Entries: For each summarize each scene, then for each READING ASSIGNMENT do a minimum of THREE of the following:
1) Comment in one sentence on what you think is the significance of this scene. Then what would the play be like without the scene?
2) Ask questions about the scene. Has anything in the scene caused you confusion? OR Ask one of the characters in the scene a question -- or ask ME a question.
3) Quote lines from the scene that you enjoyed and comment on them.
4) Describe your reactions to a character, action, or idea you confronted in the scene.
5) Talk about the relationships characters have to one another, quoting specific words or phrases to give evidence for your opinion.
6) Write a diary entry from the perspective of one of the characters. Get inside that character’s mind. Tell how the character feels about herself, about other characters, about the situation of the scene.
7) At least twice, do an entry that is not writing. Draw a picture. Create a collage of characters. Draw what you think the stage should look like in a modern day production. Film yourself performing part of the scene. Create a soundtrack to the scene. Other?
Act 1 Scene 1
To me the scene is significant because the ghost is related to young Hamlet who currently reigns. Without this scene, I'm not sure what the play would be like since i haven't read it before, but I'm guessing that it would lack the initial mystery that this play could be based around.
Wouldn't Horatio be more questioning of the apparition? He's so doubtful at the start but he immediately believes it when he sees the so called ghost. I would expect a skeptic to act the part.
Line 111: "Speak to me." This is funny to me because Horatio keeps asking the ghost to speak even though the ghost has ignored him for the whole time before. I don't think there's anything else that draws me to the scene like this.
The only thing that I can think of when I read Marcellus' lines is that he appears to be like a narrator. He states what went on after the ghost left, and describes it with great detail to the people who were there with him. I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of this is, but regardless, it's there.
All the characters seem somewhat close to each other. Horatio says "Tush, tush, 'twill not appear" (29), which has an air of familiarity. The other soldiers also greet each other nicely and without any awkwardness, so I can't come to any other conclusion than that the soldiers are close to one another.
Act 2 Scene 2
Hamlet is mourning for his father's death and he wishes that he could die. And the people who I thought were soldiers (?) end up being Hamlet's old friends (Horatio).
Why does Hamlet comply with Claudius if he is so against doing it? Hamlet doesn't want to stay but he agrees with Gertrude anyways which I'm not sure of the motive for.
Line 177: "I pray thee do not mock me" is another line that made me chuckle. He says it so bluntly but at the same time I don't feel a tone of anger or anything of the sort. It so straightforward and honest that the situation seems laughable.
Once again, Hamlet as a character confuses me. I don't understand why he agrees to things that he is so against. He feels that life has no meaning yet lives on anyways.
The relationship between the soldiers and Hamlet is another thing I don't understand. With the way that they act towards Hamlet, I can't imagine how they would have ever become friends with him. They act like servants to Hamlet but Hamlet calls them friends in line 164.
1) Comment in one sentence on what you think is the significance of this scene. Then what would the play be like without the scene?
2) Ask questions about the scene. Has anything in the scene caused you confusion? OR Ask one of the characters in the scene a question -- or ask ME a question.
3) Quote lines from the scene that you enjoyed and comment on them.
4) Describe your reactions to a character, action, or idea you confronted in the scene.
5) Talk about the relationships characters have to one another, quoting specific words or phrases to give evidence for your opinion.
6) Write a diary entry from the perspective of one of the characters. Get inside that character’s mind. Tell how the character feels about herself, about other characters, about the situation of the scene.
7) At least twice, do an entry that is not writing. Draw a picture. Create a collage of characters. Draw what you think the stage should look like in a modern day production. Film yourself performing part of the scene. Create a soundtrack to the scene. Other?
Act 1 Scene 1
To me the scene is significant because the ghost is related to young Hamlet who currently reigns. Without this scene, I'm not sure what the play would be like since i haven't read it before, but I'm guessing that it would lack the initial mystery that this play could be based around.Wouldn't Horatio be more questioning of the apparition? He's so doubtful at the start but he immediately believes it when he sees the so called ghost. I would expect a skeptic to act the part.
Line 111: "Speak to me." This is funny to me because Horatio keeps asking the ghost to speak even though the ghost has ignored him for the whole time before. I don't think there's anything else that draws me to the scene like this.
The only thing that I can think of when I read Marcellus' lines is that he appears to be like a narrator. He states what went on after the ghost left, and describes it with great detail to the people who were there with him. I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of this is, but regardless, it's there.
All the characters seem somewhat close to each other. Horatio says "Tush, tush, 'twill not appear" (29), which has an air of familiarity. The other soldiers also greet each other nicely and without any awkwardness, so I can't come to any other conclusion than that the soldiers are close to one another.
Act 2 Scene 2
Hamlet is mourning for his father's death and he wishes that he could die. And the people who I thought were soldiers (?) end up being Hamlet's old friends (Horatio).Why does Hamlet comply with Claudius if he is so against doing it? Hamlet doesn't want to stay but he agrees with Gertrude anyways which I'm not sure of the motive for.
Line 177: "I pray thee do not mock me" is another line that made me chuckle. He says it so bluntly but at the same time I don't feel a tone of anger or anything of the sort. It so straightforward and honest that the situation seems laughable.
Once again, Hamlet as a character confuses me. I don't understand why he agrees to things that he is so against. He feels that life has no meaning yet lives on anyways.
The relationship between the soldiers and Hamlet is another thing I don't understand. With the way that they act towards Hamlet, I can't imagine how they would have ever become friends with him. They act like servants to Hamlet but Hamlet calls them friends in line 164.