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In the play, does the character have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? What is your proof? Include quotes from the play to support your answer. Explain why that quote shows the character’s mindset. Focus on what the words mean and what that tells you.

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Hamlet says, ¨But to my mind, though I am native here/And to the manner born, it is a custom/More honored in the breach than the observance./This heavy-headed revel east and west/Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations.¨ (1.4.16-20).

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Hamlet has a fixed mindset. He continuously talks about how he feels Denmark is a prison, but he will not leave. When he greets Horatio he speaks of the parties King Claudius throws and how it makes other countries look down on them. Yet, Hamlet has not gone back to college; he has stayed in Denmark where he is very unhappy.

If he had a growth mindset, he would have returned to his friends at school and tried to have a little optimism. Queen Gertrude asked him to stay, but he could have told his mom: ¨Look I love you, but your marriage kind of disturbs me so I think I'm just gonna go back to college.¨

Hamlet stayed in Denmark not because he was forced to, but because his fixed mindset imprisoned him there.

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Hamlet says, "O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt/Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!/Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd/His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!" (1.2.129-132).

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Hamlet's wish to die stems from his fixed mindset. If he had a different mind frame, he might not have been so dramatic. No one that has a growth mindset would have seriously contemplated suicide. Hamlet believes there is no hope, and that is the complete opposite of a growth mindset.

One part of the definition of a growth mindset states, ¨This view creates...a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.¨ Hamlet has no resilience whatsoever. Granted, his life has not been fair so far, but he really has put in no effort at all to make it any better. His fixed mindset has reserved itself to having a crappy life that will never improve, and that is why he wants to die.

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In the play, why do you think the character acts the way he or she does? What is your proof? Include quotes to support your explanation. Why does that quote explain the character’s behavior? How does the language express the idea?

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The ghost says, ¨Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,/My custom always of the afternoon,/Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole/With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,/And in the porches of my ears did pour¨ (1.5.59-63).

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Hamlet acts a little crazy but it is understandable. His dead father comes to him as a ghost and tells Hamlet that his uncle had an affair with his mother and then killed him (the ghost).

Poor Hamlet is a little unsure of what to believe, a little disgusted at his mother, and a lot angry at his uncle. It's enough to drive any college-aged kid crazy. Hamlet's shouting fits and odd harassing actions toward Ophelia can all be traced back to the fact that his family is extremely messed up and it has affected him in the worst way.

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Hamlet says, "Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats/Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables." (1.2.179-180).

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This quote is not a reason Hamlet acts crazy, but an example of how he does. When his friends come to visit him, he tells them his mother and uncle saved a lot of money by using the left over funeral food for their wedding feast. He acts rudely and with no regard for the respect he should have for the King and Queen.

Hamlet's craziness comes from his uncaring attitude. He does not have any real diagnosable mental disorder, he merely could not care less what anyone thinks of him, and that ruins some of the relationships around him. He has also become very paranoid, accusing his close friends of scheming with the King.

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Hamlet says, "I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers/Could not with all their quantity of love/Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?" (5.1.247-249).

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It can be argued that Hamlet really did love Ophelia. This might account for some of his odd behavior, he lost the woman he loved. Maybe he hoped once he avenged his father's murder, he could win Ophelia back. However, he then killed Polonius and ruined his chance at ever having a healthy relationship with her. He might blame himself for her death, seeing as her father's death is what drove her over the edge into crazy and suicidal. Hamlet's unpredictable behavior becomes even more erratic after her death, and it is because he truly did love her.

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Finally, in the play, what one moment would you change for the character to give him or her a different outcome? Include a quote. How would you change that moment or scene and why would it affect that character’s ultimate fate?

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Hamlet says, "Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell./I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune./Thou find’st to be too busy is some danger." (3.4.32-34).

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Hamlet's downfall begins when he kills Polonius. Up until then, he was the innocent son who had been through something no young adult should ever have to experience. Then he ruined his innocence. It leads to Ophelia's accidental death/suicide and Laertes growing hatred of him. First his dad is murdered, then he murders Polonius. Then Ophelia commits suicide. Then his mom and Ophelia's brother are poisoned. Then he finally kills his dad's murderer. Then he dies himself. The end.

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In the play, what causes the character’s ultimate downfall? What one scene or decision leads to the character’s death? What is your proof? Include a quote to support your explanation. Why does that decision or scene lead to the character’s destruction?

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Marcellus says, "Horatio says ’tis but our fantasy/And will not let belief take hold of him/Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us./Therefore I have entreated him along/With us to watch the minutes of this night,/That if again this apparition come/He may approve our eyes and speak to it." (1.1.21-27).

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I would change the scene after Hamlet's dad dies. The ghost does not appear to the guards and Horatio. He appears, rather, to Gertrude and it is up to her to reveal Claudius's actions. King Claudius is found out because Gertrude is able to prove he killed the previous king. Hamlet stays safely away from it all.

Hamlet finds out his dad has died and he comes home from college for the funeral. Afterwards, he returns to college and his friends help him through it. There is one death instead of seven. His good friend Horatio helps him through this tough time but he gets through it and continues living his life. There is no talk of avenging any deaths coming from Hamlet.