Lit 12 - Jan. 30

Eng. 11 - Jan. 28

Presentations - tomorrow!!  Make sure you post to YouTube to make sure it works!

"My Father Knew," "My Papa's Waltz," "When I Was One and Twenty," "The Man Who Finds His Son has Become a Thief," The Attitude" - complete these questions for Monday, Feb. 2

Lit 12 - Jan. 28

Prepare the poems: "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen

and "The Second Coming" by W.B. Yeats

both are in Adventures in English Lit - do your SIX steps in the correct order.

We will be copying the "Digging" paragraph and reading aloud essays as well, so bring your stuff!

Fast forward: "The Hollow Men" is for our double block on Friday!

Writing 12

Your Choice due: Tues. Feb. 3

Double Workshop: Friday, Jan. 30

Lit. 12

"Channel" and "Digging" discussions on Tues. Jan. 28

Eng. 11

Poetry Presentation: Thurs. Jan.29

Classes on Mon. & Tues.

Exam: Wed. Feb. 4 - 12:05

Hamlet Pics

Cops and Hamlet

Sock puppets Hamlet

Mean Girls Hamlet

Typical day of Hamlet

*Not every group had active pictures - these are some of the better ones.  Thanks, class photographer, Catherine Skeath!

Lit 12 - Jan. 21

Topic #1 = Simple Gifts are the Best
Topic # 2 = Dreams Take us on Journeys
Topic #3 = It's Important to Learn from the Past

If you've been away, spend 45 minutes writing a narrative essay on these two topics.

For Thursday: have all THREE essays ready
For Friday: have all THREE poetry packages ready: "Because," "Channel," "Digging"

Friday: good copy of essay is due!

This week in Lit 12 - Jan. 19 - Jan. 23

Mon. - 45 minutes essay/ "Because I Could Not Stop for Death"
Tues. - 45 minutes essay/ "Channel Firing"
Wed. - 45 minutes essay/ "Digging"
Thurs. - PEER EDITING DAY
Fri. - hand in typed essays/ discuss poems

Eng. 11/Eng. 12

Anyone who missed any test or essay - the time is Tuesday after school.

The end.

Lit 12 - Jan. 15 - Studying for Quote Test

Structure, Character, Theme

Read handout about structure.

Think about what major events affect the whole play

Character - think of different adjectives to describe each character (think of our character discussions for P&P) - find quotes which are revealing about character.  Partner up to test each other.

Themes - brainstorm list of themes - try to find quotes which illustrate these themes - partner up for discussion

Each quote requires a mini-essay - strong introductory sentence and strong conclusion sentence.  Work from the general to the specific and back to general (keyhole method) - quoting from the actual quote will help.

Lit 12 - Jan. 14 - Fishbowl

Familial Relations

-relationship between Hamlet and his mother "Has thou forgot me" (III iv)

• Hamlet upset at Claudius - not just for him killing his father

• Hamlet and Gertrude - usually positive (she knows which one is Guildenstern and which one is Rosencrantz -also understands why he's mourning)

-What would happen if Polonius did not instruct Ophelia to shut Hamlet out

Fathers and daughters

Mothers and sons

-Fortinbras and his father and uncle

-Laertes and Polonius

-Hamlet and his father/Claudius

Parallels

• Laertes doesn't treat Polonius seriously/ Polonius doesn't trust Laertes

• Fortinbras and Laertes are go-getters

-conflict between Claudius and Hamlet starts the whole play - brother kills brother - mother marries uncle - family politics - can we draw any parallels to our own lives?

-do people hurt the ones they love more than anyone else?

 - Do the parents act in their children's best interest?

-Gertrude ends up siding with Claudius ("but not by him" IV v)

Loyalty - should a mother side with her husband or her son?

-could focus on Gertrude

-loyalties and family and one character focus

-protective fathers

• Gertrude says Ophelia could have been her daughter-in-law - huge dramatic irony

-examples of Claudius and Hamlet's relationship - he married his mom, took his crown, killed his father - Hamlet doesn't mention the fact that Claudius took his crown until his final soliloquy in IV - meanwhile Fortinbras reacted immediately as discussed in Act I

• Is Gertrude a bad mother?  (she didn't know about Claudius murdering her husband)

• Incest - it's mentioned many times that Gertrude marrying Claudius is incestuous - it's implied that Hamlet is having a bordering-on incestuous relationship with his mother "enseamed" - 2 of his soliloquies mention intimate ideas about Claudius and Gertrude

-Hamlet and Gertrude

-bad parenting

-compare different father-son relationships

-family contributes to Hamlet's success/feelings

-Polonius and his family

-Hamlet and Claudius + motivation

Action vs. Inaction

• Is Hamlet a coward, or is he a good strategist (could have killed Claudius when praying) - but he believes he would send Claudius to Heaven (III iii)

• "Just Lather That's All" - being passive isn't really heroic

• Wouldn't a king need to commit to an action?

