Thursday, 4 October Hamlet Acts IV and V

Hamlet and Laertes
Notes: vocabulary 2 is due next Tuesday, October 9 at the start of class; any material received after that time is considered late at the usual rate of 10 points off per day, at which point you may turn the assignment in for 50 points.
Tuesday, October 9: introduction to Hamlet due; this will be returned to you on Wednesday.
On Friday there will be a final assessment with the material taken directly from the study questions. It will count in the 30 % category.

On Monday, October 15 your formal analysis paper on Hamlet will be due. NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED. The term ends on the 19th, and these must be graded by that time. See copy of the assignment below. Copy follows. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, PLEASE E-MAIL ME-dmpalond@frontiernet.net.


In class today: We will be finishing up Hamlet today in class, reviewing the study questions for Acts IV and V. 

Hamlet critical analysis paper.   Due Monday, October 15

No late material will be accepted, as the term ends on Friday, October 19, and these have to be turned around and graded.

Three themes that have intertwined throughout the play are: filial responsibility, illusion versus reality and the role of fate. You are to choose one of these and discuss how it influences the development of the plot.

Your paper will need the following: 1)  a clearly stated thesis in the introductory paragraph, 2) five paragraphs, each focusing on one aspect of each act that supports your thesis and 3) a conclusion that offers up some insightful, universal idea that ties it all together. YOUR CONCLUSION IS NOT A RESTATEMENT OF THE INTRODUCTION.

How should you start?  Do some background reading; know the meaning of filial responsibility or the concept of reality versus illusion or the idea of fate. You must have these down before you begin.

Next: write the introduction. This is due next Tuesday, October 9. I will check it over to make sure you are on the right track and return it on Wednesday. It must be typed. Include your MLA heading.

Building the paper: you will need to reread the play – although some bits may be skipped, if you know they are not directly applicable- and pull out specific textual evidence that applies to your theme.  I suggest you create a work document- or write them out. Make sure to note where the lines came from specifically. (I.ii.38-39  or IV.iii.129-39) NOTE THIS FORMAT!

After you have done the research for your paper, organize the paragraphs, and within each weave in the quotes. Seldom should a quote stand alone. Here are some examples for you: Ophelia “speaks much of her father…speaks things in doubt / That carry but half sense” (IV.v.84-85), and so her death, although tragic is not unexpected.

Note that in incorporating your quotes, you must always show how the original text was written. This is done by putting a  slash (/) mark on the line.  (see above example).  Note also how the line citation was incorporated. There are also words in the original text that I didn’t need, but I must indicate that they were there originally. In order to pick and choose, I just included an ellipsis (three dots)

Here’s another example: The king assures him that he is “guiltless of [his] father’s death / And am most sensibly in grief for it (IV.v.171-72).  Note that when you interweave a quote, you might have to change or exclude some words, as it must be grammatically correct. What I have done is change the “you” in the original quote to “his”, but to show that this is my word- and not Shakespeare’s, I put the change in brackets. 

Conclusion: I cannot emphasize enough that this is not a repeat of the introduction. Answer the question what was the point in the way the play developed? What larger idea can be taken away for what happened to these characters? Think of the historical context.

Details: this is a critical analysis paper. There are NO I think or I believe.  Within each paragraph there should be a clear thesis (controlling idea), which will be supported by textual evidence and then an analysis statement that tells how this is significant in terms of the moving along the play.

RECAP: typed (size 12, Times New Roman font); introduction is due on Tuesday, October 9 (homework grade) and the final paper is due on Monday, October 15. Any not received in class will have a phone call home by the end of the day.