Homework over break!

Please finish reading the remainder of Hamlet. I strongly encourage you to watch a film/play version so that you can decide whether you agree or disagree with some of their interpretive decisions.

Due Tues/Wed

If you remembered to do your Act I marking the text that was posted Monday AND have read all of Act I, there is no additional homework for 9/18 or 9/19. If you have not finished reading Act I, please make sure you have finished reading it for next class. Act II will be due on Thurs/Fri, so you may want to get a head start on reading that.


However, if you did not do your marking the text, please do the passage below as a way of practicing those skills (and earning those points.)

Act I, scene ii, approx line 135

HAMLET
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,
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:
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,
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,
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:
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:
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.

Due Monday and Tues/Wed

Please read Act I of Hamlet for Monday and Tues/Wed. Please complete a "marking the text" activity for Claudius' speech in Act I scene ii printed below. We will most likely make it to the Claudius speech on Monday, so I'd recommend the following allocation of your time over the weekend:


-Read Act I up through the Claudius speech over the weekend.
-Print and complete the marking the text for the Claudius speech over the weekend.
-Finish reading the rest of Act I over the weekend (if you have time) or for class on Tuesday/Wednesday if you don't have enough time.

If we don't make it to Claudius' speech on Monday, at least it will already be done for the next class!

Marking the text instructions:

Please perform an analysis (mark the text with devices and "how" insights") for the following speech. As you are reading them, keep in mind the purpose of the speeches and what they reveal about the speakers and their attitudes towards their subject matter.

I recommend copying and pasting my text into a document of your choice and formatting it in such a way that you have margins sufficient for your marking the text techniques.


Act I, scene ii, approx line 94

KING CLAUDIUS
'Tis sweet and co
mmendable in your nature, Hamlet,
To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
An understanding simple and unschool'd:
For what we know must be and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we in our peevish opposition
Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd: whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse till he that died to-day,
'This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing woe, and think of us
As of a father: for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;
And with no less nobility of love
Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde to our desire:
And we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

Monday's Greek Drama Notes

Notes from our discussion of Greek drama today are available here.

Due Tuesday 12/11; /Wednesday 12/12

For Tuesday/Wednesday, we will be discussing the play Oedipus (red book 896-936). Please note of moments when Oedipus displays behaviors or attitudes that reveal his pride.

Short Story Quiz

In addition to our discussion of Metamorphosis on Thursday/Friday, we will be taking a short, short story quiz on the following stories:

The Yellow Wallpaper Araby Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Young Goodman Brown Good Country People Metamorphosis
Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber Recitatif


Please be prepared by knowing the authors of each story, main interpretive ideas we discussed, and evidence we used in supporting those interpretations.

Due Monday and beyond!

For Monday, 12/26, please read this story for Monday

We will focus on the readers's involvement and reaction to the story, so pay careful attention to how the story affects the reader, what if forces the reader to consider, what questions it poses, and what realizations it generates. Remember this is a longer text, so you should begin your reading early and plan for a total of an hour or more reading time.

Due Tues/Wed: Please read "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (362-366). A side by side English/Spanish version of "Very Old Man" (en espanol) is available here. if you'd like to look at the story in the original.


For Tuesday/Wednesday, we will be also writing an in-class prose essay. Here are two high scoring essays on prose topics that you might be familiar with.

The Other Paris (Carol and Howard)
Belinda



Due Thurs/Fri: Please read "Metamorphosis" in your red book (191-221). This story is LONG so please pace yourself with your reading.

Due 11/29-30

Please read the short story "Good Country People" (349-362) with a focus on humor (and existentialism).

Please print and bring this passage to class.

Due 11/27-28

Please read "Araby" (65-69) focusing on character inferences and Joyce's unique style. You should find yourself doing some close text analysis as well as applying your knowledge of literary perspectives.

Due 11/26

Please complete the "prose prospectus" assignment as explained and modeled below. You will need to complete a prospectus for TWO of the passages (not all four).

The prospectus frame is explained here.

The Middlemarch passage that I use in my example is available here, if you'd like to read it to help you understand my example.

Belinda
Johnny
The Street
Mayor

Reading due 11/13 or14 and College Essay due 11/15 or 16

Please read "The Yellow Wallpaper" (153-164). Please focus on what inferences your can make about characters as well as how the structure and point of view play a key role in the narrative.

Also, since this is a three day weekend, please read "Young Goodman Brown" (93-102). In this case, please focus on the importance of tone and setting details.

I'm guessing this will take you between 1 and 1 1/2 hours to complete. If you are running short on time (not ideal, but things happen) please make sure you prioritize the "Yellow Wallpaper" since it will take up the majority of our discussion.

Both texts are most likely available online, so ask Google to help you find a copy if you are without your book.

College Essay Assignment

You will be writing a personal narrative essay applying some of the stylistic techniques and reflection illustrated in our sample college essay and "Living like Weasels". If you have already written this type of essay for college or a scholarship, just submit that one. If you have not already written this essay, this assignment gives you a good excuse to do so.

Your college college admissions/scholarship/personal essay is due on the the 15th or 16th. This document gives you some ideas for what you want to accomplish.

Not Poetry Things!

Here is the link for the extra rhetorical devices information.

Here is the link for the Bush 9/11 speech.

For Thursday/Friday, please read the essay "Living Like Weasels" in your red book and the analysis that follows. Please remember to bring your red book to class.

Kahoot

I think this is the link to the kahoot from in class. I hope it works! Happy studying!

Poetry, it's been fun, but...

Your last poetry responsibilities (for now!)

Please upload your pre-1900 poem outline to Turnitin by Friday, 11/2 at 4:00 pm.

Your final in class poetry essay is Monday, 11/5.

The Beast (your poetry terms test) is on Tues/Wed (11/6 or 11/7). This will take about one half of the period, and we'll use the other half to move on to not poetry stuff.

Due Tuesday 10/22 or Wednesday 10/23

Please read and complete the exercises for the Poetry Translation/Paraphrasing activity. You may either complete the exercises on a printed version of the document, or write or type your answers on a separate sheet of paper.

After B day writes their essays, here are sample essays from the AP people on the poem that you wrote on.

Due Friday

Please remember that your second poetry outline is due to Turnitin. To simplify the turn in process, let's have them all due by Friday at 4:00 pm. That way, both A and B day people can get a little extra time for the assignment, but you will be done in time for those of you going to Homecoming. (It's really a challenge for due dates having your classes on different days!)

Due Monday 10/15 and Thurs/Fri 10/18/19

Due Monday:

Please watch the slide show on poetry time periods and complete the corresponding assignment.

Below you will find the links to the poetry time period slide show and the poetry practice assignment. Please type your responses in a new document that you will upload to Turnitin. For your 3 analytical units, please put extra attention into your "how" stage. This is an area that we will be targeting for growth.

Poetry time period slides
Practice Poems an assignment info



Due Thursday/Friday:

Please complete a 2nd poetry outlining, making sure that your charts are thorough and contain multiple devices and examples per device category. You are not guaranteed full points if your charts are skimpy. Just like the first assignment, please select a poem of your choice from the "Collection of Poems" part of your textbook.

Due Thursday/Friday

Please read the section in your book on sound devices: pages 472-480

AND WORK ON YOUR ESSAY!

Due Tuesday

Please read the section on rhythm and meter in your book (pages 480-492).

Due Monday, October 1st and Beyond!

You will have a poetry outline assignment due Monday, October 1st, which is explained here. This will be turned in online, and Turnitin information is available on the last slide. Remember, you are choosing a poem of your own selection from the "Collection of Poems" section of your book to use for this assignment.

The slide show for your take home poetry essay is available here. Your take home essay will be submitted to Turnitin no later than Sunday, October 7th, at 10:00 pm.

The poem that you are all writing your first poetry essay on is available here. Please write your essay on this poem. I will not accept essays written on a different poem for this assignment. This poem is also available in your red book on page 533. ("The Starry Night", by Robert Fagles.)

Due Monday 9/24 and Tuesday/Wednesday 9/25-26

Remember on Monday you are having your interpretation assessment. Please review your feedback on your practice and all class notes on interpretations and devices to help you prepare for this task.

Please watch and take notes on the Syntax slide show available here. Remember, I usually talk about this in class, so I am expecting you will come to class with questions or things about syntax that you don't understand.

Then, from the section of syntax reading posted previously, select one poem to read carefully for syntax. Write one analytical unit on a turn-in-able piece of paper that analyzes the author's use of syntax. See below for a break down of what this analytical unit will be like. Your analytical unit will probably be about 1/2 of a page in length and look like a little paragraph.

Analytical unit:

Where is the example: provide a quotation (if possible) or make an larger observation about the type of syntax being used.
What: name the syntax or be descriptive about the syntax being use.

