Friday 7 October 2011 film- blood revenge essays due

Hamlet blood revenge essays are due today.
Please reread yesterday's blog re your sonnet projects. Communicate with me, if you have a problem- sooner, rather than later. The presentations begin on Tuesday. We'll pick numbers to establish the order. The expectation is that everyone is ready to go.
Because the psat is on Wednesday-and there is no school on Monday- the presentations will go on the 2nd marking period's grades.
The Hamlet essay is the last grade for this marking period.
In class: film, act v, the death scene.

Thursday 6 October Hamlet film and sonnet assignment

Hamlet essay is due tomorrow at the beginning of class. This is the last grade of the marking period.

Assigned sonnets for students absent today:
Elijah- Rupert Brooks The Soldier
Hannah - Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet VIX- If though must love me, let it nought
Dorothy-Edna St. Vincent Millay- I know I am but a summer to your heart
FOR TUESDAY 11 October- sonnet presentation. No writing. You will demonstrate your understanding of an assigned sonnet orally. Everyone has a different sonnet. This is so you gain a feel for how the sonnet has evolved through the centuries, what topics have been embraced within this form and the people who have chosen to communicate their sentiments through this poetic format. Below is a copy of the class handout. YOU WILL NEED YOUR THUMB DRIVE FOR THIS!(this was listed on the class criteria sheet)
Sonnet Presentations…beginning Tuesday 11 October
1. Type up your sonnet, double spaced, size 18 font. Put it on your thumb drive.
2. Practice reading it aloud, so that it flows trippingly on the tongue. Note the punctuation. If there is no comma or period at the end of the line, don’t stop. Pace yourself well. Think of Shakespeare’s advice to actors in Hamlet.
3. Know the meaning of every word…and how to pronounce them. Remember to stress a syllable, if there is a stress mark.
4. When you present: simply put in the jump drive and open the document on the smart board, so that everyone can see it clearly.
5. Now read it…beautifully.
6. Now explain it to the class: a. Who is the author and when did he / she live?
b. Who is the speaker? And how have you come to that conclusion? (text clues?)
c. Point out any difficult words to the class. Use the marker and underline.
d. Now read the poem a second time (yup)
e. Now give a summary of the poem. What message is the speaker conveying?

1. Elizabeth Barrett Browning- VI. "Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand..."
2. Elizabeth Barrett Browning- XIV. "If thou must love me, let it be for nought..."
3. Elizabeth Barrett Browning –XLIII. “ How do I love thee”
4. Edmund Spenser-Sonnet 79-“ Men call you fair, and you do credit it,”
5. William Shakespeare- "Not marble nor the gilded monuments"
6. William Shakespeare- "When I do count the clock that tells the time"
7. Percy Shelley –“Bright Star”
8. Samuel Taylor Coleridge –“Work without Hope”
9. Percy Shelley- “Ozymandias”
10. Matthew Arnold- “West London”
11. George Meredith- “Lucifer in Starlight”
12. Christina Rossetti- “Remember”
13. Thomas Hardy- “In the Cemetery”
14. Rupert Brooks- III “The Dead”
15. Rupert Brooks- “The Soldier”
16. Wilfred Own- “Glory of Women”
17. Charles Sorley- “When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead”
18. Robert Bridges- “In Autumn Moonlight, when the white air wan”
19. Claude Mckay “If We Must Die”
20. Claude McKay- “The Lynching”
21. James Baldwin- “The Magpie”
22. Countee Cullen- “Yet Do I Marvel”
23. Wanda Coleman-“I am seized with a desire to end”
24. Lucille Clifton- “Won’t you celebrate with me?”
25. Jericho Brown- “Lion”
26. Rita Dove-“ Sonnet in Primary Colors”
27. Edna St. Vincent Millay. “Only Until the Cigarette is Ended”
28. Edna St. Vincent Millay-“I Know I am But a Summer to Your Heart”
29. Sherman Alexie- “Farm Town Virgins”
30. Eleanor Alexander “Now”
31. Amy Lowell “To A Friend”
32. Paul Lawrence Dunbar-“Slow through the Dark”

Monday 3 October Act V

One hundred point bonus: identify the above image by artist and title. Either send in an e-mail before class on Monday or put it on the desk. This was posted after class on Friday.

DUE IN CLASS TODAY: Act V questions.
class work: review of acts IV and V.
Due tomorrow by 6 pm: your introductions to the paper, which is due Friday. As I am not in school tomorrow, you need to e-mail me these. I'll respond back by Wednesday afternoon with editorial corrections / comments. Use the blog address: dmpalond@frontiernet.net

Friday 30 September 2011 Act IV review

Vocabulary 2 due today. After class, 10 points off per day.
Due on Monday: finish play and turn in your Act V responses. This is your final assessment on Hamlet.
In class: sonnet review. See copy of handout below.
we are looking at two contemporary sonnets by Sherman Alexie and sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare. See copies of the material below.

“A sonnet is fundamentally a dialectical construct which allows the poet to examine the nature and ramifications of two usually contrastive ideas, emotions, states of mind, beliefs, actions, events, images, etc., by juxtaposing the two against each other, and possibly resolving or just revealing the tensions created and operative between the two. “
O. K., so much for the fancy language. Basically, in a sonnet, you show two related but differing things to the reader in order to communicate something about them. Each of the three major types of sonnets (Italian or Petrarchan, Spenserian (from Spenser’s Faerie Queene) and Shakespearean) accomplishes this in a somewhat different way. There are, of course, other types of sonnets, as well, but since we are looking at Shakespeare…The English sonnet has the simplest and most flexible pattern of all sonnets, consisting of 3 quatrains of alternating rhyme and a couplet:
a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
g g
As in the Spenserian, each quatrain develops a specific idea, but one closely related to the ideas in the other quatrains.
Not only is the English sonnet the easiest in terms of its rhyme scheme, calling for only pairs of rhyming words rather than groups of 4, but it is the most flexible in terms of the placement of the volta, that is the turn, when a new idea is introduced.

SONNET 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Blood Sonnets by Sherman Alexie

Years ago, in Spokane, a woman saved
A family of orphaned baby geese.
An amateur ornithologist, she raised
Those birds into adulthood, and then released
Them into the pond at Manito Park,
Where a dozen swans, elegant and white,
Tore the tame geese open and ate their hearts.
Of course, all of this was broadcast live
On the local news. Eyewitnesses wept.
My mother and I shrugged, not at death,
But at those innocent folks who believe
That birds don't murder, rape, and steal.
Like us, swans can be jealous and dangerous,
And, oh, so lovely, sure and monogamous.



When my father left me (and my mother
And siblings), to binge-drink for days and weeks,
I always wept myself into nosebleeds.
And sure, you might think this is another
Poem about a wounded father and son,
But honestly, the only blood was mine,
And it flowed from absence, not from a punch
Or kick. My father, drunk or not, was kind
And passive, and never lifted a fist
To strike. Drunk daddy only hit the road,
missed And I'd become the rez Hamlet who
His father so much that he bled red ghosts.
Years later, in Seattle, my nose bled
When my mom called and said, "Your father is dead."

Thursday 29 September 2011

Vocabulary 2 due tomorrow

Please finish Act IV by tomorrow.

Final assessment / Act V due Monday.

Finish the play by Monday. Turn in the accompanying responses to Act V. This is your final assessement. There will be no cumulative test on the play.

Act V study questions for Hamlet DUE MONDAY 3 OCTOBER test grade.

1. Even Shakespeare’s tragedies have comedians and Hamlet’s are the gravediggers. Why was Ophelia allowed a Christian burial, despite having committed suicide? And “What is he that builds stronger than the mason, the shipwright or the carpenter? V.i.1-61.





