Ignore any parts that have to do with literary criticism.
If you can, try to help me edit this down to a 5 page essay instead of an 8 page one in MLA format that will still have the required quotes from the exact types of sources i need.
See if you could also give me a grade based on the rubric included here as well. thank you!
Research Paper: Overview
In this packet:
- Diagnosing Hamlet: Your Task
- The Product: Requirements
- The Annotated Bibliography
- Everything You Need to Know About MLA
- What Is Critical Theory?
- Keep the Following in Mind...
- Important Dates
Diagnosing Hamlet
The central mystery in it -- namely the meaning of Hamlet's hesitancy in seeking to obtain revenge for his father's murder -- has been called the Sphinx of modern literature. - Ernest Jones, Hamlet and Oedipus, W.W.Norton, N.Y. 1976. p.22.
Dr. Laurentius M.D.: "How are you doing today, Hamlet?"
Hamlet: "...I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a most sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted golden fire: why it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. ...Man delights me not; nor woman neither, [sigh]" (1.3.303)
Dr. Laurentius: "Tsk tsk. My boy, it's obvious. You've got a bad case of melancholy."
Your (No Small) Task: Imagine you are a psychologist who has been given the arduous task of diagnosing the central character in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Long has waged the debate over whether the plays central character is mad, melancholy, or is merely feigning madness. (Or, in the process of playing the role of mad man, does he actually lose his grasp on reality?) After seeing the ghost (?) of his late father, Hamlet tells his friends that in an effort to seek revenge he may put on an antic disposition, short for acting a bit "kooky." For some the debate ends here: Hamlet feigns madness in order to accomplish his goal. Others argue that Hamlet is mad; others contend that he is melancholy and deep in grief and anguish. Still others suggest that in the process of playing the role of mad man, Hamlet indeed becomes mad. It is now your turn to decide. You must diagnose Hamlet as mad, melancholy, as one who is feigning madness, or as one who becomes mad while playing a role. You will use the primary text (the play) to help diagnose your patient, citing quotes and making direct references to the play to support your argument. But you will also need to do more than this: you will need to find secondary sources that help support your diagnosis. First, you must begin to understand what it means to be melancholy, what it means to be mad, what it means to be overcome with grief, and what it means to take on a role and perhaps be overcome. It will not be enough to say: Hamlet is mad or Hamlet is melancholy. You must dissect what these words mean to you and to others. Reality is arbitrary. My reality may not be yours. Madness to me may not be madness to you. Therefore, you first task will be to get a handle on these definitions and then begin to look back at your patient's history. Good luck!
The Product of your research will be a well supported paper that strictly adheres to MLA format for research papers. The specific requirements for Honors and College Prep. vary and are listed below.
British Literature: Honors
- 5 page paper, strict MLA format for research papers, including a works cited page, and the use of 12 point Times New Roman font
- 5 secondary sources: at least 2 dictionaries (including one medical or psychological dictionary); 2 print/book/journal articles that apply critical theory to the primary text; 1 credible online source. Each source must be cited within the body of your paper.
- At least 5 in-text citations from the primary text that substantiate your thesis.
- A bibliography with annotations for two of your print or online sources
- Paper submission to turnitin.com
British Literature: College Prep
- 3 page paper, strict MLA format for research papers, including a works cited page, and the use of 12 point Times New Roman font
- 3 secondary sources: at least 1 dictionary (medical or psychological dictionary); 1 print/book/journal article that applies critical theory to the primary text; 1 credible online source. Each source must be cited within the body of your paper.
- At least 5 in-text citations from the primary text that substantiate your thesis.
- A bibliography with annotations for your print or online source
- Paper submission to turnitin.com
The (dreaded) Annotated Bibliography
A bibliography is a list of sources used for researching a topic. Bibliographies are sometimes called Works Cited, as the sources listed for a bibliography are the sources you will likely list on your Works cited page. A bibliography includes the bibliographic information (author, title, publisher, etc.) for each of your sources. An annotated bibliography includes a summary or "nutshell' statement for each of your sources as well as an overall evaluation of the source itself.
Annotated bibliographies are typically standard at the college level. For our purposes, I only want you to be exposed to an annotated bibliography; thus, you will write an annotation for 1-2 of your sources, depending on your class.
