What's next?

Over the next week or so you will have several opportunities to display the knowledge you have gained and skills you have developed while reading Hamlet.

1. On Friday Monday, we'll have a test on the play.

Here is a fill-in-the-blank outline of what--in addition to the characters and events you have reviewed in groups--you'll need to know. We'll review this tomorrow and Friday.

Hamlet Review 2012

What have we learned about how language works in literature, about Elizabethan theatre, about Shakespeare’s writing, and about Hamlet itself?

I.                     Hamlet’s sound

A.      _______________ _______________ provide memorable closure and summation

1.        “The time is out of joint: O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right.” (1.5)

2.        “The play’s the thing  / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” (2.2)

B.       _______________ _______________ / _______________ _________________________

1.        provides structure, unity

2.        provides potential for emphasis by way of variation: “to be or not to be; that is the question.”

II.                   Hamlet’s language

A.      Word play

1.        5.1 “lie”: lie down & tell lies

2.        4.7 “too much of water”: tears & drowning [&, obliquely, Hamlet’s wish to melt (1.2)]

B.       paradoxes: “more than kin less than kind”

C.       figurative language/metaphors: king > worm > fish > beggar is a metaphor for Hamlet’s questioning of the Elizabethan social structure (4.3)

D.      diction

E.       syntax

III.                 Hamlet as theatre

A.      Acting Choices (interpretations)

1.        “To be or not to be” (3.1)

a.        Zefferelli= ____________________

b.       Almereyda= ____________________

c.        Branagh= ____________________

2.        The Murder of Gonzago / “The Mouse Trap” (3.2)

a.        Zefferelli= ____________________

b.       Almereyda= ____________________

c.        Branagh= ____________________

B.       Visual Choices (interpretations)

Ex. “to be or not to be”

1.        Branagh’s mirror= deceit, also outward action v. self-directed action

2.        Zefferelli’s catacombs= death “the undiscovered country”

3.        Almereyda’s Blockbuster= “Action” / “Go Home Happy” (irony)

IV.           Hamlet’s patterns

A.      Characters

1.        Hamlet’s foils (contrasting characters) in terms of action:

 ____________________ and ____________________

2.        Another similarity and contrast: Hamlet (acts mad, wishes to die), Ophelia (is mad, allows herself to do die)

3.        Who “spies”? How?

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

4.        Who follows and obeys? Who flatters authority (kisses up to those in power)?

____________________________________________________________

 ____________________________________________________________

B.       Plot

1.        Irony (3.3)

a.        Hamlet believes ____________________ is confessing for his sins and so does not kill him.

b.       The reader/audience knows that ____________________ has failed to confess.

c.        Mel Gibson claims that Hamlet’s failure to kill ____________________ here triggers all the other deaths in the play (triggers the tragedy as such).

2.        Fitting deaths

a.        ____________________ dies spying (3.4)

b.       ____________________ dies passively (& in water) (4.7)

c.        ____________________ dies drinking to Hamlet (Perhaps her death triggers Hamlet to action vs. Claudius.) (5.2)

d.       ____________________ (“I am justly killed by my own treachery.”) (5.2)

e.        ____________________ (by sword and drink) (5.2)

f.         ____________________ (“the rest is silence”: Does Shakespeare intend this as a tragic and ironic contrast with Hamlet’s constant speaking) (5.2)

g.       ____________________ ____________________ die as servants (4.6, 5.1, 5.2)

3.        Is Fortinbras rewarded for

a.        Deception?

b.       Action?