2. Hamlet plays word games with the gravedigger. Eventually, the prince asks him how long he has been at this profession. Shakespeare then uses the digger to make a dig at the English by explaining to Hamlet, whom he does not recognize, where for is the prince and why it makes no difference whether or not he returns to Denmark. Explain this self-effacing humor. V.i.145-160.






3. The macabre fascinated the Elizabethans, much as it does many in contemporary society. According to the gravedigger, what determines the time necessary for decomposition of a corpse? And whose skull is discovered in the grave? V.i. 168-191.




4. What was Horatio’s relationship with individual who once occupied the skull? V.i.202


5. What does Horatio do, asking them to “hold off the earth awhile?” And when Hamlet steps into the scene, how does he behave? V.i.258-273.





6. How does supposedly Hamlet feel about Ophelia’s death? What does he mean by these parting words” “The cat will mew, and the dog will have his day.” V.i.285-311.





7. Explain the following words said to Horatio by Hamlet: “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, / Rough hew them how we will” (V.ii.11-2).





8. What did Hamlet discover in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s sea cabin? How did he change the information to suit his own purpose? V.ii.15-60.







9. What does Osric tell Hamlet that Claudius has wagered in his match against Laertes? V.ii.160-166




10. Horatio worries that Hamlet is not as good a fencer as Laertes, but the prince assures him that while in France he has improved from “continual practice.” Hamlet is determined to “defy augury.” “There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now, yet it will come. The readiness is all” Explain Hamlet’s attitude toward the upcoming match. V.ii.233-236.





11. What explanation for his behavior does Hamlet give to Laertes? V.i.240-258







12. How does Claudius demonstrate his support for Hamlet during the match? V.ii.286-307






13. Claudius announces that the queen “swoons to see [Laertes and Hamlet] bleed. What is the real reason? V.ii.339-341


14. How does Hamlet kill Claudius? V.ii.356-359.



15. What is Hamlet’s last request for Horatio? V.ii.381-384




16. Fortinbras from the Polish wars and the ambassador from England arrive after the debacle. Horatio orders the bodies “high on a stage be placed to the view.” “So shall [they] hear / Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, / Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters, / Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause, / And in this upshot, purposes mistook / Fall’n on the inventors heads.” V.ii.415-427. That pretty much sums up the plot. Give specific examples of each.


a. Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts.


b. Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters


c. Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause


d. And in this upshot, purposes mistook / Fall’n on the inventors heads

See below for a copy of the questions that have been handed out in class.

Wednesday 27 September paper prep

vocabulary 2 is due Friday

please turn in your questions to Act III

In class today: we are continuing with preparing for the paper concerning the relationship between Hamlet and his ghost dad. We'll be using the handouts from yesterday. They will be collected at the end of class and returned tomorrow, so as to be used for your paper.

Please read the through Act IV for Friday....and finish the play by Monday.

Heads up: by Tuesday 6 pm, make sure you have e-mailed me your introduction to the paper.

Act IV notes:

NOTES fir ACT IV
Scene I: Gertrude relates to King Claudius that Hamlet has killed Polonius, and that her son is "mad as the sea and wind when both contend / Which is the mightier" (IV.i.7-8). It's even more important now to get the kid out of the kingdom.
Scene ii: Rosencratz and Guidenstern ask Hamlet where Polonius' body is. Hamlet calls out their syncophancy, the way they suck up to the king: they are sponges, who "soak[ ] up the King's countenance, / his rewards, his authorities...When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again" (IV.ii.15-21).
Scene iii: Hamlet finally relents and tells the king where Polonius might be found"Hamlet eventually tells the King "but if, indeed, you find him not / within this month, you shall nose him as you go up / the stairs into the lobby" (IV.ii.38-41). After Hamlet departs for England, the King's soliloquy reveals that "by letters congruing to that effect / The present death of Hamlet"(IV.iii.73-74).
Scene iv.: Hamlet encounters Fortinbras and his army, who are on their way to attack Poland. Through the conversation between Hamlet and the Captain we gain some insight into the purposelessness of war. Captain: "Truly to speak, and with no addition, / We go to gain a little patch of ground / That hath in it no profit but the name"(IV.iv.19-21). Hamlet observes that the war is being fought simply because of "much wealth and peace." This scene closes with another soliloquy, where he compares his own inaction to how Fortinbras "makes mouths at the invisible event / Exposing what s mortal and unsure / To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, / Even for an eggshell" (Iv.iv.53-55). In other words, for "honor's sake", Norway will attack a tiny, useless piece of Poland, and Poland will not yield it, because this would not be honorable. Yet, Hamlet "that have a father killed, a mother stained" has yet to seek his father's revenge. The soliloquy concludes with his "thoughts be[ing] bloody, or be[ing] nothing at all."
Scene v. Ophelia "speaks much of her father;...speaks things in doubt / That carry but half sense" and people are listening. Horatio convinces Queen Gertude to have a conversation with her. The King wants her watched closely and observes, "when sorrows come, they come not single spies, / But in battalions"(IV.v.84-85). Note how he summarizes the play to this point.
And if that is not enough, in comes "young Laertes, in a riotous head" and assumes Claudius is the killer. The king assures him that he is "guiltless of [his] father's death / And am most sensibly in grief for it"(IV.v.171-72). Then Ophelia comes along, strewing flowers: rosemary for remembrance, pansies for thoughts, rue and daisies. The king takes advantage of the situation- Laertes grief and anger over his father's death, who incidentally had an "obscure funeral" and "no noble rite nor formal ostentation", and his sister's mental breakdown, to take the time to calm him down.Act IV. scene vi.: Horatio gets a letter from Hamlet, who relate how he switched the message sent from Claudius to England that said the Prince was to be killed. In his stead now, his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will be murdered.
Act IV. scene vii. Laertes wants to know why Claudius hasn't done anything about his father Polonius' death. Claudius' excuse is that "the Queen his mother / Lives almost by his looks (IV.vii.13-4) and the public has a "great love" for him. then what news should be imparted: Hamlet's back, but the has an idea. Laertes will "be ruled / The rather if you could devise it so / That I might be the organ" (IV.vii.77-9). That is Laertes wants to be the one to carry out Claudius' plan. Claudius flatters Laertes that he is known for his "rapier most especial", sword fighting. The king then goads him by questioning his love for his father: "was your father dear to you? / Or are you like a painting of a sorrow / A face without a heart?(IV.viii.122-24). Claudius will arrange a friendly sword competition between Hamlet and Laertes, but Hamlet, "being remiss, / Most generous, and free from all contriving, / Will not peruse the foils" (IVLaertes sword will have a poison tip. These lines should give you insight into Hamlet's character.
And still to come in scene vii: Ophelia's death by drowning. But Laertes refuses to cry for "too much of water hast" she.

Tuesday September 27 paper intro act III notes.

Vocabulary 2 due Friday

Paraphrasing of Hamlet's soliloquy due today

Act III questions due tomorrow / Wednesday (test grade)

Analysis exercise between Hamlet and his father due today in class.

Notes for Act III on this blog

In class: we are looking at the relationship between Hamlet and his father as a stepping stone to building an analysis paper.

To begin: reread Act I.iv.

Then complete the relationship chart that follows.
Act 1, Scene 5

SCENE V. Another part of the platform.

Enter GHOST and HAMLET

HAMLET

Where wilt thou lead me? speak; I'll go no further.

Ghost

Mark me.

HAMLET

I will.

Ghost

My hour is almost come, 5
When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames
Must render up myself.

HAMLET

Alas, poor ghost!

Ghost

Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
To what I shall unfold. 10

HAMLET

Speak; I am bound to hear.

Ghost

So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.

HAMLET

What?