For each source in an annotated bibliography, you must do the following:
1) List the bibliographic information for the source. Source information MUST be in MLA format.
2) Write a "nutshell' statement: a summary and evaluation of the source. What is the main point of the source? What are the author's main arguments?
3) Write a reflection statement. After summarizing your source, you need to ask yourself how the information fits into your research. Was this source helpful? How does it help support and shape your argument? How will you use this source in your paper?
The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to learn about your topic. While collecting sources is useful, having to write annotations for each source forces a close reading of the material.
Annotated Bibliography Example
Elizabeth Thompson
Professor Stacks
English 102
20 August 2001
Stem Cell Research: An Annotated Bibliography
Holland, Suzanne. The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debate : Science, Ethics, and Public Policy. Boston: MIT Press, 2001.
This is the annotation of the above source. In this example, I am following MLA guidelines for the bibliographic information listed above. If I was really writing an annotation for this source, I would now be offering a brief summary of what this book says about stem cell research.
The length of your annotation will depend on the assignment or on the purpose of your annotated bibliography. After summarizing, you can now reflect on this source. How does it fit into your research? Is this a helpful resource? Too scholarly? Not scholarly enough? Too general/specific? Since "stem cell research" is a very broad topic, has this source helped you to narrow your topic?
Everything You Need to Know About MLA can be found at the following Internet site:
All Sections in MLA Formatting and Style Guide:
1. General Format
2. In-Text Citations: The Basics
3. In-Text Citations: Author-Page Style
4. Formatting Quotations
5. Footnotes and Endnotes
6. Works Cited Page: Basic Format
7. Works Cited Page: Books
8. Works Cited: Periodicals
9. Works Cited: Electronic Sources
10. Works Cited: Other Non-Print Sources
11. Additional Resources
12. Abbreviations in MLA
13. Works Cited Page: Other Print Sources
14. MLA Works Cited Example Page
15. MLA Update 2009
16. MLA Tables, Figures, and Examples
What Is Literary Criticism?
By definition, literary criticism is the informed analysis and evaluation of literature. Literary criticism is developed and presented with sufficient evidence from the text and is presented in a logical manner.
Your print source(s) must be examples of literary criticism. In other words, you must find articles written by critics about the play. Books have been set aside for us in the library. The librarians are there to help you in your search. Ms. Main has worked with the other British Literature classes on their research papers and would be a good source to go to for information. In addition, I suggest a random Google search to get you started: type hamlet and criticism, or hamlet and literary theory. Check Google book search. When in doubt about the credibility of a source, ask!
Example of Literary Criticism
In her book Suffocating Mothers, Janet Adelman contends that Hamlet signals a pivotal point in Shakespeare's dramatic vision, wherein the maternal element -- conspicuously absent from the Henriad and Julius Caesar -- returns to cause "the collapse of the fragile compact that had allowed Shakespeare to explore familial and sexual relationships in the histories and romantic comedies without devastating conflict." [1] Hamlet, a play that centres on the crisis of the masculine subject and its "radical confrontation with the sexualized maternal body," foregrounds male anxiety about mothers, female sexuality, and hence, sexuality itself. [2] Obsessed with the corruption of the flesh, Hamlet is pathologically fixated on questions of his own origin and destination -- questions which are activated by his irrepressible attraction to and disgust with the "contaminated" body of his mother. Hamlet's peculiar bond with his mother has been the focus of numerous productions of Shakespeare's play on stage and screen. Influenced by psychoanalysis, filmed versions of Hamlet in particular have emphasized the desire between sons and mothers and, in so doing, have uncannily reproduced the play's own Oedipalized attachment to the maternal. Following Franco Zeffirelli's mother-centered film (1990), Kenneth Branagh attempts to break with this tradition in his self-proclaimed "non-Oedipal" Hamlet (1996). Sanitized and allegedly "Oedipal free," Branagh's Hamlet avoids any representations of non-normative sexual desire, repressing the sexualized maternal body with a vengeance. In contrast to Laurence Olivier's (1948) and Zeffirelli's adaptations, in which popularized notions of psychoanalytic interpretation are foregrounded and exaggerated, Branagh's recent full-length film displaces Hamlet's desire onto his surrogate father, who offers "metal more attractive" for this Hamlet and, as we shall see, for Branagh himself. [3] It seems, then, that Branagh "doth protest too much," for despite his efforts to ensure that his adaptation be "liberated" from the tradition of psychoanalytically-based Hamlets, Branagh's Hamlet reproduces the Oedipal triangle in its most conspicuous, paternalistic form, offering an epic homage to the patriarchal family romance -- Hollywood style.
