HAMLET ACT 1 SCENE 2

HAMLET ACT 1 SCENE 1

The Art of Hosting Good Conversations

I sent some emails out at around 9 last night to a professor at a small college in Washington and a teacher of a high school in Texas. I haven't yet heard of anything feedback from either. 

Vocabulary: Fall List 6 ❗️

abase - verb cause to feel shame; hurt the pride of

-The 15 year old team's loss to the 13 year olds abased them. 
abdicate - verb give up, such as power, as of monarchs and emperors, or duties and obligations

-After learning about his health, the president of the club abticated his position. 
abomination - noun an action that is vicious or vile; an action that arouses disgust or abhorrence; a person who is loathsome or disgusting; hate coupled with disgust

-After embarassing his family, he was considered an abomination. 
brusque - adj. marked by rude or peremptory shortness

-The kids who had already completed their tests were being brusque to the others still trying to take their tests. 
saboteur - noun someone who commits sabotage or deliberately causes wrecks; a member of a clandestine subversive organization who tries to help a potential invader

-In Tom and Jerry, Jerry is the saboteur of Tom's life. 
debauchery - noun a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity

-At bars, there's usually a lot of debaucheries. 
proliferate - verb cause to grow or increase rapidly; grow rapidly

-The disease he had caused his bones to proliferate over the rest of his body. 
anachronism - noun an artifact that belongs to another time; a person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age;something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred

-In Indiana Jones, Jones is always looking for some type of anachronism. 
nomenclature - noun a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline

-His mom had came up with a nomenclature to punish him. 
expurgate - verb edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate

-After writing the first draft, I went back and expurgated my essay. 
bellicose - adj. having or showing a ready disposition to fight

-After being told off for no reason at all, the man was bellicose towards the other man. 
gauche - adj. lacking social polish

-Because he was so gauche, nobody really made an effort to talk to him. 
rapacious - adj. excessively greedy and grasping; devouring or craving food in great quantities; living by preying on other animals especially by catching living prey

-There are some millionares who are rapacious, then there are some who are very generuous. 
paradox - noun (logic) a statement that contradicts itself

-The author got his point across by using various situations of paradox. 
conundrum - noun a difficult problem

-Deciding what college you want to go to can be sort of a conundrum. 
anomaly - noun (astronomy) position of a planet as defined by its angular distance from its perihelion (as observed from the sun); a person who is unusual; deviation from the normal or common order or form or rule

-Many are judges as anomalies, but once you get to know them, they are actually the total opposite. 
ephemeral - adj. lasting a very short time; nounanything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form

-Their argument was ephemeral. 
rancorous - adj. showing deep-seated resentment

-After being beat in the championship, the team was rancorous towards the winning team. 
churlish - adj. having a bad disposition; surly;rude and boorish

-While watching the movie, the teenage kids were being churlish. 
precipitous - adj. characterized by precipices;extremely steep; done with very great haste and without due deliberation

-He didn't check to see if the hill was precipitous before he went down it on his skateboard. 

Phonar Assignment (Option C)

This is a picture I never took 

of a sunsetted scene with the sound of waves as a young pup jumps in the air and catches a frisbee his owner had thrown. As what seemed to be a period of mayhem and clashing in life at the moment, I sat back and took a breath of fresh air and realized that everything is just gonna be okay. 

GREEN EGGS AND HAMLET

a) All I know about Hamlet is that it's a widely-known piece of literature that everyone is always buzzing about, but I've never taken the time to read it. And also, Shakespeare wrote it. 

b) I know that Shakespeare was a writer from the olden days. Where they used to where funky-looking outfits and men wore tights. He has a lot of famous pieces of literature like Romeo and Juliet, and they are studied all over the world because of how great of a writer he is seen to be. 

c) So many students involuntarily frown automatically when they hear "Shakespeare" because a lot of teachers look at him as a God and we don't know why. His Elizabethan writing makes no sense to us at all. Other than certain little things like that, his stories tend to be pretty interesting. 

d) To make this play an amazing experience we'll never forget we can probably do a fun, colloborative project. 

THE POINT OF CANTERBURY TALES IS...

Personally, I believe Chaucer's main point in The Canterbury Tales is to incorporate a range of attitudes toward not only life, but literature as well. The stories are very satirical, but at the same time explore people's everday lives. 

Vocabulary: Fall List 5 ❗️

shenanigans - noun secret or dishonest activity or maneuvering

-None of my teachers put up with shenanigans.  
ricochet - noun a glancing rebound; 

verb spring back; spring away from an impact

-After shooting the bee-bee gun, the bee-bee ricocheted off of the fence. 
schism - noun division of a group into opposing factions; the formal separation of a church into two churches or the withdrawal of one group over doctrinal differences

-The Catholic Church is a schism of Christianity. 
eschew - verb avoid and stay away from deliberately; stay clear of

-Sometimes it's better to eschew from people who bring drama to their lives. 
plethora - noun extreme excess

-In the War Zone, there's a plethora of students that there's hardly anywhere to sit. 
ebullient - adj. joyously unrestrained

-He had a very ebullient personality. 
garrulous - adj. full of trivial conversation

-Garrulous is practically the same thing as loquacious. 
harangue - noun a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion; verb deliver a harangue to; address forcefully

