Talk:BM1 - Introduction to Literature - Assignment 2: Hamlet

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How 'bout this time we start a discussion on our assignment. why not give some possible answers to each question. As we read Hamlet in our course, I can only give suggestions on that, but I think the questions are more or less the same. Of courst everybody can ask whatever question he/she has. I bet our profs may even give us a few hints, but lets not count on that.

Since I didn't wright down much yet I will add the other question and answers on them later. Would be great if ppl comented on my answers and maybe even wrote down what they think. Please feel free to add things which u regard as important or erase shit, which in your eyes isn't important. But dont forget to MARK YOUR CHANGES!

Let make this work and we all get a great mark :) --Sebastian Henatsch 17:19, 1 June 2007 (CEST)

P.S. I wouldn't recomend you to copy/paste and rewrite this. Who knows if this is what the profs want.... also it would be too obvious



1.Analyse the communicative situation in this dialogue. Concentrate on form, length of individual speeches, interruptions and the domination of one speaker or idea. Do the differences between Q1 & Q2 produce differences in the respective characerisation?

Discussion Question 1




2. What do you find out about Hamlet's and Ophelia's characters in this passage? Identify different modes of characterisation and analyse their effect. Do the differences between Q1 and Q2 produce differences in the respective characterisations?

Discussion Question 2

Different modes of characterisation give us a picture of H's and O's view of each other and themselves. They are all figurative and verbal since we can't refer to the drama as played on stage. “Are you honest?”(L1) This beginning of the conversation already implies O's dishonesty. It is a implicit verbal statement. O on the other hand also uses implicit verbal characterisation when she says to H:”Rich giftes waxe poore, when givers grow unkinde.”(L16) This means that H turned into an unkind person. In the monologue of H in Line 21-29 he uses explicit self-commentary (monologue - O is still present) to give the reader and O an image of how he sees himself: “O I am very prowde, ambitious, disdainefull,...”L24. He paints this image very dark, as he had the worst character in the whole play. .............................................. Explicit commentary by others comes into play when H talks about O in L46 ff. This even happens “in presentia” of O. Here he extends his view of her given at the beginning: her dishonesty and fakeness (“God hath given you one face, and you make you selves another”) By using “selves” he even doesn't only mean O but refers to all women (which of course includes O). The effect of those characterisation-paintings is clear. H (who does the most part of the characterisation) wants O to forget about the love he atmitted to her earlier in the play. He characterizes himself as “arrant knave”(L28), so O could even be glad about having rejected him. The reader (or spectator) from now on knows pretty well that this will not be any “and-they-lived-happily-ever after-end” or at least that their love toward each other will not prosper easily.

There are differences of Quarto 1 (Q1) and Quarto 2 (Q2). In the Q2 he admitts his love to her (L12) before three lines later he denies it (L15). Those are clear explicit self-commentarys of his feelings but completely oppose each other. This has the effect that his madness (wheather it is played or not) is underlined. Also O feels “deceived”(L17) which characterizes H as a false snake, lying about his feeling toward her.






Room for general questions

Hello everybody! Anyone an idea, what his <E1v> (Ofel.: You made me beleeve you did) and <E2> (Hamlet, up to line 148) means? Are we supposed to compare Q1 and Q2? That's not the question; they only want us to comment the stylistic (Rhetorik) things in Q1...Annika Prescher 13:12, 2 June 2007 (CEST)

Answers

What I'd like to know: Which question in the Assignment includes the stylistic things? I thought we had to comment on 1. communicative situation 2. modes of characterisation and 3. the options of H's behavior ?! May be I'm wrong and missed the part concerning the stylistic or rhetorical stuff... Verena Engelhardt 14:20, 2 June 2007 (CEST)

Answers