General Hamlet Discussion

You are not required to answer this post- but I'd like you to use it for your general Hamlet questions and comments. Discuss your assigned act, a soliloquy you don't quite understand, or whatever other question you might have.

For example:

Why has Hamlet captured audiences for so many years? What is it about this play that continues to inspire and enthrall people over 400 years after it was written?

Why doesn't Hamlet just kill Claudius???

Is the ghost a good ghost or a bad ghost?

Why is Fortinbras important?

Week 12 Required- Hamlet

Without a doubt, appearance vs reality is a major topic in Hamlet.

Where do we see this topic? (Think specific scenes, quotations, characters) Look for moments when something "seems" or "is like" something else.

What conclusions can you draw about this topic?

What is Shakespeare suggesting, revealing, foreshadowing, etc?

Week 11 Required Post- Poetry

The second nine weeks is mostly devoted to poetry, and the next work we're reading is Shakespeare's Hamlet. It is printed in the Bedford, but I highly encourage you to get a copy of your own for annotating. (And so you don't have to carry around the Bedford the whole time.) After Hamlet, at the end of the second nine weeks, we'll read Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, another play.

But for week 11, I'd like you to post about your experiences with poetry. For example:

• Is there a particular poet you enjoy?
  
• Have you ever had to memorize a poem? Was it a worthwhile experience? Can you still recite it?
  
• What is your earliest memory of poetry?
• What have been some of your struggles with poetry?
  
• What is it about poetry that you enjoy?
  
• Why do some people (possibly including you) think that poetry is so tough?
• Why is poetry important?
  
• What makes a poem a poem?
  

You don't have to answer all of the above questions; I've just given them to you as examples in case you can't think of something to write.

This post is due by midnight, Friday, October 24th.

Week 10 Required Post- Choice Novel

No post required for Week 9! (I'm sure you'll somehow find a way to survive....)

For Week 10, the week after Fall Break, I want you to post ALL of the following:

1. Your general reactions to your choice novel upon finishing
   
2. Your questions about your choice novel that still remain
   
3. Something in the novel you found interesting
4. A quote you loved and why
   
5. A possible theme
   

Feel free to use some of your reactions (the four typed pages due this coming Friday, October 17th). As usual, this post is due by midnight on Friday, October 17th.