Act 3, scene iv

ACT III, scene iv: “The Closet Scene”

1. What important action happens right at the beginning of the scene? How is this ironic, given Hamlet’s previous behavior?

2. Hamlet’s final judgment on Polonius is that he was “wretched, rash, intruding fool.” Choose the four words that Laertes would use to describe his father. Do the same with Ophelia.

3. Hamlet basically accuses Gertrude of killing his father in lines 34-35. Is this fair? Do you think she was in on Claudius’s plot?

Examine the way Gertrude responds to Hamlet:

What have I done, that thou dar’st wag thy tongue in noise so rude against me? (46-47)

O Hamlet, speak no more! Thou turnst my eyes into my very soul, And there I see such black and grained spots. (99-102)

O, speak to me no more! These words like daggers enter in my ears. No more, sweet Hamlet! (107-109)

4. How does Gertrude feel about this tongue lashing from her son?

5. Why does the Ghost come back at this point, in your opinion?

Act 3, scene iii questions

Act 3, scene 3, lines 36-72: Claudius soliloquy & Hamlet’s response

KING: My offence is rank, it smells to heaven;

it hath the primal eldest curse on upon’t.

A brother’s murder. Pray can I not,

Though inclination be as sharp as will.

1. Where is Claudius when he says these lines?

2. What do they say about his state of mind?

KING: What form of prayer

Can serve my turn? “Forgive me foul murder”?

That cannot be, since I am still possessed

Of those effects for which I did the murder,

My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.

May one be pardoned and retain th’offence?

3. Claudius is arguing with himself. What are the two sides?

HAMLET: Now might I do it, now he is praying,

And now I’ll do it – and so he goes to heaven,

And so I am revenged. That would be scanned.

A villain kills my father, and for that,

I his sole son do this same villain send to heaven. Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge.

4. Where is Hamlet at this point?

5. What is Hamlet’s argument with himself?

6. What does Hamlet decide at the end of the speech?

KING:

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.

Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

7. What do we learn about Claudius here? How is it ironic?

Hamlet: Too Solid Flesh Soliloquy

Here are the notes about the "too solid flesh" soliloquy in Act I.

Hamlet 2.2 study questions

Act II, Scene ii, 213-338: Hamlet Jokes With Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

1) How can you tell that Hamlet is suspicious that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern might be spying on him? Identify at least one line that suggests it.

2) What is your opinion of Hamlet’s line in 239-240: “for there is nothing either good / or bad but thinking makes it so.” Is that true?

3) Examine Hamlet’s description of his own mood in lines 278-292 (from “I have of late…lost all my mirth”). Describe how Hamlet uses antithesis in this passage.

4) What does this passage reveal? How is Hamlet feeling?

5) Describe the joke that ends this passage. Why did Hamlet end this rather bleak speech with a joke?

Act II, scene ii, lines 500-559: “O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I”

1) Hamlet is being really tough on himself. List at least five bad names that he calls himself in this soliloquy.

2) Why is he berating himself?

3) In the first 20 lines of the soliloquy, he sets up an antithesis between himself and the “player” (actor) whom he just met. What contrast does he describe?

4) What plan does Hamlet hatch at the end of the soliloquy?

Hamlet I,iii homework questions

Respond to these questions as homework tonight (March 27). Bring the answers to class tomorrow. See ya then!

Hamlet, Act I, scene iii

The Other Family

Lines 1-56: Ophelia and Laertes

1. What advice does Laertes give Ophelia about her relationship with Hamlet?

2. How does Ophelia reply to this (lines 49-55)?

3. How should Ophelia speak lines 49-55? Is she being submissive or ironic? How would the actress’s choice here reveal something about her interpretation of the character?

Lines 56-93: Laertes and Polonius

1. Polonius gives his son advice as the boy heads off to college. Make a list from 1-8. Identify the eight pieces of advice he gives to Laertes and order them from the most useful to the least so.

2. How should Polonius speak these lines? In various productions, the actor has been variously comic, authoritarian, loving, sincere, pompous or aloof. Which of those interpretations would you use? And what would your choice reveal about the character?

Lines 95-145: Polonius and Ophelia

1. Follow the various uses of the word “tender” in lines 108-118. Which different definitions of the word do Ophelia and Polonius use?

2. What does Polonius say to Ophelia in lines 141-144? Is this advice, or an order? Compare Polonius’s treatment of Ophelia with how he treats Laertes. Is there a double standard here?

3. How should the actors playing Ophelia and Laertes respond to Polonius’s various pieces of advice? In some productions, they listen dutifully and respectfully, while in others they mock him by making faces behind his back. Which interpretation would you choose, and why?

Reading at Risk survey assignment

In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts published Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America. This detailed study showed that Americans in almost every demographic group were reading fiction, poetry and drama—and books in general—at significantly lower rates than 10 or 20 years earlier. The declines were steepest among young adults.

The scenario: You are Norwalk High’s English Department chair. You will prepare a report about the NEA’s survey to share with the department. You should focus about how reading trends in America are changing and how this will affect the lives of young people as they grow up and try to compete in a tightening global job market.

1) Summarize the results of the survey. (Write at least a half-page.)

2) Cite three facts from the survey that back up what you said in the summary. (This should be a bulleted list.)

3) Recommend actions that the English department should take to address the problems identified by the NEA survey. (Write at least one page.)

Reading Lord of the Flies

You have several options for reading Lord of the Flies. You can:

• use a book that you check out from school (of course)
• read the full text online here
• read my abridged script versions of chapters 2-12 online:
• chapter 2
• chapter 3
• chapter 4
• chapter 5
• chapter 6
• chapter 7
• chapter 8
• chapter 9
• chapter 10
• chapter 11
• chapter 12

Here is a study guide for the first three chapters of Lord of the Flies. And here are the study questions for chapters 4-6. You do not need to turn in answers to the questions for homework. But, you will take a reading quiz on each of these chapters on the day that you are supposed to have read it. The study guide will help you prepare for it.

Make Connections to the Text

It's easy to read things by people whose interests are similar to yours. But to be a truly good reader, you must challenge yourself to read outside your comfort zone. You have to read hard books to succeed in school, and that's a good thing, because reading challenging books makes you grow and become a more interesting person.

But, how to do it? How do you read a difficult text? The first step is finding personal connections to it. Even the most obscure and old-fashioned text has something in it that relates to your life today. The Great Gatsby is about money and class. The Crucible is about back-biting gossip. Macbeth is about someone who will do anything for power. These are themes that we see in our lives and in the newspaper every day.

When you find personal connections to a difficult text, you become more interested in it, and that gives you the motivation to keep slogging through the hard parts. The pain is worth it. These classics repay the work you put into them.

We're using Jim Burke's Making Connections organizer to practice connecting to a text. First up, we're trying it with Paul Feig's hilarious autobiographical essay, "We Stood in Line at Ellis Island for This?" Next week, we'll practice on the introduction to Anne Lamott's classic how-to-write handbook, Bird by Bird. We'll also talk a lot about making personal connections when we read Lord of the Flies.

Reading Skills Expected of College Students

We discussed the skills that are expected of students who are entering college, and we examined a list of expectations that was developed by a board of teachers and professors in California. Even if you go to school in another state, these are the skills that college professors will expect to see in you. More importantly, these are the skills that you need to be a good reader. They are worth developing. We will be talking about them all year:

• Read texts of complexity without instruction and guidance
• Summarize information
• Relate prior knowledge and experience to new information
• Make connections to related topics or information
• Synthesize information in discussion and written assignments
• Argue with the text
• Determine major and subordinate ideas in passages
• Anticipate where an argument or narrative is heading
• Suspend information while searching for answers to self-generated questions
• Identify the main idea
• Retain the information read
• Identify appeals to the reader
• Identify the evidence that supports, confutes or contradicts a thesis
• Read with awareness of self and others

Welcome!

This is the website for Mr. Smith's senior English course at Norwalk High School. I'll use it to post summaries of what we're covering in class, as well as details about homework assignments and other information you need. In the margin on the right side of the blog, you'll find links to more resources about the texts and themes we're studying.