-His parents harangued him into going to that school. 
interdependence - noun a reciprocal relation between interdependent entities (objects or individuals or groups)

-The countries agreed on being allies and interdependence. 
capricious - adj. determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason; changeable

-His mind was easily capricious. 
loquacious - adj. full of trivial conversation

-The two professors had a very loquacious conversation. 
ephemeral - adj. lasting a very short time; nounanything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form

-Their relationship was ephemeral. 
inchoate - adj. only partly in existence; imperfectly formed

-His feelings are inchoate. 
juxtapose - verb place side by side

-All of the cans in the store were juxtaposed. 
perspicacious - adj. acutely insightful and wise;mentally acute or penetratingly discerning

-Since the teacher was perspicacious all the students looked up to him. 
codswallop - noun nonsensical talk or writing

-When people are tired or sleepy they talk codswallop. 
mungo - noun cloth made from recycled woven or felted material.

-Tom's are a brand that are built from mungo. 
sesquipedelian - adj characterized by long words; long-winded:

-Shakespeare's writings seem kind of sesquipedelian at times. 
wonky - adj. inclined to shake as from weakness or defect; turned or twisted toward one side

-The bolt on the bike was loose, resulting in wonky wheels. 
diphthong - noun a vowel sound that starts near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves toward the position for another

-The piece of literature contained various words that included dipthongs. 

TALE OF A CANTERBURY TALE (In collaboration with Stevie Wisz)

The Miller's Tale

   After the Knight's Tale is appluaded, the Miller is asked to match it, or even better the Knight's Tale. The Miller goes on to say he has the most noble tale, but the Host says to let a "better" man tell it. Drunk, the Miller threatens to leave, but the host stops him and the Miller goes on.  He introduces his tale as a legend and a life of a carpenter and of his wife, and of how a clerk made a fool of the carpenter, which everyone understands to mean that the clerk slept with the carpenter’s wife. The Reeve objects to his profound story, but the Miller goes on. He finally began his story with a guy named Nicholas who studied astrology at Oxford and roomed with the carpenter, John. John's wife was Alisoun. Nicholas sleeps with Alisoun and goes on to caress her by buying gifts, etc. Since Alisoun ends up loving Nicholas, they end up scheming to spend one night together. Nicholas acts like he's ill and tells John that God has spoken to him and that there's going to be a terrible flood. Then goes on to tell John to get three tubs so they could sleep in them before the flood and escape. Once John falls asleep in the tubs, Nicholas and Alisoun run off to spend the night together. The run into Absalon who hopes for a kiss from Alisoun. Absalon persists so Alisoun gives him one kiss. Absalon goes in for another, but Alisoun puts her butt to his lips and Absalon seeks revenge for her prank. Absalon goes to the blacksmith with a hot iron and knocks on Alisoun's door, but Nicholas opens the door, farting on Absalon and he brands Nicholas's butt. Nicholas yells for water and awakes John. John, thinking the flood has come, cuts the tubs falling to the ground and breaking his arm. The noise attracts the townspeople and John tells the story of the flood. Nicholas and Alisoun tell everyone John is just ignorant and mad and lying about the flood. The townspeople laugh that all have received their dues, and the Miller merrily asks that God save the company.

1. The central character of this tale is John, the carpenter. Chaucer utilizes indirect characterization several times to introduce this character:

 "He jealously kept her as if inside a cage, for she was one both young and wild, and he had fears of being a cuckold, so advanced in years." This example demonstrates his level of protection and jealousy over his new wife, Alisoun.

 "In Oxford there once lived a rich old lout who had some guest rooms that he rented out, and carpentry was this old fellow's trade." This specific quote portrays the social/economical class John came from and also his career.

"Not educated, he had never read Cato: one like himself a man should wed, he ought to marry mindful of his state, for youth and age are often at debate." This depicts the carpenters intelligence and knowledge, it claims that he is an uneducated man who did not take age and youth into consideration before marrying.
"To cross himself the carpenter began, and said, "Help us, I pray, Saint Frideswide! This example tells the audience that John is a religious man who looks up to a saint for help/inspiration.
"It was for naught, his reasons were resisted. With such great oaths the fellow was put down, he was considered mad throughout the town; each learned man agreed with every other, saying, "The man is mad, beloved brother," and everyone just laughed at all his strife." This quote gives insight to the society's outlook on John the carpenter. No matter what he said or urged for, they all continued to make humor of him and the situation he was in and considered him as a foolish, mad man.
"This silly carpenter began to shake; he feared he was to witness verily Old Noah's flood come rolling like the sea to drown young Alison, his honey dear. He weeps and wails, he looks so sad and drear as many a sigh he heaves, a mournful sough. He goes and gets a kneading trough somehow, one tub and then another, which he then has privately transported to the inn; in privacy he hangs them as instructed." This use of indirect characterization depicts John's true love for his wife, his dedication to their relationship and love, and also his determination to keep his lovely wife safe and out of harms way.

2. This tale is the funniest that Chaucer has read, in many critics opinions. He wrote this tale because it abounds incongruity (a young, beautiful women with a rich, old man). The story is elevated to great literary heights through Chaucer's masterful use of comic incongruity and characterization, and by the incredible neatness of the tale's construction.