Categories: Personal

Half of my students have never read Hamlet. (I told them not to get too attached to any of the characters.)

We focused just on Act I today — the opening scene on the battlement, the initial court scene that introduces Claudius and Gertrude, the domestic scene where Ophelia gets mansplaining first from her brother then from her father, and Hamlet’s encounter with the ghost.

After the slow opening acts in A Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the students were surprised at how much was happening.

A student also commented on how much easier it is to follow the political setting of the plot than the complex history you have to understand in order to get into Richard III.

Post was last modified on 3 Oct 2017 12:27 pm

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    • He's warning Hamlet not to follow the ghost as it beckons him away from the guards.

    • I can't remember what "it" is in this passage and it's bugging me. Is he talking about Ghost Dad, or Hamlet's crazy plan in general?

    • As Horatio warns Hamlet:

      What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
      Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
      That beetles o'er his base into the sea,
      And there assume some other, horrible form
      Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
      And draw you into madness?