Block 1 Homework and reminders

Directions:
1. Before 7pm on Tuesday evening, read "The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock" several times. Then post the lines you believe are the most significant in the poem and explain why the lines are significant. In addition, please comment on 2 of your peer's posts. (In case you couldn't guess, the opening lines of the poem are from Dante.....)

1. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse   A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,   Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.   Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo   Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,   Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.         LET us go then, you and I,   When the evening is spread out against the sky   Like a patient etherised upon a table;   Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,   The muttering retreats         5 Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels   And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:   Streets that follow like a tedious argument   Of insidious intent   To lead you to an overwhelming question …         10 Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”   Let us go and make our visit.       In the room the women come and go   Talking of Michelangelo.       The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,         15 The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes   Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,   Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,   Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,   Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,         20 And seeing that it was a soft October night,   Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.       And indeed there will be time   For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,   Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;         25 There will be time, there will be time   To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;   There will be time to murder and create,   And time for all the works and days of hands   That lift and drop a question on your plate;         30 Time for you and time for me,   And time yet for a hundred indecisions,   And for a hundred visions and revisions,   Before the taking of a toast and tea.       In the room the women come and go         35 Talking of Michelangelo.       And indeed there will be time   To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”   Time to turn back and descend the stair,   With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—         40 [They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”]   My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,   My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—   [They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”]   Do I dare         45 Disturb the universe?   In a minute there is time   For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.       For I have known them all already, known them all:—   Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,         50 I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;   I know the voices dying with a dying fall   Beneath the music from a farther room.     So how should I presume?       And I have known the eyes already, known them all—         55 The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,   And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,   When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,   Then how should I begin   To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?         60   And how should I presume?       And I have known the arms already, known them all—   Arms that are braceleted and white and bare   [But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!]   It is perfume from a dress         65 That makes me so digress?   Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.     And should I then presume?     And how should I begin?       .      .      .      .      .   Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets         70 And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes   Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?…       I should have been a pair of ragged claws   Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.       .      .      .      .      .   And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!         75 Smoothed by long fingers,   Asleep … tired … or it malingers,   Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.   Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,   Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?         80 But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,   Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] brought in upon a platter,   I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;   I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,   And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,         85 And in short, I was afraid.       And would it have been worth it, after all,   After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,   Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,   Would it have been worth while,         90 To have bitten off the matter with a smile,   To have squeezed the universe into a ball   To roll it toward some overwhelming question,   To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,   Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—         95 If one, settling a pillow by her head,     Should say: “That is not what I meant at all.     That is not it, at all.”       And would it have been worth it, after all,   Would it have been worth while,         100 After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,   After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—   And this, and so much more?—   It is impossible to say just what I mean!   But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:         105 Would it have been worth while   If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,   And turning toward the window, should say:     “That is not it at all,     That is not what I meant, at all.”       .      .      .      .      .         110 No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;   Am an attendant lord, one that will do   To swell a progress, start a scene or two,   Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,   Deferential, glad to be of use,         115 Politic, cautious, and meticulous;   Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;   At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—   Almost, at times, the Fool.       I grow old … I grow old …         120 I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.       Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?   I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.   I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.       I do not think that they will sing to me.         125     I have seen them riding seaward on the waves   Combing the white hair of the waves blown back   When the wind blows the water white and black.       We have lingered in the chambers of the sea   By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown         130 Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

 

 

Block 2 homework

We will finish our discussion of Hamlet on Tuesday.

Please bring your copies of No Exit, and Inferno to class on Tuesday. Have a great weekend!

I was sending an email to my senator and what did I see?

A picture of Sonja! Congratulations Sonja!

Questions for discussion block 1

The following are the questions for our class discussion of Hamlet on Friday. Be sure to read Act V, if you have not already.

Hamlet

Questions for discussion

 

Directions: Read the following questions and mark pages in your book to prepare for the graded discussion.

 

1. Memory and the proper relationship of the past to the present is an overwhelming concern in the play. Identify three places in the play where memory is a concern. Then, explain the significance of memory to the play as a whole (don’t forget Hamlet’s dying speech!)

 

 

2. The motif of father and son relationships is almost obsessive in the play. Identify three instances of the motif in the play. What the significance to the play as a whole?

 

3. Hamlet contains 427 questions and begins with the question “Who’s there?” What’s the significance of this question as well as the general obsession with questions to the play, now that you have read the entire play?

 

4. The play seems to comment women and sexuality in general. What are the messages about women and sexuality that emerge from your reading of the play?

 

5. The play is very self-conscious, and at times seems to draw attention to the fourth wall of theater and to the nature of art itself. That is the play comments extensively about art, the role of art, theater, actors etc… Find five references that suggest a this self-consciousness. What is the larger significance of this to the play?

 

6. Look over Hamlet’s soliloquies in the play. Does Hamlet change as the play progresses? If so how? What are the changes? If not, why not?

 

7. The play explores the nature of reality and whether or not it is possible to know, or whether there is a knowable truth. Where is this reflected in the play? What’s the significance of the question to the play?

 

8. The play is very conscious of language and how it works. Find passages in the play that indicate this. What comments doe the play make about the nature of language…. “words, words, words” in Hamlet own words!

 

9. The play uses eyes and ears almost obsessively. Where are these motifs used and why?

 

10. What is the significance of corruption and decay in the play?

 

11. What does the play seem to say about the question of fate and free will?

Block 2

Remember to read Acts IV and V and bring your books with the motifs marked.

Block 2 notes/homework for the week

Read Act III for Wednesday; we will have a graded discussion using your questions from Acts I and II, and some additional questions I will include from Act III.

Act IV is due for Friday!

Act V is due for Tuesday 3/18

If you haven't added your Hamlet humor, be sure to do so and we'll spend a couple of moments looking at what you've uncovered.

Homework and what's ahead!

• Your homework is to read Act IV of Hamlet. Act V will be due for next Thursday (3/14).
• I reserve the right to give you reading quizzes on the assigned reading :)
• Be sure to keep up with the reading.