Answer the following questions. Justify your answers with the information from the tragedy. Be ready to quote.

SEMINAR 2

THE RENAISSANCE

W. Shakespeare “ Romeo and Juliet”, “Hamlet”, “King Lear”

& Read:

W. Shakespeare “ Romeo and Juliet”, “Hamlet”, “King Lear”

^ Learn by heart:

the extract from "Hamlet" (Hamlet’s monologue “To Be or not to Be…”

Write a passage:

(should be done in the notebooks for individual work

1. The historical background. Study the information about the special features of the Renaissance.

2. The short biographical sketches of the Renaissance writers: Th.More; F.Bacon; Th.Whytt; Ph.Sydney; E.Spenser; Ch.Marlowe; B.Jonson.

3. William Shakespeare – a myth or reality?

a) a traditional approach to W.Shakespeare's biography.

b) some modern approaches to W.Shakespeare's biography and creative work.

4. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” (“Hamlet”)

1) Make up a plan of “Hamlet”.

2) See the video introducing the characters from “Hamlet”. http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=1hmdF4a

Be ready with your lists of relationship trees based on “ Hamlet ”. Comment on the information you have decoded in the scheme.

!!!!!!!!Make sure you PRONOUNCE the names of the characters correctly!!!!!

Answer the following questions. Justify your answers with the information from the tragedy. Be ready to quote.

1. What is the setting of “Hamlet”? What is the tone of the opening scene? Does it set the atmosphere for the whole play?

2. Why did Claudius wish to keep Hamlet at court nor permitting him to return to France?

3. What is your attitude to Gertrude. Was her marriage to Claudius hasty? What were the reasons for this hasty marriage?

4. What is the role of Polonius in the play? Do you see him as a

a) an overbearing wise father;

b) a valuable advisor to the king;

c) an obsequious courtier?

5. Read aloud Polonius’s advice to his son Laertes. What phrases have become common aphorisms. Highlighten the aphorisms to your liking:

Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

And you are stay'd for. There- my blessing with thee!

And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, 545

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar:

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel;

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 550

Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,

Bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee.

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. 555

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;

For the apparel oft proclaims the man,

And they in France of the best rank and station

Are most select and generous, chief in that. 560

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all- to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day, 565

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Farewell. My blessing season this in thee!

Does Polonius stick to his own advice?

6. Why does Hamlet wait to kill Claudius? What are the reasons for his hesitation? Are they valid? Does he have an opportunity to attack Claudius?

7. Do you believe in Hamlet’s madness? Isn’t it a feint? Or does he really slowly descend into madness?

8. Learn by heart the extract from “To Be or not to Be speech” – the most famous lines in English literature:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life...

Comment on the development of Hamlet’t thoughts and changes in mood as the speech progresses.

9. What about the relations of Hamlet and Ophelia?

What is the nature of those relations?

Why do Ophelia’s relatives try to prevent her from those relations?

What is the symbolic meaning of flowers that Ophelia presents to Claudius, Hertrude and Laertes? What is she saying?

10. What is Hamlet’s response to Ophelia’s death? Does he love her?

4) Write a passage revealing why Hamlet has endured as literature’s most brilliant character.

5) “King Lear”. “Romeo and Juliet”. Be ready to retell the content of the tragedies.

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