Beloved Quiz for Tuesday

Beloved has a three part structure. Be prepared to write about how the second part of this structure: 1) What it means. 2) How it makes meaning. 3) How does it fit with Part I.

Beloved

Remember you have a quiz when you walk in the door on Tuesday. Please, please, please be up to date on your reading. No exceptions. You will want to start the semester on a positive note.

Beloved

Remember you need to read through PART I and keep a dialectical journal of 45-55 entries for BELOVED. You will have a quiz on 1/12.

Volleyball Players

Make sure you have finished study questions for following acts: 3.1-3.2, 3.3-3.4 and 5. Come to class with review questions for the final.

Act 5

HAMLET ACT 5: Questions

1) What do you feel is the point of the gravedigger’s riddles and song? How does it fit into the play?
2) In what ways do Hamlet’s reactions to the skulls in the graveyard seem to suggest a change in his outlook? Compare Hamlet’s attitude towards Yoric to Hamlet’s attitude to Ophelia or even his father? How is it different? How is it similar?
3) How old is Hamlet? How do you know this?
4) What does the violent argument between Hamlet and Laertes add to the play?
5) What developments in Hamlet’s character are presented through the story of what happened on the boat? (V.ii 1-62). How has Hamlet changed?
6) How do Hamlet’s motives in killing Claudius seem to have shifted according to his speech beginning “Does it not, think thee…” (V.ii.63)
7) What concerns of the play are reinforced in the Osric episode? (V.ii.80-170)
8) Why does Hamlet ‘defy augury’? (V.ii.192)
9) What does Laertes say is his motive in still resenting Hamlet? How has already lost this? How does this contribute to the presentation of revenge in the play? (V.ii216-223)
10) How might the dying lines of Gertrude, Claudius and Laertes be viewed as typical of the way their characters have been presented throughout the play?
11) Who “wins” in Hamlet? How and why do you think this?

Hamlet 3.3 and 3.4

Hamlet
1) In what respects is the ‘play scene’ a turning point in the play?
2) Explain in detail the following parts of plot

EXPOSITION:




INCITING EVENT:



RISING ACTION:



Scenes three and four


1) What does Claudius plan to do with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Hamlet?
2) What is Polonius going to do while Hamlet speaks with his mother?
3) List three important things about Claudius’ soliloquy.

a)
b)
c
4) Why is it odd that Hamlet sees the king praying?
5) Why doesn’t Hamlet take this opportunity for revenge?
Scene IV

1) Describe Polonius’ advice to Gertrude.
2) What is the significance of the following quote: “How now, a rat? Dead! For a ducat, dead!
3) What is odd about the following quote: A bloody dead; almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother.
4) Why might Gertrude say, “What have I done, that thou dar’st wag thy tongue in noise so rude against me.”
5) What descriptions does Hamlet use to compare his father and his uncle?


King Hamlet


Claudius

6) What point does Hamlet make by comparing the men?
7) What is disturbing about the following: Nay, but to live in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed; stewed in corruption; honeying, and making love over the nasty sty.”
8) What stops Hamlet’s ranting and raving at Gertrude? What does this figure tell Hamlet?
9) By the end of the act, Hamlet has made many statements about humanity, in general. Explain a few of his points. Do his opinions reflect his madness.
10) Explain the differences between the ghost in Act I with the ghost in Act III. Why might these differences reflect Hamlet’s insanity?

Act 3 Scenes 1 and 2

Hamlet Act 3 Questions for Study
Act 3
Scene 1:
1. What do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern report to Polonius?
2. How does Claudius react when Polonius says, "…with devotion's visage, And pious action we do sugar o'er/ The devil himself"?
3. What plan do Polonius, Claudius and Ophelia now put into action?
4. What is the nature of Hamlet's soliloquy, lines 57-91?
5. What is Hamlet's main argument against suicide?
6. Why does Hamlet treat Ophelia as cruelly as he does? What has changed him?
7. What thinly veiled threat to Claudius does Hamlet voice, after he becomes of his hidden presence? (lines 148-150)
8. At the end of this scene, what does the King decide to do with Hamlet?
Scene 2:
9. What qualities in Horatio cause Hamlet to enlist his assistance?
10. What does Hamlet ask Horatio to do?
11. Summarize what happens in the play-within-a-play.
12. Why, in line 233, does Hamlet refer to the play-within-a-play as "The Mouse-trap"?
13. What is the King's reaction to the play?
14. In lines 354-363, to what object does Hamlet compare himself? Why?
15. As Hamlet goes to his mother at the end of this scene, what does he admonish himself