C.       Imagery (Who or what is associated with these images?)

1.        water / liquids: _____________________________________________________

2.        weeds / flowers: ____________________________________________________

3.        snakes and other animals: _____________________________________________

4.        painting / make-up: __________________________________________________

5.        other: _____________________________________________________________

D.      Historical and Mythological Allusions

1.        Hyperion (Sun God) to Satyr (Goat Man) (1.2 soliloquy)):

____________________ and ____________________

2.        Priam and Hecuba (2.2 Player’s speech and Hamlet’s second soliloquy):

____________________ and ____________________

3.        Julius Caesar (3.2 Murder of Gonzago/Mouse Trap scene)

4.        Alexander the Great (5.1 graveyard scene)

5.        other: : ____________________

E.       Themes

1.        Fallen world

a.        Hamlet sees the world as corrupt.

aa.     “How weary, flat, stale, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world.”

bb.    “tis an unweeded garden”

cc.     “Man delights not me nor woman neither”

b.       This view is triggered – it seems – by his mother’s overhasty marriage (and later by Ophelia’s lying).

aa.     “Frailty thy name is woman”

bb.    “Get thee to a nunnery.”

2.        Responses to corruption & trauma: Thought and Action

a.        ____________________ 1.2, 2.2, 3.1, 4.4

b.       ____________________ / ____________________ 4.5, 4.7

c.        ____________________ 1.2, 4.4, 5.2

3. Deception: Appearance and Reality, Seems and Is

a.        ______________________________________

b.       ______________________________________

c.        ______________________________________

d.       ______________________________________              

How does the play illustrate the complexity and variety of human responses to corrupt acts, traumatic loss, and the realization of human mortality (including one’s own)? What does the play suggest about these responses?

2. Friday (11/30) we'll get started working on a formal analysis essay in which we'll get to apply some of the analysis skills we've been working on and some of the essay writing skills we worked on during the first term.

Bring an annotated passage (100 lines, give or take) to class on Friday. Bring the annotated passage, a thesis, and a plan to class on Tuesday.

Here's the prompt:

AP English Language Q2/AP English Literature Q2 Style Essay

Choose a passage from Hamlet that is rich in content and style. Write a formal essay in which you explain how William Shakespeare’s use of rhetorical and/or literary strategies in the passage contributes to the play's exploration of the effects of and reactions to trauma, corruption, wrongdoing, and other human flaws.

There's a lot to unpack here. What passage should you write about? What strategies are used in the passage? What themes are found in the passage that are also developed in the play as a whole? How do the strategies contribute to the development of the theme?

3. You'll also write something about how you would direct a performance of the passage you've chosen. More on this later.

Responding to Motifs in Hamlet: Acts 3, 4, and 5

In the comment box below do the following by class time on Wednesday, November 28.

Write your first name and last initial.
Write down your motif (or thread).
Write down the act, scene, line of each place you notice your motif in acts 3-5. (This is a new part of the assignment.)

Write down a quotation that develops your motif. (Include act, scene, and line.)
Write an explanation of what the quotation means (in context) and how the quotation develops the motif.

Write down another quotation that develops your motif. (Include act, scene, and line.)
Write an explanation of what the quotation means (in context) and how the quotation develops the motif.

Write down a third quotation that develops your motif. (Include act, scene, and line.)
Write an explanation of what the quotation means (in context) and how the quotation develops the motif.

Write down a fourth quotation that develops your motif. (Include act, scene, and line.)
Write an explanation of what the quotation means (in context) and how the quotation develops the motif.

Write down a fifth quotation that develops your motif. (Include act, scene, and line.)
Write an explanation of what the quotation means (in context) and how the quotation develops the motif.

Then explain the development and significance of the motif in play overall. Use quotations and other details to support your explanation.(These were often underdeveloped in the act 1-2 responses.)

Here you'll find searchable text. (Click on the act then search for words related to your motif.)

Ophelia Speaks

Ophelia Speaks

Role: You are a playwright commissioned by a theatrical troupe to create a soliloquy (or monologue or letter written by Ophelia) that will be inserted into Hamlet.

Audience: Readers and viewers of Hamlet who want to understand Ophelia more deeply.

Format:       1. a soliloquy (or monologue)

                   2. 14+ lines*

3. The lines conclude with a rhyming couplet in iambic pentameter. (*The other 12 or more lines may be in prose or in iambic pentameter# [blank verse).)

