Today we read and discussed Act I, Scene 5 - the scene where Hamlet and his father's ghost have a face off and we hear Hamlet declare he will put on an antic disposition.. After discussing the scene we took ten minutes to begin a search of lines we felt might be "quoatable quotations" (hint: many of them might already be highlighted in your books by previous students). If you get two-four from each scene I would think you have a great start. Please come to the next class with that done. Tomorrow we will do some writing - realize that we have about eight weeks of class before you write your provincial exam, so I need to keep your writing fresh.
Please keep your act/scene study questions up-to-date as we work our way through the play - I won't always be giving you class time, but if I forget, please remind me to discuss any issues the questions present.
Today we talked about how Hamlet is known for being a deeper play, with more intricate characters than some of the previous plays we've read and I have to say, it's definitely keeping my interest in this unit. In previous years, all I really had to do was figure out what the play was saying and there wasn't anything else to it really, but with Hamlet we get to discuss the many different sides Hamlet is showing, and there is much more analyzing the politics of the New King, as well as what is really going on with the Queen. This depth is more work, but definitely more entertaining and keeps my attention.
ReplyDeleteWhile some ask why high school english students only study the certain, more popular Shakespeare plays I think it makes perfect sense. If you want to keep kids engaged it is logical to have them read the "best" plays to keep them engaged. I have found Hamlet to be a deeper play, as Mitchell said earlier, and I believe it is a great fit for grade 12. For instance, if we had read this in grade 8 most of us would not fully understand and thus not appreciate the depth of the play. I find our discussions about what the characters are actually thinking very enjoyable. Unlike Mitchell, I don't find the depth to be that much more work. I find that it has replaced the time it used to take me to meerly understand what was going on with the plot. All the years of practicing reading Shakespeare have definetly paid off, and I'm very glad we left Hamlet for last.
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased, Mitch and Aurora, that you're enjoying the challenge of looking beyond the plot to understand all of the forces at work in the play. I also think that it's natural, as you become more experienced readers and more sophisticated thinkers, to see things that you ignored or missed in earlier experiences. I saw real growth in the class during the exercise where I asked you to find "quotable quotations" from Act I. Students were able to think about important scenes that were telling for either character or plot development, and then find the lines that exemplified them; or, conversely, to record lines they had been told were important, and then rationalize their significance. Bravo - keep it up.
ReplyDeleteI can understand the depth that Mitchell and Aurora see in Hamlet, at least compared to plays such as Macbeth, however I must say that, at least this far, the play has not revealed itself to be spectacularly deep; it's no "Donnie Darko" or "1984". I don't find myself struggling to any great degree to understand what is going on, other than the occasional linguistic quibble, and while there is more mystery and complexity surrounding the plot and characters than one might expect from reading other Shakespeare plays, it's not so profound as to send my mind racing, like "Welcome to the NHK" might. I do, however, see the influence Hamlet probably had on later works, and the parallels it seems to create in contemporary fiction. Primarily, both James and I noticed it bore a remarkable resemblance to a famous television series from the 1990s, "Neon Genesis Evangelion". The reception to it seems similar (half of the viewers love it and think it's one of the greatest works out there, filled with depth and complexity, the other half, well, don't; I also find that many adults have complained to me that they find Hamlet to be a bit of a whiner or too melodramatic, a sentiment also expressed towards this series' protagonist), and the themes and plot themselves also are quite similar. In particular, the themes of insanity, or mental illness seem to run through both of them, with Hamlet's false insanity, the fear of many characters, the "incest", and what not, while "Evangelion"'s cast is riddle with mental flaws that become increasinly stressed and worsened as the plot progresses. Also, thank you for reminding me about the study sheet questions, I had entirely forgot they even existed.
ReplyDeleteAs the play goes on, I have to agree with this common criticism of Hamlet about how he seems overly melodramatic. This being said, perhaps if I had just lost my father, and my mother married my uncle directly afterward, I would be distraught in much the same manner. I can deal with the amount of complaining he's done so far, but if it continues in the same manner I think it will take away from the plot and the enjoyment of the play for me. I also have to agree with Rowan that though it is a deeper play than Macbeth, it's not highly sophisticated. Because I first have to figure out what the characters are literally saying before I figure out their meanings as well, I'm forced to do more thinking reading Shakespeare than I am when watching or reading deeper peaces that are in modern English. For me its not so much the fact that its a deep peace, its just that its deep Shakespeare and this, in my opinion, takes more intellectual involvement than "Donnie Darko" or "1984".
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