Hamlet, Act 1:1-2

LAST LIT TERMS QUIZ! #4–now you know all the terms necessary for this class. (That was fun, right?)

Before Hamlet, we’ll go over the Great Expectations AP Practice Essay you completed on Monday. I will be grading this and future essays as the readers for the Exam will, by using THIS CHECKLIST. The top half is the checklist I will use, the bottom half is a reference for you for future essays. Since this was your first practice essay, and I wasn’t there to give you any direction, everyone received the same score, unless you were a-MAZE-ing, then you received a few extra points. In the future, I’ll grade more critically, now that you can see the standard and expectations.

NOW HAMLET!

I believe Shakespeare meant his plays to be experienced, not merely read. So each day you will watch the corresponding scenes which you read the day before. Today we’ll watch the first 21 minutes of the 2009 production with David Tennant. Then we’ll discuss some key scenes and issues:

• What’s going on between Fortinbras and Hamlet? What happened between their fathers? Why is an emissary now being send to Norway to Fortinbras’s uncle? (And interestingly, it’s Hamlet’s uncle who sends a message to the other uncle. Those meddling uncles . . .)
• What are Hamlet’s first lines in the play? Notice that in the production, his line about kin and kindness are out loud to everyone, instead of an aside. That’s a director’s choice and I think works well there. Also notice the fun structure of that line: A little more than kin, and less than kind. See the parallelism, the more and less playing off of each other, the turning of kin into kind. Delicious! And also a bit snarky–already we see Hamlet has some attitude. What does this line mean?
• Look at King Claudius’s attitude toward Hamlet and his grieving. Yes, sweet that you’re sad, but your father lost a father, and so on, and it’s enough: ’tis unmanly grief. How would you react to that?
• What about his mother, Queen Gertrude, and her attempt to console Hamlet? Hey, everybody dies–it’s natural. How does Hamlet respond to that? The meaning of the word common?
• Look at Hamlet’s first soliloquy, about wishing his solid flesh could just melt and that God hadn’t said suicide is wrong. Then he turns on his mother and utters the famous line, Frailty, thy name is woman! Ouch. But is he wrong? How did his father and mother feel about each other before the king died?
• The Horatio and friends come tell Hamlet about the ghost, and plan to confront it.
• Look at the last lines Hamlet speaks before the scene ends: a couplet. Nearly all scenes end with a couplet–a good signal for the actors that the scene is over. But also as a marker of sorts to signal a resolution, understanding, foreshadowing, or determination by the character of something to come. Foul deeds will rise,/ Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes. What does this mean? Portend? What will happen to the “foul deeds” occuring?

Iambic pentameter: Most of play is written this way, sounding like a heartbeat in fives: ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM. Why?

• In practical terms, it makes it easier for the actors to remember so many lines. They know the rhythm and meter, and can recall that each line has five beats (pent-meter) which aids in helping to remember what may come next.
• Secondly, it’s jarring when that pentameter isn’t maintained, such as when Horatio is questioning the ghost–natural pauses are created.
• Third, it creates a lovely flow that keeps the action and speeches flowing. Only for significant speeches do the lines rhyme. Otherwise, no rhyming.
• And some scenes aren’t in iambic pentameter at all, but straight prose. Why?

HOMEWORK: Read Act 1:3-5 (Yes, you may use No Fear Shakespeare to assist you.)

Create TWO Ham Logs for this reading: One over scenes 3-4 (they’re short) and one over scene 5.