Sunday, February 10, 2013

Response to Course Material #6


These past few weeks have served to present our final on Hamlet, watch an interesting adaptation of Hamlet, practice multiple-choice questions for the AP exam, and begin “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”.

For the final we were supposed to choose a scene and preform tow different interpretations of it. MY group and I choose to preform the scene in which the king is praying and confessing his murder to god. The first interpretation essentially labeled Hamlet as timid/unsure Claudius as actually being sorry.  In the second interpretation, Hamlet is a little bit more certain of what he wants to do (kill Claudius) and Claudius does not actually feel sorry for what he has done but instead has seen Hamlet walk into the confession room. I believe that this final was much more effective than the terms test because it gave me a better understanding of Hamlet as a whole. However, I do believe that the terms we were supposed to be tested on should still be practiced because they will be an important tool for the AP Exam. After doing the practice multiple-choice section for homework, I realize that I am not able to effectively apply the terms. For example metonymy and synecdoche mean essentially the same thing, but how does one know when, which one is which?

We just began reading “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.” So far I am really having trouble understanding the underlying meaning of what is going on. For example the references to the laws of economics do not make any sense to me as they are referenced in the play and I will probably have to do some research on various aspects while annotating. I like that this play fills in the gaps of what was not said in Hamlet. I am excited to learn what happens to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as they proceed through their journey to England.

4 comments:

  1. I agree with you, the Hamlet final was much more effective than the terms final. I thought it was a better learning experience than failing the terms, but I also wish that we were to practice the terms more in class. We should have a different term each day and talk about it and give examples!

    Nice job giving examples for both topics, well-written response!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was so happy when she changed the final! And I like how you covered it in this post, however I would maybe add just a little snippet about how/why we chose the interpretations we did. Then when preparing for the AP exam it can be fresh in your head and could be really helpful for an essay! I also agree with you about the terms and how we need more practice. I think the only way to truly understand them is through practice and examples which we haven't been recently doing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really liked the Hamlet final because it really made us analyze the heck out of it! I think this will help on the AP because analyzing writing is a big part of the exam. I agree we should review terms more in class, I miss doing tone words everyday. I'm glad you included your interpretations of the scene you chose because I think that helped you in the reflection part of this post. Nice examples and reflection in your response!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great job on this response. I can understand your confusion with a lot of the techniques and references in R&G. Though, I think Ms Holmes actually did stop to explain a few of these. She explained why it was ridiculous that Guildenstern tried to use the "law of probability" and "law of diminishing returns." I actually found this play easier to grasp than Hamlet since the humor was more evident.

    ReplyDelete