Happy Holidays

Scrooge - Disney

I changed my mind after watching Scrooge's conversion.

No assigned work for the holiday. However, you may earn extra credit if you do the assignment in the previous post.

For those with failed Dante essays, you may re-write and give me your new paper after the holiday

Holiday Learning

To keep your mind working over the holiday, I have a small extra credit task for you. This assignment is worth 10 points, an easy 10 points.

We watched the movie, A Christmas Carol. Your task is to connect the ideas we’ve learned and texts we’ve studied to Dicken’s famous work. Via comments to this site (remember not to use your own name) or in an e-mail to me, please answer the following questions:

What is the theme of A Christmas Carol?
How is Scrooge like Dante?
How is Marley’s ghost like the sinners in the Inferno?
List the archetypes you see in the story and connect them.
Additional observations and connections will be appreciated.

The response to each question should be no more than two-three carefully crafted, correct sentences.

Bah Humbug!

We spend the next few days with Scrooge and Marley. Take a few moments and start to read the great story. I really think you will like it - if you give it a chance. The message still resonates today.

Henry V Unit Test

Test today.

Work on essay drafts that are due tomorrow. We will have a writers workshop devoted to the Henry V essays.

Focus on developing a strong thesis statement and clear topic sentences.

Also, be sure to introduce your quotes and then analyze the quotes. Do not leave them hanging in the middle of a paragraph unintroduced and unexplained. I found this information helpful.

We will also begin to discuss Dicken's A Christmas Carol in tomorrow's class.

Edward, the Black Prince of Wales

Schema: Quiz

Act IV.3 of Henry V features one of Shakespeare’s great motivational speeches, Henry’s St. Crispin Day speech. The speech is before the Battle of Agincourt. The scene opens with Henry’s nobles bemoaning the number of men at hand and the condition of their army. Henry responds with the rationale that they should not want more men because there would be fewer honors for each of them, ‘the fewer men, the greater share of honor.” (IV.3, 23) It is a masterful example of motivation and manipulation (depending on your level of cynicism).

Henry’s response to Montjoy’s request for ransom and surrender is also masterful and brave. He tells him to “achieve me, and then sell my bones.” (IV.3, 92) This is done more for the benefit of his listening men than Montjoy. Both of these speeches are forms of indirect characterization.

One of the four plot elements, climax, is seen in IV.7 when the suspense, the action that has built since Act I, is relieved with Montjoy's line “The day is yours.” (86) My feeling is that this one line is the climax; all is resolved and everything going forward is driven by this climax, the ending of the conflict.

Please be aware that we are fortunate to see the full battle, in all its gore and glory. This did not happen in the play; imagination was needed to fill these scenes, which is why the Chorus keeps referencing imagination and the feeble attempt to represent the battle “[w]ith four or five most vile and ragged foils.” (IV.1, 50) By the way, foils are swords.

Fact to remember: Edward, the Black Prince of Wales (his armor was black) also beat the French in a battle similar in odds to those at Agincourt. The battle is referred to in II.4, “[w]hen Crecy battle fatally was struck.” (54) Crecy was to Edward as Agincourt was to Henry.

Conflict - Act IV

The archers of Agincourt

Schema: Quiz

We reviewed conflict, the struggle between the protagonist and the opposing force, and five types of conflict:

Person vs. Self (Internal conflict)
Person vs. Person (Interpersonal conflict)
Person vs. Society
Person vs. Nature
Person vs. Fate

The protagonist is the central character of the story (person, animal, thing) and the antagonist is in opposition.

We see a lot of internal conflict in modern work (remember modern for me goes back to Dante), and we see person vs. fate more often in ancient works of the polytheistic era. Person vs., Society is also a recent, popular conflict with text such as 1984, Animal Farm, and Brave New World. In Henry V, we see Henry in conflict with himself, especially over his legitimacy as king because of his father’s “compassing the crown!” (IV.I 287) There is also interpersonal conflict with Henry representing England while the Dauphin represents France.

In Act IV, we see yet another side of Henry, the reflective, thoughtful man, who would be king. Shakespeare beautifully develops Henry’s complex, contradictory character through his speech and action (indirect characterization). Remember that a soliloquy is a dramatic dialogue, when the character speaking to him or herself reveals their inner thoughts to the audience. Henry has two back to back soliloquies: one about the burden of kingship (probably directed toward Elizabeth I) and the other asking God not to exact punishment for Richard’s death on Henry and his troops.

