Betsey+B.

=media type="youtube" key="fgWBD-95Hmw" height="315" width="420"= = = = = =**Hamlet Blog #4**= (thank god it's done) 2/20/12

In Act 4 Scene 7 (Ophelia's death) The queen is talking to Laertes about how poor, crazy Ophelia died. In a not so direct way, this scene has a lot to do with Per 2's essential question: 'Who gets to decide who has the right to live or die?' In this case, did Ophelia really choose to die? We know from the queen's monologue that some farmers watched her do it. (Which sounds pretty suspicious to me..) And according to the peasants she didn't struggle "[as] her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death." at the bottom of a 'brook' (which sounds a little shallow to //actually// be able to drown in right?) All that really tells us is that she didn't //stop// herself from drowning. How do we know the farmers didn't just get annoyed with her singing hymns? After all she was probably not doing very well and was most likely off key due to her crying. OR, slightly a stretch, can we accuse her men of killing her? We've all discussed the potential of Ophelia sleeping with her dad, and her brother, and she's obviously done the dirty with Hamlet. We know Hamlet kind of pressured her into it, but we don't know about her brother and dad. I think while dear, crazy Ophelia didn't object to death, it was really the men in her life that caused it, because //apparently// she didn't object to much. Again in her defense, to those of you who might think it's still her fault for being such a push over, we have to remember that was the role of women in the age of Shakespeare.

=**^^^Brook**= P.S. You can't drown in that. Stupid. = = =**Hamlet Blog #3**= Finally period two has an interesting death quote to discuss (potentially)! Polonius had just said he would take his leave, as in "goodbye". True**,** this is when Hamlet is still trying to act crazy, and through people off, but I really got the feeling that he wasn't faking anything right there.. Was it an invite for Polonius to kill him? or might he be saying that by preventing Ophelia from seeing him Polonius has taken his whole life? OR is it a reference to King Claudius's evil deed/Hamlet's intentions of getting revenge? = = =**Hamlet Blog #2**=
 * 2/11/2012**
 * Act 2 Scene2** when Hamlet and Polonius are talking and Hamlet says "You can't take anything from me that I haven't //already// given-except my life, except my life. .....except my life" *cue dramatic music?* [[image:creeper.jpg]]

So, I have a question. Or maybe proposition? It's debated whether or not Hamlet ever really saw his dead father's ghost. One argument is that his friends are the ones that brought Sr. and Jr. together in a postmortem pow-wow, so if they're seeing him, then he must be there. But what if really, Hamlet has already gone crazy, and sadly also has bad taste in friends? - What if the ghost thing is really just a trick that went a little out of control? What I mean is, we have all seen Hamlet's sick with sadness and disgust, and how in Act 1 Scene 2 the very long speech Hamlet gave about his mother being a ho borders on suicidal. Could this be a clue to Hamlet's initial craziness? D: Could Hamlet's friends be trying to make a point about Hamlet overreacting and he takes it seriously, and actually sees some ghost? Maybe his friends are just too afraid of taking responsibility for their actions. When they see that he's taking it seriously, and informs them of his plans to investigate his father's murder, personally, I would assume that because Claudius isn't actually guilty, the facts and clues wouldn't line up. But then, if the judge is totally bonkers, is it a fair trial?

=**Hamlet Blog #1**=

Just reading through the scenes we did during the week, it was hard to visualize very effectively what all the character's body language would be giving away. However, after watching all the clips some things started to pop up. For example, Hamlet's potential incestual love for his mother, and how weirdly happy his mom was to be marrying Claudius in all of the marriage scenes, and how 'emo' Hamlet really kind of is. We especially saw this in the Ethan Hawke version: //What// is with that hat?! Is he wearing it to keep his empty soul from freezing? Based on Second Period's essential question (to be or not to be, who decides who lives and who dies...etc) I think, his uncle decided to kill Hamlet because he had raised the prince to be such a pansy Claudius couldn't take it anymore. In other words, I think it's up to anyone who dies/ who they kill and why, and it's pretty obvious why Claudius killed Hamlet.