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February 19th, 2012

Hamlet Blog Post #4

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm starting to dislike Hamlet. After he tells Ophelia he just used her, and doesn't love her anymore, this week, we read about how he tries to steal attention from Laertes at Ophelia's wake, claiming he could love her more than a brother who has spent his whole life with her. As a brother I couldn't imagine my sister dying, then having her crazy boyfriend talking smack. I don't blame Laertes for trying to whoop some a$$. There is only one excuse for his treatment of Ophelia and his "playing the victim" at her wake. Insanity. And that's how critics have labeled it. I agree that he is not completely sane, but I also think he is a stick-up, rich snob. I know this because of the way he acts throughout the play, especially with the gravedigger. He blatantly condescends him, even though he seems to be very intelligent.



I know, I know, I would be devastated if my father was murdered by my uncle and she married my mom in less than a month. But Hamlet is so dramatic. I guess that was what Shakespeare was going for, the play being a drama and all.

One thing I really don't understand is that in all the film versions we watched, Claudius didn't try very hard to get the queen not to drink. He acted like a deer in the headlights. He would rather prevent a commotion than save his wife's life. He even could have blamed Laertes for the poison in the cup. I think Claudius just finally accepted his place, as a vile man who's fault everyone's death was. He seemed to be in shock for the entire last scene. I think Shakespeare is cynical for killing everyone like that. What kind of message is he trying to send? Don't listen to ghosts? Don't avenge your father?

**HORATIO** Never believe it: I am more an antique Roman than a Dane: Here's yet some liquor left.

**HAMLET** As thou'rt a man, Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I'll have't. O good Horatio, what a wounded name, Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me! 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. February 9th, 2012

In the end Shakespeare redeems himself for all the bloodshed for including this heartfelt, brotherly-love filled moment. It's sort of a happy ending, if you look at it in really cynical way. Hamlet Sr. was avenged, and everyone else got what was coming to them. The only victim I feel sorry for is Ophelia. I mean, I feel sorry for everyone, because they didn't __have__to die, but I liked that he included this connection between to characters that didn't betray each other all play. Horatio even offers to kill himself: "Here's yet some liquor left." But Hamlet asks Horatio to "tell [his] story" as his dying wish. Shakespeare uses a sad, lamenting tone in Hamlet's lines, with such words as:

wounded harsh world pain

media type="youtube" key="Wc_WTvGeXOk" height="315" width="420" I just wanted to include one more video. Don't have to watch it.

Hamlet Blog Post #3

We're nearing the big finale in Hamlet. I had a lot of fun this week performing our scenes and watching other student's interpretations. We have a very creative class, and I'm sure the other periods are the same. I've heard Mr. Murray has been seeing plastic swords in the halls and threatening to take them, so watch out, those of you that plan to use fake weapons! Just doin' his job :)

If only Hamlet would do his job... He needs to buck up and murder Claudius already. If Polonius, who he took for Claudius, hadn't been behind that curtain, he wouldn't have had the courage to kill him. He waits for Claudius to sin to make a move, which is just B.S. It is dramatically ironic that we know that Claudius can't pray because he is still enjoying the throne; while the fact that Hamlet sees him praying is the exact reason he can't bring himself to kill!

Confusing? No, just complicated. But that's what is great about Shakespeare, and for that matter, insanity. I'm excited to see the scene performed in which Ophelia really goes nutso, and sings weird songs while tossing flowers. But I really can't blame her after the way Hamlet treats her. He basically says he only wanted her sexually, and then interacts with her normally in the scene where they watch the "play within a play." I agree with critics that Hamlet is not pretending to be insane in the scene where he tears apart the woman he claims to have "loved... once." I think Ophelia is a good judge of Hamlet's insanity, as she was very close to him. She feels compelled to go insane as well after assuming Hamlet's insanity.

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep-- No more--and by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep-- To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th' unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, 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 resolution Is 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.
 * HAMLET:**To be, or not to be--that is the question:



Hamlet's decision is not to commit suicide, because he fears the unknown, and what "dreams" he way have after death/sleep more than the suffering he knows will occur in life. He can predict the "whips and scorns of time," while he doesn't know whether the afterlife will be easier or harder on his emotions. His thought process goes from his comparison of death to sleep, which Shakespeare describes using analogy, to a realization that; the metaphor Shakespeare uses for the dreams that come during death's sleep, "the undiscovered country," could be nightmares. He uses hyperbole to say that __everyon____e__ fears death, and for the same reason as him: "conscience does make cowards of us all."

