Journal Topics

• How common do you believe the act of revenge is in everyday life? Write about specific incidents, including any in which you were involved or have witnessed.

• Find magazine/newspaper articles, short stories, plays, poems, or novels containing events motivated by revenge. How might events have been changed had someone not sought revenge?

• Characterize yourself as a "thinker" or a "doer." In this respect what character in the play are you most like? How would you like to be different, or would you like to be different?

• Have you or anyone you have known ever seen or claimed to have witnessed some kind of supernatural being?Explain the circumstances surrounding the even. Do you believe in the supernatural? Explain.

• In Act I, Scene III of Hamlet, Polonius gives Laertes a great deal of "fatherly advice" about how to live his life. Look at this section and find advice you have heard from your own parents. How valuable is this advice? Have you used it? Have you been involved in any situation to which this advice was applicable?

• To what extent do parents have the right to "spy" or check up on their children? What circumstance might allow or prevent this?

• How are relationships between stepparents and stepchildren generally depicted in fiction or film? Do you have any experience with or knowledge of step-relationships? What conflicts and barriers must be overcome? What are the advantages, the positive aspects of these relationships?

• Are parents generally blind to their children’s faults? Why or why not?

• King Claudius states "Madness in great ones must not unwatched go." (III, i) How is this true in any age? What evidence can you find in recent news stories to support this statement? How do societies keep checks and balances on their "great ones?"

• Have you ever been the victim of unrequited love? How did you feel? Have you ever been the recipient of affection from someone whom you did not care about? How did you feel about this situation?