4. Try to use Elizabethan language (diction and syntax), or use language that does not stand out as obviously modern.

5. State where in the play you would insert the soliloquy (or monologue). (Would you create a 4.8? Would you place it somewhere in 4.5? Where? Be precise: act, scene, line. You could even, I suppose, create a 4.8 in which she returns as a ghost; or perhaps someone finds a letter she has written or a diary.)

6. Refer to song lyrics and flower imagery (from 4.5).

7. Show Ophelia’s mind puzzling out and wrestling with her dramatic situation and inner consciousness (just as Hamlet does in his soliloquies).

Topic: What Ophelia is thinking and feeling at the moment in the play into which you decide to insert her soliloquy?

# Much of Hamlet is written in blank verse meaning most lines do not rhyme but they do follow a particular meter (a pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables). The meter is called iambic pentameter. “Iambic” means unstressed syllables are followed by stressed syllables: “And makes us rather bear those ills we have”. Pentameter means there are five iambs.

“…And makes us rather bear those ills we have,

than fly to others that we know not of…”

Due by class time Tuesday, November 20
(For explication of a passage assignment (3.1-4.4) due Monday, November 19 scroll down or click here.)

Hamlet Soliloquy 4.4

How all occasions do inform against me, (35)
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not (40)
That capability and god-like reason
To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event,
A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom (45)
And ever three parts coward, I do not know
Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'
Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me:
Witness this army of such mass and charge (50)
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death and danger dare, (55)
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd, (60)
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot (65)
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

NOTES

[Source: http://shakespeare.about.com/od/studentresources/a/allinform.htm  Amanda Mabillard, B.A. (Honors) is a freelance writer specializing in Shakespeare, Renaissance political theory, theatre history, comparative literary history, and linguistic topics in Renaissance literature.]

inform against ] Accuse me.

market ] Employment.

discourse ] The power of reason. God gave human beings the ability to reflect on life's events.

Looking before and after ] Our intelligence allows us to analyze past experiences and make rational judgments about the future.

fust ] Grow mouldy. Hamlet is saying that God did not give us the power of reason for it to go unused.

Bestial oblivion ] The forgetfulness of an animal. Our capability to remember separates mankind from other animals or "beasts". But Hamlet forgetting Claudius's deeds is clearly not why he delays the murder.

craven scruple ] Cowardly feelings.

of ] From.

event ] Outcome.

quarter'd ] Meticulously analyzed (literally, divided into four).

Sith ] Since.

gross ] Obvious.

mass and charge ] Size and cost. Hamlet is referring to the army led by Fortinbras, prince of Norway. Hamlet wishes he had Fortinbras's courage.

puff'd ] Inflated.

Makes mouths at the invisible event ] Shows contempt for (or cares not about) the uncertain outcome of battle.

Rightly to be great...stake ] Truly great men refrain from fighting over insignificant things, but they will fight without hesitation over something trivial when their honour is at risk. "True nobility of soul is to restrain one's self unless there is a great cause for resentment, but nobly to recognize even a trifle as such as cause when honour is involved" (Kittredge 121). Ironically, "Hamlet never learns from the Captain or attempts to clarify what the specific issue of honor is that motivates the Prince of Norway. In fact, there is none, for the play has made it clear that Fortinbras's uncle, after discovering and stopping his nephew's secret and illegal revenge campaign against Claudius, encouraged him to use newly levied forces to fight in Poland...Since no issue of honor is to be found in Fortinbras's cause, Hamlet, through his excessive desire to emulate the Norwegian leader, ironically calls into question whether there is any honour in his own cause" (Newell 143). [Mr. Cook adds: or, perhaps, Hamlet’s mind has once again moved from the particular (Fortinbras and his army) to the abstract (consideration of what defines greatness). It seems Fortinbras and his army are not important in and of themselves but in how they “inform against” (indict, critique, etc.) Hamlet’s inaction.]

twenty thousand men ] In line 25, it was 20000 ducats and only 2000 men. It is undecided whether this confusion is Hamlet's or Shakespeare's.

blood ] Passions.

trick of fame ] Trifle of reputation. But is not Hamlet jealous of Fortinbras and his ability to fight in defense of his honour? "Fortinbras is enticed by a dream, and thousands must die for it. Hamlet's common sense about the absurdity of Fortinbras's venture shows the pointlessness of his envy" (Edwards 193).