• Could Hamlet be a king?

• IV iv  "three parts coward" (41-46)

• Claudius acts on his own - ends up dying

• Fortinbras is active - wants to fight for a "piece of straw," "sharks up a list of resolutes," ends up the leader of Denmark

• Hamlet and Laertes - neither pays off

• Are Laertes and Fortinbras very different ?(Laertes does not have the status)

• Could compare Macbeth to Hamlet - do we want leaders who commit rash actions or , like Fortinbras just fight for fighting's sake (America)

• Actions often committed off-stage and not from the protagonist's actions
• Why does Hamlet act so differently when he kills Polonius (worked up - wants to kill Claudius while Claudius is praying - also thinks Claudius is spying - he wanted to kill him "in his sty" (III iii)

• In the end, Hamlet kills Claudius, (indirectly, Ophelia), Laertes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - is the ghost from the devil?

• Should a son avenge his father's death (murder)

• Is killing ever morally right?

• Inaction causes the progression of the play

• Is Hamlet unlikeable because of his inaction?

• Should Hamlet have killed Claudius?  When?

• Morality and Hamlet - see soliloquies
• Why doesn't Hamlet kill Claudius earlier?

• Is Hamlet a sympathetic character?  Do you like him?  Which other protagonists can you compare him to?  Is he really like the barber in "Just Lather, That's All"?

• Gertrude's action has to go through the men - Claudius and Hamlet

• Is madness a form of action? Or the opposite?

-if Hamlet acted more quickly - people would not have clued in

Topics:

• Hamlet and Laertes and comparisons

• Hamlet's madness - ties in with indecisive behaviour

• Ophelia and Hamlet and motivation

• Hamlet success or lack of success
• H's inaction works with the plot framework and how it works as a device

• Ham, Laertes and Fortinbras

Morality

• Is murder ever morally justifiable?

• Is revenge every morally justifiable?

• What kind of revenge (could just be bad talking someone)

• Legal system - death penalty - Canada - murder is not justifiable

• In actual Denmark - pagan (but Shakespeare secretly ascribes to 17th century English morals and values)

• Jared would like to point out that 11th century Denmark was actually Catholic
• Is war justifiable?  - the law would say "yes"

• "revenge his foul and unnatural murder"  I v (said by the king)

• What is the inciting incident which caused the murders in this play?

• Catholic church sees the marriage as incest

• Look at Hamlet's soliloquies in order to see his morals "conscience doth make cowards of us all" (III i)

• Did Hamlet jump to conclusions too early?  Couldn't he have convinced the public (like Laertes and Fortinbras) what's the rush?
• Wouldn't the court system (such as it was) take care of Claudius if the truth came out - nowadays we could trust the system?
• Which characters are moral and immoral (again we can compare to Macbeth)

• Hamlet's first killing (Polonius) - lost his moral compass also perhaps really is insane at this moment - choking his mother - seeing the ghost)

• Ghost asking Hamlet to "avenge his death" - not moral much like Macbeth being beholden to and trusting the "instruments of darkness"

• Is "madness poor Hamlet's enemy"? (V ii 245)

• How could you reference Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead?

• Quotes, quotes, quotes!

• What about Gertrude's morals?

• What about Ophelia's?

• Is Gertrude and Claudius' marriage morally wrong (2 months after old Hamlet's death)

• Claudius' morality

• Gertrude goes against what's right - she's been told that her current husband killed her late husband ("o'er hasty marriage" Act I)

• Self interest vs. what's best for society (Macbeth vs. Hamlet)

• Is Hamlet self-interested?   Is his concern ("to be or not to be") selfish?  Is it true that "no one deserves to be made a murderer" as the barber says

• Or is it that "killing isn't easy"

Topics

-Hamlet's inciting incident

-Hamlet's morals are altered by the events around him

-Moral decisions lead to Hamlet's death

-tragic events caused by Hamlet's immoral tendencies or madness

-Death of significant family members causal relationship

-compare Hamlet and Macbeth

-whether or not revenge is moral or immoral

-killing Claudius - moral issues

-Hamlet's choices moral or immoral?

Eng. 11 - Fishbowl notes

Power

• Physical, mental, political
• Nature of power

• Make people do what you want them to do with their consent (reminds us of "Hills like White Elephants")

• Power changes: witches, Lady, the Thane…

• Autonomy (self power)

• Witches tempt the Thane

• Use his weakness (so does the Lady)" are you a man?" I vii

• What kind of power does the Lady have? (the movie says sexuality, she uses his own sexuality against him - is she like Big Nurse?) - different kind of power?

• Hecate has power over the witches III vi?

