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Dr. Vavra's ENL 121: Lit & Comp
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from Mozart's 
Symphony No25 in G.
 
Spring 1998: MP # 3
A Set of Essays on Foils in Hamlet
Some Final Comments
 

 
       It is May 29th. The semester has been over for a couple of weeks, and I have just finished marking up the last of this set of papers for this web area.  Given the fact that these students did not have a set of models, such as these essays will be to future students, I am generally pleased by the essays. Thirty one essays are presented here -- 4 A's, 8 B's, 6 C's, 7 D's, and 6 F's. Two papers that came in are not represented here because I did not have the students' permission. Of these two, one was an abysmal F. The other was originally an F, but was revised to a C. Looking back, there are a few things that I would change in the grading, but nothing important enough to have affected a student's course grade. [I have indicated some of these things within my comments on individual essays.]

     Some readers will, I'm sure, remark on the fact that I do not make a lot of positive comments. Within the English teaching profession, "positive reinforcement" has become an idol -- a destructive idol, I would suggest. When positive comments are made about mediocre work, positive comments lose their value. Teachers know that, and so do students. When I note "Nice Point," on the other hand, I mean that it is a nice point. I could, of course, develop positive comments further, but that requires time, more time than I can usually allow. Phil Jackson does not spend much, if any, time telling Dennis Rodman how to snag a rebound. But he probably spends a lot of time telling him how to control his temper. Quick praise for the good; lengthy explanation for areas that need improvement.  In my case, the grades provide quick (and solid) praise.

      One of the things that disappointed me most as I reviewed the papers was the number of students WHO DID NOT THINK AND DID NOT FOLLOW SIMPLE, BASIC DIRECTIONS. For every major paper, directions were to read the grading sheets first. Any student who did that, and any student who thought about it at all, should have realized that the best papers (and probably the easiest papers to write) would examine at most two foils. The grading section for "Details" consists of twenty points and was divided into two equal sections, one for each of two foils -- 3 points for showing similarities between a foil and a major character, 3 points for showing differences, 3 for the foil's function as a listener, and 1 for the relevance of the  foil to the writer's thesis. Although students were told that they could devote the entire essay to one foil and have both sections graded on that foil, far too many students discussed three or more foils. What were they thinking about? (Or didn't they read the grading sheet first?)

       I had been considering doing away with the detailed grading sheets, but my review of these papers has changed my mind. Just today I answered an e-mail from a high school English teacher who, having visited my web site, asked me what I tried to do to get students to think. It's an interesting question, especially since most people don't stop to define "think." One teacher, long ago, defined it as any electrical activity which takes place in the brain -- which means that worms can think! Personally, I prefer Ann Berthoff's defininition in The Making of Meaning. In essence, she says that thought is the establishing of a relationship between an A and a B with respect to a C. Unfortunately, she does not give a lot of examples, but I consider this assignment an excellent invitation to students to think:

Item 4 is only worth one point because it is more difficult, and because most of my students will not be literature majors. Items one and two, however, will be used by students no matter what field they go into. They are the basis for comparison/contrast thinking.
     Item 3 was developed well by a few students, but overall I was disappointed.  Once again I think that part of the problem was that students did not read the grading sheets first and did not use them to assist in their brainstorming. This section on details is almost a perfect guide for brainstorming (except that nothing I do is perfect). The foils' role as listener gave many students trouble, but it shouldn't have.  Someone (I can't remember offhand which paper it is) did a very nice job with Ophelia and even came close to pointing out that Ophelia is literally used as a foil WITHIN the play when Polonius and Claudius set her up so that they can overhear the conversation between her and Hamlet. I wish, however, that more of the students who dealt with Laertes had considered his function as listener in more detail. He doesn't listen to Hamlet (for whom he is a foil) very much until the very end of the play.  At that point, however, it is certainly important that Laertes is there to hear Hamlet ask for his pardon and explain his behaviour. (Act 5, Scene 2, 200-216). It seems ironic, but a few lines later Hamlet tells Laertes, "I'll be your foil." Hamlet is referring to Laertes' skill at fencing, but the line emphasizes the idea of foil, and Laertes does become Hamlet's foil as, in the match, Hamlet scores more hits.
     There is, however, still another part in the play in which Laertes functions as listener, foil to Hamlet. Laertes listens to Polonius' speech, the famous one that includes "This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." (Act I, Scene 3, 55-81) Laertes may not be listening to Hamlet, but what he hears is certainly important to our understanding of Hamlet's character. Could it be that, in trying to be true to the ghost, Hamlet is not true to himself? In a famous essay called "The World of Hamlet," Maynard Mack, a noted Shakespearean scholar, makes a similar claim. He suggests that the often noted change in Hamlet's character in Act V is the result of Hamlet realizing that he is not God. His is not the responsibility of revenge, and, according to Mack, in Act V Hamlet becomes true to himself.
     I am not suggesting that I would expect students to develop Laertes' role as listener to the extent that I have in the preceding paragraph. Yes, I realize that I have a few (?) more years of experience than do college Freshmen. But it does not take experience to ask oneself "When does Laertes act as a listener on stage?" The grading sheet suggested the question, and I'm simply disappointed that more students didn't look at the play to see the possible answers.  [Plays are particularly suited for scanning for this kind of information because the speakers and listeners names are constantly and clearly indicated in the text. One need simply scan through the pages.]

     Finally, I want to thank the majority of the students in the two sections of this course that I taught this semester. In an earlier e-mail to that high school teacher (Her first name is Nancy, but the way e-mail works, I can't remember her last name.), I had noted that, if students don't do the work, I simply give them an F, and I asked if she was able to give F's. (Many high school teachers are pressured not to.) She responded that she can, but that when she does, she feels like the failure. I understand her feeling. This semester I had a section of ENL 111 in which twenty four students started the course. Three passed, and another one still has an incomplete. I don't feel like a failure, but I certainly felt frustrated.
     Such was not the case in my two 121 sections. Most of the students came to class mostly prepared most of the time. Some came to class fully prepared almost all of the time. We got a lot done, we explored some interesting ideas, and we had a good time. Classroom discussion was not only usually lively, but there was also a lot of laughter. For all of that, I have to thank these students.
 

Mozart's 25th Symphony excerpt is from The Finest Classical Music Midis of Gregor Rozman