Examples of Literary Theories: Timeline (most of these overlap)
- Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction (~360 BC-present)
- Formalism, New Criticism, Neo-Aristotelian Criticism (1930s-present)
- Psychoanalytic Criticism, Jungian Criticism(1930s-present)
- Marxist Criticism (1930s-present)
- Reader-Response Criticism (1960s-present)
- Structuralism/Semiotics (1920s-present)
- Post-Structuralism/Deconstruction (1966-present)
- New Historicism/Cultural Studies (1980s-present)
- Post-Colonial Criticism (1990s-present)
- Feminist Criticism (1960s-present)
- Gender/Queer Studies (1970s-present)
It should have uploaded. My teacher now says it MUST be 5 pages.
Sebastian Donoso
Ms. Gallagher
British Literature I/II Honors- 5
2 April 2012
Word Count: 2254
Hamlet is a Shakespearean tragedy about Prince Hamlet's revenge on his uncle Claudius for stealing the throne from King Hamlet. After the death of the king, Hamlet meets the ghost of his father who demands he seek revenge against Claudius for killing the king. Following this encounter, Hamlet begins acting strange in front of his peers who eventually conclude the prince is mad. Many scholars insist that Hamlet's actions after the encounter with the ghost reflects symptoms of the modern diagnosis of Type I Schizophrenia. However, Critics debate whether Hamlet is pretending to be insane, goes insane in feigning madness while trying to seek revenge or if he is mentally ill to begin with. Hamlet actually begins to develop stressed-induced schizophrenia after his father's death. The encounter with the king's ghost triggers the psychotic disorder. Hamlet develops stress-induced Type I Paranoid Schizophrenia because of the death of his father and having to bear the burden of killing Claudius.
Schizophrenia is a mental psychotic disorder that diminishes the ability to distinguish reality from fantasy. Schizophrenia ranges from Type I, which are positive symptoms caused by an excess of functions to Type II, which are negative symptoms caused by a loss of functions within the brain. Subtypes range from Paranoid to Disorganized schizophrenia. A wide variety of factors can provoke anyone of these variations of schizophrenia, such as genes, an imbalance of chemicals in the brain, the death of a loved one, or even stress. Symptoms of Type I Paranoid Schizophrenia include delusions and auditory hallucinations, which revolve around them. According to 21st Century Psychology, "Anger, detachment, anxiety, argumentativeness, and a patronizing tone accompany paranoid schizophrenia" (302). The prince also has symptoms that complement paranoid schizophrenia, such as disorganized speech, thinking and behavior. In Hamlet's case, grief caused by the death of his father provokes stress-induced Type I Paranoid Schizophrenia.
The grief Hamlet experiences leads to a buildup of stress, and eventually to a stress-induced hallucination. Hamlet idealizes King Hamlet as a strong commanding leader and loving father. The very death of the King leaves Hamlet stricken with grief and without anyone to view idealistically. This grief results in Hamlet thinking nobody can understand what he is going through. Hamlet describes the extent of his depression: "But I have that within which passeth show, these but the trappings and the suits of woe" (Ham.1.2.85-86). As Gertrude marries Claudius very shortly after the King's death, Hamlet's underestimated grief builds up into stress that he is prohibited from expressing.
Stress, from life events causes Hamlet to have schizophrenic hallucinations of his dead father. According to E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., "Brown and Birley published their 1968 study claiming that life stresses were important causes of schizophrenia" (147). In "Life events and relapse in schizophrenia", Brown and Birley's 1968 study "reported that schizophrenic patients experienced significantly more events than did the control subjects in the 3 months prior to onset" (Malla 1). By assuming that schizophrenics experienced more dramatic events in the given time period than the control subjects, it is also safe to assume that it was the dramatic events that caused this onset of schizophrenia in patients. The prince's stress from the events happening in his life, including the king's death in the beginning, results in a developing Type I schizophrenia. During this development, one of the symptoms, which are hallucinations, is triggered.