(note: your where and your what steps may be done in the same sentence)

How: Describe the effects of this use. How is it affecting emphasis, pacing, mood, tone, etc.
Why: why are the "how" effects important for creating meaning and connecting to interp elements of your poem.

Homework due 9/19-9/20

Please complete the chapter on syntax in your book (pages 465-472)

Monday's Slideshow

Please remember to have your homework complete for Tuesday/Wednesday. Information is available in the previous post.

We finished the Battle activity today and learned some important lessons:

1. Sometimes the "how" effects of different devices are similar. For example, both the "helmet and rifle" metonymy and the "sank like moles" simile have a dehumanizing effect. When this happens, it's fun to make these connections in our essays. Sometimes however, a "how" idea may not connect to any others. That's okay too. The main thing is to have as many how ideas as possible.

2. We also learned that because the evidence we use to form our "why" interpretation statements is the same for everyone, our interp statements are similar to others'. For example, both your classes and last year's classes developed similar interp "chains" for the Battle. The poem focuses on:

- dehumanization of soldiers
- depersonalization of soldiers
- physical and mental horrors of war
- lack of control for the soldiers
- failing hope and optimism

This helps us realize that poetry is actually a lot less subjective than we might think if we approach it as poetry scientists gathering data and constructing hypotheses based on our findings.

3. To encourage us to be brave and try to share all of our ideas, we also watched this motivational slide show on "speculative language." You may want to try some of these out on your interpretation practice homework.

Homework due Tuesday 9/18 or Wednesday 9/19

Please complete a minimum of two of the three interpretation practice poems to hand in on Tuesday/Wednesday. Everyone must complete the poem "Collection Day" but you have your choice between "Storm Warnings" and "As I Sit and Sew". Make sure to practice writing complex (multi chain) interpretation statements.

Then please read the section on Imagery (444-450) and Diction 436-444) in your books, learning any terms and practicing with the poems in those sections.

Due Thursday/Friday

Here is the slideshow from class today which reflects on the difference between rhetoric and literature as well as more suggestions on how to develop an interpretation statement.

For Thursday/Friday, you will need to complete two tasks in this order.

1. Read the handout "The Happy Synergy of Interpretation and Analysis"
2. Read the section on Figurative Language in your book, pages 451-457.

Doc and due Monday

Associative Thinking

Reading due Monday

Interpretation Generation

Also, please have a parent acknowledge our polices by having them sign a note stating so. Syllabus powerpoint is available here.

Assignment due Tuesday/Wednesday (in case you want to get a head start over the weekend)

Poetry "Mad-Lib" Assignment

Due Thursday (A-Day) and Friday (B-Day)

Homework:

Write an analysis of the following poem. I know this probably seems impossible to you, which is okay because this is a pretest and worth completion points!

In your analysis, you may wish to consider such things as structure, diction, figurative language, and imagery. DO NOT CONSULT ONLINE RESOURCES!

This assignment is graded on completion, so please don't worry and just show me what you can do. This entire assignment (thinking and writing) should take 40 minutes. Set a timer, and stop where you are when that time has elapsed, even if it is in the middle of a sentence. I really just want to see what you can do in 40 minutes.

Design

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all*, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth --
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth --
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
What but design of darkness to appall?--
If design govern in a thing so small.

* heal-all: a flower that is normally blue

Also, please do your best to have your parent/guardian acknowledge the course policies as presented in syllabus slide show. If your parent/guardian is not available tonight, please try to have it to turn in on Monday. Syllabus slideshow is available here.

End of the year work!

We are almost done you guys! Below you will find info on the main things that stand in between you and being done with AP Lit!

Citizen Kane Essays: Due by Friday, 5/25 on Turnitin.


Device Analysis

Please write a 2 page minimum (typed, double-spaced) reflection paper on the use of a minimum of 3 film techniques in Citizen Kane. Please describe the specific technique and analyze its effect and how its use contributes to the meaning of the film. There are no structural requirements for the paper, but the paper should be written in formal voice.

Character Analysis

Write a character analysis paper focusing on Charles Foster Kane. Again, it will be in formal voice, 2 pages, double-spaced, but no structure requirements. Consider discussing Kane's influences, motivations, desires, fears, relationships with others, etc. Do your best to use some quotations or near quotations from the movie.

Final Reflection Essays: Due by Monday, June 4th at 10:00pm.


Things Fall Apart: We will discuss this book starting with Chapters 1-8 on Monday, the 21st. Please note that you will need to pick up a copy from the library. Check back later for a confirmation of when we will be able to get the book from the library.

