Goal of literary essay: "Looking at the text as a work of art, demonstrating clear critical judgment and explaining to the reader of your essay how the enjoyment of the text is assisted by literary devices, linguistic effects and psychological insights; showing how the text relates to the time when it was written and how it relates to our world today."
Advice: look at class notes and your own improvements
-see if you can come up with a topic which fits all three topics
-extend your ideas to show how it connects to our world today
-passion
Action vs. Inaction
-Fortinbras and Hamlet are contrasted (character foils) - "what is a man" (IV iv) soliloquy
- Fortinbras is a man of action [so is Laertes]
- Fortinbras "sharks up a list of resolutes" in Act I - it is reported by Horatio
- Hamlet is an intellectual
- [what do we value as a society? Political parties?]
- Gertrude
- [do nothing principle - when Hamlet does finally take action III iv - how does it work out?]
- Ophelia - passive in her actions? - she's a woman, has less status than Hamlet [interesting that the water/drowning death is seen as the water drowning her - look at gravediggers' scene]
- Claudius - beginning keeps Hamlet around to observe - maybe he doesn't want to kill him - assess the danger
- Hamlet becomes a killer and then he is dangerous - hence why Claudius then wants him put to death
- He ends up being rash when he stabs through a curtain - before that he was thinking (over-thinking?)
- [good to compare to Macbeth]
- Hamlet's soliloquies reveal his morality - he also does not kill Claudius when he thinks he's praying because "he killed my father full of bread" (III iii 80-82)
- Makes up excuses - are these reasonable, or is it procrastination
- [is there a system of law in place?]
- Belief in Heaven and Hell is real and not questioned
- Revenge vs. morals vs. duty [what wins?]
- Gertrude and Hamlet - he threatens to kill her - is it really the ghost or his conscience? [how does actual madness play into this theme] -he's in a frenzy - has just killed someone has "[drunk] hot blood" - but ghost reminds him to speak daggers, though use none
- [what inspires Hamlet to action?]
- What leads to a better outcome, action or inaction - doesn't everyone who takes action die?
- Honorable (think of the soccer goalie who dives to one side) - action LOOKS better
- Laertes comes with a bunch of supporters to take down Denmark - avenge his father's death (but he is easily talked down)
- "Just Lather, That's All" - barber doesn't take action, Captain Torres does - best choice for individual [existential questions]
- [should Hamlet have killed Claudius right after the visit with the ghost?]
- [what other recourse does Hamlet have?]
- [what about our society?]
- [following one character - Ophelia, Gertrude]
- Ophelia is innocent - suicide is hasty [but she's insane - father killed by her ex-boyfriend, her "chaste treasure" was probably opened]
- Abby thinks her actions are planned and peaceful and made a decision
- [do-lally singing around the court]
- Paulo Cohelo - "waiting is painful, forgetting is painful, but not knowing what to do is the worst kind of suffering"
Appearance vs. Reality
-"an antic disposition" (I v 179-180) - this sets off the rising action
-Hamlet would act crazy for Polonius - but not really to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, yes in front of his mother and Ophelia (genuine)
-we question whether the ghost is telling the truth or not - we question whether or not the ghost is really there in III vi
-"fake it 'til you make it" - hard to tell whether Hamlet is faking it or not
-Hamlet sends R and G off to their deaths [ weird that Horatio knows this and then lies about it in V ii]
-what happens between Hamlet and Ophelia? (II i) She describes him as crazy - we don't know what really happened - rape? - does she lose her virginity?
-"forty thousand brothers could never love Ophelia as much as me" (V i)
-look at III i "get thee to a nunnery"
[would be interesting to focus on the appearance and reality of Hamlet and Ophelia's relationship]
- [what do we question in our lives?]
- [how much does spying have to do with this topic]
- [what about Polonius and Laertes' reality - thinking that Ophelia could not possibly marry Hamlet - but Gertrude says "I thought you would have been Hamlet's wife" (V i)
- Ophelia's role in society (the way women are seen)
- Ophelia's in the background - much going on under the surface [also Gertrude] - she's a product of her society - Hamlet is a PRINCE - she seems witty with her brother ("But, good my brother,/Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,/Show me the steep and thorny way to Heaven…) I iii 46-48
- Is there any evidence for Gertrude and Hamlet's inappropriate relationship III iv - she doesn't want to hear Hamlet's accusations - she acts out of self interest - "Have you forgot me?"
- III iv = good scene to think about this theme - is it Hamlet's madness that creates the ghost? Gertrude doesn't see it, and it's dressed differently
- IV v 135"But not by him" - Gertrude says when it's revealed that Polonius has been killed
- Gertrude's self-interest - chooses to marry Claudius - she could have stayed queen without him? Or perhaps Hamlet would have become king (that makes more sense when it comes to Gertrude's self-interest) - conveniently ignorant of Claudius' plans and actions
- Polonius = big snoop - also sets off Ophelia's madness and Laertes' revenge
- Are Hamlet's soliloquies private - don't Polonius and Claudius overhear the "get thee to a nunnery speech?" - therefore, wouldn't they have heard the "to be or not to be speech"
- "He that hath kill'd my king and whor'd my mother,/ Popp'd in between the election and my hopes" (V ii 64,65)
- Claudius praying and not repenting
Betrayal and Loyalty
-betrayal seems to lead to death in Shakespeare's plays
-eg. Hamlet sends R and G to death once he realizes they are spying on Claudius' behalf [they really have no choice in this matter]
-SELF INTEREST - "sponges" - like Gertrude - they change with the wind - they side with Claudius when they have to and Hamlet when he's there
-JEALOUSY
- Causes conflict
- What are the priorities for loyalties (dead father?)
- V ii 58-59 "They are not near my conscience: their defeat/ Does by their own insinuation grow."
- When Hamlet doesn't kill Claudius (vengeance vs. morals) - he doesn't want to send Claudius to Heaven when his father was killed "full of bread"
- Ophelia betrays herself more than anything - [what kind of volition does she have?]
- Ophelia has loyalty to Polonius (does she betray Hamlet - she gives his letters - Hamlet reacts badly to this)
- Gertrude's loyalty -
- Does Hamlet deceive Gertrude? Does he just want to scare her in her bedroom (he is in a rage - we lash out at the people we love the most - ironically)
- His mother's betrayal ["frailty thy name is woman!"]
- "all marriages but one" III i
- Hamlet takes out his anger towards his mother on Ophelia
- Betrayal - leads to Ophelia's suicide - she's betrayed by Hamlet at the play! When he kills her father (in the end, he also kills her brother)
-Loyalty to religion?
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern quotes:
"We are actors. We are the opposite of people." Player King
"We need an audience." Player King
"Death is what we do best." Player King
"Whatever became of the moment when one first knew about death? There must have been one, a moment in childhood, when it first occurred to you that you don't go on forever. It must have been shattering - stamped into one's memory. And yet I can't remember it. It never occurred to me at all. We must be born with an intuition of mortality. Before we know that there are words, out we come, bloodied and squalling in the knowledge that for all the points of the compass there's only one direction and time is the only measure." - Rosencrantz
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