Ghost

I am thy father's spirit,
Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, 15
And for the day confined to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word 20
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part
And each particular hair to stand on end, 25
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine:
But this eternal blazon must not be
To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
If thou didst ever thy dear father love--

HAMLET

O God! 30

Ghost

Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

HAMLET

Murder!

Ghost

Murder most foul, as in the best it is;
But this most foul, strange and unnatural.

HAMLET

Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift 35
As meditation or the thoughts of love,
May sweep to my revenge.

Ghost

I find thee apt;
And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, 40
Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:
'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged process of my death
Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, 45
The serpent that did sting thy father's life
Now wears his crown.

HAMLET

O my prophetic soul! My uncle!

Ghost

Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,-- 50
O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
So to seduce!--won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen:
O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there!
From me, whose love was of that dignity 55
That it went hand in hand even with the vow
I made to her in marriage, and to decline
Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
To those of mine!
But virtue, as it never will be moved, 60
Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed,
And prey on garbage.
But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air; 65
Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
My custom always of the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of my ears did pour 70
The leperous distilment; whose effect
Holds such an enmity with blood of man
That swift as quicksilver it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body,
And with a sudden vigour doth posset 75
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine;
And a most instant tetter bark'd about,
Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,
All my smooth body. 80
Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand
Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd:
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd,
No reckoning made, but sent to my account 85
With all my imperfections on my head:
O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!
If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damned incest. 90
But, howsoever thou pursuest this act,
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught: leave her to heaven
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once! 95
The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire:
Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me. Define each of the following verbs, noting any positive or negative connotations. In Act I.5, it is the Ghost’s purpose to

corrupt ____________________________________________________________________
help ____________________________________________________________________
save _____________________________________________________________________
destroy _____________________________________________________________________
induct _____________________________________________________________________
seduce _____________________________________________________________________
empower ___________________________________________________________________
infect ____________________________________________________________________
tempt ____________________________________________________________________
enslave ____________________________________________________________________
inspire _____________________________________________________________________
transform ___________________________________________________________________
ensnare ___________________________________________________________________
invade ____________________________________________________________________
use ____________________________________________________________________
guide ___________________________________________________________________¬¬¬

…… his son.
DIRECTIONS FOR PAPER
English III Honors Hamlet essay. Due Friday 7 October
Based upon the following criteria of blood-revenge, discuss how Hamlet exemplifies-or does not- this act.
Requirements: TYPED (no exceptions)
MLA format- including header and pagination
Size 12, Times New Roman
MINIMUM of 500 words; include word count- under tools
MINIMUM of 6 specific textual references with Act, scene and
annotation.
Please make arrangements to see me soon, if you need support. Plan on bringing your outline. I am available periods 1, 2, 4, and 6, as well as before and after school. Can’t come then? Communicate by e-mail with specific questions. dolly.parker@rcsdk12.org
Keep in mind your thesis! This is a fact based essay, not an opinion of the play or its author. You make statements, you support them with specific evidence and you give an analysis. Of course, it is necessary to have carefully read the play.

BLOOD-REVENGE: A custom nearly universal in the tribal or clan stage of society, often surviving later, binding the kin of a murdered man to secure satisfaction for the murder by the death of the slayer or of one of his clan. The custom depends upon two fundamentals of that stage of civilization: (1) the sacredness of life and the solidarity of the clan; (2) the lex talionis. Its essence is execution of the slayer or some of his kin by the representatives of the slain, not by public authorities; it belongs therefore to private as opposed to public justice. In nomadic society the perpetuation of the clan depends upon its fighting strength and its sense of unity. Hence assault upon a member of the clan, if attended with even unintended fatal results, involves the tribe, clan, or family of the slain in what is felt to be a sacred duty, the avenging of the shedding of blood. The custom is important from the standpoint of utilitarian ethics, since the knowledge that reparation will be demanded by the clan of the assailed restrains a potential assailant from wanton attack and makes men more careful in ordinary intercourse. The duty set by the institution is binding, and so close is the relationship in the clan that all its members may become involved, the result being a blood-feud between the clans of the assailant and the victim. Usually, however, the duty devolves upon the next of kin. Refusal on his part to exercise his right and perform his duty subjects him to utter contempt and even to outlawry (http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc02/htm/iv.v.clviii.htm).


