For context: This paper is for a senior at a private high school (me) in the top english elective offered. I would prefer the essay to not sound OVERLY intellectual, and to read like a high school student’s writing would, but to also have some unique and interesting, nicely conveyed ideas. P.S. My teacher is EXTREMELY picky and difficult to please, but she really places an emphasis on being “intellectually daring,” and “boldly curious,” so an interesting/different take on the play will probably be very important in getting a good grade on this essay.
According to my “Advanced Shakespeare” teacher, the assignment is:
A 7-10 page research essay investigating and analyzing an aspect of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
The topic/focus is entirely up to you, but you must include secondary sources for support. The analysis should demonstrate your ability to make an argument, and develop the idea in an imaginative and comprehensive manner.
Research is the act of systematic investigation, examination and experimentation. It is an essential tool of intellectual inquiry for anyone engaged in any academic discipline. In doing literary research, you consult not only individual works themselves (specifically, Hamlet), but critical thinkers who interpret the text through a variety of lenses (secondary sources).
Topics might include:
• “A Piece of Work” – Hamlet’s View of Human Nature
• The Dynamic of Theatre in Hamlet Seduction and Betrayal in Hamlet
• An Existential View of Hamlet
• An Oedipal Perspective of Hamlet
• Hamlet’s Antic Disposition: Madness or an Actor’s Dream
• The Sanity of Ophelia’s Mad Scene
• The Shadow of Death: Hamlet’s Obsession
• An Unweeded Garden: Sexual Corruption in Hamlet
• Intellectual Games and Hamlet’s Dilemma
• Claudius: A Worthy Adversary?
• Mommy Dearest: An Exploration of Queen Gertrude
• Virgin or Whore: The Female Paradox in Hamlet
• Saint Hamlet: The Theological Dimensions of the Prince
• The Skull as Metaphor: Death in a Supporting Role in Hamlet
Trusted literary critics include Marjorie Garber and Stephen Greenblatt (Harvard); Harold Bloom (Yale/NYU); James Shapiro (Columbia), plus scores of brilliant minds through the ages: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, GB Shaw, WH Auden, AC Bradley, Jan Kott, Frank Kermode, Millicent Bell, Stanley Homan, as well as actors and directors whose insights into character have a practical immediacy.
Wikipedia is not acceptable, nor is a googled paper by Lucretia McGillicuddy in Bumblestick, Arkansas.
The rest is silence.
(please see attached spec sheet for exact assignment details)
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