20-Minute Practice AP Exam

Question-Based Essay on Hamlet

DO NOT OPEN UNTIL YOU SIT DOWN FOR YOUR 20 MINUTE SESSION.

For this assignment, you are to do the following:

1. Write a thesis statement in response the question.
2. Create a point-by-point outline for the rest of your essay.

YOU MAY NOT USE YOUR COPY OF HAMLET TO COMPLETE THIS ASSIGNMENT.  You must work from your memory of the play.

 DUE: TUESDAY, March 8 IN CLASS

Essay Question:

The eighteenth-century British novelist Laurence Sterne wrote, “Nobody, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time.”

From Hamlet choose a character (not necessarily the protagonist) whose mind is pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations, or influences.  Then, in a well-organized essay, identify each of the two conflicting forces and explain how this conflict within one character illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole.