Response Part A (min. 200 words): Select two of the following three options belo

Response Part A (min. 200 words): Select two of the following three options below and respond in two developed paragraphs. Make sure to back up your statements with specific evidence (quotes) from the selected scene(s) in Hamlet and follow with thorough analysis.
Option 1) Act 3, Scene 1: Hamlet and Ophelia meet (lines 88-188 Norton ed.)
Support your overall points with at least two quotes from the text and follow with close analysis. a. Closely analyze Hamlet’s attitudes/behavior towards Ophelia and her reactions. Consider carefully why he treats her so poorly. Do you think he has really stopped loving her…or something else? b. Does Hamlet seem to realize he’s being spied on by Claudius and Polonius? If so, what lines specifically suggest this? What do Ophelia’s reactions further reveal? c. So far in the text, consider Hamlet’s general attitude towards women. Do you feel he is an overall misogynist in the big picture? Or are his attitudes/hostility only directed at certain women or part of his “act”? You may also wish to further consider his words/actions towards Ophelia and Gertrude during the play-within-a-play (Act 3, scene 2: between lines 101-238).
Option 2) Act 3, Scene 3: Claudius prays and Hamlet eavesdrops (lines 36-98 Norton ed.)
Support overall points with at least two quotes from the text and follow with close analysis. a. Closely analyze Claudius’ soliloquy: why is he attempting to pray and what specifically is he trying to express? What are his main concerns, and what does he seem to realize by the end of his soliloquy? b. Why doesn’t Hamlet kill Claudius now, when he has the chance? Is his decision a rational one? Why or why not? Closely analyze Hamlet’s reactions to Claudius’ words and his resolutions by the close of this scene. c. So far in our reading, do you feel that Hamlet’s psychological debates/his thought process/use of reason is helping or hindering him in the big picture? Explain with support from the text.
Option 3) Act 3, Scene 4: Hamlet visits his mother, the Queen
Support overall points with at least two quotes from the text and follow with close analysis a. Discuss the interchange between Hamlet and his mother. What are Hamlet’s feelings towards his mother, and what do her reactions reveal? Why might it be so important to Hamlet that Gertrude refuse intimacy with her husband? b. Do you think Gertrude realizes or already knows that Claudius killed King Hamlet? How might her words or attitude show her knowledge or lack of? c. After hesitating for so long to kill Claudius, what do you make of Hamlet’s impulsive action towards Polonius in this scene? d. Unlike the early scenes with the Ghost on the platform in Act I, in Act 3 the Ghost appears only to Hamlet, and not to his mother. What conclusions might be drawn from this phenomenon? Is Hamlet hallucinating? Has he slipped into madness? Is Gertrude in denial or lying? Might there be an alternative explanation?