Whereon...slain ] The cause is not significant enough to consume the thousands of men fighting over it, and the tombs and coffins are not plentiful enough to hold those who are killed (continent = container).

Use first name and last initial. Number each of your responses.

1.        (Make connections!) In a well-developed paragraph compare what Hamlet says in lines 36-49 of this soliloquy to what he says in lines 91-96 of his “To be or not to be” soliloquy (below). Begin your paragraph with a bold, insightful assertion comparing the two soliloquies. Develop the assertion by citing specific language from both soliloquies. End by reaffirming your bold insight.

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry, (95)
And lose the name of action.—

2.        (Make connections!) In a well-developed paragraph compare this soliloquy with the “O What a rogue and peasant slave” (2.2.576) soliloquy. (Think about the role that Fortinbras plays in this speech and that the First Player plays in the earlier speech: “What would he do,  / Had he the motive and the cue for passion / That I have?”) Begin your paragraph with a bold, insightful assertion comparing the two soliloquies. Develop the assertion by citing specific language from both soliloquies. End by reaffirming your bold insight.

3.        (What’s your opinion?) Hamlet contrasts his own cowardly thought with the actions of Fortinbras. Do you think Fortinbras is a good role model for Hamlet? In other words, should Hamlet be more like Fortinbras or not? Explain your answer in a paragraph. Use evidence from the play and this soliloquy to develop your answer. (Like Hamlet, you might be able to argue “yes” in someways and “no” in others.) Begin by asserting your position. Develop your position. Cite and explain specific evidence from this soliloquy and from elsewhere in the text to support your position.

Explication of a Passage (3.1-4.4)

The following directions replace the forecast I sent to you last week. (Because I felt we needed more work on explications I've made a few changes.)

As you all know we've been working hard on explications (unfolding a text to show what it means and how it conveys that meaning). We broke the Hamlet's 3.1 monologue into sections. Then we analyzed what it means and how it conveys that meaning sentence by sentence. Based on your questions about other areas of act three we've explicated other passages too. I want to give you all a chance to try out the explication strategies for yourself.

1. Each of you has been assigned a different passage between 3.1 and 4.4. You will explicate the passage this way: (1) introduce the passage by providing context and discussing the overall dramatic and thematic significance of the passage; (2) take your readers through the passage, (a) explaining the meaning (sentence-by-sentence and/or speech-by-speech), (b) exploring the significance of how* Shakespeare conveys meaning, and (c) exploring dramatic and thematic connections to other parts of the play; (3) conclude with strong assertions summarizing the dramatic and thematic significance of the passage as revealed in your explication.

Jordan W and Hope W: 3.1.99-160 Hamlet and Ophelia after the "To be or not to be" speech
Hannah E & Zach S: 3.1.161-202 after Hamlet departs
Corrine D & Kevin R: 3.2.1-97 Hamlet to the actors, etc.
Kacie Q & Olivia P: 3.2.98-296 Murder of Gonzago/Mouse Trap* [A-block explicate 3.2.98-3.2.175; F-block explicate 3.2.176 to 3.2.296]
Christina S & Seiken O: 3.2.207-417 after the play within the play*  [A-block explicate 3.2.297-3.2.373; F-block explicate 3.2.374-3.2.417]
Diana D & Cara O: 3.2.418 to end Hamlet's mini-soliloquy
Kelly F & Emily M: 3.3.1-39 Claudius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Polonius
Ivy G & Liz M: 3.3.40-103 Claudius confesses? Hamlet is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought?
Anna G & Katie M: 3.4.1-40 a rat behind an arras
Bethany G & Carren J: 3.4.41-116 Hamlet and his mother
Logan H & Michael J: 3.4.117-240 Ghost reappears to end of scene [A-block explicate 3.4.117-3.4.176 F-block explicate 3.4.177-3.2.240]
James K & Sydney I: 4.1 Queen and King after "unseen good old man" is slain
Arly M & Alan D: 4.2 Hamlet messes with R & G
Kirsten S & Josh D: 4.3 Hamlet messes with Claudius and is sent to England
Yazmeen S & Nicole B: 4.4.1-33 Fortinbras crossing Denmark; Hamlet leaving for England