Review Sheets

Below are the links for review sheets. Please spend some time this weekend reviewing the plays and your class notes on poetry, prose, and Wuthering Heights. You may want to review some poetry terms that you haven't thought about in a while by using your placemat or the glossary in the back of red book. You will also want to read the prompts you didn't write on, so that you have some essays to think about as well. Most importantly, begin to work on your sleep habits so that you are well rested on Wednesday. There is no studying more important than getting a good night's sleep.

Period 3 Review Sheets
Period 7 Review Sheets

Due Monday

Over the weekend you need to work on the Gascoigne poem by reading it carefully, translating it, and marking the text. I'd like to see the poems annotated and a complex interpretation statement.

Additionally, you will need to work on your group's review sheet for the play you were assigned. Information is available below.

Each review sheet must address the following:

Title of Work
Author
Approximate Time Period
Main Characters: Names and Relationships
Brief Plot Summary
Handy Plot References
A Meaning of the Work as a Whole
Relevant Literary Techniques
If I write on this work, I will be sure to mention...
Quintessential Quote(s) [Easy to memorize, sure to impress]



A Condensed Example (Yours will be more detailed)

Title: Metamorphosis Author: Franz Kafka Time: Early Modern
Characters: Gregor-Salesman and Bug Grete: Sister and aspiring musician
Mr. Samsa, Mrs. Samsa, Charwoman, Lodgers
Plot Summary: No space— but self explanatory. Can be done as bullet points.(Do not plagiarize!)
Handy Plot References: Rocking to get out of bed, desire to go to work, never miss a day, arrival of boss, attempt to communicate, picture with girl, saving furniture, apple attack, walking on walls, borders, sister playing violin…
Meaning of Work as a Whole: The essential alienation of mankind from a world that seems to value only the material contributions he can make.
Literary Techniques: Narrative voice, symbolism,
I will be sure to mention: Symbolism: picture frame, apple, music, bug. Lack of explanation for transformation, Gregor’s desire to keep working.
Quotations: “When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams…” “Was he an animal…”

Victorian Prose Practice

We will be doing a study of four 19th century prose passages to get us ready for Victorian Era passages. Please print* this packet that you will use for marking the text. I'm sorry that it is so long!

*If you need to conserve paper, please change to a smaller font before printing. If you can't print, please read the passages online and do the assignment as best you can on a separate sheet of paper. OR, you can copy the passages into a new Google Doc, do your annotations in a different color, and then invite me into your document. Whatever works best for you, your printer, and your parents asking you why the printer always needs ink.

1. Read all passages and mark the text writing down insights into character, inferences, identifying quotations, or anything that would help you develop a complex response to the prompt.

2. Re-read the passage that you are to become an expert on. (Listed by alpha below). Expect that you will be asked to make a comment about your focus passage in class, so make sure you have extra fancy insights for this one. You will need to write down one turn-in-able insight about your passage. (Take me through your claim(s),the quotation(s) that support this, and, why this is interesting.

3. Be prepared to turn your all 4 marked texts in for points.



A-H: Passage 1
I-M: Passage 2
N-R: Passage 3
S-Z: Passage 4

MOWAAW Open Ended Powerpoint

Available here.

Due Thurs/Fri

Here is the prompt from class today:

Sometimes a character senses a strong connection to another character for unexpected reasons. Select such a pair of characters who may find themselves drawn to each other and analyze how their relationship is important in contributing to the meaning of the work as a whole.


Your homework is to retype the shared body paragraph from class today in four different fonts--one each element of topic sentence, plot references, analysis, and connection to MOWAAW. If you feel that your paragraph is lacking any of those steps, please made additions in the corresponding font in bold. If you feel there are any words that should be eliminated, please use strike through to indicate they should not be included. You will want to come back with as polished a paragraph as possible, so I am expecting that you should be making some edits.

Open Ended Paragraph (Doll's House example)

Here is the example of the Doll's House open ended paragraph.

Absent work from Tues/Wed

If you were absent Tuesday or Wednesday, please complete the activity from this powerpoint and show it to me so that you can earn points for the gradebook.

Wuthering Heights Spring Break reading

A note on Wuthering Heights:

This book works for almost EVERY open ended prompt ever written. (I'd say 99%). If you are feeling nervous about being prepared for the open ended essay, devoting yourself to a close reading of WH is one of the best things that you can do. I'm not making this up just so you'll do the reading.

You will be reading chapters 1-10 over Spring Break.

