2. Shakespeare  Most influential writer in English Language  Types of plays  “bard”  Shakespearean Sonnet  The Globe  Clever wordplay, memorable characters, complex plots  Wrote some of his greatest tragedies during the reign of James I

3. Renaissance  “rebirth” “revival”  People became much more interested in and curious about life on earth  Humanism  Philosophy  Religious vs science  Arts and literature (creativity flourished)  Invention, exploration

4. Renaissance Literature  Plays  Pastoral Poems  Types of Sonnets  Metaphysical (Characteristics)  Conceits

5. Great Chain of Being  During Elizabethan times, people believed that everyone and everything was arranged in a certain order – a hierarchy  It was this order, known as the Great Chain of Being, that was threatened by new and exciting discoveries in science and astronomy.

6.  GOD  ANGELIC BEINGS  HUMANITY  ANIMALS  PLANTS  MINERALS Basics of Great Chain of Being

7. Great Chain of Being  According to this idea, everything in the world had its position fixed by God :  The Earth was the centre of the universe and the stars moved around it in fixed routes.  In Heaven God ruled over the archangels and angels.  On earth there was order everywhere. Society reflected this order with its fixed classes from the highest to the lowest – kings, churchmen, nobles, merchants, and peasants.  The animals had their own order too, the lion being the “king”.  Plant life and minerals also reflected this order. Among the trees, the most superior was the oak ; among flowers, it was the rose.  Among the minerals, gold was the most superior.

8. Purpose of Soliloquys  Contributes to development of character  Beginning of play – Act I – exposition

9. O, my offense if rank…  Speaker – Claudius  Absolute certainty of eternal damnation  Does Claudius obtain salvation?  Capping couplets (rhyming couplets)  Literary devices

10. To be or not to be  Hamlet philosophizing; debating himself  Suicide --- consequences  We are born, we live, we die  Fear makes cowards of us  Hamlet’s frustration with his own weaknesses

11. O, that this too sullied flesh  Establishes Hamlet as grief stricken  Hamlet’s first view of death  Uncle Dad King Claudius  Literary devices  Theme  Hamlet’s attitude towards women

12. Act I  Marcellus, Barnardo, Francisco, Horatio, Ghost  Fortinbras  Setting  Who first sees the Ghost? Speaks to the Ghost? And who does the Ghost speak too?  “little more than kin, and less than kind”  “Frailty, thy name is woman”  “This above all: to thine own self be true”  “Something is rotten in the State of Denmark”

13. Act I continued  “O, horrible, O, horrible, most horrible!”  O my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!”  Hamlet + Ophelia = disappointment  Hamlet is mad; Ophelia made Hamlet mad; Hamlet is madly in love with Ophelia, this is such madness!! “Your noble son is mad…Mad call it.”  Polonius’ advice to Laertes

14. Act II  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern  “The Murther of Gonzago” The Mousetrap  “What’s Hecuba to him…”  “Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villian!”  YOU “fishmonger”  “The Queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, has sent me to you.”  “That if you be honest and fair, [your honesty] should admit no discourse to your beauty”

15. “How on all occasions…”  Hamlet’s final soliloquy  Prompted by conversation with Fortinbras’ captain  At this point Hamlet finally halts contemplation of revenge as murder and accepts it as a necessary duty.  “Rightly to be great is not to stir…when honor’s at stake.”

16. Act III-IV  “O, speak to me no more! These words like daggers enter in my ears.”  “Whips out his rapier, cries, A rat a rat! And in this brainish apprehension kills the unseen good old man”  “The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body. The King is a thing---”  Worm’s meat motif

18. Act III-IV continued  Ophelia – cra cra  Act IV – TURNING POINT “How on all occasions…”

19. Act V  Catastrophe  Clowns to the left of me, jokers to right…here I am stuck in the middle with Yorick.  Gravediggers – comic relief  “Sweets to the sweet, farewell! I hop’d thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife”  “Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.”  “Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!”