The scene with Williams and Bates is a continuation of the God and Justification theme in the play. It highlights the issue, which climaxes and finally reveals Henry’s ultimate concern, his legitimacy in the eyes of God, with the final soliloquy.

So the scene is set for the Battle of Agincourt. Read the link about the battle as it will help you understand the next section of the play. Henry’s St. Crispin Speech is a classic. He will rally the troops, destroy the French, and move onto Act V.

The Agincourt cross over the graves of unnamed French dead

Homework: read the Crispin speech, the Agincourt website, and be prepared for the quiz

Out Today

Writers Workshop today.

Complete and save to your electronic portfolios the English and Italian sonnets and your five haiku. Make sure the rhyme structure of the sonnets is correct (check Student Public for the sonnet PowerPoint if you are confused) and that the haiku have references to the seasons. Peer review them if you wish - quietly.

Type your autobiography's and resumes and save them in the electronic portfolios. This must be done this week. You may write a new autobiography if you wish.

We will have a quiz tomorrow and read from Act IV of Henry V.

Henry V on horseback



Schema: SAT – remember to work on vocabulary. Try to learn a few new words every day. Write down the words you do not know from the SAT question and learn them.

We reviewed Henry’s speeches in front of Harfleur. In the first one, he is a great, motivational leader. In the second speech, he is brutal and cruel. It shows the harsh side of Henry. However, it also shows his leadership; he makes these brutal threats to save his men from having to fight and die. These are great examples of indirect characterization – we judge the character by his action and speech.

The Harfleur speeches also confirm Henry’s character type. He is a ‘round’ character; he is complex, contradictory and well developed. You like him and then are repelled by his actions. We also see the contradiction and complexity in his decision to hang his drinking buddy, Bardolph, for stealing a pax, a religious item (remember this); and in his brave response to the French, that his ransom will be his dead body. There is a dual purpose to Bardolph’s death: it continues the pattern of Henry rejecting bad influences from his past; and it shows that he is a good, fair leader, willing to punish all, even friends. The hanging reinforces the complex nature of Henry and his actions.

The scene with Princess Katherine is for comic relief, but it also foreshadows that Henry will prevail and she will marry him. As a result, she must learn English. As an aside, the film does a nice job in highlighting the transition with light and music.

We began to review Plot and plot elements. Plot is a causal sequence of events, draws us into character action and choice, and is the order of events. Keep in mind the difference between chronological order and ‘in medias res.’ There are four plot elements. Exposition is the basic information of the story. Complication is the catalyst for the major conflict. Climax is when the conflict is resolved. Resolution is the wrapping up of all the loose story elements.

The French Prince is called the Dauphin.

Homework: Read Act IV. Study for quiz tomorrow

Friday, December 8, 2006

Schema: Quiz

We started with the movie – the scene where Falstaff is rejected my Henry and we viewed the scene where Pistol, Bardolph and Nym mourn Falstaff and leave for war. They, like Falstaff, represent Henry’s past and will be rejected as he grows as a king and leader. We also reviewed the motif of games: the tennis balls of the Dauphin; and Henry’s cruel, cat and mouse game with the traitors. This last event is a form of indirect characterization showing the morphing of his old playboy gamester into a dangerous, powerful gamester/king. We also discussed ‘dramatic irony,’ a concept you might want to remember

We also read about and viewed the French Court. I love the Exeter speeches, especially the one where he insults the Dauphin. Also, for characterization examples, keep in mind that the Dauphin says more about himself when he says Henry is weak than he does about Henry. The King is correct when he says ‘Think we King Henry strong” that is what Shakespeare wants us to think.

The most interesting form of indirect characterization takes place in front of the gates of Harfleur. We first see Henry in the role so the leader, the coach motivating his team. He pulls out all the stops with patriotism, images of tigers, telling them their fathers were ‘Alexander’s’ and that not to fight would dishonor their mothers. He is likable and human – a salesman. A different sort of salesman shows up at the gates the next scene. He is frightening and threatening. He also pulls out the stops saying his men will rape their daughters, kill the old fathers, and skewer the infants. He is no longer likable. For extra credit – to offset the bad quizzes of Friday – comment on if you think he would have gone through with this threat. To get credit do it by the end of I/I on Monday. Make sure you don’t use your real name. Use the names you used in the first comments - make sure I have your name written down.

