The “Mousetrap” scene (Act 3, Scene 2): in this scene, Hamlet stages a play within a play to catch Claudius’s reaction to the murder of King Hamlet, revealing the extent of Claudius’s guilt.
This paper will consist of an explication (a close reading or unfolding) of a scene or a section of about 40 lines from Hamlet. You can choose more or fewer lines depending on the substance of the passage. Ten lines of a complex passage can be enough. The sources you should consult are your text of the play and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), found in the reference section of some libraries and also online through the library webpage. You may want to look at other dictionaries such as Shakespeare’s Bawdy or unabridged dictionaries of Shakespearean English. You may want to look at the editor’s notes on several different editions of the play. Do NOT consult any other sources. Do include parenthetical citations and a Works Cited page for any information you use, including material from the notes or the introductions. If you consult Spark Notes or No Fear Shakespeare, you must include them in your Works Cited if you used them or in a Works Consulted if you read them but do not believe you used them.
The essay should be a minimum of four full pages, double-spaced, more if you wish. Choosing an interesting, rich passage or scene should make it easy to write a full essay. You must consult the Oxford English Dictionary. See the directions for format given on the syllabus. When you begin your explication, make clear the Act, scene, and lines, such as III.i.30-66, which means Act III, scene i, lines 30-66. (It can also be written as 3.1.30-66; I find it easier to read using traditional Roman numerals, but do whatever works better for you.) Then, as you quote or refer to lines in that same scene, give the line numbers parenthetically in the text of your essay: Desdemona declares, “I saw Othello’s visage in his mind” (251). If you quote more than one but less than five lines together, use slashes to indicate the line endings: “I’ll so offend to make offense a skill, / Redeeming time when men think least I will” (220-21). If you quote a passage of more than four lines, block indent it ten spaces and copy it precisely, line for line. If you quote or refer to a different scene, give the entire location, as in IV.iii.33. Proofread! Make a copy of your final essay.
As our textbook notes, “In an explication essay, you examine a work in much detail. Line by line . . . you explain each part as fully as you can and show how the author’s techniques produce your response” (50). When writing about a play, you use the same techniques and vocabulary as you did when writing about poems, but you also add consideration of dramatic elements. You may want to consider some of the following:
Themes. What themes occur in the passage? Do they reflect main ideas explored in the play? Is there any foreshadowing or reference to previous themes or ideas?
Characterization. How does the passage present the characters? How are their personalities revealed through words, actions, and dialogue?
Dramatic Irony, Foreshadowing, and/or Reflecting Back. Does the audience know more than the characters? Do any words or ideas foreshadow what is to come or reflect what came before?
Imagery. Does the language appeal to the senses?
Symbols. Are there any recurring symbols? (See the Glossary of Literary Terms, p. 1018)
Diction. Use the OED to clarify meaning and possible double meanings or puns. Are there words that have changed significantly in meaning in four hundred years? Are there any words that recur in the passage or throughout the play? Consider denotations and connotations. Is the diction concrete? abstract? colloquial? formal?
Figurative language. Does the passage contain similes, metaphors, personification, paradox, oxymoron, hyperbole, and so on? How do they add to the meaning and effect?
Sound. Does the passage contain alliteration, assonance, rhyme, onomatopoeia, cacophony, euphony? How do they add to its effect and meaning?
Poetry or prose. What form does the passage take? Consider meter and/or rhyme. What effects are produced?
Structure. How is the passage structured? Is it predictable? Is there conflict? a build-up? a climactic point? a reversal? How does the passage advance the dramatic action?
Staging. How might the passage be staged? How would the characters move? act? speak? Follow Hamlet’s advice: “Suit the action to the word, the word to the action” (III.ii.18-19).