A presence of distortion of thought provokes delusions caused by type I schizophrenia, making Hamlet assume this hallucination is actually the ghost of his dead father. During the encounter with the ghost, Hamlet's mind begins to see what he wants to see: his dead father. His delusion will not let him assume otherwise despite strong evidence that his father does not exist anymore. Hamlet stays true to this fantasy of meeting the dead king once more: "Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou comest in such a questionable shape that I will speak to thee. I'll call thee 'Hamlet' 'King,' 'Father,' 'royal Dane.' (Ham 1.4.46-49). Despite the impossible chance that Hamlet could speak to the king as if he were still alive, Hamlet takes this chance anyway, and follows the ghost. This alone proves that Hamlet's inner turmoil is caused by the absence of his father, and that it is King Hamlet who dictates his son's sanity. 21st Century Psychology mentions the delusions as a result of paranoid schizophrenia are "normally grandiose or persecutory and characteristically involve one theme" (Davis 302). Hamlet's mind is desperate to connect with his father; even to the point of creating false belief that the king is telling Hamlet to do harm to his own uncle. The delusion now revolves around the theme of seeking revenge against Claudius.
Hamlet's thought of killing Claudius derives from the hallucination of the dead king saying that he must do so, creating a split mind from reality by changing his philosophy from one of action to one of thought. The prince's new mindset and lack of proper parental guidance is mainly responsible for this abrupt change in thinking. When Hamlet cannot express himself to anyone, he simply retreats to his mind. The prince speaks to Rosencrantz about kingship in Denmark: "O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. (Ham.1.2.251-253). By becoming a man of thought, Hamlet's mind now has an false of reality, one of which portrays the prince being in control of everything around him. Hamlet's lack of acknowledging reality hints at further development in his Type I schizophrenia. Kurt Snyder, author of Me, Myself, and Them, suggests these symptoms could possibly be, "Disorganized thoughts and speech [that] involve an inability to organize thoughts, connect them logically, and express them coherently" (Rieger 108). Hamlet's inabilities reflect how he views Denmark, and the people around him. Type I schizophrenia is convincing Hamlet his ideas are logical and being expressed coherently, which is part of the fact that he has a split mind from reality. The prince's delusion that he must kill Claudius is driven by the false promise of regaining stability and control of his life.
As the result of his delusion that the dead king wants Hamlet to kill Claudius, Hamlet puts on an antic disposition with the intent of controlling what people think of him to avoid raising suspicion about his plan. By feigning insanity, the prince can cause people close to him and Claudius to conclude Hamlet is insane, or anything close to what he wants his peers to think. Hamlet discusses his occasional madness with Guildenstern: "I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is/southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw" (Ham. 2.2.361-362). Even though Hamlet is controlling what others think of him, Hamlet's antic disposition leaves him more vulnerable to the outside world as less of it is appealing to him. Stephen F. Davis mentions in most schizophrenics, "An individual's speech is often difficult to comprehend or follow" (301). As he draws back deeper into his mind, Hamlet becomes even more prone to true insanity in terms of schizophrenia. The prince remains superior to others in his mind, but at the expense of those around him not being able to understand him.
Hamlet's attempt to maintain his status of feigned insanity backfires, resulting in his actual symptoms of schizophrenia becoming increasingly prominent. The prince discusses who really is responsible for Hamlet's past actions: "I am punished with sore distraction. What I have done, that might your nature, honor, and exception roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness" (Ham. 5.2.215-219). Hamlet tells Laertes that at one point he was insane and now he is not. While Hamlet strongly implies having put on an antic disposition previously, the fact that he acknowledges his mad self in such a manner hints at worsening schizophrenia. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders mentions of grandiose delusions of Type I schizophrenia in which "The individual may have a superior and patronizing manner and even a stilted, formal quality or extreme intensity in interpersonal interactions" (APA 314). The prince believes that he can separate his insane self from his true self. Blaming his past actions on something else is only part of his delusions of superiority in his plot to murder Claudius.