Finally, notice how Henry always places blame for his actions on to others. He invades France after the Bishop takes the sin on his head and because of the Dauphin’s ‘mock.’ He is not responsible for all the horrors that might occur at Harfleur – it is the towns fault. He is a master at diverting blame. Keep this in mind as we determine the type of character he is.

Act II, The traitors

Schema: Notes Review

As we read Henry V, we will examine several literary concepts and apply them to the play. Henry V is part of the genre category of drama and is a history play (keep in mind that drama is sometimes included as a sub-genre of prose). Shakespeare wrote three types of plays: history, tragedy, and comedy. The method used by an author to develop, create or reveal characters is called characterization. There are two categories of characterization: direct, when a character is described by a narrator or another character; and indirect, which requires the reader to look for clues in dialogue, what a character thinks, and how others react to them. We will find the four character types in the play: dynamic character (those who change dramatically); round (complex and contradictory); static (essentially unchanged); and flat (functional with little depth)

We reviewed the roles of the bishops in characterization (see previous post) and in the development of the theme of God and justification. This theme is tied into Henry’s concern with legitimacy since his father committed regicide. We saw indirect characterization of Henry in his reaction to the Dauphin’s insult with the tennis balls and his handling of the traitors. In both those scenes, we also see the further development of the themes of God and justification and his leadership (we also see patriotism with his noble’s reactions to the French ambassador). Notice the motif of games: tennis with the French Ambassador; and the cat and mouse game with the traitors, when he traps them into being unmerciful to the prison he was releasing and the ‘commission’ letters that were actually death warrants.

Pay careful attention to the Chorus and what he has to say. It will help as you read the Act. Also, while we did not read the act, remember Pistol, Bardolph and Nym as symbols of Hal’s wild, youthful days. Like Falstaff, they will be rejected as he grows into a king.

Homework: Finish Act II, read Chorus of Act III…study for quiz

Henry V- Characterization & God and justification

Good job by everyone today. Shout out to Roberta, Christian, Lakesha, Shatia, Keyla, Geoff, Akeem, Jordan, Morgan, Nick, Renard, Jon, Meg and others for either surprise answers or good reading, and for being on task in class. Others participated but then…

Let’s list the points to remember:

I.1. Bishops - provide examples of both direct and indirect characterization. We know that Hal has really changed because of their comments and that the bishops are ‘sketchy’ because of the deal they appear to work with Henry. I love the metaphor about the strawberry and the nettles – a great example of what makes Shakespeare so different, his attention to words, images and detail.

I.2 Henry shows his new mettle. Keep in mind the themes of Henry’s personal growth, and God and justification. Notice how he plays the bishops and gets them to assume the ‘sin’ if his cause is unjust. Remember the Law Sallic and the robust rogue, Falstaff. He represents Henry’s past that Hal rejects in order to move on and grow as a leader.

Have sonnets ready for tomorrow.

Haiku and Shakespeare (11-30)

Schema: SAT

Examine Haiku and its structure. Don’t be fooled into thinking that haiku is simple; many are very complex once you begin to examine them carefully. While the rules of haiku are broken by its masters and those writing in English (because of the differences we discussed in the languages, English word being more broad), I will expect you to know the basic 5-7-5 rule. In Japanese, a haiku is on a single line while in English is the separated into three lines. Remember “hai” means unusual and “ku’ means line, verse or stanza and the inclusion of a reference to the cycle of nature and the year in haiku.

Quiz Monday on Parts of Speech, haiku and Shakespeare.

the concise clear five
and the summer of seven
five ends poets move on

Shakespeare and Henry V

Schema: Renaissance

Shakespeare video and graphic organizer was today’s (12/1) activity. As with Dante, Shakespeare’s life had a major influence on his work. When we read Henry V, keep in mind that the English are again at war with France, and Shakespeare is said to be writing a patriotic play for his Queen.

To support the video take a look at this timeline of Shakespeare’s life. Also, take a virtual walk through Elizabethan England to get an idea of how Shakespeare lived.

For Monday:

We will read Henry V and examine it through the lens of Social Literary Analysis. Understanding Shakespeare, his life and times, and the topic of his play will help us apply this often used analysis tool. We will also examine how Shakespeare develops his characters and we will categorize them as either dynamic, round, static or flat. Finally, we will look at the plot elements of the play.

Monday, we will read the opening of the play and look at websites on the Hundred Years War.