This school year (2018-2019), Platteview started offering an AP/Dual Enrollment Literature and Composition class through Nebraska Wesleyan University. Academically acclaimed students – and those who love English- find the coursework challenging; the curriculum allows students to think critically at an advanced level. The course encourages students to question the Human Condition- what it means to be human- in more than one context, over several different time periods and “lenses.”

The first semester is dedicated to writing and developing, while the second semester is dedicated to reading and evaluating. The class is popular among students, due to the familiarity and understanding of their instructor Dr. Michael Kersulov. Some students expected the class to be far more challenging than it is, but some also have to manage their time doing coursework from other distinguished classes.

Below is a podcast interview with students from the class on their experience.

An example of the type of writing and assignments required in AP Literature and Composition is below.

Shakespeare’s Silver Lining

Those who delve into Shakespeare’s Hamlet, especially those who enjoy doing so,  cannot find a protagonist. At first, readers assume the role would be filled by none other than the famous Hamlet, but soon learn that it becomes complicated when he commits a multitude of dubious atrocities. He is known for his contemplative soliloquies, and upon analysis, most can infer his almost innate sense of uncertainty within himself and the world he exists in. To explore the human condition further, that is, the continuous suffering and existential question of what it means to be truly human, readers must immerse themselves into a deeper level of evaluation. Readers must ask the deepest question known to humankind: to be, dear reader, or not to be?

As the play reaches its acclaimed climax, the audience is bound to notice Hamlet’s persisting erratic behavior. He voices his concern with existence in his famous “To Be or Not To Be” soliloquy, and analyzing the thought patterns by taking into account etymology and word usage is definitely food for thought. He opens with:

To be, or not to be? That is the question-

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing, end them? (3.1.63-67)

He is asking himself whether it is easier to pursue everyday life, attempt to solve tedious and bothersome complexities, and to be completely aware of inevitable failure, or to succumb to the darkest, most sinful fate: suicide. Opposing our own troubled thoughts heightens the disorder within each and every one of us, inevitably driving those who deliberate mad. This first paragraph of Hamlet’s contemplation shows that the focus is going to be suicide: consideration, reasoning, hesitation and how thought affects action. He is contemplating because he is horror-struck with grief and shock:

Hamlet’s moodiness and irascibility suddenly seemed deeply connected to the fact that his father just died, and he doesn’t know how to handle it.He is radically dislocated, stumbling through the world, trying to figure out where the walls are while the rest of the world acts as if nothing important has changed. (O’Rourke)

Hamlet has been forced into the role of a child for his whole life; he does not know how to react to a major change. He loses himself in grief and sadness. He cannot find a way to help himself feel better, so his first instinct is to lash out and act erratically.

The second section of the monologue primarily focuses on the action of dying, and the peace it would bring, the emotional stability, the rest from this eternally hasty life:

To die, to sleep-

No more- and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to- ‘tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished! (3.1.68-72)

Hamlet is suggesting that in death humans will just sleep, and that dying will end all the heartache and thousand shocks that a physical body may be vulnerable to. Hamlet, who believes that wishing for death is a desire that should be deeply rooted in everyday life, obviously practices this thought process. He is stating that the action of yearning to end one’s life  should be constantly and consistently, devoutly. This phrase is very interesting: it presents a religious comparison to praising death, as one might praise the Lord. Talking of departure as rather a holy freedom than a dreamless sleep.

The next sequence is an interesting one as well, Hamlet comes upon a realization of the possible dreams that may partner with death:

To sleep, perchance to dream- ay there’s the rub,

For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There’s the respect

That makes calamity of so long life. (3.1.73-76)

When, at first, Hamlet most closely wishes for a dream in death, he promptly changes his mind upon the realization of the true nature of them. He is desensitizing humanity in the world, and uses “shuffling” as a catalyst to explain that being alive is a slow progression of a hopeless cause, and that dreams that are to be expected afterward are meant to baffle and confuse the living. To be alive is to be a coward, and the respect that causes calamity is to be the very thought of death itself, the rumination of such an abstract dilemma. 

Some would prefer to commonly struggle with a lethargic and inconvenient life than attempt to resolve an unfamiliar problem:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely

The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country from whose born

No traveler returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than to fly to others we know not of? (3.1.78-90)

Aa humans grow, they become curious to the smallest extent. People explore material realms instead of moral and ethical ones. In the play Hamlet’s stepfather, Polonius, maliciously steals the crown. He blatantly ignores Hamlet’s emotions and make his stepson out to be a maniac. As time continues, society realizes the underlying horrors of being alive, such as the arrogant man’s confidence, the hurt from love that is not returned, the delay of justice etc. that make those who think about suicide want to commit to endless sleep. In death, “the country from whose bourn, no travelers return” (3.1.128), makes one question not only reality, but what may come after. This questioning drives one to keep existing, to continue to struggle through daily burdens, rather than visit something unknown to humankind.

The closing of Hamlet’s discourse reveals that thinking and overthinking may quite ruin the momentous actions that make humans unique:

Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action. (3.1.91-96)

Humans refuse to think about ethical dilemmas quite often, though they do think of material problems even more so. By doing this, a person essentially demolishes the nature of instinct. The instinct is to act, to exist without question, to make choices that accurately reflect emotion. People are overriding natural actions by simply thinking too much, and people are killing out instinctual importance: ”Hamlet is brave and careless of death; but he vacillates from sensibility and procrastinates from thought, and loses the power of action in the energy of resolve”(Coleridge). He exemplifies this by asking if he truly deserves to be alive. He occupies every thought with a contemplation, and loses the very essence of those thoughts.

To think of Hamlet as a real person, rather than a character, can lead readers to see themselves imprinted upon the play. A careful reflection of why Shakespeare wrote the play in the first place can demolish any previous notions of reality within the text. The play was written for entertainment:

Certain theatrical and dramatic effects like, for example, the soliloquy, obviously give the illusion of interiority, inwardness, personal history, and feelings, even though those effects, too, are purely fictional and gestural.

(Gerber)

Readers must ask themselves if they should treat Hamlet as a person, or a character. Readers often evaluate him as they would a real person, taking into consideration his past, his feelings, the way he was raised. Shakespeare wrote the Character Hamlet to be this way, to be offset and irrational. The play is intended to teach readers of all generations that overthinking will ultimately drown the potential for action.

The question of who Hamlet truly is has been asked for generations. Nobody really knows if the Hamlet is truly mad, or just playing a part in his own reality. He feels isolated and does not know what to do, ”[he] whose powers of actions have been eaten up by thought, he to whom the universe seems infinite, and himself nothing… this is true Hamlet…”(Hazlitt). Illustrating the “true Hamlet” to others often reflects upon one in themself. Readers are drawn to Hamlet, how he acts, what he says, why he does what he does. Careful evaluation of who Hamlet truly is leads readers to know themselves deeper.

By overthinking, humanity has become less real. The concept of overthinking has infected the daily lives of millions, and the silver lining of Hamlet has unintentionally caused an ethical dilemma throughout decades. Many have picked apart not only the characters, but the dialog, scenery, and interactions between characters and reality in many of Shakespeare’s works.  This specific play forces readers to metacognate about thoughts of suicide, and whether the actions behind that thought are moral; the silver lining is clear. The lining in and of itself is the thought behind the actions. The kinetic thought, per se. The potential that a thought can have, similar to temptation, to spur a mere inkling into a deliberate action. Actions that are changed with careful consideration, and overanalyzed until the thinker surpasses the opportunity. Thoughts and the way on may interpret others’ actions can stem the natural instinct to act out of personal desire.