Halle+Fiderlick

=April 1 funny thing:= media type="youtube" key="P3Bpukvdbso" width="425" height="350" I had to = = =Hamlet= =//**BLOG POST 4**//=

So, the main thing that REALLY stuck out to me in the last act was //how long it took Hamlet to die.// Seriously, how did Laretes die before him yet he got poisoned second? And how did Hamlet have time to make a whole speech to Horatio in his dying breaths? I guess we have to allow Shakespeare some artistic liberty with this one. I mean, Hamlet //was// the main character. But every time he said "the rest is silence", I just died a little inside. Especially when it was David Tennant. :'( Hamlet, in my opinion, deserved some sympathy. We're talking about how our perception impacts reality, but there are some things that are out of people's control. Hamlet, for instance, probably couldn't control the fact that his uncle killed his dad, or that he married his mother, or that his uncle tries to get him killed in England and by Laretes. Then again, if Hamlet hadn't been paranoid and killed Polonius, Ophelia wouldn't have gone crazy or died and he would never have fought with Laretes. I what it comes down to is this: I really thought it was interesting that his perception of reality, especially death, had changed by the end of the play. When he got poisoned, he actually seemed confused by suddenness of it and not ready to die.
 * Hamlet's perception of how things were, such as that his uncle needed to be punished and he was the only one to do it, affected how he acted and changed reality.** Hamlet might've acted differently to these events, but he was caught in a Shakespearean play where there is cruel irony and where people act dramatically and oftentimes irrationally.

"I am dead, Horatio.—Wretched queen, adieu!— You that look pale and tremble at this chance, That are but mutes or audience to this act, Had I but time (as this fell sergeant, Death, Is strict in his arrest), O, I could tell you— But let it be.—Horatio, I am dead. Thou livest. Report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied."

The way Hamlet talks about wanting to tell people the story makes it seem like he has unfinished business. Also, he seems surprised by the fact "I am dead". He repeats it over and over. I can definitely see Hamlet ending up as a ghost, just like his dad. Despite the fact that he killed his uncle, Hamlet didn't accomplish what he wanted. All his friends and family ended up dead and he didn't feel any relief or sense of vengeance. Poor Hamlet. How like a Shakespearean tragedy to completely deny the protagonist any sense of completion or happiness. Also, it's totally hilarious: http://ladysmaragdina.tumblr.com/post/17869926397/an-unweeded-garden-the-worst-hamlet-essays-ever = = = = =**Hamlet**= =//**Blog Post 3**//= __Hamlet__ is definitely getting out of control, and in part because of Hamlet's indecision! (in honor of the craziness, I'm doing the blog in a different order today) Hamlet's indecision is especially evident in these lines: "Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of //resolution// Is sicklied over with the //pale cast of thought//"
 * On a happier note:** if you're worried about the essay we have to write on block day....read this. Trust me, you'll think you're a total GENIUS.

I was also saddened by the fact that Ophelia died. I think it might have been prevented, but the king and queen were in denial: another kind of letting your perception effect your reality.

Hamlet, at least, knows this is wrong!!! Just look at that face.

The king admitted in prayer that he didn't want to repent because he wanted to keep the things he gained from his brother's death. He merely pushed aside the fact that he had committed a terrible deed. The queen, until Hamlet yelled at her that she was being unfaithful, was enjoying a new marriage with her dead husband's brother without a guilty conscience (she may have even participated in his murder). In a sense, Hamlet's craziness has been an attemp t at opening up everybody's eyes to the ugly truth. When they should have been mourning, the kingdom was celebrating...but now they must mourn even more deaths like Ophelia and Polonius'. If the king and queen had acted appropriately, maybe Ophelia and Hamlet wouldn't have acted crazy in the first place.

=Hamlet= =**//BLOG POST 2//**= It feels like Hamlet is just now revealing the conflicts that will shape the rest of the play. For one thing, we have the whole Hamlet-Ophelia conflict: will their relationship work out or not? Polonius and Laretes sure don't seem to think so. Then we have the conflict between Hamlet and his mother. How could she have married his uncle? And finally, we now know that Hamlet's uncle supposedly killed his father. None of these conflicts can end well. One thing that surprised me, especially in the movie, was Hamlet's willingness to believe the ghost's story. It struck me that maybe Hamlet was so quick to jump on this because he //wanted// to blame his uncle, and he almost wanted him to be evil. In this way, the story relates to our essential question. Hamlet's reality is that his uncle is evil and capable of murder, so he chooses to act with this in mind. Maybe his uncle is fully culpable, but does the ghost really exist? Is the audience supposed to believe in the ghost as easily as Hamlet does? Or is Hamlet already crazy? Or did Shakespeare really just want us to believe in ghosts, since he's written other plays about fairies and the like? I don't know, I just like to play the devil's advocate. :) So what do you all think?

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 * //Act 1 Scene 4//**

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 * //Hamlet://**

My fate cries out And makes each petty artery in this body As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve. Still am I called.—Unhand me, gentlemen. //(draws his sword)// By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me. I say, away!—Go on. I’ll follow thee.

Hamlet's willingness to follow the ghost amazes me. He waves his friends off with a sword, which is pretty scary. I certainly wouldn't do that to my friends. All this is so he can follow something that may or may not be real. I think that this scene really speaks to the depth of Hamlet's grief: he needs to believe that his father is out there still and he needs to talk to him again. Unfortunately, his conversation with the ghost brought him a desire for revenge instead of peace.

=//BLOG POST 1//= =//Hamlet//**//:// how does our perception of reality change reality itself?**=

My first impression of Hamlet (the character) is that he is letting his perception of reality change how he acts, and what he chooses to do. His circumstances are undeniably terrible. I mean,
 * His uncle married his mother, right after his dad died
 * Said uncle is condescending to Hamlet and tells him to just move on, in front of a bunch of people
 * The rest of the kingdom is celebrating a wedding and moving on, when Hamlet clearly wants to wear "black clothes" and mourn his father's death

However, Hamlet is letting all of this hurt his present and his future. He is aloof around his mom, even though she pleads with him to cheer up. He is all too willing to believe a ghost conveying the message that his uncle is a murderer. This alone makes me wonder....IS THE GHOST REAL??? Or is Hamlet's perception that is uncle is evil effecting what he thinks is reality? Of course, that's playing the devil's advocate. :) __Hamlet__ ends in ultimate tragedy: nearly //everyone// dies...so it seems that Hamlet lets all of the above problems get the best of him. He is letting his perception of how horrible his life make his life truly terrible. This is part of why he goes so crazy I think; anyone would cave under all that depression and reason to take revenge. It's too bad that he chooses to take the course of revenge, instead of doing something else. Of course, I have no idea what he could've done in this situation. But his attitude definitely has something to do with the escalating insanity and destruction in his life. In this passage from __Hamlet__, Hamlet tells his mother that she doesn't understand the depth of his misery.

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage, Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, That can denote me truly. These indeed “seem,” For they are actions that a man might play. But I have that within which passeth show, These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
 * Hamlet:** “Seems,” madam? Nay, it is. I know not “seems.”

He is describing, in a dramatic and sad tone, how terrible he looks...but then ends his quote with how this is merely the tip of the iceberg that is his grief. Hamlet has definitely been consumed by what he believes is an irrevocably bad reality.



//"And memories like spies, the salt betrays my eyes again." ~ Brandi Carlile, Turpentine//

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