Your explication must be posted to the blog by Monday, November 19. In your explication use your first name and last initial; also indicate the lines you are explicating. Your explication must represent your own work. Do not plagiarize. To help you understand tricky passages you may use the notes in the Folger's edition of Hamlet (the book you have) and the notes provided by the enotes Hamlet text (link here) but do not rely on the enotes "modern translation". You must cite the passage at the top of your explication; you must cite lines, phrases, and words (act.scene.line) as you quote them; you must cite notes that you use. (For Works Cited Page: Mowat, Barbara A and Paul Werstine, eds. Hamlet by William Shakespeare. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2009. "Hamlet Text and Translation." eNotes. 2012. Web. 15 Nov 2012. For in-text citation of notes: (Mowat page#) or ("Hamlet Text and Translation").
**********************
*How do I write about how Shakespeare conveys meaning?: When exploring the significance of how the passage is written think of these elements: imagery (literal and metaphorical), word choice (denotation and connotation), sentence structure (parallel structures, periodic structures, antithesis, complex/compound sentences, questions, exclamations), dramatic and rhetorical structure (look for shifts in the action and in the language), patterns (comparisons, contrasts, repeated words/images/situations within the passage or in the passage and elsewhere in the play), sound (iambic pentameter, rhyming couplets, alliteration, assonance), etc.
**********************

2. That leads us up to Hamlet's final soliloquy (4.4). Respond to the two 4.4 soliloquy prompts on the blog by class time on Tuesday, November 20.
3. By class time on Tuesday you also will have read to the end of act four (the end of 4.7) with notes on the narrative and your motif.

4. We'll have a brief class on Wednesday in which I'll explain the work you'll be doing about Ophelia, motif writing on acts 3-5, and reading the final act of the play.

3.2 (The Murder of Gonzago / The Mousetrap)

If you're looking for the 3.1 "to be or not to be" assignment scroll down...

Write a response to the three versions of the Mousetrap. (Due Wednesday, November 14.)
Choose an analytical argument question to respond to:
Which “Mousetrap” is most powerful? 
Or, which "Mousetrap" is the most effective?
Or, which is most faithful to Shakespeare’s Hamlet?
Or, which version do you prefer? 
Or, which version do you abhor? 
Or, how do the different versions each suit the settings the directors have chosen?
Or, write your own question.

Explain your position. Support your position with specific detail from the scenes and from the text. Convince me you're right. This will take the form of an informal, persuasive essay.

Post your response in the comment box below. Make sure you include the question you are answering.

Additional thoughts:
Be specific and insightful. Be opinionated. To develop your position you might need to show an awareness of what lines are cut out of the abridged versions. (Is it okay to cut the lines? Is meaning adequately conveyed without the lines? If something is lost what?) You'll certainly need to show an awareness of the different ways the three directors stage the “Mousetrap”. You might need to think about the ways that each version is faithful to the time period in which it is set. Think about the behavior and reactions of each character, especially the three Claudiuses and the three Hamlets but differences in the Ophelias and the Gertrudes are significant too. 

Click here and scroll down to watch the three versions of the "The Murder of Gonzago" which Hamlet also calls "The Mousetrap".

Due Wednesday, November 14.

Hamlet Soliloquy (?) 3.1 ("To be, or not to be")

Due Tuesday, November 13.

To be, or not to be: that is the question (3.1.64-98).

