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Hamlet Extra Credit Assignment
Respond to both of the following questions, following specific instructions.  Type your response.  Turn it in together with your program and ticket stub. Also submit to http://www.turnitin.com/, and bear in mind that whereas some conversation might have occured among those who saw the play together, I DO NOT expect collaborative responses.  Two different deadlines: 

• If you have already seen the play (I'll know by your ticket stubs), it's FRIDAY, Dec. 3.
• If you see it from now through Dec. 5, it's TUESDAY, Dec. 7.

1.  Select three specific ways in which the production was "modernized" (details of props, staging, costuming, scenery, etc.).  Describe what each modernization consisted of, and then comment briefly (a couple of sentences or so) on the significance--the effect/purpose/aesthetic outcome of the change.  (The three examples may be bulleted, but the content of each one needs to be in complete sentences.)

2. I had debated having EVERYONE write briefly about an ambiguous part of the play beforehand--pinning down a particular interpretive issue that might be resolved by seeing how the director/actors handled the situation--and then sharing these to have a whole set of spots to watch for during the actual performance.  Not having done that, I'm going to turn the problem over to you in a more  way:  select two of the following and develop a short essay (300-400 words or so total, not for each one!) that clarifies the interpretation set forth by this production.
A) Does Hamlet know that Polonius is eavesdropping on his conversation with Ophelia?  If so, how/when does he figure this out? 
B) Explain how the "arras" scene in which Polonius dies is staged in this production, and suggest the significance in terms of what Hamlet "knows."
C) To what extent do you think Hamlet is "feigning madness" vs. really losing control in his rather brutal conversation with Ophelia (the one with the "Get thee to a nunnery" dialogue)?
D) Gertrude:  how much does she know/suspect about Claudius's actions against her husband?  is there any hint as to how she learns the details of Ophelia's death? 
E) Gertrude and Hamlet, in Gertrude's room:  this mother-son scene has been played in various ways.  Try to account for the moods/motivations in this production.
F) How was the death of Polonius staged?  Is there any evidence that Hamlet knew who he was really killing?
G) Was there any way to show how/when Hamlet "gets his act together" before the final scene? That is, when he became less "conflicted" and more sure of himself?  Explain.
H) Free choice:  but be very clear in the "what" you wanted to know and "how" the production clarified its interpretative point of view.

Heart of Darkness--YOU NEED TO HAVE IT ASAP. 
You will do yourself a favor if you read by tomorrow up to the conversation with the Chief Accountant.  But tomorrow is the last day for reading aloud as the modus operandi for class (though with HoD we are forever looking at selected passages).  So if you don't read for tomorrow, life will go on.  But this 100 page book should be nearly finished by Friday and MOST DEFINITELY finished by Monday.

For future reference (sooner rather than later!)
Next week we will still be talking about HoD at least through Wednesday.  But you will be READING
Ibsen's "A Doll's House." It's in your lit book. 
But we will start The Awakening (Kate Chopin) during the week before break, and you will need to finish it no later than by the Wednesday we get back.  So you need to get that ASAP as well.  I have no copies to lend. NO copies.
(P.S.  These were all on the list in June, and on the Quick-Start Guide at the start of the term.)