Skyler

...And Everybody Dies. The End.
So, this is our last blog post. Kind of a sad moment...well, not that sad of a moment. Sure, the play ends with Fortinbras takin' over, while Hamlet's body slowly cools on the floor of the palace hall. Not too shabby, in Shakespearean terms anyways. I like that the play closes with Horatio and Fortinbras, the only two characters who had even an ounce of good sense and determination in them. I said I liked Horatio at the beginning of the play, and I like him even more now that he is the only one who avoids the treachery and dubauchery which seems to surround Hamlet constantly.

= = = = I thought that Kenneth Branagh did a fantastic portrayal of the clsing scene of the play. The epic fight scene really took the cake--flying swords and killer chandeliers really do make murder so much more entertaining. I'd also like to give a shout out to Ian of p.2 for a hilarious depiction of the crazy, grave digger at the beginning of 5.1. I honestly couldn't stop laughing at your pirate style paraphrasal--wonderful!

The last couple scenes of Hamlet relate especially well to our essential question (To be or not to be? Is a life ever not worth living? Who decides when some one has the right to live or die?) The clowns in the graveyard talk about the "circle of life" (ha, Lion King reference FTW) which is the epitome of the "To be or not to be?" question. Is life worth living even though everyone dies? Albeit, some perish sooner than others *cough cough* Hamlet Sr., Ophelia, Polonius, Gertrude, Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, Laertes, Claudius, and Hamet Jr., just to name a few. But, they each got what they had coming. The men all decided that they were going to end the others lives in some way and take that ultimate power away from God. I don't think He liked that very much. Us mere mortals do not have the luxery of deciding who gets to die and in the case of the Hamlet debacle, God decided to get revenge. Anyone even inminorly involved in the treachery and deciet was killed. They caused the mess, and in the end they cleaned it up, too.

<---KITTIES!!!!! I really liked the way the play was concluded. It didn't end with Hamlet's dramatic final words, "And the rest is silence" (5.2) but instead closed with Fortinbras, Prince of Norway:

<span style="color: #00ff00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">//T////ake up the bodies: such a sight as this// <span style="color: #00ff00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">//Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.// <span style="color: #00ff00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">//Go, bid the soldiers shoot.// (5.2.)

The imagery comparing the sights of the bodies in the palace to one better suited to a battle fiels captures the tragedy of Hamlet. Fortinbras rightly concludes that the deceit surrounding the unfortunate Danish Prince was somethig wrong and was not a situation fitting of a royal family. Despite this, Fortinbras shows some valor and compassion by ordering his soldiers to give Hamlet hte funeral of an honored soldier. In the end, Hamlet did what he did out of the love for his father and his country; he honestly didn't forsee the fatal consequences of his crusade.

But hey, it wouldn't be a Shakespearean tradgedy in everyone lived. And, really, when you get down to it, we all need a little more epic killing scenes in our lives.

Here is this totally awesome rendition of Act 5 Scene 2 done with play dough characters. Watch it!

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 * Post #3**

**2/9/12 1:06 pm**
==<span style="color: #ff5b00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Good morning, Denmark! I'm [insert generic Danish name], host of The Denmark Danish! Today's Celebrity Interview is with the vengeful Prince Hamlet. ==

<span style="color: #ff5b00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Hamlet, welcome to our show.

<span style="color: #ff5b00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Thank you, [insert generic Danish name], I'm happy to be here.

<span style="color: #ff5b00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">So, Hamlet...I was wondering how you are feeling about your uncle killing your dad and then usurping the kingdom and your mom out from under you?

<span style="color: #ff5b00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Well, to be honest, I'm kind of struggling with it. I don't know whether I should just kill him, my uncle I mean, or like, if I should wait until there is just the right light and dramatic set-up. 'Cause you know, you can't just commit a revenge killing willy-nilly; there is a lot of time-consuming preparation and you know, all the stress has really been hard on me. My drug problem has started up again, and I'm--I'm really unhappy. I just don't know what I'm going to do. I wish--

<span style="color: #ff5b00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Okay, that's all the time we have today, folks. Thank you Hamlet for sharing all of your angsty feelings with us. I hope everything works out for you...NOT, you whiny little baby! Grow a pair!

