Famous Thesis Statements on the character of Hamlet

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Famous Thesis Statements on the character of
Hamlet

• Written on February 20
• Materials to be used One Note-book sized piece
  of paper containing passages from text only. You
  may write on both sides.

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Hamlet Essay Instructions

• Write an essay which interprets and takes to
  task two famous statements on the character of
  Hamlet.
• Choose one statement which you find valid,
  interesting, and insightful, and one which, in
  your opinion, is necessarily invalid

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What to do

• Introduction
• Should introduce the idea that Hamlets character
  has been discussed and interpreted for centuries
• Should introduce basic themes, issues, and
  questions raised by critics
• Should introduce very briefly how a few critics
  have approached Hamlets character, including the
  ones to be discussed in your essay.
• Should assert a thesis which expresses
  disagreement with a famous critics
  interpretation of Hamlet and expresses agreement
  with anothers.
• For example While Leo Trotskys assertion that
  Hamlet is a model communist revolutionary is
  clearly invalid, the play seems to bear out Dr.
  Seusss assertion that Hamlet is a sheep in
  wolfs clothing.

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What to do

• Body paragraphs (at least three) and conclusion
• You must have at least three body paragraphs
• The first will be dedicated to proving one famous
  statement invalid.
• The second and third will be dedicated to proving
  the validity of another statement.
• You will need not only to prove or disprove each
  statement but also clearly interpret and explain
  each statements meaning.
• Each paragraph should have a clincher statement
  which re-expresses or emphasizes the main idea of
  the paragraph
• Indeed, the extent to which Hamlet questions the
  nature of reality emphasizes and clearly
  demonstrates the fact that he his truly mad.

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Paragraph Requirements

• Offer Examples, followed by Quotations, followed
  by Comments. (repeat 3x)
• Write in present tense
• Do not use I or You
• Avoid Dropped or Stand Alone Quotes
• Never use the phrases, This shows or This
  quote shows to begin your comment.
• What does the This stand for?

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Paragraph Requirements

• Using a bolt to connect paragraphs
• Transitioning from paragraph to paragraph
• This concept can also be used to transition from
  one example to another
• Use complex sentences when constructing topic
  sentences.
• Example Not only is Dr. Seusss interpretation
  of Hamlet as a Wolf in Sheeps clothing accurate
  because he kills R and G without remorse, but
  also because his madness leads to the demise of
  people he claims to love.
• We may refer to this practice as meta-basis, or
  what I call bolting paragraphs and ideas
  together

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Other Essay Options The Aristotelian Option

• Write an Aristotelian Evaluation of
  Shakespeares Hamlet, asserting whether or not
  Hamlet is proper tragedy.
• Consider Hamlets Hamartia
• His Peripeteia (Reversal of Intention or action
  taken in blindness)
• His Anagnorisis (Tragic Recognition)
• Is everything internally necessary? Probable?
  Unified in terms of time, place, and action?
• Does the play cause Pity and Fear or elicit
  Katharsis?
• Does it opt for spectacle by having death on
  stage?

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Other Essay Options The Pattern of Images or
Hamlets delay

• Trace a pattern of related imagery in the play
  (imagery of poison, decay, or illness, for
  example) to support what you believe is the main
  idea or theme of the play.
• Write an essay which accounts for Hamlets
  so-called delay. Is it possible to explain why
  Hamlet will not kill Claudius?

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Other Options Compare Hamlets character to
another figure from literature, film, or history.

• Compare Hamlet to another figure from literature,
  history, or film.
• Specifically show how Hamlets problems,
  indecisions, conflicts, or linguistic patterns
  mirror or enhance our understanding of another
  figure.
• This essay could be brilliant or awful. Be
  careful.

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Hamlet Act 5

• Review Questions

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Hamlet Act 5, scene 1

• What question does the Gravedigger ask in lines 1
  and 2?
• What line does this question echo (see Act I,
  scene 2, lines 135-136)?
• What does the Grave-digger mean when saying, How
  can that be, unless she drowned herself in her
  own defense?
• What does the OTHER grave-digger suggest after
  stating, will you have the truth on it? (see
  line 25)

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Hamlet Act 5, scene i

• The Grave-digger explains after asking the
  other for his spade, There is no ancient
  gentleman but gardners, ditchers, and
  grave-makers. They hold up Adams profession.
• How is it that gardeners, ditch diggers, and
  grave-makers hold up Adams profession?
• Gardner Then the Lord God planted a garden in
  Eden, in the east, and he placed there the man he
  had formed (Genesis chapter 2, verse 8).
• Ditchers Cursed be the ground because of you!
  In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of
  your life (Genesis chapter 3, verse 17)
• This is Adams punishment for his eating the
  forbidden fruit
• Grave-makers God said, you shall not eat it or
  touch it, lest you die.

