Spencer+Seale

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//__**What is insanity and how do we know if its real? Who has the right to judge who is insane?**__// = Blog Post # 4 - =
 * 02/20/2012**


 * Hamlet fights Laertes in the duel to death, both feel as though they are the true lovers of Ophelia. Laertes conspiring with King Claudius shows that he is truly insane. Laertes is blowing out his revenge in an unfair way, while it may seem that he has the right to kill Hamlet he ends up ending his own life in the process. Laertes' revenge comes back to bite him in the but. His death is of his own doing, if he had found a more rational and sane way to deal with his anger he may have come out alive and Hamlet would end up murdering the King, potentially leading to his own sentence to death.**



He is justly served. It is a poison tempered by himself. Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet. Mine and my father's death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me. (dies) 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 (ad 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.
 * Laertes.**
 * Hamlet.**

Laertes and Hamlet go at it hard, as they fight they try to kill one another with all the hatred in their bodies. But once Laertes comes to his death and after he poisoned Hamlet he becomes Hamlet's friend it seems. When Laertes is close to death he decides that he must forgive all and look away from it and go to heaven with a clear heart.

=** Blog Post # 3 - **=
 * 02/12/2012 **

The story of Ophelia and Hamlet truly begins, the parents say that they are for one another and that Hamlet is insane. But as the story continues it seems as though Ophelia is the true knucklehead of the group. She picks flowers and sticks and bestows them on everyone while she sings, I imagine she is quite cross eyed at this point and is in her own world. Ophelia truly lost it after her boyfriend killed her father, but to her credit that is an awful circumstance to be in the middle of. Hamlet is thinking irrational because he killed Polonius through the curtain without knowing who it was. "What! A Rat!"

Now, Mother, what's the matter? Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. Mother, you have my father much offended. Come, come, you answer with and idle tongue. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. Why how now, Hamlet? What's the matter now? Have you forgot me? No, by the rood, not so! You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife, And, would it were not so, you are my mother.
 * Hamlet.**
 * Queen.**
 * Hamlet.**
 * Queen.**
 * Hamlet.**
 * Queen.**
 * Hamlet.**
 * Queen.**
 * Hamlet.**

Hamlet questions his mother and hints at the fact that he knows more than she thinks. His mother however plays dumb and acts as though she has done nothing wrong. His mother seems very uncomfortable here also, she is jumpy and questioning. The fact that she keeps asking Hamlet if he still cares about her and wants him to answer quickly. The scene builds as the Queen is finally confronted by the words that Hamlet feels that she deserves to here. He speaks as if they are the words that his father would say to her if he was still alive.media type="youtube" key="SfV1DneGttI?rel=0" height="315" width="420"

= = =** Blog Post # 2 - Swear! **= = = == = = Upon my sword We have sworn, my lord, already. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. (cries under the stage) Swear! Ha, ha, boy! Sayst thou so? Art thou there, truepenny? come on, you hear this fellow in the cellarage. Consent to swear. Propose the oath, my lord. Never to speak of this that you have seen. Swear by my sword. (beneath) Swear. = =
 * 02/05/2012 **
 * Hamlet is supposed to revenge his father by killing the newly claimed King Claudius because he has spoken with his father and now understands what he must do. He now understands his father was poisoned through drops of poison in his ear instead of being killed by a serpent. It seems as though Hamlet talks way too much and backs his voice up with little action. I want him to either kill King Claudius or don't, but I just want the plot to continue. Hamlet makes his pact with his friends when he says he will tell them about his occurrence with his father the ghost so that they will not tell what they hear. But I never can recall him actually telling them what his father has told him, either we're are supposed to infer that he tells them or it happens in the next scene. Hamlet continues to over analyze every instant and talks with so much dramatic flavor in his voice. He walks around pacing everywhere he goes, in a mental battle with himself on whether to do the deed that was bestowed on him by his father. I'm seeing Hamlet's insanity increase slowly, and can only guess that soon he will fall off the edge.**
 * Hamlet.**
 * Horatio.**
 * Hamlet.**
 * Ghost.**
 * Hamlet.**
 * Horatio.**
 * Hamlet.**
 * Ghost.**
 * Hamlet continues to stress the oath upon his sword, he drags it out and keeps on pressing them to swear upon what he's already proposed. I like how the ghost continues to comment from below with his ominous "Swear" like he is trying to intimidate Horatio and the other guards who swear to not repeat Hamlet's words. Hamlet seems slightly too jolly for the context, this hints at his growing insanity. **

=** Blog Post # 1 - First Thoughts **=

** 02/02/2012 **
Insanity is a label and is only a word used to describe someone when they are acting in ways that are unexplainable. No one thing classifies someone as insane. People may say that when Horatio tells Hamlet about the ghosts that that is insanity, to believe in ghosts. But from their perspective everything made sense and what they saw, they believed and so it was comprehendible to them. But when an outside source hears an account such as this they probably wont be able to believe it and make sense of it, therefore, insanity.

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Is this insanity?

//What I thought,//
I liked how the story jumped into the interesting ghost appearance and was able to get into the plot quicker than setting up the story in a slower rate. Horation seems like he is always trying to please Hamlet instead of just being his best friend. And Hamlet is very taking of all the praise, I didn't expect this. I predicted him to be more down to earth and not act like royalty as much. The story is quicker than most Shakespeare and poetic tales of this era. And Hamlet's father appears rather quickly and starts with his rant and proclamation of how poison was poured into his ear while he was sleeping and was conspired against by Claudius and Queen Gertrude. I rather enjoyed Hamlet's monologue, it was powerful and since I love music, his rhymes and rhythm were very complimenting and were fun to listen to. As of now I dislike Queen Gertrude very much, she is so sly and extremely fake. But of course every reader is annoyed with her at this point, I guess we'll see why Shakespeare chose to bother his audience with her ignorance so quickly.

//Hamlet.// Pale or red? //Horatio.// Nay, very pale. //Hamlet.// And fixed his eyes upon you? //Horatio.// Most constantly. //Hamlet.// And fixed his eyes upon you? //Horatio//. Most constantly. //Hamlet.// I would I had been there. //Horatio.// It would have much amazed you. //Hamlet.//Very like, very like. Stayed it long? //Horatio.// While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. //Both.// Longer, longer. (Act I, Scene II)

--- I chose this passage because it is very comical to me in the way that the two friends exchange quick responses in such smooth phrased ways. It is notable that Hamlet trusts Horatio well because he believes Horatio's words even though they speak of an odd occurrence such as seeing Hamlet's father. Also I'm glad that the ghost is not depicted as something that is ghostly and looks like someone with a white sheet over them self. Instead his paleness gives away the thought of him being an actual ghost and it is much more realistic. I wish my friends and I spoke like this together, it'd make way for much more interesting conversations. But you'd think Horatio and Hamlet would lighten up on their rhyme schemes when they were together!