Monday, 11/18 - I will enter into his courts . . . wearing black

Hamlet, anyone? Anyone, Hamlet? Hamlet. Hamlet. Omelet.

• P&P

• Sight Words Quiz 1 - When you finish, please begin J8 below.

• "Hamlet . . . stands alone supreme in varied excellence. Ambition, murder, resistless fate, filial love, the love of woman, revenge, the power of conscience, paternal solicitude, infinite jest: what a volume is this!" - Henry Coppee (President of Lehigh University - 1873)

HW:  J8 - Hamlet, Act 1 (due Wednesday)

Read Leithart (pgs. 120-129) and answer the following questions (Remember that Leithart is the PDF posted on Focus that you used to do J6):

1. What dramatic and thematic purposes does Fortinbras, the young prince of Norway, serve? 
2. Contrast the late King Hamlet (the ghost) with Claudius (his brother and present King of Denmark).
3. What is significant (and ironic) about fathers, particularly about most of the fathers in this drama?
4. How does Shakespeare develop the theme that appearances sometimes mask reality (cite two examples)?
5.  What is the purpose of Shakespeare's "ghosts"?
6. Discuss the important question concerning the "nature" of the ghost (where it comes from) and how we know. 
7. How was King Hamlet killed? What imagery does the ghost use to describe his death, and why is this (biblically) significant?