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Hamlet Act 5, scene i

• What joke does the Grave-maker suggest when he
  asks, What, art a heathen? How dost thou
  understand the scripture? The scripture say he
  digged. Could he dig without arms?
• What pun on Arms is Shakespeare toying with
  here?
• Who, according to the Grave-maker, builds
  stronger than either the mason, the shipwright,
  or the carpenter?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene i

• Horatio says, custom hath made it in him a
  property of easiness?
• What is the meaning of this line?
• Why is Hamlet irritated with the gravedigger?
• What does Hamlet mean when saying, The hand of
  little employment hath the daintier sense? (see
  line 71)

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Hamlet Act 5, scene i

• Read lines 100-105.
• What are quiddities and quillities?
• Why does Hamlet say, Why does he suffer this mad
  knave now to knock him about the sconce with a
  dirty shovel and will not tell him of his action
  of battery?
• What does Hamlet seem to be suggesting about the
  nature of life and death?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene i

• Why does Hamlet say the Grave-digger lies? (see
  line 120-130)
• Why does Hamlet call the Grave-digger absolute?
  (139)
• Hamlet mentions equivocation will undo us.
  What does this mean?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene i

• The grave-digger says of Hamlet, because he was
  mad. He shall recover his wits there. Or if he
  do not, tis no great matter there. . . because
  Twill not be seen in him there (155-160).
• What joke is Shakespeare making at the expense of
  the English? Where is this play being performed?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene i

• When Hamlet asks the grave-maker how it is that
  Hamlet has lost his wits, he asks, Upon what
  ground? To this the gravedigger responds, Why,
  here in Denmark.
• What is the joke being made in this exchange?
• Why is it significant that the Grave-digger is so
  absolute? What is the relationship between the
  grave-diggers wit and his profession?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene i

• Who is Yorick? Why is Hamlet so astounded to see
  him?
• What is Hamlet doing with the skull when
  discussing Yorick?
• On what great Macedonian leader does Hamlet
  then begin to consider?
• Why might this scene be a crucial one in Hamlets
  character development? How might this scene
  change him?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene i

• Who states, Her death was doubtful, / And, but
  that great command oversways the order, She
  should in ground unsanctified been lodged (235)
• What is the great command referred to?
• What is the main idea of the speech?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene i

• Who states, I tell thee, churlish priest, a
  ministering angel shall my sister be when thou
  liest howling?
• What is the meaning of the line, when thou liest
  howling?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene i

• Why is Hamlet offended when Laertes jumps into
  Ophelias grave?
• How is Laertes display perhaps similar to the
  offensive shows of sorrow of his own mother and
  uncle?
• Does Hamlets character begin to show change,
  when saying, I loved Ophelia?
• I have no answer in mind for the above I am
  curious.

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Hamlet Act 5, scene ii

• Hamlet states, when back in the castle with
  Horatio, Our indiscretion sometime serves us
  well when our deep plots do pall and that should
  learn us, theres a divinity that shapes our
  ends (7-12)
• What does this passage mean?
• How is Hamlet changing? How does this statement
  demonstrate a new belief in meaning?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene ii

• How does Hamlet trick Rosencrantz and
  Guildenstern?
• How does he feel about his actions? (see line
  65)?
• What is the meaning of Hamlets line, when
  saying, Their defeat does by their own
  insinuation grow (65-66)?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene ii

• Who does Hamlet call a waterfly, meaning an
  insect, and later tell him to put your bonnet to
  his right use (95 and 105)?
• What news does this messenger bring?
• What are the rules of the wager between Laertes
  and Claudius?
• What is wagered?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene ii

• Who informs Hamlet that he will lose the wager?
• What is Hamlets response?
• Hamlet says, but thou wouldst not think how ill
  alls here about my heart. But it is no matter
  (226).
• What is Hamlet suggesting here?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene ii

• What does Hamlet say about the fall of a sparrow
  in line 234?
• What does Hamlet suggest when saying, The
  readiness is all?
• Has the Gravedigger scene changed Hamlets view
  of life?
• Is it the loss of Ophelia?
• Why is Hamlet so different now? Can it be
  explained?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene ii

• Describe Hamlets speech to Laertes beginning on
  line 240.
• What caused Hamlets previous actions and faults
  against Laertes, according to the speech?
• What does Hamlet seem to be suggesting about his
  current state of mind?
• Why is he suddenly sane?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene ii

• Why does Laertes say, You mock me sir?
• Who says, Come, for the third, Laertes. You do
  but dally. I pray you pass with your best
  violence (325)?
• Explain the irony

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Hamlet Act 5, scene ii

• Who says, I am justly killed with mine own
  treachery?
• Who says, No, no, the drink, the drink! O, my
  dear Hamlet! The drink, the drink, I am poisoned
  (340)?
• Who says, Here, thou incestuous, murdrous,
  damned Dane. Drink off this potion. Is thy
  union here (356)?

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Hamlet Act 5, scene ii

• Who claims to be more antique Roman, than a
  Dane?
• What does this mean?
• Why does Hamlet ask Horatio to Absent thee from
  felicity for awhile?
• What are Hamlets last words?

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Act 5, scene ii

• Why is the English Ambassador in Denmark?
• Who says, For me, with sorrow I embrace my
  fortune (431)?

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Agenda

• Agenda
• Shakespeare biography questions (30)
• Introduce essay to be written in two class
  periods (next class, lecture on Shakespearean
  theatre, prepare notes for essay . . . Quiz also
  on Elizabethan Aesthetics lecture)
• Review Act 5 questions/discuss (40), use notes on
  quiz
• Quiz on Act 5 (20)

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• To do
• Make a few copies of intro material
• Place quiz on-line
• Print essay information