compliments and Insults...................................................................16 Cross the Line: Themes......................................................................17
    [Show full text]