due January 28th

Sorry for the delay in posting this weeks assignment.

I have been going through the Essays and outlines received in class last week, and have come to realize that many of you are still in need of guidance in formatting your papers.

I have decided it would be best to return your papers to you on Thursday and spend the class discussing format as well as the qualities necessary to a successful analytical/ thesis heavy paper.


We will consider all essays "rough drafts" for now.
Those of you who have yet to turn in your papers...
The rough draft  must be turned in by this Thursday or you will receive a "0" for the assignment.

Homework for this week is as follows:

Please finish annotating hamlet scene 3
Some of you did not complete this assignment
Also complete scene 4.

Take a look at the following verse from scene 3
And  explain the dual meaning within the text.

Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby;
That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay,
Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly;
Or--not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Running it thus--you'll tender me a fool.

Read the following verse from scene4
Tell me what Hamlets mindset is in this encounter with the Ghost.
How does it affect him?
What bothers him?
How can you tell?

Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd,
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou comest in such a questionable shape
That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me!
Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again. What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel
Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous; and we fools of nature
So horridly to shake our disposition
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?

Ghost beckons HAMLET

Due January 21st

Great job annotating this past week.

1) Please continue your annotations in Scene 3 of Hamlet.

This is a short scene!!! Do it well, but please focus the majority of your attention on your

2)Character Analysis Essay (due this week)
The essays are due before class.
Please turn them in on the kitchen counter do we have a chance to review them.

3) ALSO remember to attach your fully revised outline to your paper.
We discussed format in class on Thursday. Please follow those suggestions.
All outlines and Essays must be 5 paragraphs, typed... And at least 1page in length.

4) we had a brief intro to allusions in class on Thursday. Please finish reading about allusions in your textbook so we can delve deeper into this subject on Thursday. Don't forget to bring your bible to class!!!

5) find the Allusions in the following soliloquy and explain;
For extra credit worth 5 points added to your essay
Please find the biblical allusion in earlier in Scene 2 !!!!

lHamlet's Soliloquy: O, that this too too solid flesh would melt (1.2) Annotations O, that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!O God! God! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, (135) Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this! But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: (140) So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, (145) As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on: and yet, within a month -- Let me not think on't -- Frailty, thy name is woman! -- A little month, or ere those shoes were old With which she follow'd my poor father's body, (150) Like Niobe, all tears: -- why she, even she -- O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle, My father's brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules: within a month: (155) Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married. O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not nor it cannot come to good: (160) But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.

Homework due January 14th

Please note changes to homework assignment!!! 


      In yesterday's class we stumbled through a thorough annotation of Act1 Scene1 of Hamlet.
I am hoping that this gives you a general idea of the extent that you are to annotate your text.
Something important to keep in mind:

If you are flying through your text as if it were a fun or casual reading.... Then you are doing it Wrong!!

    When you begin the process of annotating, it WILL be time consuming. You will be reading and rereading the same verses 2-10x. You WILL be flipping back and forth between the original text, modern text and a dictionary.  You will be making predictions and/ or assumptions, making notes in your margin, reading ahead..., only to flip back 2 pages to make another note or verify a prediction.

   It will take practice and effort on your part, but this is why we will work slowly through the book. You will not devour the text... But will take small bites. You will chew and chew and chew on the material... Only to chew it again before digesting. Eventually, the process of annotating will become easier. You will process things faster... And it will become far less cumbersome.

If you have ANY questions as to whether or not you are being thorough enough, refer to the annotation check list in your text!!!! REMEMBER, the amount of highlighting and notes in your text is completely dependent on the substance of the text.  As a general rule of thumb... Simple one-line dialogue will have a lot less annotation than a monologue of several verses.

Materials needed For Annotation

• Pen/pencil ( different colors if preferred)
• Highlighter (several different colors)
• Colored pencil (if preferred) 
• Alert mind
• A color coded key of your own choosing which indicates the purpose of each highlighter color (optional)
• Dictionary
• Annotation checklist
• List of literary devices to look for
• Book

For this week:

Assignment 1

Please annotate the rest of Act 1 Scene 1 as well as Act 1 Scene 2.

Your annotations will be checked. You will not receive a grade for annotation this week but for all future classes,  we will be using the annotation rubric discussed in class to evaluate your annotations. 

For those of you brave enough and eager for a bonus that would replace 1 major quiz/essay grade with an A+

Please fully annotate the following verse from Act 1 Scene 1
And explain the wittiness and  genius of the language used. This must be turned I prior to class on a separate sheet of paper.
Hint: remember that the modern translation is simply a translation with general meaning and does very little to accentuate the clever use of literary devices and artistry in the text.

HORATIO

A mote it is to trouble the mind’s eye.

In the most high and palmy state of Rome,

A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead

Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets

As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,

Disasters in the sun, and the moist star

Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands

Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.

And even the like precurse of feared events,

As harbingers preceding still the fates

And prologue to the omen coming on,

Have heaven and earth together demonstrated

Unto our climatures and countrymen.

Assignment 2

Please outline and write a short essay on the character development of any character of your choosing from The Once and future King . 
Your essay should be 3-5 paragraphs ( preferably 5)
And consist of an intro, 3 main points and a conclusion.
Your essay will be graded primarily on content.
Your outline for the essay is due January 14th and must be turned in prior to class


The essay will be due on January 21st.