Friday, November 15, 2013

Thanks for doing your homework!


Quote 1: "And then, sir, does 'a this- 'a does - what was I about to say? By the mass, I was about to say something. Where did I leave?"  (Act 2 Scene 1 Lines 50-53)
Question 1: Why did he lose track? Is there significance in this, or is it just meant to highlight his old age?

Quote 2: "This is the very ecstasy of love" (Act 2 Scene 1 Line 102)
Question 2: Is this the reaction Hamlet wanted Polonius to have? Is this part of his fake madness, or is he really that into Ophelia?

Quote 3: "I doubt it is no other but the main, His father's death and our o'er-hasty marriage." (Act 2 Scene 2 Lines 56-57)
Question 3: Does the Queen realize how foolish she and the new king have been in being so hasty with their plans? Does she really care that this may have driven Hamlet mad? Does she ever acknowledge the events that actually transpired/what the ghost told Hamlet happened? Or has all of this actually driven Hamlet mad, and he only hallucinated the ghost's message?

Words:
Incontiency - Dissatisfaction, Discontent
Fordoes - Kills, Puts an End to Life
Perpend - Ponder, Consider, Examine


Quote 1: “Faith no, as you may season it in the charge. You must not put another scandal on him, that he is open to incontinency-that’s not my meaning; but breathe his faults so quaintly that they may seem the taints of liberty, the flash and outbreak of a fiery mind, a savageness in unreclaimed blood of general assault” (Act 2, Scene 1, lines 28-35)

Question 1: Why does Polonius ask Reynaldo to join Laertes and encourage his addictions and bad habits, but then asks him not to get Laertes in trouble and make his sins appear less evil? He seems to contradict himself in this quote compared to what he said minutes before. And why does he want to spy on Laertes but then help him by saying his faults are only the taints of liberty?

Quote 2: “But you must fear his greatness weigh’d, his will is not his own. For he himself is subject to his birth: he may not, as unvalu’d persons do, carve himself for of his choice depends the sanity and health of this whole state. And thereof must his choice be circumsiz’d.”

Question 2:  Shakespeare’s metaphor for Hamlet’s choice when he states ‘his choice must be circumsized’ is a metaphor for what?

Quote 3: “But let me conjure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better propsper can change your withal.”

Question: What does this babbling have to do with getting a direct answer from Guildenstein and Rosencratz? Why does he ironically use artful language while trying to get a direct answer?
 words:

vouchsafe- to grant in a gracious manner
incontinency- when you go to the bathroom involuntarily
matin – morning prayer in a church
Lazar-desolate, sickly person with a contagious disease. Usually outcasted by society







2. "I doubt it is no other but the main, His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage." Gertrude act 2, scene 2, lines 56-57
Question: does Gertrude even care that her son is suffering? She thinks it is a direct result from her actions but she doesn't seem to do anything about it.

3. "Your noble son is mad." Polonius act 2 scene 2 line 93
This is not a question about this specific line, but rather a stylistic question. Later on in lines 170-210 why does Polonius' text change to prose as well. I'm assuming Shakespeare changed Hamlet's to prose in order to portray his insanity, but if Polonius is supposed to be sane, why does his speech change from order to free verse? 

1. Incontinency - unable to contain or retain; lacking in self control 
2. Sullies - stains 
3. Liege - a feudal lord entitled to allegiance and service


Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,
Giving more light than heat, extinct in both,
Even in their promise, as it is a-making,
You must not take for fire. From this time
Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
Set your entreatments at a higher rate
Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,
Believe so much in him, that he is young
And with a larger tether may he walk













3 words
1. incontinency- involuntary urination or defecation.
2. moiety- each of two parts into which a thing is or can be divided.
2. bawd- a woman in charge of a brothel.

3 quotes and questions
1. Quote: "And with a look so piteous in purport / As if he had been loosed out of hell / To speak of horrors, he comes before me."
    Question: Why did Hamlet do this? Was he still scared by his father, or pretending to be insane, or mad because of Ophelia?
2. Quote: "As 'Well, we know', or 'There be and if they might,' / Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be and if they might,"
    Question: This is when Hamlet talks to Marcellus and Horatio after talking to his father. What does he mean by this sentence?
3. Quote: "O wicked wit, and gifts that have the power / So to seduce! -won to his shameful lust / The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen."
   Question: Was Gertrude in on Claudius' plan to kill her husband, or was she just seduced later? Why was she so quick to marry?

Also, I thought you might find this interesting:

Wednesday HW:
“But look, the morn in russet mantle clad walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward hill” (I,i)
Russet-reddish brown color
“With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage” (I, i)
            dirge-a lament for death
“It is most retrograde to our desire, and we beseech you” (I,ii)
            retrograde-moving backward
1.     What is the King talking about at the dinner party?
2.     Why does Hamlet want to dispatch to Norway/Denmark?
3.     What happened to Hamlet’s father?
Thursday HW:
“Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!” (I,v)
            perturbed-to disturb
“O my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!” (II, i)
            affrighted-great fear
“But beshrew my jealousy” (II, i)
            beshrew-curse
1.     what is Polonius asking of Reynaldo to do on behalf of Laertes?
2.     What was Hamlet doing exactly when he shook Ophelia violently and harshly?

I understand that they want to ask king Hamlet, the ghost questions, but why were they so curious about the ghost instead acting scared and run for help?
Does this quote mean that the people chose the wrong king? Who is the king? And what is the king a good king?
Why is he calling his dad a villain? Wasn’t king Hamlet a good king?
assail (36) v.- to attack
Usurp (54) v. to seize; to confiscate
avouch (67)v. to certify; to confirm; to guarantee

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