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Hamlet Paper

For the paper on Hamlet, you may choose ONE of the following topics OR pitch your own idea for a topic to Mr. Y.:

1) Analyze the theme of madness throughout the play.
(Hint: consider the motifs of poison, things that are described as rotten, or any scene in which advice is given and people are led to trust one another.)

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” (1.4.100)

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2) Compare and contrast character foils.

You may use:

Hamlet vs. Laertes
– This is the most obvious choice for this topic, given that Shakespeare makes the fact that he is using character foils pretty explicit in the final scene when Hamlet says: “I’ll be your foil, Laertes…” (5.2.249)
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Queen Gertrude vs. Ophelia—

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the Ghost vs. Claudius
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Polonius vs. Horatio—

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3) Who best fits the description of a tragic hero (a literary concept taken from Aristotle’s Poetics) — Willy Loman, or Hamlet?

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4) Describe the influence Hamlet (the play) has on [insert other story you know well here].
(possible choices for comparison include: Harry Potter, Star Wars, Memento, Road to Perdition, etc.)

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5) Make a case for which movie version that we watched in class best represents the spirit/theme/characters of Hamlet — the 1996 version with Kenneth Branagh or the 2009 BBC version with David Tennant.

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Feel free to use this space to bounce ideas back and forth with each other. (I realize that this may not be possible while at school right now, unfortunately, but remember that this blog is available at home as well.)

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Below, I have attached a couple of examples of thesis papers for you to use as reference. I encourage you to look over at least one of these papers to catch a glimpse of how the Jane Schaffer strategies that you have learned over the years serves as a solid foundation for this kind of writing…yet it is only a foundation. Once you know the rules, you can break them if need be and still meet and exceed high expectations for creating a piece of writing that is profound, meaningful, creative, inspiring, and dare I say interesting enough such that someone would actually want to read it. These examples do not follow Jane Schaffer methods word-for-word and step by step, but the basic expectations remain:

Provide your audience with context so they can understand what you are talking about without having to have read the same book
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Use concrete details and bridges (i.e. connections built between your personal life or pop culture to the topic of your writing)
State your personal commentary/perspective on the topic at hand clearly so anyone in the universe can understand it
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Elaborate fully upon all of the above with precise, descriptive language and example