Tuesday, September 30 ActI.ii. viewing and responses to Claudius's speech.

Important: we are in the computer room in the library Wednesday and Thursday. Make sure you bring your copy of Hamlet. 

Due Friday: Hamlet 2 vocabulary (review of words)
Collecting Hamlet ActI.i work from anyone who did not turn in the material yesterday. Last opportunity.
In class: watching ActI.ii. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L28EBS6B0S0  time 9:40 to end
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SBrh2NJmLk to 8:54
              responses to ActI.ii. Claudius's speech  Class handout / copy below.

Hamlet ActI.ii   responses to Claudius’s speech to Hamlet

In Act I.ii, you are encountering the character of Hamlet for the first time through the eyes of his Uncle Claudius, who is now his stepfather.  Claudius reproaches Hamlet for his continued grief over the death of his father. Note their interactions and begin to think about the following ideas: gender roles, duty and mortality.

KING CLAUDIUS      ' Tis sweet and commendable 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            90 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      100 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            110 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 115 Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye, Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

Lines 90-92 1.     Who is Hamlet mourning? ___________________________ 2.     What are the two adjectives that the King uses to describe Hamlet’s Nature? 3.     What word used by Claudius gives evidence that that indicated the King’s shift to the main purpose of his speech? __________________________ Lines 93-96 4.     How does Claudius view the loss of Hamlet’s father? Use evidence from the text to support your position. _________________________________ ________________________________ _______________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ _______________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________ __________________________________ __________________________________ __________________________________ __________________________________

Lines 96-101 5.      Condolement is  similar to condolences. What does it mean to send condolences? 6.      Paraphrase (put into your own words) lines 93-98. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 7.      What may be inferred about Claudius’s sense of grief and its relationship to duty? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 8.      What does Claudius mean when he calls Hamlet’s sense of grief unmanly? ________________________________________________________________________________________ 9.      Lines 102-105 Read the meanings for vulgar: characterized by ignorance of or lack of good breeding or taste                                       indecent, obscene or lewd                                       crude, coarse, unrefined                                       of, pertaining to ordinary people in society                                       current, popular or common How is the word vulgar used is line 103? Lines 107-110       10.  To what concept does Claudius appeal in lines 107-110?  ______________________________ 11.  How does Hamlet’s grief appear to Claudius? _________________________________________________________________________________________ 12.  What is the reasonable attitude towards death, according to Claudius? _______________________________________________________________________________________