Hamlet: Character Analysis

1. Hamlet: Character Analysis Josefino Rivera, Jr. Literature and Personal Choice 26 February 2009

2. New Dates • Today, 2/26: • Model Character Analysis essay and Scene Work time • HW: Outline and 1 paragraph • Friday, 2/27: • DUE: Outlines and 1 paragraph • Scene Work time • HW: Memorize scene and brainstorm possible senior thesis topics • Monday& Tuesday, 3/2-3: • DUE: Scenes • Hamlet Festival (with food?) • HW: Group/self evaluations • Thursday, 3/5: • DUE: Character Analysis Papers into turnitin.com + hard copy. I will make sure they match up. • DUE: 3 possible senior thesis topics

3. Make-Up Seminar • If you were absent or would like to improve your Socratic Seminar grade, I will have a make-up seminar on Tuesday, 3/3 during 7th (or after school if someone has a 7th period)

4. Debrief Seminar • First seminar: • Outside group:Strengths and improvements • Second seminar: • Recap discussion • Outside group: strengths and improvements • New understanding based on discussion

5. Card Sort • Please read the summary of an important event in Hamlet. • Then arrange yourselves in chronological order around the room (the front door is 1.1 and organized clock-wise from there)

6. Seating Chart • You will have the option to write this paper in pairs (if you wish). Please sit next to the person you will write your paper with. N.B. You will not have class time to write these papers. • If you choose to write this paper on your own, please sit next to someone who is focusing on the same character as you. • 1-2: Claudius • 3-4: Gertrude • 5-6: Laeretes • 7-8: Ophelia

7. Scene Notation

8. Scene Notation

9. Scene Notation

10. Scene Notation • In your pairs: Complete STEP 1 in the yellow packet. Be sure to focus only on your character.

11. 1. What was your first reaction to your character? What led you to this? Hamlet was wronged, and everyone that seemed to be important didn’t seem to care. He is somber and confused. He talks about what he can do, but only seems to enjoy the words because he does nothing. 2. Go back to the scenes from Step 1. What information did you learn about your character in those scenes? Throughout the play, Hamlet seems to find a reason to delay action. First, it was because he wanted to die instead. Then he wanted proof. Once he had proof, he couldn’t kill Claudius because he was praying. Then he allowed himself to be sent to England. But oddly, he quickly accepted the duel. Guiding Questions

12. 3. How did the character affect Hamlet? How was the character affected by Hamlet? N/A 4. What is the character’s strongest personal quality? Provide evidence from the text. His ability to reflect (1.2 “O, that this too, too sullied flesh”; 2.3 “To be or not to be”; 3.2 mirror; 5.1 Yorick) Control of language (2.2 Banter with P; 3.2 Nunnery and Music Inaction (see #2) Playing mad (2.1 with Ophelia; 2.2 with Polonius; maybe 2.3 with O) Guiding Questions

13. 5. What happens to your character in Act V? Hamlet discussed death with the Gravedigger. He finds out about Ophelia’s death and confronts Laertes. Then he accepts the challenge to duel. Hamlet kills Laertes by accident, Claudius on purpose, and then dies by Laertes’s sword. He is honored at the end, though. 6. In the course of the play, did your character change? How? Hamlet consistently chose not to act. In acts 3 and 4, he made some indirect actions (Mousetrap and letters). In act 5 he finally acts, but he doesn’t do what he originally set out to do--avenge his father’s death. Guiding Questions

14. Guiding Questions • In Pairs: Please complete STEP 2--the Guiding Questions--in your yellow packet.

15. Prompt: In a well-crafted essay, explain the purpose of your character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In other words, what argument is Shakespeare making through your character? Be sure to include a description of your character, an analysis of the discrepancy between your character’s literal text and the latent subtext, a discussion about the character’s growth throughout the play, and a comparison of your character to Hamlet Focused Prewriting enigmatic contemplative inaction Inaction: To take him in the purging of his soul / When he is fit and seasoned for his passage? /No. Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.

16. Focused Prewriting • In Pairs: Please complete STEP 3--the Focused Prewriting bubbles.

17. Focused Prewriting In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, arguably Shakespeare’s most complex play, Prince Hamlet, the enigmatic and contemplative son of King Hamlet is the melancholy protagonist of the play. He quickly learns that King Hamlet was, in fact, murdered by his very own brother, Claudius, who not only takes the throne but also takes his wife, Gertrude. As a promise to the Ghost of his dead father, Hamlet promises to avenge his father’s death and leave his mother to the gods. Pending thesis statement: Through Prince Hamlet, Shakespeare asserts that… While Prince Hamlet is mysterious and lugubrious, his most prominent characteristic is that he is plagued by inaction. Hamlet’s motive is explicit: by decree of his father’s Ghost, Hamlet is to avenge his father. During Hamlet’s encounter with his father, Hamlet, in disbelief, accepts the Ghost’s command saying, “Yea, from the table of my memory / I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, / All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past / That youth and observation copied there, / And thy commandment all alone shall live / Within the book and volume of my brain, / Unmixed with baser matter” (1.5.96-104). Without hesitation, Hamlet accepts his order. Not only is this command Hamlet’s priority, he vows to make it his only goal. He draws a metaphor between his brain and a volume of books, suggesting that he will erase any other thought or objective. (Perhaps that in itself is one of Hamlet’s flaws) Yet with such clear objectives, Hamlet does not follow through.

18. Outline • Thesis: Pending • Body: • Hamlet is plagued by inaction. • Text vs. Subtext • Growth • Comparison to (Hamlet) • Conclusion

19. Outline • Thesis: Pending • Body: • Hamlet is plagued by inaction. • Get thee to a nunnery. • Hamlet moves from inaction to indirect action to action. • Hamlet and Laertes are foils: where Hamlet cannot act, Laertes does so rashly. • Conclusion

20. Outline • Thesis: Through Prince Hamlet, Shakespeare asserts that both immoral action and inaction have similar consequences, suggesting that inaction is just as bad as immoral action if not worse. • Body: • Hamlet is plagued by inaction. • Get thee to a nunnery. • Hamlet moves from inaction to indirect action to action. • Hamlet and Laertes are foils: where Hamlet cannot act, Laertes does so rashly. • Conclusion: Connect to Nazi Germany?

21. For Homework • Please type a detailed outline that includes your claims and suggestions for evidence as well as your thesis statement. • Also, complete the introductory paragraph that describes your character.

22. Scene Work Time • Please use the rubrics and the class feedback to improve your scenes.