Shakespeare Hamlet

Answer Question 1, then choose 2 more questions from the list below. [Total 3] 1. Report on the adaptation of Hamlet you have viewed. Did the adaptation strive for historical accuracy? Did it integrate modern elements? How did the experience of viewing and hearing the play change your perceptions? Did it succeed in breaking you out of your everyday routine and absorb you in a different, dramatic reality? 2. Shakespeare adeptly uses dialogue (as well as soliloquies) to reveal much about several characters. Choose one character from the list below, find a relevant episode from the play, and tell us what we can infer about the character from the text. Use and integrate quotations in your answer. Characters with smaller parts: Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Laertes, Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern. 3. Find and discuss two instances of images, metaphors, repeated key lines, or symbols. What meaning do these symbolic elements convey? How? 4. In the classical conception of tragedy, the tragic character is destroyed through a “tragic error” of his own making or a “tragic flaw” in his character. What is the nature of the tragic error for Hamlet? How does it affect not only him, but the people around him? 5. Examine the roles taken by women in the play. Consider the roles of women in any other dramatic offering—a play or a movie—you have watched more recently. How are they similar? How are they different? How have four hundred years of human history changed the roles played by women in these two dramas? You do not need to include a formal citation for the other text, but do make sure we know what it is. 6. Do you find any evidence that Shakespeare was influenced by his audiences in how he wrote the play? In what ways are Elizabethan ideas reflected? If you use any additional sources to answer this question, do not forget to cite them!