ESSAY- HAMLET
Essay Question: To what degree is William Shakespeare's Hamlet a play about the tragedy of characters other than the title character Hamlet? Choose two of the following characters, as your focus: Polonius, Laertes, or Ophelia. Explain, in a well argued essay, how one of these two characters might be considered to be the more tragic hero (in Miller's sense of that term) in the play Hamlet. Make sure you use direct quotations from both Arthur Miller's essay and the play Hamlet in supporting your argument. Take a close look at the rubric before going too far with this!
WHAT TO DO:
Introduce the concept of Shakespearean Tragedy (Renaissance Tragedy) and Arthur Miller's notion of 'Modern' Tragedy. Read the essay "Tragedy and the Comman Man" (attached) to prepare for this session.