Act III. scene i notes:
Queen Gertrude and King Claudius inquire of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern how their meeting with Hamlet went. They reply he was "most like a gentleman", didn't ask many questions but answered any they had.

Polonius then puts into play his plan for his daughter Ophelia to speak to Hamlet, whilst he and the king listen in, this being to ascertain if Hamlet's madness is really caused by his love for Ophelia.

Hamlet enters and we have his famous to be or not to be speech. Should he kill himself? What are the arguments for and against suicide?

Hamlet and Ophelia converse. She returns his "perfume-lost" love letters. Hamlet plays word games with her, questioning her honesty and telling her to "get thee to a nunnery" for he is "indifferent honest" and an "arrant knave." As he speaks harshly to Ophelia, but perhaps the words are really meant for his mother. He then says, That those that are married already / all but one, shall live"(III.i.160). On that note, he leaves.
Ophelia's very distraught over this noble mind o'er throwned. But the King realizes that love is not the root of Hamlet's madness."His affections do not tend that way." He determines to send the Prince to England., as "Madness in great ones must not unwatched go." Polonious still thinks Ophelia is the cause, but asks King Claudius to let the Queen privately speak with her son about her grief, before he is sent away.
Act III.ii.
Hamlet practices with players / actors and gives them new lines to insert into the play. Shakespeare has him give good advice to being a successful performer. These words hold true today. As well, he tells Horatio of his plans, that he is to "rivit" to the [King's] face." Horatio agrees to watch carefully.
The play: Hamlet makes bawdy allusions with Ophelia, and she notes that he is "merry".
In the play within the play: note that Hamlet tells the King the play is entitled "The Mousetrap." In"The Murder of Gonzago" the former king's death, Hamlet's father's murder, is reenacted. Claudius has a fit and the play is brought to a premature end.
Horatio too has noted the king's behavior and Guildenstern informs him of the king's choler (anger) and that the Queen wishes to speak with him. With both Guildenstern and Polonius, Hamlet plays more word games, augmenting the belief that he is truly mad. The scene ends with the "witching time of night" when Hamlet knows he is capable of action. But to his mother, he must "be cruel, not unnatual"; "speak daggers, but use none."

Act III.iii
The King tells Rosencrantz and Guidenstern to take Hamlet to England.
Polonius informs the King that Hamlet is with his mother. King Claudius' reflects on his actions. Hamlet observes him "a-praying" and so decides not to kill him, because that would mean the King would be forgiven in God's eyes. Remember his father is in Purgatory; how ironic if his murderer goes to heaven.
Act III.iv
Polonius hides behind the arras (curtain), whilst Hamlet converses with his mother. Hamlet kills Polonius. This is an intense scene. What do you think is the nature of the relationship between Hamlet and his mother? He is violent towards her, makes vivid comparisons between his father and her new husband, and overt sexual references. His father's ghost appears- or does it, as only Hamlet sees him- and chides him: "Do not forget. This visitation / Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose"(III.iv.126-7). In the meantime, Gertrude thinks he is crazy and asks him to "sprinkle cool patience". When the ghost leaves, Hamlet explains he "must be cruel to be kind." She should not "go to my uncle's bed"...for "a pair of reechy kisses." The scene concludes with her acquiesing to Hamlet's demands and Hamlet telling her that he is to England with "two school fellows / Whom [he] will trust as adders fanged". (Note that he refers to the "letters sealed" his friends carry. These are a mandate from Claudius to kill the Prince, but Hamlet is aware and relishes the idea "when in one line two crafts directly meet". First though he'll "lug the guts (that's Polonius) into the neighbor room."