Hamlet over break!

In the hustle and bustle this morning, I didn't talk to you about what's coming next. We will be starting Hamlet when we get back. We spent way too long on it last year, and I'm going to try and finish it before the semester to remedy that. We'll need to book it to make that happen.

That being the case, we need to get started. If you want your own copy you can write in (recommended), pick one up. The other part is this: watch a version of Hamlet before you come back.

I recommend in order:

1. Kenneth Branagh (all the lines and spectacular costumes, but long)
2. BBC with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart (a bit more modern and a tad weird)
3. Mel Gibson and Glen Close (okay, but Mel is crazy...in real life)
4. Laurence Olivier (Classic, but black and white)
5. Ethan Hawke (Horrible -- Don't do that to yourself!)

Make this fun. Get together in groups. Bring snacks. Have fun. Watch Hamlet.

Have a WONDERFUL holiday break!!!!

PS I'm told Sayarpreet has a TV bigger than an IMAX. Start buttering him up, and maybe he'll invite you over...if you bring snacks.

Finish the following for homework

from A Flood of Sunshine

Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods. For years past she had looked from this estranged point of view at human institutions, and whatever priests or legislators had established; criticizing all with hardly more reverence than the Indian would feel for the clerical band, the judicial robe, the pillory, the gallows, the fireside, or the church. The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,--stern and wild ones,--and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.

Questions

1. Hawthorne uses lists a couple of times in this passage. What is the impact and effect of this use on the passage as a whole?
2. Hawthorne also uses comparisons in the form of both similes and metaphors. How do those devices contribute to or enhance his meaning?

Apply

Write a passage about one of the characters in The Scarlet Letter using either comparisons or lists (or both!) to help reveal a trait of that character that is important to the story.

And also:

Trace Dimmesdale's path through "the maze". Explain what Hawthorne is trying to communicate via this method. (Think small and big.)