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Lesson 3

We will discuss Act 4, Scenes 1 and 2. We will read Act 4, Scenes 3 and 4 and explore the scenes through multiple critical lenses.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I analyze Gertrude’s behavior through a feminist lens?

  • Can I analyze Claudius’s motivations and actions in Act 4, Scene 3 through a political lens?

  • Can I analyze Hamlet’s behavior and words through a psychological and a political lens?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • Hamlet, William Shakespeare, Simon and Schuster, 2003
  • Multimedia
    • Hamlet: The Fully Dramatized Audio Edition, William Shakespeare, Folger Shakespeare Library, Simon and Schuster, 2014

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss – Write

We will review the unit’s Central Question and consider how our thinking has evolved.

Review the Central Question of the unit:

How many ways can the same text be read?

Use the following questions to guide a discussion with a partner or small group:

  1. What new knowledge do you have that relates to the Central Question?

  2. What are you still curious about that relates to the Central Question?

  3. What is the relationship between the Central Question and the texts you have read so far? How do the texts shed light on the question? How does the question help you understand the texts?

  4. How has your response to the question evolved, deepened, or changed?

In your Learning Log, write your response to Question 3. You will return to this response in later lessons to examine how your understanding of the Central Question has evolved.

Activity 2: Discuss – Write

We will work in groups to review our answers to the guiding homework questions for Act 4, Scene 1 and 2.

In groups, discuss your responses to the guiding homework questions about Act 4, Scenes 1 and 2.

  1. How do Gertrude’s actions in this scene contradict what she said in the previous scene? What evidence from the text supports this interpretation? What might be her reasons for this change? How do her actions confirm or defy Hamlet’s view of women?

  2. What is Claudius’s reaction to her news? What verbal irony does he use? What effect does it have on the meaning of the scene?

  3. What does Hamlet mean when he refers to Rosencrantz as a sponge (4.2.12 and 4.2.20)? What effect does this metaphor have on a political interpretation of the scene?

Write down notes from your discussion of Gertrude on your Feminist Lens Note-Taking Tool. Write down notes from your discussion of Claudius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern on your Political Lens Note-Taking Tool. It is important that you take thorough notes on these tools, as you will use them when drafting a response for the Section Diagnostics and Culminating Task.

Activity 3: Read

We will read Act 4, Scene 3 and further examine Hamlet’s mental state and claudius’s motivations.

Read and annotate Act 4, Scene 3. Pay attention to Hamlet’s behavior and Claudius’s true intentions.

Activity 4: Discuss – Write

We will discuss Act 4, Scene 3 through psychological and political lenses.

In groups, discuss the following questions:

  1. How does Hamlet behave in this scene? What evidence from the text supports this interpretation? What do his words and actions reveal about his mental state?

  2. What does Claudius reveal in his soliloquy in this scene? What effect is created by this dramatic irony?

  3. How do Claudius’s actions and words in this scene create a more nuanced understanding of his desire for power? What lines support this interpretation?

Write down notes from your discussion on your Psychological Lens Note-Taking Tool and Political Lens Note-Taking Tool. It is important that you take thorough notes on these tools, as you will use them when drafting a response to the Section Diagnostics and Culminating Task.

Activity 5: Read

We will read Act 4, Scene 4 and examine Hamlet’s soliloquy through a political lens.

In Act 4, Scene 4, Hamlet is en route to England and encounters the captain of Fortinbras’s army as they advance to Poland.

Read and annotate Act 4, Scene 4. As you read, pay attention to Hamlet’s view on war.

Activity 6: Discuss – Write

We will discuss our analysis of Act 4, Scene 4 through a political and psychological lens.

In groups, discuss the following questions:

  1. What does Hamlet think about the merits of Fortinbras’s war on Poland? What evidence from the text supports this interpretation?

  2. How does this view on power contrast with Claudius’s view on power?

  3. How does seeing Fortinbras’s military ambition make Hamlet feel about his own plan of action? What evidence from the text supports this interpretation?

  4. What does Hamlet pledge to do? How does this provide the reader with a more nuanced understanding of his mental state?

Write down notes from your discussion on your Psychological Lens Note-Taking Tool and the Political Lens Note-Taking Tool. It is important that you take thorough notes on these tools, as you will use them when drafting a response to the Section Diagnostics and Culminating Task.

Activity 7: Read

For homework, we will read Act 4, Scene 5.

Read and annotate Act 4, Scene 5. Use the following questions to guide your reading:

  1. What change has taken place in Ophelia? What evidence from the text supports this interpretation?

  2. What is the cause of this change?

  3. How do the other characters react to her change? What evidence from the text supports this interpretation?

As you read for homework, write down new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal. If necessary, revisit the Vocabulary in Context Tool to assist you with words or phrases you struggle with.