Hamlet Blog Post #2



As we continue to read __Hamlet__, I am beginning to see that the play is centered around a dysfunctional family. I am drawing parallels to other dysfunctional families such as The Simpsons, and the Griffins from "Family Guy." The difference is that these shows are meant to be funny and entertaining. While there is room for humorous interpretation in __Hamlet__, the text itself is tragic.

In response to our essential question, I think family members have a lot of say in whether another family member is insane, or is acting too recklessly. Like when a family plans an intervention. They know the usual activity the person exhibits, and they can see changes in behavior easily. It doesn't have to be a family member; for example, in __Hamlet__, Ophelia laments Hamlet's strange behavior several times. In "The Simpsons," It's usually Marge who stops Homer from strangling Bart.

The passage my group of three is assigned to perform is the first part of Act 3 Scene 4, one of my favorites in the play. Here is an excerpt:

HAMLET: No, You ate your husband's brother's wife; And - would it were not so! - you are my mother. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge; QUEEN: What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho!

It is clear without stage direction that Hamlet is forcing himself upon his mother, and some versions have suggested sexual attraction between them. Either way, Hamlet is impulsively assaulting his mother here, something he wouldn't normally do. Polonius then makes his presence clear, and Hamlet kills him. Polonius is in a way having an intervention with Hamlet, one in which Hamlet overreacts, and murders someone. One thing I wonder, is: Why does Polonius's murder not phase Hamlet? He doesn't feel sorry at all. He is certainly in a different mental state by this point in the play. Also, he receives no punishment by the law, only his eventual death by poisoned sword tip.



In the Mel Gibson version there is clear sexual tension/attraction between Hamlet and his mother:

**Go to 17:45**
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**Go to 17:45**
January 29 2012 . Hamlet Blog Post #1

__Hamlet__ is indisputably one of Shakespeare's best plays. But why? Hopefully in this unit we will find out for ourselves, and see if we agree with the critics!

One thing I know for sure is that lots of adaptations have been made. Because of the story's dramatic twists and turns, __Hamlet__ has been retold, and therefore has contributed in many ways to the world.

Our challenge is to draw meaning from __Hamlet__.

Personal Responses for this week:
After reading the ghost scene, I thought about narrator reliability and __The Turn Of The Screw__. I knew that because the guards saw the ghost, and it wasn't just Hamlet, that the ghost was real. I think the ghost came to the guards before Hamlet in order to establish credibility. Hamlet might have thought he was going insane if the Ghost had only come to him, and might not have avenged his father's death.

In the clip we watched from the Mel Gibson movie, I thought it was bizarre how in one scene, the Queen was grieving for her dead husband, and was kissing his brother passionately in the next. I hope what we read explains a little bit more her transition from grief to a need to be loved and supported again. Or perhaps she is faking her love for the new King, as he was simply the next in line for the crown, and therefore had to marry the queen. But I doubt that, in all three film versions we watched, the queen seemed to love Claudius.

Essential Question: Who has the right to judge sanity?
This question relates to what I was talking about before: narrator reliability and whether the ghost is real, or a figment of one or more insane characters' minds. But we can assume it is real and move on to the way Act 1 scene 2 foreshadows relationships falling apart, and the rush to build new ones. Hamlet is disappointed in his mom for marrying Claudius, and forgetting his father while he is still so crushed. Being misunderstood could lead to madness!!!

Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die
I chose this passage to show the contrast between Hamlet and his mother's view of the Hamlet Sr.'s death. Hamlet's "vailed lids" (dragged down by depression) "seek for [his] noble father in the dust". This foreshadows interaction between Hamlet and the ghost, when Hamlet will find his father not in the dust, but in the vapors of the air. It makes me think that the Queen didn't love the King too much, because she has moved on so quickly.

Here's a video that makes fun of Ophelia's madness later on in __Hamlet__: media type="youtube" key="jnvgq8STMGM" height="315" width="560"