Understand a teacher's viewpoint on why Hamlet is her favorite Shakespeare play to teach
A teacher explains why Hamlet is her favourite Shakespeare play to teach.
Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] JILL BURDICK-ZUPANCIA: My favorite Shakespeare play to teach is by far Hamlet. To me, Hamlet is like the "best of" Shakespeare play. It has the different kind of romantic relationships, whether it's Hamlet or Ophelia, or Gertrude and Claudius, or Hamlet and Gertrude, however you want to look at it. It has really, really interesting language. And it has enough language and plot ambiguity that there are so many different readings of it. But I think that makes it interesting to secondary students.
In a time of very impulsive action for kids in their lives, I think Hamlet offers an opportunity to look at things that happen if you act in the complete opposite of that, which is Hamlet's inaction.
In a time of very impulsive action for kids in their lives, I think Hamlet offers an opportunity to look at things that happen if you act in the complete opposite of that, which is Hamlet's inaction.