Work on your Hamlet essay

IMPROVING A THESIS BY ADDING SPECIFICS

TOO GENERAL

Shakespeare gives Hamlet and Claudius different language to show their different characters.

BETTER

Shakespeare gives Hamlet and Claudius performative language that disguises their inner feelings; Hamlet acts crazy and manic to cover up his depression and plotting for revenge while Claudius uses long, royal-sounding speeches to cover up his insecurity and guilt.

sample thesis statements

Hamlet's private and public speeches greatly reflect his differing confidence levels; furthermore, when he is alone he doubts himself, and when is is surrounded by his peers he is fearless.

Although Hamlet seems distraught by both his father's death and his mother's untimely marriage, his seemingly crazy behavior is a facade for the true mockery of his peers. In public, he mocks both his mother and Polonius, while in private contemplation, he criticizes himself. 

His father’s death has caused Hamlet to enter an extreme state of craziness that only allows logical thought process when interacting with others; however, when alone he is driven mad.

In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, Hamlet utilizes different tones to speak to different people. In private when he speaks to himself, he releases the suffering he is going through after his father's death. He is depressed and also is the epitome of a confused individual. Furthermore, when he is with other people he either mocks them, is serious with them but camouflages his real actions and thoughts with his talks/speech/conversations/language.

Before Monday, blog your very specific working thesis that makes a bold claim about how Shakespeare gives different characters different speech, language, and words.

Reread the assignment. Find quotes that help support your claim.

Before Tuesday, blog you introductory paragraph.

Before Thursday, blog any body paragraph.

Before Monday, Nov. 4, print off a copy of your essay and email a copy to jforman@buckley.org.

What's bothering Hamlet?

Rank what's bothering Hamlet: (and perhaps make it a subject of your next blog)
1. His father's dead
2. His mother married his uncle after two months
3. He has a new stepfather
4. He should have been king
5. What the ghost tells him (at the end of Act I)

 YOU ARE THE DIRECTOR!

Pick one of these short scenes, pair up or form a small group, and prepare the scene to be acted in class. Be sure to explain your acting and performance choices afterwards.

3 people act short scene in Act I: p.727 line 40 to p. 728 line 62:   King, Laertes, Polonius

2 people act short scene in Act I p.736 line 88 to p.737 line 115: Ophelia, Polonius

2 people act short scene in Act I p.741 line 1 to p.742 line 32: Ghost, Hamlet

3 people act short scene in Act I p.744 line 111 to p.745 line 155: Horatio, Marcellus, Hamlet

Perform Hamlet Act I scene 2

      PREPARE ACTING NOTES AND THEN PERFORM THIS SCENE

      Come up with acting notes in preparation to perform this scene.

·         Be ready to explain your choices afterwards (or before).

·         Perform the scene on video or in front of the class.

·         Explain your acting choices.

 

 KING CLAUDIUS       outline your performance choices for each line and why. Refer to films.

Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,
And thy best graces spend it at thy will!
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,--

HAMLET

[Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind.

KING CLAUDIUS

àHow is it that the clouds still hang on you?  [Aggressive? Kind? ]

HAMLET

Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

àGood Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.

HAMLET

Ay, madam, it is common.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

If it be,
Why seems it so particular with thee?

HAMLET

àSeems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.'   [Offended? Bitter? Funny?]
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

KING CLAUDIUS

à'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,    [deceptive but cheerful? Aggressive?]
To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;   [aggressive? Nicely? ]
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
An understanding simple and unschool'd:
For what we know must be and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we in our peevish opposition
Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd: whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse till he that died to-day,
'This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing woe, and think of us
As of a father: for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;
And with no less nobility of love
Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde to our desire:
And we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

àLet not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:
I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.         [How? Commanding? Pleading? Tender?]

HAMLET

àI shall in all my best obey you, madam.      [How to act this? Submissive? Resentful? Beaten?]

KING CLAUDIUS

àWhy, 'tis a loving and a fair reply:   [Sarcastic? Satisfied? Conciliatory? Barbed?]
Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet  [facetious? Sincere? ]
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

·         Come up with acting notes in preparation to perform this scene.

·         Be ready to explain your choices afterwards (or before).

·         Perform the scene on video or in front of the class.

·         Explain your acting choices.

Reading Hamlet (with SciFi)

We're going to start reading Hamlet and see if we can make any connections with our first SciFi unit.
Reading schedule:
by Thu. Oct. 17 Finish reading Act I
by Thu. Oct. 24 Finish reading Act II
by Thu. Oct. 31 Finish reading Act. III
by Thu. Nov. 7 Finish reading Act IV
by Thu. Nov. 14 Finish reading Act V


As we're reading, blog four times a week. Blogs are due to be posted before by advisory (10:30) on class days (Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.)
Blog about a passage that you read or a scene that you liked or a character that confuses you. Blogs should be a paragraph in length, more than just bullet points or just two sentences.