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer (65)
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks (70)
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, (75)
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, (80)
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life, (85)
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of? (90)
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry, (95)
And lose the name of action.-- Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

NOTES:

slings ] Some argue that "slings" is a misprint of the intended word, "stings". "The stings of fortune" was a common saying in the Renaissance. But in the context of the soliloquy, "slings" likely means "sling-shot" or "missile". This seems in keeping with the reference to "arrows" - both can do great harm.

outrageous fortune ] Fortune is "outrageous" in that it is brazenly defiant.

And by opposing end them ] If you cannot suffer the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" then you must end your troubles with suicide.

consummation ] Final settlement of all matters.

rub ] Impediment. The term comes from bowling, where the "rub" is any obstacle the pushes the ball off course.

shuffled off this mortal coil ] To separate from one's body (mortal coil = body).

respect ] Consideration.

of so long life ] So long-lived.

time ] Time = temporal life.

his quietus make ] Settle his own account.

bare bodkin ] A "mere dagger". Bodkin was a Renaissance term used to describe many different sharp instruments, but it makes the most sense here to assume Shakespeare means a dagger.

fardels ] Burdens.

No traveller returns ] Since Hamlet has already encountered his father's ghost, and thus proof of the afterlife, this line has raised much debate. There are four major current theories regarding this line: 1) Shakespeare made an egregious error and simply failed to reconcile the appearance of the ghost and Hamlet's belief that human beings do not return; 2) Hamlet has earlier revealed that he doubts the authenticity of the ghost and, therefore, he does not believe his father has truly returned; 3) Hamlet is referring only to human beings returning in the flesh and not as mere shadows of their former selves; 4) the entire soliloquy is misplaced and rightfully belongs before Hamlet has met his father's ghost. In my estimation, theory #4 seems the most plausible.

bourn ] Limit or boundary.

native hue of resolution ] Natural. Here Hamlet refers to the "natural color of courage".

pale cast of thought ] Sickly tinge of contemplation.

great pitch and moment ] Of momentous significance. The "pitch" was the name given to the highest point in a falcon's flight before it dives down to catch its prey.

With this regard their currents turn awry ] A reference to the sea and its tides: "Because of their thoughts, their currents become unstable".

Soft you now ] "But hush!". Hamlet hears Ophelia begin to pray and he must cut short his private ponderances.

Nymph ] See commentary below.

orisons ] Prayers. 

Let's try the comparison again:

In the comment box address the following prompt: compare and contrast how two versions of the soliloquy use different strategies to convey the meaning of the soliloquy. Pay close attention to choices made the actors and directors. Interpret the significance of those choices. 

Note on compare/contrast structure: try to write a "shuttle" comparison. This means that you'll start with a bold, insightful assertion comparing and contrasting how the two versions convey meaning. Then you'll "shuttle" back and forth between the two versions comparing and contrasting. Use this method instead of writing about the two separately.

Note on dramatic strategies: Consider the actors' movements and the delivery of the lines. Consider the directors' choices of props, setting and images, lighting, editing, music and other sounds. Think, for example, about Branagh’s hall of mirrors (which creates double meanings and makes the speech not a soliloquy), Zeffirelli’s catacombs (which seem to emphasize Hamlet’s meditations on death), Olivier's water imagery, Doran's emphasis on Hamlet's face, and Almereyda’s Blockbuster video store (which emphasizes--or overemphasizes--Hamlet’s obsession with action.).

Don't forget to use first name and last initial. This is due by class time on Tuesday, November 13.

Click here for the video clips. Scroll down.

Note: HannahEllis noticed that Branagh's version is no longer available on the page I've linked to above.
So here is another link to it.

Another note: The reason I've put a question mark after the word "soliloquy" in the title of this blog post is because in some versions (including Branagh's) the director chooses to have Polonius and Claudius listen to the speech, so in those versions the speech is not, strictly speaking, a soliloquy; it's a monologue. How is this choice significant? How do you think it should be played? Why?