It is Spring time again, when my thoughts bend toward crocuses, robins, sunshine, detox diets, and the beginning of another Hamlet unit. I know that I’ve blogged many times about Hamlet, but I love to explore this play and I doubt that I’ll ever get to the bottom of it.
Though my current class will see some of my earlier focus — having students play the role of film director by making such decisions as how they would stage the ghost and who they would cast in each role, etc. — the focus this time is on the text. Because the culminating activity will be a collaborative essay (through the use of their individual blogs and comments) we’re spending a little more time than usual debating some questions, including:
- Is it important to the story whether or not Hamlet believes in heaven?
- Is Gertrude a sinister accomplice of Claudius? (Consider the deaths of King Hamlet and of Ophelia.)
- Could the ghost be a figment of Hamlet’s imagination?
- Is Hamlet mad?
- Is Hamlet really a tragic hero, or is he a villain?
- Does Hamlet really love Ophelia?
- Do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern get what they deserve?
- Does Hamlet have an Oedipus complex?
- Does Hamlet’s behaviour suggest that he’s closer to 16 than to 30 years of age?
I especially like the collaborative essay for this class, because I’ve got a group that is particularly fond of debate. Their first blog posts are up and their first comments are due by the end of the week, responding to at least two others that have approached an issue from an opposing angle. By the end of next week, partners should have surfaced for a virtual debate via their blogs, and by the end of the following week their collaborative essays, in a “They say, I say” format, will be typed.
I think that the current group that I’ve got will be able to pull this off and have fun with it. Time will tell.
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Image by bansidhe
1) Yes.
2) Perhaps.
3) Absolutely.
4) Maybe.
5) Hero.
6) Doesn’t matter.
7) Yes.
8) Only if you believe in the Oedipul complex.
9) Whiny, bi-polar, thinks he knows everything: absolutely closer to 16.
Most of those answers are in jest
Still I love “Hamlet”; it’s my favorite of Shakespeare’s plays and the one I’ve most read…actually, it’s the only one I’ve read more than once, now that I think about it.
For fun, I recommend listening to “The 6 Minute ‘Hamlet’,” and/or watching the scene from “Last Action Hero” with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hamlet as companions to discussing things like staging the ghost, etc.–”The 6 Minute Hamlet” makes the ghost sound like a villain from Scooby Doo
Lastly, kudos on “They Say / I Say.” I use that book in my Freshman Comp. II class and love it, even if my students don’t appreciate how much easier it makes rhetoric than most books like it.
Sounds like a really interesting way to study Hamlet (or anything else for that matter). I personally love Hamlet as well. Every time I re-read the play, I discover something new about the characters or the clever use of language – quite amazing actually! I suppose the real genius of Hamlet lies in the fact that the entire action of the play is focused around the internal conflicts and struggles within the main character. Hamlet was the first character to have a developed inner life and the audience was treated to glimpses of this through his long speeches and monologues. A psychologically captivating figure for sure. Will definitely be looking for more updates on your collaborative essays – they sound very interesting!