Class Notes Week Seven 11/15-11/26



Ap Test Strategies

1. Know what you are supposed to do
2. Know your enemy!
3. Know yourself!

How to read passages:

• read over once
• go back and read more slowly
• DO EVERYTHING SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY!

Common Types of Questions
Rhetorical Function: explain the purpose of a sentence, group of sentences, whole paragraph, or line/stanza of poetry in relation to the rest of the piece. Ask what that section does.
Context: identify meaning of a word used in the context of a passage.
Antecedent:  mainly deals with syntax-grammar; asks which antecedent the quoted word is referring to
Style: choices author has made
Tone: identify tone of passage

Hamlet



• Based on a Norse legend composed by Saxo Grammaticus, Latin 1200 AD
• Gesia Danorum or history of the Danes. Hamlet comes from books 3 and 4
• Hamlet is a revenge tragedy( revenge tragedies also know as tragedy of blood)

Tragedy

• Tragedy- an imitation of a single undefined action.
• Deals with the fall of a good, believable and consistent character

Plot May Include:

• Hero hesitation
• hero insanity (pretend or not)
• hero contemplates suicide
• multiple levels of intrigue
• able scheming villian abundance of philosophical siloques
• death



Class Notes Week Six 10/25-10/29

Drama

• Drama is to be preformed, not read
• presents action
• through actors
• on stage
• before an audience
• Soliloquy- the act of speaking alone or to oneself
• Aside-when characters turn from the person to whom they are talking and speak directly to the audience
• Dramatic Conventions-a set of rules which the participant or audience and actor are both engaged in, they are usually set up within the drama/play and are used throughout all drama and theater.
• Chorus-a company of actors who comment (by speaking or singing in unison) on the action in a classical Greek play
• Narrator-A narrator is, within any story (literary work, movie, play, verbal account, etc.), the person who conveys the story to the audience
• Tragedy-the main character is brought to ruin or otherwise suffers the extreme consequences of some tragic flaw or weakness of character;
• Comedy- light and humorous drama with a happy ending
• catharsis-A release of emotional tension after an overwhelming vicarious experience, resulting in the purging or purification of the emotions
• hamartia-tragic flaw: the character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall
• melodrama-A kind of drama having a musical accompaniment to intensify the effect of certain scenes
• farce- comedy characterized by broad satire and improbable situations
• Non realistic drama- Drama that, in content, presentation, or both, departs markedly from fidelity to the outward appearances of life
• Realistic Drama-Drama that attempts, in content and in presentation, to preserve the illusion of actual, everyday life
• Romantic comedy-light-hearted, humorous plot lines, centered on romantic ideals such as a true love able to surmount most obstacles
• Foil characters- a character who contrasts with another character