Summary
Assignment: Write an essay in which you discuss Hamlet's "antic disposition" (1.5.192). Is his madness real or is it feigned? How does Hamlet's mental development connect to the meaning of the play?
Completed for AP English 4, senior year of high school.
Preview
Many criminal suspects today divert guilt from themselves by attributing their actions to some sort of insanity. Prince Hamlet, of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, puts on a similar fake lunacy that eventually takes over Hamlet, controls him, and leads to his downfall.
Hamlet returns to his home, Denmark’s palace, one day to find King Hamlet, his father, dead. While still mourning his father’s death, his mother marries, of all people, Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius. Then, Hamlet meets a ghost whose appearance is like that of the dead King…
Summary
In this essay, I take on the position of advisor to the Queen and discuss how "worthy" of writing plays William Shakespeare was for her. You'd be surprised about the kind of person Shakespeare actually was.
Completed for my English class, sophomore year of high school.
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Honorable Queen:
As you well know, you have appointed me to the honorable position of a member of Lord Chamberlain’s investigative team, and I thank Your Highness greatly for giving me this wonderful opportunity to serve Your Highness and my country. After hours upon hours of investigation of William Shakespeare’s life and how he stands morally, I have decided that Your Highness should not grant him Your Highness’s patronage and the money that would allow him to produce his plays and to write more. From investigating his life, I can now see that, although…
Summary
Essay Prompt: Do you see Brutus (in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar,) as a tragic hero? In your argument, cite evidence from class discussion and notes on what does or does not make Brutus a tragic hero. You must also cite from the text examples of Brutus's behavior that back your position. Make sure you discuss all aspects of a tragic hero that we discussed in class.
Completed for my English class, sophomore year of high school.
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Can Brutus be considered a tragic hero?
Because of Shakespeare’s popularity among scholars and literary critics, his plays have been studied time after time. In the four hundred or so years since they were written, Shakespeare’s plays and other literary masterpieces have been categorized. Many of them, including Shakespeare’s portrayal of Julius Caesar’s murder and the resulting events for Rome and for Caesar’s conspirators, have been put into the “tragedies” category. According to the specifications and qualifications for a Shakespearean tragedy, Brutus, one of the men who conspired against Julius Caesar, can…
Summary
After reading Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, sophomore year of high school, we had to pick one of three or four topics and write a paper about it. I chose to write about whether Kate, aka. the Shrew, was in control of her actions or if she was being controlled by Petruchio.
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Is Kate in charge of her life, or do others have control over her actions?
Who is primarily in control of Kate’s actions in William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew? Is Kate primarily controlling her actions, or do other characters in the play control her? If you just read through the play, but don’t study it in-depth, it appears that Kate is controlled by other characters’ actions towards her, but is this actually the case? Isn’t it very possible that Kate is actually in control of all her decisions, but is…
