Scott+Kozisek

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= Hamlet Blog Post Numero Quatro = Feb 20, 2012

We've finally seen the grand finale of Hamlet. Someone could have a heyday with our essential question and the ending since Shakespeare pretty much killed every important character besides Horatio. Although Horatio wants to die too, Hamlet convinces him that his life is still worth living as he is the only person who really knew what happened after everyone else dies off. It is his job to spread the word about treacherous king.As we know, Claudius had it coming to him and many people would agree that he deserved to die and Hamlet had the power to avenge his father and take the throne. In the end, the only lives that Hamlet did intentionally take were Claudius's and Rosencrantz's and Guildenstern's. I think that Hamlet's insanity shows through the most when he decides to send his childhood friends to their deaths without the blink of an eye. He didn't take a second to even think that they didn't know what the letter said.

LAERTES: He is justly served. (335) It is a poison temper'd by himself. Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet. Mine and my father's death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me!

HAMLET Heaven make thee free of it. I follow thee.—  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. As th'art a man,

Give me the cup. Let go! By heaven, I'll have't. O God, Horatio, what a wounded name, Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me! (355) If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from [|felicity] awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story.  O, I die, Horatio! The potent poison quite [|o'er-crows] my spirit. (365) I cannot live to hear the news from England, But I do prophesy the election <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|lights] On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice. So tell him, with the <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|occurrents], more and less, Which have <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|solicited] —The rest is silence. <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,'Liberation Sans',FreeSans,sans-serif;">These are some excerpts from the finals pages of Hamlet. I found it interesting that Laertes tries to take the guilt off himself for killing Hamlet by saying I'll forgive you if you forgive me. You didn't kill my father or myself and I didn't kill you. The rest of the quotes are from Hamlet. He takes FOREVER to die and he makes sure the world knows that he is dying, He mentions thta he is dead 3 times, yet he is able to grasp on to life for a few extra minutes to be dramatic.

= Hamlet Blog Post #3 = Feb 11th, 2012 This is by far the most interesting week of the play. Things have really started to pick up and the story is becoming interesting. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Ophelia and Polonius both die, Hamlet's play is presented to the king, and we learn that Claudius did in fact kill Hamlet Sr. Hamlet gave his To Be or Not To Be speech which ties in perfectly with our essential question. He debates if his life is worth living or not and decides that it is. The thing is, he is only decides to live so that he can avenge his father, but he repeatedly has to decide if he should take action against Claudius or not. He has had several opportunities to kill Claudius, but backs out of doing it. It gets a bit confusing when he kills <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Polonius. He had just come from the chapel where he saw Claudius. There is no possible way that Claudius would've been able to get up to Gertrude's room before Hamlet. Plus Hamlet would've been able to tell that it wasn't Claudius when Polonius called for help. I think that Hamlet killed just because he could and would have a semi-decent excuse for why he could. He might've been angry at Polonius for forbidding <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ophelia from seeing Hamlet. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Many of the later scenes seemed rushed. Shakespeare probably realized that this play was taking waaay too long just for Hamlet to ultimately decide that he would in fact kill Claudius. Gertrude knows EXACTLY how <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ophelia dies, yet she doesn't say how she learned this. The details were so specific that it seemed like she watched the whole ordeal.

This quote is from Hamlet's famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1:

"But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolutionIs sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprise of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action."

I really like the metaphor Hamlet makes in this passage. He compares death to a journey into the unknown from which no one returns. He says this unknown country makes us scared of dying, and he ultimately decides not to kill himself. At least not yet.

=Hamlet blog post #2=

February 5, 2012
So far this week, everything we've read in Hamlet has gone hand in hand with our essential question: To Be or Not To Be? When is a life not worth living? Who Gets to Decide if Someone Should Live or Die? Hamlet has his first soliloquy in which he first mentions the thought of suicide but quickly represses it due to it being banned by his church. This helps show that even from the get-go Hamlet isn't in perfect mental health. Even with the death of someone close, suicide seems like a far option. He may be down from his fathers death, but he's still got alot going for him. He'll be the next King of Denmark and gets all the steeze that goes with it.

Hamlet also saw the ghost of his father this week. The ghost blatantly tells Hamlet to avenge his death. Hamlet Sr. feels that he has the right to decide if Claudius dies. He leaves it up to Hamlet Jr to finish the task. This ends up being a big mistake as Hamlet will spend the next 4 acts deciding if it is right to kill Claudius. Personally if I was Hamlet Sr. I'd take it upon myself to haunt Claudius day and night until he eventually went crazy. The possibilities are endless and it would be much more enjoyable than just sitting around for eternity watching his failure of a son go crazy and kill everyone. Hamlet Sr could go around and haunt everyone who wronged him but then Hamlet Jr would be left out of the fun.

I found Hamlets first soliloquy in Act 1 scene 2 to be rather interesting. The translation in class definitely helped me understand it. This soliloquy offers us a glimpse into Hamlets thoughts on everything. He doesn't respect his mother as he compares her to a beast and hates his uncle. But he sees his father as perfect. It's been two months since his father's death, but Hamlet still mourns him every minute of every day. 2 months is a long time for a country to be without a leader so I can't blame Claudius for having a hasty marriage even if he did just kill Hamlet Sr.

=REDRUM: Hamlet blog #1=

January 29, 2012
<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">All the film versions of Hamlet that I've seen have showed Hamlet to already be loony. It will never be known if he is acting this way due to his father's death or he has just always been crazy since day one. It is an interesting interpretation for film directors to take on, but it helps make the story flow and explains Hamlet's plunge into insanity better. Now if Hamlet has always been slightly deranged, then his father's death could easily caused him to spiral downward in to the depths of madness as it ended up doing. In act 1, scene 2, Hamlet is obviously depressed and both Claudius and his mother have to tell him to snap out of it. At this point, Hamlet could’ve opted out of life or he could have been gutsier and killed Claudius as soon as his dead father told him that he was murdered, but that wouldn't make much of a play, now would it?

Our essential question of " To Be or Not To Be? When is a life not worth living? Who Gets to Decide if Someone Should Live or Die?" can be applied to Act 1, scene 2 when Hamlet says, “Seems,” madam? Nay, it is. I know not “seems.” <span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Grande',Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">'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 says that he has more grief than anyone can see. Even though he is very sorrowful of his father's death, there is still a reason to live. He never states what it is, but we can assume that he still sees his life as worth living since he never mentions suicide until "to be or not to be".

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