We will be writing blogs, short pieces, and essays about Hamlet along the way.

Analyze Essay about Androids

            In “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Philip K. Dick portrays androids and humans as, in some cases, almost interchangeable beings. The author provides examples of both humans acting like androids, and androids acting like humans. In Dick’s novel, what seems to divide humans and androids is empathy; this can be seen by the fact that the test to distinguish human from android is an empathy test called the Voigt-Kampff test. In this futuristic world of humans lacking empathy, and androids displaying empathy, the defining characteristics that used to separate humans and androids are blurred and almost obliterated completely.

            Phil Resch is bounty hunter, but more importantly a human. His job is to hunt down rogue androids and retire them. Similarly to the android Pris Stratton, who, with no feelings of regret “snipped off one of the spider’s legs… restraining the spider with the edge of her hand.” (Dick 206), Resch has the ability to kill without feeling any guilt. Conventionally, a human should have and show feelings, whereas an android should feel nothing. Although Resch passed the empathy test, he still lacks empathy in its entirety. Stratton acts like an android “should”, but not all androids do. Resch eventually, before his empathy test, starts to questions whether or not he is an android. This questioning is precisely one of Dick’s subtle yet convincing blurs in the greyness of human identity.

            Although Luba Luft does not question her identity as an android, she still reflects human emotions. This can best be seen by the genuine gratitude she expresses towards Rick Deckard after he offers to buy her a piece of art that she seemed to like. Luft eventually admits to Deckard: “It’s very nice of you… an android never would have done that.” (Dick 134). Luft is touched by Deckard’s act of kindness, and feels thankful. According to society, an android would never have recognized such an action. Another example of an android being confused with a human is Rachael Rosen. Rosen had false memories implanted in her, and for all her life, though she was a human. Even after discovering she was an android, she still seems to feel emotion towards Deckard. At one point, when the two are in a hotel room, she says that she loves him. One being displaying feelings of love to another being certainly seems to be an emotion attached to a “human.

Questions to answer about the essay, Phillip Dick, and the topic of androids

1.       Underline what you think are strong claims in the essay and be able to summarize them.

2.       Circle examples that are used effectively as support for those claims.

3.       What is the author of this essay claiming about sports media?

4.       Find in the text a quote or paragraph that is relevant to the topic or this essay

                                                               i.      Mark that place in the text and prepare to discuss it with a partner or the whole class.

5.       Discuss the essay and the book.

6.       Write on paper or your blog about the discussion. Focus on one key point that interests you.

Essay Writing

Dear Doctor letters on first essay; Oct. 2, 2013

By college, students say they want more VOCABULARY and not being REDUNDANT and having a CLEAR THESIS and have a clear POINT and ANALYZE THINGS FURTHER

·         I need to work on expanding my vocabulary to a more intellectual diversity of words as opposed to using same ones many times.

·         By the time I start college I want to expand my vocabulary and be able to use ‘fancy’ words.

·         By college I will have a plethora of more vocabulary.

MOST DIFFICULT

·         I was a little rusty after the summer.

·         Brainstorming

·         Knowing what I wanted to say

·         I get very distracted and it takes me a long time

·         Structuring my ideas in a way captivates the reader

·         Proofreading is the most difficult task

·         Finding synonyms for words because I did not want to be redundant

·         Coming up with a TITLE!

PROCESS             

·         I read through it a couple of times and I began to notice a lot of small possible symbols and even motifs. The more I read each poem the more interesting it became.

·         Reading the two poems constantly and getting the gist of each. Then I analyzed the language or each which led me to my main idea.

·         I prefer writing on paper because I seem to get more connected with my work instead of on an iPad or computer. (except I do with my brain had autocorrect at times).

·         The second run through I physically write on the side what I want to add or change.

NOTE: CREATE A PAGE CALLED "WORKING ON"
Type the chief comments from your essay that you will pay most attention to in your next essay:

àPAGES: Add pages with top tabs

1.       View your blog

2.       Click design (upper right)

3.       Click Pages

4.       Show pages: pull down “Top Tabs”

5.       Click New page (blank page)

6.       Page title: “WORKING ON”

7.       In the body type the following:

a.       ERRORS YOU MADE THAT YOU WANT TO AVOID NEXT TIME

b.      OVERALL ESSAY TIPS THAT YOU WILL WORK ON

c.       FORMATTING ERRORS OR GRAMMAR ERRORS

8.       Click “Publish”