LONG-TERM GOALS
• To prepare students for ACT
• To improve writing skills
• To create a love of literature
SHORT-TERM GOALS
• First Quarter–Introduce a variety of books–Create an environment of
learners–Provide opportunities for
writing–Streamline study skills (notes)
SHORT-TERM GOALS• Second Quarter
•Read and enjoy Shakespeare
•Encourage reading of many types of books
•Analyze drama
RENAISSANCE MAN• What did you learn about
Hamlet from this movie?–What the play is about–How the play applies to
today
Renaissance Authors
Thomas Kyd (1558-1594)The Spanish Tragedy, 1587
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)Hamlet, 1601
John Milton, (1608-1674)Paradise Lost, 1667
INTRODUCTION TO HAMLET
• Probably written in 1601
• The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke (included in First Folio of 1623)
• The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke (Second Quarto of 1604)
• Second Quarto – “good” Quarto
According to Sigmund Freud
Hamlet has within him an unresolved Oedipus Complex, a sexual desire for his mother that prevents him from taking decisive action against the man who has done in reality the thing that Hamlet unconsciously desires to do: kill his father and marry his mother.
POLITICAL AGENDAHamlet hides within himself a spirit of political resistance, a subversive challenge to a corrupt, illegitimate regime shored up by lies, spies, and treachery.
Queen Elizabeth,reigned1558-1603
James I ofScotland, reigned 1603-1625
BASIC PLOT SEQUENCE• Hamlet, a young man, is in mourning for his
father• Despair and bitterness earmark Hamlet’s attitude
toward his mother’s hasty marriage to his uncle• The Ghost of Hamlet’s father reveals
to Hamlet that his Uncle Claudius
killed his father• Hamlet tortures himself with indecision:
Did his uncle really kill his father?