Hamlet

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Hamlet

• By William Shakespeare

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Topics of Discussion

• History
• Aristotles Definition of a Tragic Hero
• Appearance vs. Reality
• Language
• Apollonian vs Dionysian
• Riddles

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History

• The Play Itself
• The Issue of the Silent Majority
• The Renaissance
• The Reformation
• Old Fortinbras (Norway) and Old Hamlet (Denmark)

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Aristotles Definition of a Tragic Hero

• Must Be of Noble Birth
• Goes from Happiness to Misery
• Not Totally Virtuous or Just
• Not Steeped in Vice or Baseness
• Flaw in Character
• Error in Judgment
• Inspires Pity and Fear

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Appearance vs. Reality

• Hamlets vs. Claudiuss Mourning
• Polonius behind the Arras
• Hamlets Audience for his Rants
• The Ghost
• Friendship of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
• Hamlets Sanity

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Language

• Word Order
• Oh that this too, too solid flesh
• To be, or not to be
• Honest vs. Fair
• Get thee to a nunnery
• Goodnight, sweet prince

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Apollonian vs. Dionysian

• Apollonion Based in Thought
• Dionysian Based in Action
• Miltons LAllegro and Il Penseroso
• Need for balance

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Riddles

• The Role of the Fool in Literature
• A little more than kin and less than kind
• I am but mad north northwest
• St. Valentines Day Song