Hamlet

Hamlet

For students who want to post their creative projects, please see this page. Hamlet Creative Project Postings
 * January**

Before break begins, please submit a one page typed analysis of your motif. How many times total does the image appear? Please cite 3-5 examples of your motif, provide context, explain how usage adds to the meaning of the play. (For example, blood-related images appear at least 25 times throughout the play--but in what context? Focus on a few to highlight themes, characters, conflicts, etc.)
 * December 17**

To help those with trickier words/images/allusions, etc., you may wish to visit [] It offers a searchable text of Shakespeare's plays. Remember to look for dfferent forms of words (for example, if you have "blood" as your motif, you might also search bloody, bleed, bleeding, bloodily, 'sblood, etc.)

Other tips: [] []

You can turn this paper in any time between now and break (12/18. 21, 22, 23) Remember soliloquy recitations are on Monday 12/21.



December 13  Oh, Oh, Ophelia!

December 8

"Hamlet is 400-ish years old. How does he stay so young?" Jeremy McCarter writes about a new production starring Jude Law in an article called "Today's Man" published in //Newsweek// magazine. Read it here.

_ View clips Assignment: Pay attention to biographical details, information about Elizabethan theater, and other pertinent facts.
 * 1**. Watch the introduction to Shakespeare (Part I) in preparation for a quiz.


 * 2**. Define: aside, soliloquy, iambic pentameter, groundling, Senecan tragedy. For a quiz


 * 3**. Investigate one of the optional topics (authorship, interactive web page, the longer documentary) and prepare a written response. For this assignment you have a choice. Option A. Leave a shorter response posting in under the discussion tab of this sapce. You can start a discussion with a new post or respond to someone else. The caveat is that this will be part of a public discourse. Option B. Type up a longer response (1 full page, double spaced) and submit in class. This is just a reflection piece. What did you discover of interest? What surprised you? What might others find noteworthy? How did this change/challenge/enhance/etc your understanding of Shakespeare and his plays?

Part One: Childhood (3:29)
 * I. Shakespeare Overview (Mandatory)**

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Education and Young Adulthood (3.42)

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London in 1587 (6.38)

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England Under Queen Elizabeth (3.13)

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The Globe: World of Theater media type="youtube" key="DCWxN15vqxM" height="344" width="425"

Shakespeare's Life in the Theater (2.39)

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Shakespeare's Later life and Legacy

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II. Questions about authorship (optional)
Christopher Marlowe using Shakespeare as a pen name. media type="youtube" key="OsJTbWF1-lg" height="344" width="425"
 * "Much Ado About Something"**

[|Mystery Man] A new documentary revives an old controversy: Was actor and landowner William Shakespeare merely a front man for Christopher Marlowe, the flamboyant gay genius and shadowy Elizabethan spy?
 * More on the Authorship Debate:**

For four hundred years, doubts have been recorded about whether William Shakespeare actually wrote the works attributed to him. This website offers the chance to explore different arguments for the most prominent authorship candidates. Cases are presented for the following:[|Group Theory of Authorship,] [|Francis Bacon,] [|Edward de Vere,] [|Roger Manners,] [|Christopher Marlowe,] [|Henry Neville,] [|William Shakspere,] [|Mary Sidney Herbert,] [|and William Stanley.]
 * The Shakespearean Authorship Trust**

[]

[]
 * Shakespearean Identity**

Some suspects: [] Founded in 1957, the Shakespeare Oxford Society is a non-profit, educational organization dedicated to exploring the Shakespeare authorship question and researching the evidence that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford (1550 – 1604) is the true author of the poems and plays of “William Shakespeare.”
 * The Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere**

Was Shakespeare a woman? Gender issues. []
 * Mary Sidney Herbert**

Kennedy Center: Discover Shakespeare** [] Click on site to launch an interactive page to investigate the life and legacy of Shakespeare There are videos located on the lower right hand side on such topics as: Early Life and Schooling Shakespeare's Early Years in London Modern Interpretations
 * III. Interactive Page (optional)

Recent Review of [|Hamlet] Read a bit more about the play we'll be reading.
 * IV. Miscellaneous Links**

[|Should Shakespeare be Barred?] The plays of Shakespeare don't need to be 'translated' they just need to be made relevant - and if theatre-makers can't do that, maybe it's time to give him a rest

[|Why Read Shakespeare's Biography?] Why do we read critical biographies of Shakespeare? The reasons that we shouldn’t have been ably given by his best critics. “Reader, looke / not on his Picture, but his Booke” was Ben Jonson’s advice right there at the start, on the title page of the First Folio, confronting the familiar Droeshout portrait of the unprepossessing bald guy with the ruff. The advice not to look at the life continues to this day. Artists, Auden insisted, should be anonymous;

Did Shakespeare Do Drugs? See [|CNN.] Or [|BBC.]

Mrs. Shakespeare: [|Reclaiming the Shrew.] Germaine Greer rebuts the derisive tales told of Mrs. Shakespeare. Antother review [|here]: Germaine Greer uses this fabulously argumentative book to challenge the male literary critics who have traditionally asserted that William Shakespeare was trapped in an unhappy marriage.

[|Looking at Shakespeare in Three Ways]

Each segment is aproximately one hour long. Recommended for the serious Shakespearean.
 * V. In Depth Documentary on Life and Times (optional)**

Part One: A Time of Revolution []

Part Two: The Lost Years []

Part Three: The Duty of Poets []

Part Four: For All Time [|http://openflv.com/watch?v=MTQyMjc0&p=3:29).1]