UNIT 4:

High Renaissance England

UNIT OVERVIEW
Primary Assessment: In a minimum of 750 words, respond to one of the essential questions below.
Analyze and evaluate
1) Hamlets very modern quest for authenticity and the search inward into the interior of the self.

Can an individual embrace and preserver his or her authentic self without being in direct opposition with society?

How does the world of Hamlet represent a society of "reciprocal human definitions," a world in which a man's identity
is mirrored to him by society, despite this reflection being quite different from his own self-conception?

How is Hamlets search for self influenced by and/or in opposition to the expectations of a corrupt external world?
i. Does Hamlet (1) repress his discovered interiority and find value strictly in giving himself wholly to the
identity society has placed upon him; (2) accept the definition imposed on him by society, but embraces his
authenticity within the margins of society in non-official activities; or (3) assert his authentic self and risk
destruction at hands of society?

Is the notion of the self fixed, of which Hamlet unveils as the play progresses, or is Hamlets authentic self
continuously in flux, bringing into question the possible existence of an authentic self?

How can one confirm his or her authenticity? Can one affirm authenticity independent of society and public action?

What can we learn by analyzing Hamlets search for authenticity? What relevance does this have in our lives today?

2) Hamlets preoccupation with death.

How does his perception of death develop as the play progresses?

How does this perception influence his evolving relationship with his own end?

Over the course of the play, how does Hamlets perspective on life, death, and the human condition develop?

As a result, does Hamlets end in a pure nihilism lead to a state of paralysis or liberation?

How does this view on death contrast with works we read earlier in the year that deal with that undiscovered country?

What can we learn by analyzing the plays portrayals of death? What relevance does this have in our lives today?

3) the contrast between the active and the contemplative man.

Does Hamlet represent a man of action or a man of introspection? Perhaps neither, or both?

Does Shakespeare wish to impress upon us that one mode of living is to be valued over the other?

What results from Hamlets actions and/or inactions, his meditations and/or impulsive acts? What of the other
characters within the play?

What can we learn by analyzing the portrayals of their action/inaction? What relevance does this have in our lives today?

4) the tensions between the medieval and modern modes in the play.

How does Hamlets radical skepticism evolve over the course of the play?

Why does he grow cynical of religious tradition, social arrangements, political motives, family roles, romantic
attachments, and of truth itself?

What can we learn by analyzing the plays portrayal of tradition and skepticism? What relevance, if any, does this
have in our lives today?
Unit Literature

Year

Author

Text

Genre

Pages

2010

Jennifer Ewing Pierce

That Within Which Passeth Show

Non-Fiction

1603

William Shakespeare

Hamlet

Drama

43

1872 1994

Various

Critics on Hamlet

Non-Fiction

Unit 4 Vocabulary for the analysis of form. Study these terms to prepare for a coming test, your papers, and final exam.
Ambiguitya statement that can contain two or more meanings. For example, when the oracle at Delphi told Croesus that if he
waged war on Cyrus he would destroy a great empire, Croesus thought the oracle meant his enemys empire. In fact, the empire
Croesus destroyed by going to war was his own.
Antithesisthe juxtaposition of sharply contrasting, or opposite, ideas in balanced or parallel words, phrases, grammatical structure,
or ideas. For example, Alexander Pope reminds us that To err is human, to forgive divine. Ella Wheeler Wilcoxs Solitude is a
poem consisting entirely of opposites. Antithesis can best be seen in the first two lines of each stanza.
1 Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
2 Weep, and you will weep alone,

9 Rejoice, and men will seek you;

10 Grieve, and they turn and go,

17 Feast, and your halls are crowded;

18 Fast, and the world goes by.

Asidea device used in drama, in which a characters speech is heard by the audience but not by other characters in the play
Dramatic monologuefrom the Greek monos ("single") and legein ("to speak") a speech given by a single person to an audience.
Expositionthat part of the structure that sets the scene, introduces and identifies characters, and establishes the situation at the
beginning of a story or play.
FoilA character in a play who sets off the main character or other characters by comparison. In Shakespeares Hamlet Hamlet and
Laertes are young men who behave very differently. While Hamlet delays in carrying out his mission to avenge the death of his
father, Laertes is quick and bold in his challenge of the king over the death of his father. Much can be learned about each by
comparing and contrasting the actions of the two.
Foreshadowingto hint at or to present an indication of the future beforehand. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo says, before meeting Juliet: ,
... my mind misgives
Some consequences yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

With this nights revels and expire term

Of a despised life closed to my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.

The widely read To Kill a Mockingbird opens with foreshadowing when the narrator predicts the drama at the end of the book by
anticipating the happenings that took place the summer Jem broke his arm.
Juxtapositionthe location of one thing as being adjacent or juxtaposed with another. This placing of two items side by side creates
a certain effect, reveals an attitude, or accomplishes some purpose of the writer. These items do not have to be complete opposites.
In The Loved One, Evelyn Waugh relies on juxtaposition to establish the dark humor of his novel. A pet funeral parlor is juxtaposed
with a ritzy human funeral parlor, and the fun begins. Clever use of juxtaposition is also evident in The Duel, a childrens poem
by Eugene Field. The first two lines set up the opposition:
The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on the table sat
You can well imagine what happens....
Soliloquy from the Latin solus ("alone") and loqui ("to speak") is a speech in which the character in a play is alone and speaking
only to himself or herself. A famous example of soliloquy is Hamlets To Be or Not to Be speech.
Tragedya drama in which a character (usually good and noble and of high rank) is brought to a disastrous end in his or her
confrontation with a superior force. Often the protagonists downfall is a direct result of a fatal flaw in his or her character.
Examples of tragedy would include Oedipus the King, Hamlet, and The Mayor of Casterbridge.