<span style="color: #ff5b00; display: block; font-family: 'courier new',courier,monospace; text-align: center;">*END SCENE*



<span style="color: #ff5b00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">As you can see, I really have no patience for Hamlet. He is a waverer. He has made up his mind to kill his uncle but he is incapable of actually following through with his plan. It kinda pisses me off, to tell the truth. We read the two soliloquies on block day from 3.2, one by Clausius and one by Hamlet. Claudius is being his usual evil villan self but Hamelt just keeps going back ad forth about killing Claudius. He has the perfect opportunity but he still hesitates, giving lame excuses. I mean does is really matter whether or not he goes to heaven? He's is still going to be dead! Whatever.

<span style="color: #ff5b00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">I am really enjoying the presentations so far. The play is a lot more engaging when there is cross-dressing and valley-girl accents there to keep things interesting. I have to say that I particularly enjoyed the Kenneth Branagh version of the play-within-a-play. I didn't realize how insane Hamlet was portraying himself until he starts talking about Ophelia's legs. Just a tad out-there...All the same, Branagh did a great job.

<span style="color: #ff5b00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;"><--"What nice legs you have, my dear..." = =

<span style="color: #ff5b00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Over the past week, our essential question (To be or not to be? Is a life ever not worth living? Who decides when some one has the right to live or die?) has been touched upon quite often. In the soliloquies I mentioned above, Claudius is pondering whether or not to pray to God and if he does, if he will even be heard. He isn't exactly remorseful about killing his brother but he is feeling the guilt.

<span style="color: #ff5b00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">This is interesting because one would think you would have to be remorseful to feel guilt but in this case it's just not true. He decided that Hamlet Sr.'s life wasn't worth living anymore, and therefore he ended it. He wanted what his brother had, and so he took it. It's kind of a psychopath's way of thinking and I don't thinks that is too far off. It seems everyone is this play has some psychological issues. They could really all use some heavy therapy. Can you imagine how much that would cost...yeah, like I said, lots of issues. Watch this great you tube video of Hamlet and Ophelia in therapy. Pretty funny... Catch the LOTR reference at the end? yeah, awesome :)

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<span style="color: #ff5b00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">On the first day of our Hamlet unit, we each got a quote. My quote was the end of King Claudius's soliloquy-- "My words fly up, my thoughts below: words with our thoughts never to heaven go." I really like this passage. Shakespeare uses rhythm, parallel structure, and rhyme to give this quote a poetic feel. It really rolls of your tongue when you say it, unlike a lot of Shakespearean Old English. The idea behind these lines really give you a feel for how Claudius feels about his murder of his brother. He knows that what he did was wrong, and that he will receive no forgiveness from capital H-i-m. But he still refuses to give up everything he gained, resigning himself to the deep, dark pits of hell. Well, he deserves it, so I don't feel to bad.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Yay! Drugs always make Shakespeare more enjoyable. As my group and I are planning out our paraphrasal (is that a word?) of our scene (1.3) we have explored the idea that Hamlet is actually on some sort of hardcore drug, serving as a coping mechanism for his dad's recent assassination, and that he isn't pretending to be insane. Instead he's simply trippin' hardcore. Think about it--it would explain a lot...

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;"><--- tweekn

<span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'courier new',courier,monospace; text-align: left;">Our scene is when Hamlet calls Ophelia a "loose woman" and tells her to get herself to a nunnery. Yep, and guess who's Ophelia? It's gonna be me. Hold on. Did you guys just get a major N Sync flashback, because I sure did. If you didn't, watch this sick video of them and bask in the glory of the boy bands of the early 2000's. They've got some hella dope dance moves. Check it.

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<span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'courier new',courier,monospace; text-align: left;">Anyways, back to Hamlet. I am really excited to see everyone's interpreteation of their scenes. So far, the play is pretty awesome. I'm warming up to Hamlet, but can't stand Ophelia. Talk about a weak woman. What is it with all the horrible females in this play? Obviously Shakespeare didn't think too highly of the gentler sex. Oh well. Soon women will rule the world anyway, so I won't stress about it.



