As you are reading Hamlet, create descriptions of Hamlet’s characteristics, and gather quotes and examples that support this description. For example you might add the characteristic, “Melancholy,” and cite the quote, “I.iii.133-134 – ‘How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world!’”
Use the text and drawing tools to create your web. You will be adding to this Characterization Collection during each act of the play, and you will download it as you prepare your Character Analysis Essay at the end of this unit.
Remember to try to read Hamlet’s character empathetically, and, if possible, try to use him as a mirror for your own experience.
Act 1:
Ac 2:
Act 3:
Act 4:
Act 5:
Act 2
Complete a 200-250 word forum post. Your post should address one of the following questions:
Act 5
“Have at you now!” Forum
Hamlet is a play that has caused quite a bit of confrontation between literary scholars over the years. Several issues have been particularly contentious, and the purpose of this forum assignment is to delve into some of those discussions. Please remain respectful as you “have at” your fellow students in this discussion.
Complete a 200-250 word forum post. Your post should address one of the following questions:
Act 1
For this activity, you will use a personal writing style to communicate your own connections and encounters with Act I of Hamlet using one of the prompts below.
You do not have to use formal paragraphs to convey your thinking, but try to present your thoughts in an organized and logical way. Be as personal and vulnerable as you feel safe being.
The maximum length for this personal writing assignment is 300 words.
1) Hamlet experiences intense emotions, some of which would be socially unacceptable to show outwardly. By restraining himself, is he being less than true to his own self, or is he merely behaving as he is expected to as the Prince of Denmark?
2) In what ways have you wrestled with understanding who your true self is? Are there times when you have portrayed a different person on the outside than you are feeling on the inside? Connect these personal experiences to your reading of Hamlet.
3) Hamlet says, “But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.” Is his silence wise or a betrayal of his true self? Is passion something that should be expressed freely or hidden from sight?
Act 3
Consider each of the following questions, and write an answer to at least two of them in the workspace provided.
For each written response that you choose, do a 75 to 100-word quick-write.
Act 4
Using the workspace provided, write a literary analysis for Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 4 Scene 4, lines 31-65.
Your analysis should be between 200 and 300 words. This is meant to be a short assignment which will be practice for your final literary essay.
Your analysis should contain some or all of the following components: