Some helpful notes for Hamlet

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Ideas gleaned from Act I:

Scene 1:

• Ghost most interesting character. Where's Hamlet? Our heroes must enter fashionably late!
• Play starts with a question; why?
• Setting elements to consider: not a mouse stirring; chill; night; line 35 star; line 37 bell; line 33 "two nights seen;"
• Line 42: thou art a scholar, speak to it. We have a philosophical play matter ahead.

Scene II:

• Notice Hamlet's first word! What tude is he spreading on his uncle's bread? Be sure you know what "more than kin and less than kind" means in student union English.

Act II

Scene ii: read lines 559-617 really well! Four times!

Act III

* Spying: who is spying on whom?

* Plot complication: Hamlet develops the father/son theme more by killing Polonius.

* Language appreciation (This is one of the main reasons why we read the Bard's works): we reread the soliloquy in Act III, scene i, line 56: "To be, or not to be." We celebrated the significance of the whole passage; we then analyzed which poetic parts help enhance the meaning of the whole passage:

• Rhetorical question;
• Imagery with "slings" and "arrows" of outrageous fortune.
• Others?

Big pictures:

* Have your Hamlet character circle in your notebook; rings include inner conflict, family dimension, national, international, and cosmic! Ouch, what a character!

* Extra credit race: first to post the origins of 12 days of Christmas song wins 3 (motif: holy number) points sprinkled on a bad quiz.