<span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'courier new',courier,monospace; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">As for our essential question ( To be or not to be? Is a life ever not worth living? Who decides when some one has the right to live or die?), Hamlet's first Soliloquy touched nicely on the topics of life vs. death. Hamlet is super bummed about the fact that his daddy "quitted the stage" as they say and that his creepy mother instanly jumped into the waiting arms of his uncle. He wishes for death and even contemplates suicide, but as he is a good christian boy, he quickley exnays that idea. Yet he is still as unhappy as ever and cannot see the reason for his continued exsitence in this "weary ,stale. flat and unprofitable...world" (1.2.134-135).

<span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'courier new',courier,monospace; text-align: left;">Speaking of Hamlet's First Soliloquoy, it really helped so much to go through the paraphrasal (again, does this word even exist? Cuz it definitly should). I actually understood what Shakespeare was saying. The passage gave me a lot of insight into Hamlet's mind. He is obviously conflicted and his frustration come across nicely in this lengthy rant. The scattered syntax (see 1.2.147-155) and the mythological allusions (see 1.1.151) lay the foundation for Hamlet's supposed "insanity" later on as well as the reason behind it. <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'courier new',courier,monospace; text-align: left;">Found a hilarious 4 minute version of Hamlet. WARNING: CONTAINS SOME INAPPROPRIATE REFERENCES AND LANGUAGE. WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK. Still, it's awesome and n<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">ot //that// bad.

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<span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'courier new',courier,monospace; text-align: left;">Some people commented on my previous post about Hamlet and it's influence on the Lion King. Here is a blog which explores their relationship --> [|Simba and Hamlet: The Same or Different?]

**Post #1**

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">__**H**__appy __**A**__morous __**M**__others __**L**__oving __**E**__vil __**T**__otalitarians.
<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Look at that--I made a relevant acronym out of the title of one of Shakespear's most famous works. From what I have read and experienced from this tale of revenge and death, I have gathered that Hamlet's a bro, Ophelia's not, and Queen Gertrude has a creepy "connection" with her adult son. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to learn more about this messed up world.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">I found an abridged and simplified version of Hamlet online. It is pretty entertaining.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">[|A Dick and Jane Hamlet]

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">I also found this amazing picture of Jude Law as Hamlet. I wish I could be his Ophelia *sigh* well, except for the dying and going crazy part.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;"><--HAWT

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">So far our Hamletian experience has been interesting to say the least. The first two scenes of act 1 have made me very eager to see how Hamlet takes the news of the return of his father in spirit form, the budding incestuous relationship between mother and son, and the malicious evil-doings of his suspicious Uncle. I am fond of Horatio as he seems to be a level-headed and loyal character, but I am still iffy on Hamlet. I don't quite know him well enough yet to see if he really is just a gloomy, brooding teenager-type or if he has some depth to him which has yet to be explored.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">I really love p.2's essential question--To be or not to be? Is a life ever not worth living? Who decides when some one has the right to live or die?



<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">The play begins with the old king, Hamlet's father, already 6 feet under. I think this idea of the right to live or die is currently being brooded over in the maze of Hamlet's mind. His father has just been murdered (well, he doesn't know that yet) and his uncle has become king, marrying his mother in the process. What gives Claudius the right to take over the old king's life? Even to actually take his life itself? The new king and queen encourage Hamlet to stop grieving for his father and to move on. I think Hamlet's current state of mind represents the time when grief and pain can make life seem not worth living.



<span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: 'courier new',courier,monospace; text-align: left;">I really like the opening scene of Hamlet. The dialogue is so simple, yet it an be perceived in so many ways. Each of the different versions we've seen presents the beginning of this play in a completely different manner. When we acted out the first 11 lines of Hamlet in the classroom activity on block day, the totally unrelated and peculiar presentations of the same 60 words totally intrigued me. The language is ambiguous, and the tone ambivalent which makes for so many interesting combinations of inflection and stage directions. It is a great way to set the mood for the entire play. <span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: 'courier new',courier,monospace; text-align: left;">That being said, the opening scene of Hamlet still doesn't stand a chance to the beginning of the Lion King, which is supposedly based on the play itself. It's the Circle of Life, Yo.

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