Complete the following assignment and submit your work to the dropbox.

Write a literary essay using the guidelines found in the Content section.

Remember to use proper MLA formatting and citations: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/.

How does ‘time’ change the play? What do you notice when you view different versions or presentations of a play? How is the interpretation of a text changed by the values and worldviews of the audience? As has been evident throughout this unit, there is a relationship between dramatic works and their target audience. Social, cultural, and economic values and perspectives of the audience do influence the themes and interpretations of a text.

Select one speech from the play and write an essay that analyzes how it targets its audience. You may choose a target audience of any context or production of the play – the original Elizabethan, or a later dramatic version. If you choose a later dramatic version (Branagh’s version, Gibson’s version, or Olivier’s version) you must deal with all the interpretive evidence of the version you choose. You have to be true to the evidence.

Your Hamlet Literary Essay will be about 700 words in length.

If you decide to analyze a later production of the play, please provide a link to the reading or clip you are using for your teacher, or provide correct bibliographical information to the particular film version you are choosing. However, one should not have to see your version to judge or understand your essay. You, however, should have seen and studied it to write your essay.

Tip: Focus on the effect of the speech on the audience of the time. For example, explain how Shakespeare is manipulating the audience through dramatic irony, allusion etc. Base the analysis on your understanding of what would be important for the audience of the time.