Mr. Hoffman AP English Literature and Composition

 “an artistic failure” – T.S. Eliot  “the work of a drunken savage” – Voltaire  “it is we who are Hamlet” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 Written in 1601  No description of settings  Simple and compact plot  Beliefs at the time  Elizabethan view of the universe “Great Chain of Being”  Ghosts  Nature tells things

 uncertain knowledge of himself and those around him  awareness of good and evil and the ambiguity of both  Revenge Tragedy  Tragic Hero

 Originally, no act divisions until 1676  No true dramatic purpose  Three types of scenes  Big ceremonial scenes involving the court  Domestic scenes concerned with parents and their children  Polonius, Fortinbras, Hamlet  Hamlet’s trenchant, spontaneous, and generalized comments on life

1. The question of appearance vs. reality 2. The question of a corrupt and diseased society 3. The question of parents and children 4. The question of revenge 5. The question of the relationship of thought to action

 Listen for general meaning  Look for movement; facial expressions  Wordsmith Wordsmith  Sounds of words  Blend of poetry and prose