• How does power change people?  (the Thane in particular)

• Outside quote: "Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Edmund Burke?

• *the Thane seeks the witches out in IV i

• Thane uses violence - dies

• Lady questions manhood - commits suicide

Other kinds of power: Duncan, Malcolm, Macduff

• *** don't moralize or just list

• The Thane didn't EARN his kingship: "now does he feel his title hang loose about him like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief" (V ii 20, 21)

• Can mortals change fate?  Not according to this play - if someone changes his own fate, that becomes his fate

• Are fate and God the same thing?

• Changing the "natural order" - the Great Chain of Being = UNNATURAL.

Betrayal and Loyalty

• First thing - MacDonwald betrays Duncan - gives the Thane a new territory - at first the Thane is loyal to Duncan (see I vii speech - why Thane doesn't want to kill Duncan)

• What does the Thane prioritize?

• Duncan believes in the Thane (he is a trusting king)

• Is Macduff loyal?

• The Lady betrays her femininity (I v : "unsex me here" speech)

• Would the Thane have betrayed Duncan had he not met the witches?

• "the ends justifies the means"
• Compare Macduff and the Thane

 -* does the Lady betray her husband (he abandons her, but she defends him at the banquet, doesn't tell anyone, went insane)

• Lady took the easy way out by killing herself
• She gave away their secrets in Act V scene 1 - sleepwalking scene

All the ways the Thane betrays: revealed in I v

• "he's here in double trust…"

• The Thane kills his army buddy (Banquo)

• Loyalty "If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis it shall make honour for you" (II ii 24, 25)

-Macduff chooses his country (greater good) over loyalty for his family - people in the military are supposed to choose the country (and the king - one and the same) over self-interest (ambition or even family)

• Macduff's son is loyal to his father even though his mother calls Macduff a traitor

• The witches betray themselves (Hecate is mad) - they are supposed to stay away from humans, betray the Thane by "equivocating" in IV i  - they are "fiends" that "lie like the truth" (V v 43, 44)

• Thane hates disloyalty - threatens servants in Act V - he's afraid (says in I vii 9,10

• ) that people will pay him back: "but we teach the bloody instructions, which, being taught, return to plague the inventor"

Supernatural

 - witches, Banquo's ghost, hallucinations (dagger), idea of fate, Hecate, apparitions

• Witches symbolize - fate, temptation
• Witches plant idea in head without actually telling the Thane to murder
• "instruments of darkness" (I iii 124) - Banquo identifies them as such
• People can't resist knowing their future
• People tend to live in the future, rather than the present
• Banquo doesn't act on his prophesy
• How people respond to "life's fitful fever" shows character
• The Thane whole-heartedly believes the second set of prophecies - doesn't question them (hubris, but also beholden to them)
• What does the Thane going back to the witches show us about him?
• Human nature
• The Thane does everything himself he's responsibleB
• "belief in the supernatural is not necessary, men are quite capable of their own wickedness" - Joseph Conrad
• More guilt = more dependence on witches - gets himself in too deep
• Do the witches represent the devil?

• Fate can be changed - Fleance does not become king

• Lady's blood (hallucination) - symbolizes guilt

Guilt, ambition and how fate works through these qualities

Pride, morality, autonomy,

** can pick a sub topic and see how it works with any of these topics.

-other than the first instance, the Thane is fearful before the supernatural appears

Eng. 11 - Jan. 12 - Studying for MacTest

Plot questions: 15 marks (short answers)
Dramatic devices: 5 marks
Character questions:10 marks (fill in the names)
Quotes: 30 marks - identify speaker, situation and the importance in the play - 5 marks per quote - full sentence answers
Shakespearean language: 5 marks - figure out the Shakespearean words from the context of the quotes
Paragraph answers: 15 marks - major questions about the play - structure and character


To study: review characters, plot overview, questions, dramatic terms sheet.

Make a list of relevant quotes and test your friend with them - think of the significance.  Studying both by yourself and with a friend would be beneficial.

Writing 12 - Jan. 12

Bring children's books supplies to class for Tues. Jan.13 - Fri. Jan. 23

Brooksbank/due date: Friday, Jan. 23

Writing 12 - Jan. 5

One Act Scenes: Peer Editing - Wed. 7

Workshop - Thurs. 8

Eng. 11 - Jan. 5

Complete all questions for IV and V!

Scenes: Wed. Jan. 7

Lit 12 - Due Dates (Jan. 5)

Tues. 6 - finish play - IV/V due / discussion
Wed. 7 - Scenes
Thurs. 8 - Final Discussion/Themes

Mon. 12 - movie
Tues. 13 - movie
Wed. 14. - fishbowl
Thurs. 15 - in-class essay
Fri. 16 - Quote test (Structure/Character/Theme)