Friday, September 30 ActI.ii.171-221

RL.11-12.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with more than one meaning or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.

RL.11-12.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

For today: Power Point Review of Vocabulary (Hamlet III)
                  -Vocabulary Quiz
                  -Handout of Hamlet Vocabulary 4
                   (quiz on Thursday, October 6)
                  -Listening to Act II, Scene ii,
                  -Lines 168-219, Conversation between
                   -Hamlet and Polonius
                  -Accompanying Graphic Organizer

Learning Objectives

1. I can determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings.
2. I can cite the text for evidence to support an analysis of what the texts says explicitly as well as what the text implies.

Essential Question: How does the dialogue between Hamlet and Polonius enrich our understanding of the characters?

“Though this be madness,

yet there is method in 't.”

In the following passage, Polonius has three “asides”. An aside is when a character comments to the audience or another character, but no one else can hear it. Like monologues and soliloquies, asides are another way characters can let us know their thoughts and reactions to what is happening onstage.

Let's briefly sum up the differences between these three devices:

In a soliloquy, a lone character expresses their thoughts in a long speech.
In a monologue, a character delivers a long speech to another character.
In an aside, a character makes a comment to the audience or another character, but no one else can hear them.

The exchange between Polonius and Hamlet in Act Two, Scene Two, (II.ii.167-219), is a good example of how Shakespeare uses asides to enrich our understanding of the characters and simultaneously propel the action of the story.

Read the selected passage. Answer the three questions that appear in the right column.
Two more challenging bonus questions follow.

Text	Questions
Enter HAMLET, reading POLONIUS How does my good Lord Hamlet? HAMLET Well, God-a-mercy. LORD POLONIUS Do you know me, my lord? HAMLET Excellent well; you are a fishmonger. LORD POLONIUS Not I, my lord. HAMLET Then I would you were so honest a man. LORD POLONIUS Honest, my lord! HAMLET Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand. LORD POLONIUS That's very true, my lord. HAMLET For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter? LORD POLONIUS I have, my lord. HAMLET Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to '
LORD POLONIUS [Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this. I'll speak to him again.	What does Polonius suspect is wrong with Hamlet, and what does he suspect is the cause?
-What do you read, my lord? HAMLET Words, words, words. LORD POLONIUS What is the matter, my lord? HAMLET Between who? LORD POLONIUS I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. HAMLET Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.
LORD POLONIUS [Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.	What does Polonius mean by “there be method in” Hamlet’s madness?
Will you walk out of the air, my lord? HAMLET Into my grave. LORD POLONIUS Indeed, that is out o' the air.
[Aside] How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.	What does Polonius intend to do next?
--My honourable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you. HAMLET You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except my life. ENTER GUILDENSTERN AND ROSENCRANTZ LORD POLONIUS Fare you well, my lord. HAMLET: These tedious old fools! LORD POLONIUS You go to seek the Lord Hamelet? There he is. ROSENCRANTZ: [To Polonius] God save you, sir!	Bonus 1: Some sources label Hamlet's final line in this selection is an aside, others do not. Why do you suppose that is? Hint: Imagine what is happening on stage!

Bonus 2: What is notably different about the section of the text from 171-558?
                 Hint: Look at the text before and after the section running from 171 to 558 in your text!

 

Hamlet vocabulary 4  list; quiz on Thursday, Oct 6

1. remembrance  (noun) –greeting or gift recalling friendship or affection                   
2.  origin  (noun)- the point or place where something begins                                
3. tedious  (adjective)- lacking in mental interest, boring                                
4.  to indict (verb)- to accuse of a crime                             
5.  to devise –(verb)- to create a plan                              
6.  to pester – (verb)-to annoy someone                             
7.  misogynistic-(adjective)-  having a derogatory attitude towards women                  
8.  torment –(noun) or to torment (verb)- having or creating an intense feeling of pain                            
9. lunacy       (noun)- a state of senseless behavior                              
10. potent (adjective)- having force or authority