“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players” -William Shakespeare
“Life is a play. It’s not its length, buts its performance that counts” -Seneca
Playwrights have, throughout history, been tasked with providing a monumentally difficulty in providing a snapshot of humanity told through the lens of humanity about humanity using humanity. In another way, drama becomes the essence or reflection to the truth regarding society and what the society is comprised of. This can be a very richly rewarding experience validating the norms and customs of the present while also expanding them from the limitations woven into the fabrics of society at that time. And, over time, drama has an uncanny ability in not only surviving from its inception but evolving into something more…so where drama was once a snapshot of a moment in time, it begins to change into a photo album chronicling elements, ideas, concepts, and themes that have not only served as reflective but proactive in our continual understanding. Consider these expanded boundaries as you read drama, think reflectively (and introspectively) on its relation to you and beyond you. There is a reason that plays written hundreds of years ago survive to the day (and are adapted into the present day of affairs too).
For your final out of class assignment you are being asked to examine one of the options below. You should consider meeting ALL of the various components for the writing and know that your thesis, your direction, your development will be ENTIRELY up to you. You will be expected to demonstrate organizational flow, fully developed ideas, have a consistently focused argument, and a strong consideration of evidence to sustain your argument as it develops.
The options to choose from are:
• determine the degree of effect that the play, Hamlet, signifies challenges BETWEEN the concepts of the divine and the humankind that signify their assured mutuality by examining their simultaneous similar contradictions (meaning moments in which scenes within the play exhibit contradictory allusions to opposites that, in effect, present a cohesion instead).
