AP English 12
Dr. Busonik
November 16, 2015
Essay on Hamlet
Length: three to five typed pages
Format: twelve-point font, double spaced 1 with one-inch margins on all sides
Due Dates:
Rough Draft: Friday, November 20
Final Draft: Monday, November 23
Write an essay in which you do a close reading of a speech or short scene from Shakespeare’s
Hamlet. The excerpt should be short enough to analyze in detail, and it should be rich enough,
dramatically, to enable you to find literary devices contributing to ideas and emotions. Excerpts
under 150 lines should provide the right sort of scope for this assignment. For instance, a speech
like Hamlet’s paean to Horatio (3.2.49-80) or Claudius’ prayer (3.3.36-72) would not be too
short; on the other hand, Hamlet’s conversation with his father (1.5.9-112) or his bantering with
the Clown (5.1.104-194), would be about the longest passage to consider.
Your ultimate goal will be to relate the excerpt to the play’s larger action. How does it function?
That is, how does it contribute to 1) the establishment of the exposition? 2) the complication of
the rising action? 3) the intensity of the crisis? 4) the ironic inevitability of the catastrophe? or 5)
the cathartic resonance and emotional depth of the dénouement?
But to get to that level of significance, you must first analyze the excerpt through close reading.
Your rough draft will a distillation of interrogation—an interrogation of the excerpt’s denotative
meaning, imagery, ideational structure, and affective dimension (see guidelines, next page).
Once you’ve interrogated the excerpt, you will be in a position to think about its function relative
to Hamlet’s plot. Yes, I’m asking you to write your thesis last. Remember, though, that your
final draft needn’t—indeed shouldn’t—include discussion of every line item in the interrogation
guidelines, only of the ones that yield insights that ultimately contribute to the soliloquy’s larger
significance.
1
When you double space, you do not skip a space between paragraphs. Indent the first line of each new paragraph
instead.
Rubric
1. Content
2. Organization
3. Thesis
4. Style
5. Conventions
6. Spelling
7. Format
Attention to textual details of the excerpt and your insights into
the passage’s contribution to action of Hamlet
The clear and orderly arrangement of your ideas
The general point you’re making, distilled down to a sentence or
two. A good thesis is arguable and provocative. It takes the form
x is y because z.
Attention to the syntax, diction, prose rhythms, and imagery that
make writing expressive, persuasive, compelling, and generally
worth reading.
Observance of the grammar and usage items we have covered so
far. Note that this requirement is cumulative throughout the year.
Correct spelling (in context) as well as apostrophes
Correctly formatted document, parenthetical citations and
Works Cited page (Use the style sheet on my Web site at
www.rchsenglish.org.)
40%
20%
10%
10%
10%
5%
5%
100%
The Rough Draft
Your rough draft should be in the form of a discursive outline. That is, it will consist of five
headings: Meaning, Imagery, Ideas, Affect, Significance. Under each heading you will shape
your interrogation into paragraphs that analyze the textual features that correspond to the
heading.
The paragraph(s) under each heading should contain as many significant insights as you were
able to mine from the interrogation. Don’t worry about ordering your insights or providing
transitions as you move from insight to insight. Of course, since you’re doing a close analysis of
the text, you should include quotations and analysis.