Prompt
While reading Hamlet, you shall keep a log (a record) of your journey through it. Log entries will consist of such things as scene summaries, comments on the action, characters, language and themes plus your personal reactions to those elements. (Note that your personal reactions to the play are not generally stated as such in your essays but they will help you form opinions which, in turn, will become topic sentences.)
Record all log entries in ONE Word document.
You are in charge of your own log and you will decide what to write and in what form. However, there are some rules:
1. Clearly label each entry with the date, act and scene number. You may go back later and add to an entry but indicate the date you do so.
2. Write after reading each scene (each reading assignment) and know your log entries are due on the same day as the reading assignment.
3. Please share your thoughts with the class as we discuss the play; you may find it helps to go on mic so the teacher does not miss your great ideas!
4. There are a total of eight components (below) and you must do at least three for each scene. Over the course of the play, respond to a varietyof components so that by the end of the semester, you have considered each component several times.
5. Label each component in your entry for that scene. You can thus easily see what components you are responding to in each scene.
6. If anything in the scene has confused you, you may include a question to the instructor in your log. If your question is later answered (in class or when you have thought about it more), you can go back and add the answer. The log will thus record what you are learning throughout the semester.
7. Run spell check and edit your entries before you turn them in. Mistakes in grammar or punctuation will be noted. (Please admire the intentional use of the passive voice here.)
Write in your own voice. Interact with the play. Grades will be based on the thoroughness of your responses; there are no “right” or “wrong” answers although I may disagree with you and ask you to support your views.
Components (use at least THREE for each scene)
1. SUMMARY – tell what occurred in the scene.
2. SIGNIFICANCE – why do you think the scene is important or not? What would the play be like without it? If you were a theater director trying to make the play shorter, could you cut all or part of the scene without loss of meaning?
3. QUESTIONS – Open a dialogue with a character and ask questions. Is anything in the scene unclear? Should the character have the answer? The answer may not be revealed yet but you, writing as the character, should try to answer. The answer may change later but asking when the question arises should clarify your thinking. You may add notes later to the entry.
4. LANGUAGE – quote lines from the scene that you enjoyed and comment on them. Be sure to note the speaker and the line number in the accepted format – Horatio (I.1.43) “Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.”
5. REACTION – describe your reaction to a character, action or idea you confronted in the scene.
6. CHARACTER – Identify and discuss a personality trait that a character displays in the scene, using examples from the text to support your findings, as we did with Chaucer’s “Prologue.”
7. RELATIONSHIPS – Discuss the relationships between two characters in the scene, quoting specific words or phrases to give evidence for your opinion.
8. ACTOR – Pretend you are an actor playing one of the characters in the scene. Get inside that character’s mind. Describe how the character feels about herself or himself, about other characters, about the situation of the scene. What props would you need? What line from the scene would you most emphasize and how would you deliver that line?