Please refer to the introductory slideshow first. It's available here.

If you were not able to get a copy from the library, the text is available for free here.

If you need an audio book version (which can be a big help as you are doing your reading) there seems to be a decent free one available here on Youtube. (I have not listened to all of this version, but I'm going to assume that nobody slipped in something randomly inappropriate in there. I hope. Consider yourself warned.)

I will do my best to post a FAQ powerpoint to help you if you are struggling with your reading, but this will depend on time and energy. If it doesn't get done, we will cover it in class.

Drama Test Coming Soon

Study Guide

Reading for Thurs/Fri

Please complete your reading of A Doll House for next class.

Reading Due Tues/Wed

Read Act I of A Doll's House for Tuesday/Wednesday. This is available in your red book and you should read this version if possible. If not an online version (although a different translation) is available here. Please pay careful attention to how Ibsen manipulates our attitudes towards the characters.

Reading This Week

Please read the background information and Act I of Tartuffe for Tuesday/Wednesday. (1059-1071) Please look for instances of humor and irony.

Here's an online version if you can't find your book, but your book version is much better!


For Thursday/Friday:

Please have the play finished.

And, here's a link in French, for you Francophiles out there.

Marking the text for Thurs/Fri + Semester 1 Finals Information

Hamlet, Act IV, Scene IV



How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and god-like reason
To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event,
A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward, I do not know
Why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do;'
Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
To do’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me:
Witness this army of such mass and charge
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit with divine ambition puff’d
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death and danger dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honour’s at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

Your final will consist of a fill in the blank objective test and an essay on a Shakespearean passage. More specifics are below.


Semester 1 Review Sheet: Objective Component--fill in the blank
90 Questions

Note: Topics in bold are emphasized more on the test

 Poetry Terms
 Poetry Time Periods (basic characteristics of; no identifying quotations)
 Names of Poets of major poems studied in this course (Think papers and discussions)
 Drama Terms
o aside, soliloquy, monologue, dramatic irony

 Greek Drama Terms, development of, and general knowledge
o Thespis, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Dionysus, unities of drama rheseis, stichomythia, hubris, hamartia, perepeteia, epiphany, catharsis
 Shakespearean Drama Terms and general knowledge
o monologue, soliloquy, aside, foil, irony, blank verse, prose.
 Literary Criticism
o New Criticism
o Psychoanalytic Criticism
 Freud’s theories of development
 Short Story Titles
o Quotation Identification: Identify the title
 Short Story Authors
 Short Story and Drama Characters
o Quotation Identification: Identify the speaker
 Short Story Terms
o Point of View, (1st, 3rd lim, 3rd omnisc.) Direct/Indirect Characterization, Internal/External Conflict, foreshadowing
 Existentialism
o Basic Principles and important Writers of…
 Sentence Structures
o periodic, cumulative, etc. (not the fancy ones like anaphora, etc)



Semester 1 Reading List

Poetry


Living Like Weasels
Once More to the Lake

Yellow Wallpaper
Young Goodman Brown
Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
A Rose for Emily
Metamorphosis
Good Country People
Araby
Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Oedipus
Hamlet

Marking the text for Monday

Please mark the text for the speech Act II, scene 2, line 555, "Oh what a rogue and peasant slave am I..." Please mark the text, and be prepared to turn in. Refer to instructions in previous post.


Hamlet
Now I am alone.
O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wann'd,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
For Hecuba!
What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her? What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,
As deep as to the lungs? who does me this?
Ha!
'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be
But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall
To make oppression bitter, or ere this
I should have fatted all the region kites
With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
O, vengeance!
Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
A scullion!
Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard
That guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
More relative than this: the play 's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

Marking the text for Thursday/Friday

Please perform an analysis (mark the text with devices and "how" insights") for the following two speeches. As you are reading them, keep in mind the purpose of the speeches and what they reveal about the speakers and their attitudes towards their subject matter.

I recommend copying and pasting my text into a document of your choice and formatting it in such a way that you have margins sufficient for your marking the text techniques.


Act I, scene ii, approx line94

KING CLAUDIUS
'Tis sweet and co
mmendable in your nature, Hamlet,
To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
An understanding simple and unschool'd:
For what we know must be and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we in our peevish opposition
Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd: whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse till he that died to-day,
'This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing woe, and think of us
As of a father: for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;
And with no less nobility of love
Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde to our desire:
And we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

Act I, scene ii, approx line 135

HAMLET
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,
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:
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,
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,
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:
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:
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.