Seminar Presentations and Papers on Hamlet
Due 12/12/02

 

Please pick a topic that intrigues you. You will write a 6-8 page paper and a paragraph abstract summarizing your paper’s thesis and supports.  Please copy this abstract and distributed to the class the day before your presentation.  In addition, you will be responsible for leading a lively 15-minute discussion of your passage, topic, or section from the play.  You will receive 2 full paper grades for this project-a grade on your paper and a grade on the discussion.

Possible Topics

  1. Look at the issue of fathers and sons. In Hamlet we find three almost parallel sets of fathers and sons- King Hamlet and Hamlet, Polonius and Laertes, and Old King Fortinbras and young Fortinbras. Each son has had a father killed. Compare and contrast the three pairs. Why does Shakespeare create these three parallel sets for Hamlet? Look at the play as a whole. Look closely at individual lines. Develop a thesis, explore it, and connect it to the rest of the play.

 

  1. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are relatively minor characters in the play; nevertheless Tom Stoppard chose them as the main characters in his absurdist play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in which Hamlet is rewritten from their point of view. Examine Shakespeare's creation of these two characters. Write a character sketch of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern using very specific lines and examples from the play to support your points. What is their "role" in the play? Why include them at all? What, if anything, is their significance?
  2. Claudius says of Hamlet, "Madness in great ones must not unwatched go" (III, i, 5) and Polonius says of Hamlet, "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't" (II, ii, 201). Is Hamlet mad? Is he simply putting "an antic disposition on" as he suggests in Act I, scene v, line 171? Is there a point at which his play-acting becomes truth? Discuss the role of madness in Hamlet. This is an easy topic with which to be glib. Look closely and critically at this topic and go beyond the obvious.
  3. Read about tragedy and the tragic hero in Abram's A Glossary of Literary Terms. Look at other definitions of "hero." Is Hamlet a hero or not? Is Hamlet's death a tragic death? Support your points in the universe of the play. Again, don't be glib. Look closely and critically at this topic and go beyond the obvious.
  4. Examine the character of Ophelia. What is her relationship with her father and brother? What is her relationship with Hamlet? With Gertrude? Write a character sketch of Ophelia using very specific lines and examples from the play to support your points. What is her "role" in the play? An interesting look into Ophelia's character and the development of that character is revealed through her songs and the flowers she distributes in her madness. You might want to examine this scene for "double meanings." Look at the language of flowers. What does rosemary stand for? Pansies? etc.
  5. The character of Gertrude has been equally fascinating to critics. Is she a strong, ambitious, manipulative woman? Is she a weak woman who is incomplete without a strong man? Does she fall somewhere between these extreme dichotomies? Examine her character carefully within the universe of the play. Write a character sketch of Gertrude using evidence from the text to support your points.
  6. Readers and critics have differed dramatically over the years as they have tried to identify the climax of the play-the turning point. There are many points when Hamlet is determined to avenge his father's death. At what point does he commit himself so that there is no turning back? Discuss the possible "climaxes" or pivotal points in the play. Determine which is the actual climax and support your assertion with clear evidence from the text.
  7. Discuss Hamlet's character. Is he the "sweet prince," too sensitive and good for a world as "rank" as Denmark has become? Is he an ambitious young man eager to attain the throne of Denmark and willing to go to any extremes to do so? Is he both? Again, this is an easy topic with which to be glib. Look closely and critically at this topic and go beyond the obvious. Support your contentions with close and careful references to the text.
  8. Some critics have described Claudius as a "slimy beast." Others have drawn a more positive and complex picture of him. Write a character sketch of Claudius and support your contentions with evidence from the text. Look at him in all his complexity and examine all his possible motivations. Don't be glib. Go beyond the obvious.
  9. Trace a word or image through the play and connect its significance to the play as a whole. You might want to go to the Shakespeare CD-ROM in the library for assistance with this project. Here are some ideas:
    1. The play begins with a question: "Who's there?" (I, i, 1). Examined closely, one will note that the play contains an extraordinary number of questions. Look at all the interrogatories in the play -all the lines that begin with "who, what, when, where, why, how" and/or end in question marks. Trace this trope through the play and discuss its significance to the play as a whole.

 

    1. The power (or failure) of language is another issue in the play. When Polonius asks Hamlet what he is reading, he says "words, words, words," and later Hamlet says that he , "must like a whore unpack [his] heart with words" (II, ii,543). Trace "word" through the play and look at issues of language. What does it suggest about the play as a whole?
    2. The image of a fallen Eden is threaded throughout the play. Trace this image through the play and connect it to the larger concerns of the play.
    3. In Act II, scene ii, line 236, Hamlet says "Denmark is a prison." Trace the images of prisons and confinement through the play.
    4. Look at the role of acting in the play and its significance to the text as a whole.
    5. There are other images and words that are equally provocative and interesting. Develop an idea of your own. Be sure to clear it with me, however, before you begin working on it.
  1. In Act I, scene iv, line 66, Hamlet says, "I do not set my life at a pin's fee." Later, in Act II, scene ii, lines 209-211, he says to Polonius, "You cannot take from me anything I will not more willing part withal- except my life, except my life, except my life." What is Hamlet's attitude toward death? Why? Again, don't settle for what is obvious and easy. Look closely at all his speeches about death, including the graveyard scene and his comments on "poor Yorick" as well as his more famous speeches-"To be or not to be" and "Oh that this too, too sullied flesh would melt." Why does he feel the way he feels? Is his death inevitable?
  2. Look at Hamlet's advice to the players-and the play within a play. Discuss both in some depth and connect them to the text as a whole.
  3. Look closely at a particular passage. Give a close reading of it and connect it to the playas a whole.

a)      Act II, scene ii, lines 289-293 b. Act II, scene ii, lines 506-564 c. Act III, scene iv, lines 55-205 d. Act III, scene i, lines 56-90 e.   Act III, scene ii, lines 36-98 £ Act IV; scene iv, lines 32-65

 

Copyright THE COLLEGE BOARD.  2001