Hamlet's decision of putting on an antic disposition is really a product of his developing Schizophrenia. When Laertes wants to challenge Hamlet to a match for mistakenly killing his father, Hamlet apologizes for any wrongdoing on his part. As Laertes and Hamlet meet, the prince explains the reasons behind his previous hostility to him: "Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged. His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy" (Ham. 5.2.225-226). The prince realizes that something is amiss in his mind. Of course, Hamlet enjoys the sanctity of his own mind, only when he controls how much of his life is at risk. However, he cannot justify his past actions after this realization, Hamlet's schizophrenia was not developed enough at the moment for anyone to realize he was making the decision to feign insanity subconsciously. It is not until after Hamlet saw the hallucination of his father when he decides to put on an antic disposition from there on. The American Psychiatric Association explains the process of schizophrenic development: "Onset tends to be later in life than the other types of schizophrenia, and the distinguishing characteristics may be more stable over time" (APA 314). The hallucination of the dead king had influenced Hamlet's decision and clouded his judgment. At the moment, Hamlet seems to be temporarily in control of his mentality of sanity. However, symptoms will eventually resurface in a much worse manner when provoked.
The antic disposition culminates in further stress because Hamlet is burdened with the task of killing Claudius, thus resulting in fully developed Type I Paranoid schizophrenia. He also uses this antic disposition with the intentions of speeding up the transition from being a man of action to being a man of thought. As a result, Hamlet's schizophrenia increases, as it is more difficult for him to hide from the task of killing his uncle. When Hamlet seems to veer away from his plot to murder Claudius, the hallucination of his father reminds him of his purpose: "Do not forget. This visitation/Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose" (Ham. 3.4.111-112) Hamlet is at the mercy of his own delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, disorganized behavior, and disorganized thinking. He no longer has control over his own actions as before, but instead is in a state of deadlock, where he is caught between him taking an action as the result of thought, or letting his illness do it for him.
Hamlet's symptom of paranoia forces the prince to harm the people who would normally not harm him. When Hamlet's confrontation with his mother Gertrude ends with a piercing scream coming from the royal bedroom, Hamlet hears somebody else screaming in the room as well. Assuming the person is Claudius, Hamlet stabs him through the curtain, where it is actually Laertes' father Polonius spying on him. According to Kurt Snyder, "People with paranoid schizophrenia may hold an unshakable belief that they are being schemed against, spied upon, lied to, or otherwise mistreated," (49). At the peak of anger at his mother and Claudius for their marriage, Hamlet assumes Gertrude had plotted with Claudius to spy on the prince as soon as he confronts Gertrude. Despite evidence that opposes this delusion, Hamlet had made the wrong assumption, taking an innocent man's life. This paranoia, if not properly controlled, can convince a person that he or she is being plotted against by others at the very least, and can lead to violent confrontations afterward. Melinda Smith, M.A., and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D., write of what happen if symptoms of Type I Paranoid schizophrenia go unnoticed: "The delusional thoughts and hallucinations of schizophrenia sometimes lead to violent behavior" (Segal). When no form of guidance could understand or convince him otherwise, Hamlet's stress-induced hallucinations of the king forces the prince to take matters of vengeance into his own hands. For a man of thought, anything can increase schizophrenic development: further stress, anger, or even lack of action taken can trigger more symptoms. In Hamlet's case, one of the symptoms triggered is Paranoia. With the promise of regaining control of his life, Hamlet's stress from his father's death continuously builds up to the point of noticeably irrational decision-making.
While the death of the king leaves Hamlet devastated, grieving, and very stressed, all things relating to King Hamlet after his passing such as encounters or demands are a fabrication of Hamlet's mind that stress fuels throughout Hamlet. These symptoms of delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized thinking deprive Hamlet of a normal life by changing his philosophy, adding more stress by forcing Hamlet to play a role, and cause the deaths of many innocent people such as Laertes, his lover Ophelia, and Laertes' father Polonius. Hamlet develops a philosophy to do with one of thought throughout the beginning of the play only to be contradicted by an increase of action caused as the result of a fully developed schizophrenia towards the end, where the entire royal family dies. Hamlet develops Type I Paranoid Schizophrenia after King Hamlet's death because he could neither handle the stress from dealing with the loss of a loved one, nor bear the task of killing Claudius as part of the king's demand.
