Activities
In-Class Writing: As the teacher instructs students on religion, the teacher should remember that these religious concepts and religious history are sensitive matters. Students should be encouraged to keep a personal journal, recording the textual information on one side of the page, and personal reaction on the other side of the page. This will help to keep students' voices heard, at least on paper, before they are ready to express their opinions more openly in discussion format later on. Aim for ten minutes of journal writing to be incorporated into each class during this period in the unit.
Character Analysis: At certain points during the re-reading of the play through a religious lens, teachers may choose to do an activity that penetrates into the mind of the character, Hamlet. Because he is the central character, he is a good subject for the question of religious dependence. This activity is called "Fishbowl": A student volunteers to be Hamlet and sits in a chair located in the middle of a classroom circle. This seat is the hot seat: students in this seat, while pretending to be Hamlet, must take turns answering questions from their peers directed toward this fictional Hamlet. This allows students to get inside the mind of Hamlet by creating answers to the reasons why Hamlet acts the way he does (religiously motivated or not). This activity can also be extended by introducing hot seats for other major characters from the play.
Societal Analysis: This is an activity for the latter part of the unit, occurring after the initial discussion but before the analysis segments. The teacher must introduce the concept that people during Shakespeare's time had a familiar intimacy with religion: they depended on it quite a bit and religion did indeed affect their decisions regarding daily struggles. Once the claim is presented, the societal analysis question must follow: Is this still the case today? Instruct the students to perform a bit of research, citing religious influence in specific contemporary examples, e.g., human cloning, divorce rates, assisted suicide, death penalty, abortion, in-vitro fertilization, stem-cell research, common oaths: "Oh my God!", "Jesus Christ", or "Holy Shit."
Bibliography
Battenhouse, Roy. "Hamlet's Evasions and Inversions" in Shakespeare's Christian Dimension, ed. Roy Battenhouse. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1994.
Bryant, Jr., J.A. "Typology in Shakespeare" in Shakespeare's Christian Dimension, ed. Roy Battenhouse. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1994.
Catholic Online, The Nine Choirs of Angels, July 16, 2008, http://www.catholic.org/saints/anglchoi.php.
Driver, Tom F. "Shakespeare's Sense of History" in Shakespeare's Christian Dimension, ed. Roy Battenhouse. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1994.
Freeman, John. "This Side of Purgatory: Ghostly Fathers and the Recusant Legacy in Hamlet" in Shakespeare and the Culture of Christianity in Early Modern England, eds. Beauregard, David and Dennis Taylor. New York: Fordham University, 2003.
Frye, Roland Mushat. Shakespeare and the Christian Doctrine. Princeton: Princeton University,1963.
Gerard, S.J., Father John. "The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest" in Shakespeare and the Culture of Christianity in Early Modern England, eds. Beauregard, David and Dennis Taylor. New York: Fordham University, 2003.
Greenblatt, Stephen. "Hamlet in Purgatory" in Shakespeare and the Culture of Christianity in Early Modern England, eds. Beauregard, David and Dennis Taylor. New York: Fordham University, 2003.
Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World. New York: Norton, 2004.
Noble, Richmond. Shakespeare's Biblical Knowledge. New York: Octagon, 1970.
Hunt, Maurice. Shakespeare's Religious Allusiveness. Burlington: Ashgate, 2004.
Marx, Steven. Shakespeare and the Bible. New York: Oxford University, 2000.
New Advent, The Nicene Creed, July 8, 2008, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11049a.htm.
Shakespeare, William, Mowat, Barbara, and Paul Werstine, Hamlet. New York: Washington Square, 1992.
University of Notre Dame, "The Seven Capital Sins" in The Catholic Prayers and Teachings, July 14, 2008, http://www.nd.edu/ministry.
U.S. Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Bantam, 1994.
Oxford English Dictionary, Religion, July 18, 2008,http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50202036?query_type=word&queryword=religion&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=2.
Oxford English Dictionary, Rood, July 20, 2008,
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Oxford English Dictionary, Augury, July 25, 2008,
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Oxford English Dictionary, Quintessence, July 20, 2008,
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