Something is Rotten...

Hello all

We seem to be blighted at present by missing lessons for school closures. I just realised that we won't have a lesson tomorrow afternoon because of the open day. So.... if you haven't yet handed in your written work on Act One, could you please either bring it to the office by tomorrow lunchtime (as I won't be in school from 3pm tomorrow till Monday), or send it by email to me at gsn@cheney.oxon.sch.uk. If neither of these is possible, you can give it to me on Monday, but this week would be best. I'm slightly disappointed that not everyone got me their work on time, especially since it's the first major piece of written work.

Next lesson we'll do Act Two. I'd like you all to read Act 2 Scene One in advance, and then we'll read the very long and complicated Act 2 Scene 2 together.

Last lesson, we talked about various possible interpretations of Polonius, Opehelia and Laertes, as well as Hamlet's reactions to the ghost. Some importamt points that arose:

1. Polonius - bumbling old man or something a bit more political / sinister?
2. Laertes - deliberate parallel and contrast with Hamlet?
3. Ophelia - weak and powerless in the face of three powerful men?
4. Hamlet - what explains his strange reactions to the ghost?

We'll talk more later about how interpretations of characters' words and actions can radically affect the way a play is performed and interpreted. We also need to look in more detail at Shakespeare's use of language: although it is very tempting to focus on characters, themes, interpretations, etc, we need to root what we have to say in the actual words Shakespeare uses,and we need to think about conceptions of beauty and elegance in Shakespeare's language, as well as the particular kinds of language he assigns to different characters at different times.

See you soon
Mr Snapper