Melinda+Horne

Alright, so maybe not as funny as it was when I was 10, but still you gotta appreciate the crazy antics of the Japanese and the hilarious American voice-overs. Here it is, MXC. media type="youtube" key="NqXn1rT2JVM" height="315" width="420"  

 Blog Post #4 2/20: The end is near Kay so FINALLY Hamlet gets around to killing Claudius. We've only been waiting for this moment the whole entire play... he sure took his time getting to it. But, to make up for it, in this final scene we watch not only Claudius die, but Gertrude, Laertes, and Hamlet too! Boy oh boy, was it worth the wait.

Kinda. Am I the only one who though it was the cheesiest ending in the world?

 "I am dead, Horatio" ... "Horatio, I am dead ... "O, I die, Horatio"

Jesus Christ, Hamlet, you can't be dead if you're still speaking.

At any rate, now that they're all dead (hooray!) and Horatio is telling Hamlet's side of the story to young Fortinbras, which sort of answers our EQ (To what extent can we trust the insane?) -- completely!

<span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: left;">The End. <span style="color: #920c39; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #920c39; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;">

<span style="color: #920c39; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #008080; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: left;">Blog post #3 <span style="color: #008080; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: left;">2/10: Claudius is human, albeit a sucky one <span style="color: #008080; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: left;">For the majority of the play, we see the situation through the eyes of the protagonist Hamlet. Very few other characters are given spotlights through either monologues or soliloquies, and we see less of their internal struggle as Shakespeare focuses on the many that play out in Hamlet's mind. But if Hamlet is indeed unreliable (like our EQ askes, "To what extent can we trust the insane?") then how do we know that the so-called antagonists like Claudius, and to a certain extend Gertrude, are truly antagonistic?

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;"> <-- sly, evil looking Claudius

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">Only in Act III Scene III, we finally do get a view into Claudius' brain, finally giving him the chance to prove his possible innocence, or at least give the audience a sign that there is some humanity beneath his ambitious exterior.

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 80%;">But, O, what form of prayer <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 80%;">Can serve my turn? "Forgive me my foul murder"? <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 80%;">That cannot be; since I am still possess'd <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 80%;">Of those effects for which I did murder

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">This plight, while being a fairly emotional one, is basically a confession to the audience that he did indeed kill Hamlet Sr, and though he wishes to be forgiven, he is not yet truly sorry for having done it, and all his attempts at prayer are thus ineffectual.

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">Does this soliloquy provide some validation for Hamlet's possible craziness? It does show that Claudius is capable of emotion, and yet, it also proves that Hamlet is not off-base in the assumption that he murdered the former king, and therefore maybe the idea of him witnessing a ghost has a bit more merit now. <span style="color: #920c39; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #920c39; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;">

<span style="color: #920c39; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #920c39; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> Blog post #2 <span style="color: #920c39; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> 2/4: Adieu, Ophelia's Sanity <span style="color: #920c39; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> For third period, part of our essential question asks, 'Where can we draw the line between sanity and insanity?' I think it's safe to say that by Act Four, Scene Five, that Ophelia has not only drawn this line, but skipped across it happily. By this point in the play, it's pretty clear that she's gone batsh*t crazy.

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<span style="color: #920c39; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> go to 2:07 minutes - you'll be glad that you did ;)

<span style="color: #920c39; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> People always say that Ophelia's weak and annoying (and indeed all women in Shakespeare's plays seem to be so - 'Frailty thy name is woman') and that she had much less cause to go crazy than Hamlet. At first, I tend to agree with this, but when I finally look into it and really think about it, I kinda feel for Ophelia.

<span style="color: #920c39; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> I mean, her dad just died, her boyfriend's psychotic and tossed her away like a dirty shirt, her brother's AWOL, and now she has to find some way to fend for herself, which, back then, would be a difficult thing in itself even without the other stresses added. She's past her breaking point, and seems to be unable to get over the death of dear sweet Polonius.

<span style="color: #861333; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 10px; text-align: center;"> **Ophelia:** [sings] <span style="color: #861333; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 10px; text-align: center;"> He is dead and gone, lady,  <span style="color: #861333; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 10px; text-align: center;"> He is dead and gone;  <span style="color: #861333; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 10px; text-align: center;"> At his head a grass-green turf,  <span style="color: #861333; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 80%; text-align: center;"> At his heels a stone.

<span style="color: #7b0a29; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: left;">Here it's obviously that her main hangup is her dead daddy - not the absence of Hamlet's tenders, as some might think. This I can respect. It would suck majorly to lose your dad, especially from murder, especially at the hands of your ex-beau. That would mess pretty much anyone up. <span style="color: #7b0a29; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: left;"> <span style="color: #7b0a29; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: left;">So much for pretty, sweet Ophelia. It's all downhill from here folks. :(

=== <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;">

=== <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> Blog post #1 <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> 1/29: Hamlet's batty

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> Kay, so upon watching David Tennant's Hamlet, I really began to think that our essential Q (Where do we draw the line between sanity & insanity, and to what extent can we trust the insane?) is relevant. At least with Tennant's portrayal of Hamlet, it almost seems as if he's crazy, or a little deranged, even before he sees the ghost of his father.

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<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> In this scene, a wracking emotional display of sorrow and anger are followed up by the exciting possibility that Hamlet may yet see his father again. This implication alone is enough to send someone to the edge - and we can assume that though Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo can also see the ghost, Hamlet is in such a vulnerable emotional state that he would quickly fall into insanity.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> But that kinda sucks, doesn't it? I don't really want Hamlet to be insane at all. I'd much rather think that he's doing what's truly necessary to find justice in his father's death. Although if that were the case, I think deaths like that of Polonis, Ophelia, or really anyone were pretty unnecessary and could have been avoided if not for his wild mood swings.



<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> I mean, just look at this guy. You can't get any loonier than this.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;"> I still like Hamlet, though. I understand it a lot more now than I did in 6th grade when we had to read it for this GATE class I was in - maybe because we don't actually have to read it this time around. I mean, seriously. How is an eleven year old supposed to understand "To be or not to be?" Ah, who am I kidding, I still don't understand it.