Lesson 13

We will finalize our well-developed, multiparagraph literary analysis that defends or challenges a claim of the literary criticism. We will support our analysis using a variety of well-selected, relevant evidence from Hamlet and any other texts we have read or viewed.

Lesson Goals

Reading and Knowledge

Delineate Argumentation: How well do I identify the claims, reasoning, and evidence used to develop arguments and explanations?
Evaluate Information: How well do I evaluate the relevance and credibility of information, ideas, evidence, and reasoning presented in texts?

Writing

Form Claims: How well do I develop and clearly communicate a meaningful and defensible claim that represents a valid, evidence-based analysis?
Develop Ideas: How well do I cite evidence from texts to develop and support my explanation of an evidence-based claim?
Organize Ideas: How well do I sequence and group sentences and paragraphs and use devices, techniques, descriptions, reasoning, evidence, and visual elements to establish coherent, logical, and well-developed narratives, explanations, and arguments?
Use Conventions to Produce Clear Writing: How well do I apply correct and effective syntax, usage, mechanics, and spelling to communicate ideas and achieve intended purposes?

Texts

Core

- Excerpt from “Depressive Illness Delayed Hamlet’s Revenge,” Aaron Shaw and Neil Pickering, BMJ Publishing Group, Ltd., 2002
- Excerpt from “Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism,” Elaine Showalter, Methuen Publishing, 1985
- Excerpt from “The Sanity of Hamlet,” Tenney L. Davis, The Journal of Philosophy, 1921

- Hamlet, William Shakespeare, Simon and Schuster, 2003

Materials

Tools

Hamlet: Section 3 Diagnostic Checklist

Reference Guides

Editable Google Docs

Hamlet: Section 3 Diagnostic Checklist

Activity 1: Read

We will revise our work to make sure we fully support and develop our ideas regarding the task, purpose, and audience. This will help us develop work that is clear and coherent.

Revision is the process of re-seeing your work with fresh eyes. Revision is a challenge for all writers—the art of making writing better is hard work that can feel messy at times.

Reread your draft, and ask yourself the following questions:

Is my central claim clearly stated?
Do I sufficiently explain how each supporting claim is connected to the central claim?
Is the evidence I use to support my claims relevant?
Is my evidence integrated effectively? Do the integrated quotations use correct punctuation? Are the integrated quotations properly cited?
Is my introduction effective? Is my conclusion effective?

Revise your draft as needed.

Activity 2: Read

We will read two mentor sentence excerpts to examine how the writers use colons.

Reread the following mentor sentences:

All these are depressive symptoms, and Hamlet has experienced events likely to precipitate depression: his father’s sudden death, his mother’s hasty marriage, and his disappointment in the succession ("Depressive Illness Delayed Hamlet’s Revenge").

In comparison to Hamlet, Ophelia is certainly a creature of lack. "I think nothing, my lord," she tells him in the Mousetrap scene, and he cruelly twists her words:

Hamlet: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.

Ophelia: What is, my lord?

Hamlet: Nothing.

(3.2. 117-19; "Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism")

What do these excerpts have in common? They both use a colon. The colon is a punctuation mark that is most often used to introduce a list or a long quotation.

Scan your essay, and in an appropriate place, add a colon.

Activity 3: Read

We will read mentor sentences and examine their use of italics.

Reread the following mentor sentences:

Carol Neely, for example, describes advocacy—speaking for Ophelia—as our proper role:

"As a feminist critic," she writes, "I must `tell' Ophelia's story."

According to David Leverenz, in an important essay called "The Woman in Hamlet," Hamlet's disgust at the feminine passivity in himself is translated into violent revulsion against women, and into his brutal behavior towards Ophelia.

I would like to propose instead that Ophelia does have a story of her own that feminist criticism can tell; it is neither her life story, nor her love story, nor Lacan's story, but rather the history of her representation.

What do these mentor sentences have in common? They all use the italics. Italics is a character type style in which words are slanted to the right. Writers use italics for a variety of reasons:

to indicate the titles of large works, such as a book, play, film, or piece of art
to emphasize an idea

Note: Essays and articles are shorter works, which use quotation marks instead of italics.

Scan your essay and add italics where necessary.

Activity 4: Read

We will read mentor sentences and examine their use of semicolons.

Read the following mentor sentences.

In French theoretical criticism, the feminine or "Woman" is that which escapes representation in patriarchal language and symbolism; it remains on the side of negativity, absence, and lack.

I would like to propose instead that Ophelia does have a story of her own that feminist criticism can tell; it is neither her life story, nor her love story, nor Lacan's story, but rather the history of her representation.

What do these mentor sentences have in common? They both use the semicolons. Writers use semicolons for the following reasons:

to combine two independent clauses without a conjunction between them
to separate items in a series that already contain commas

Scan your essay and add a semicolon in an appropriate place.

Activity 5: Read

We will read mentor sentences and examine their use of parallel structure.

Read the following mentor sentences.

To liberate Ophelia from the text, or to make her its tragic center, is to re-appropriate her for our own ends; to dissolve her into a female symbolism of absence is to endorse our own marginality; to make her Hamlet's anima is to reduce her to a metaphor of male experience. ("Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism”)

The alternation of strong and weak Ophelias on the state, virginal and seductive Ophelias in art, inadequate or pressed Ophelias in criticism, tells us how these representations have overflowed the text, and how they have reflected the ideological character of their times, erupting as debates between dominant and feminist views in periods of gender crisis and redifinition. ("Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism”)

To his friends, when he wishes to be agreeable, his hair splitting is pleasant banter: to others, when he chooses to be reserved, it appears as a barrier behind which he hides his thoughts and motives. (“The Sanity of Hamlet")

These sentences use parallel structure. Parallel structure uses the same pattern of words or phrases to show that all elements in the series have equal importance.

Underline or highlight the phrases in the sentence that demonstrate parallel structure.

Scan your essay and look for possible places to use parallel structure to make your ideas clearer and your style more effective.

Activity 6: Read

We will reread our draft essay to ensure it maintains present tense.

When writing a literary analysis, the convention is to use the present tense. Even though Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in the past and you have also read it in the past, you will still use present tense verbs when writing about the text (e.g., Shakespeare uses figurative language...” “Hamlet sees his father’s ghost...”).

Reread your draft response, highlighting present tense verbs in one color, past tense verbs in a second color, and future tense verbs in a third color. Respond to the following questions:

Are my verb tenses consistent, or do they shift?
What is the impact of my verb tenses on the reader? Do I cause confusion or create clarity?

Revise your draft to ensure you have a consistent verb tense.

Submit a final polished draft to your teacher.