Hamlet+Blog+Post+Week+One

** Something Funny ** media type="youtube" key="wQ5iFQv1KaE" height="480" width="640" align="center"

** Hamlet Blog Postings: Week Four ** February 13th- February 20th, 2012 By Conner Jackson, Period 2 Despite knowing what happens at the end of //Hamlet//, by getting a chance to look at the last few scenes in a more thorough manner I have realized that //Hamlet// is really just a play about the tragic nature of our existence. We are all human, we all have conflicting emotions, and we all in some instances act without thinking about the consequences beforehand. While this type of scenario has probably never worked out as perfectly as what is written in the play, I am confident that such a tragic story featuring the deaths of so many people in a short amount of time could happen if given the right conditions. It as if I am finally realizing the brilliance of Shakespearean plays. For a long time I always assumed I knew what was so intriguing about the plays that Shakespeare wrote. Now, at least for me, I appreciate them for their remarkable applicability to everyday life. We can learn about ourselves by reading Shakespearean plays, as we can in so many other expressions of art and literature. As we were viewing different versions of the scene where Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, and Laertes die (scene 5.2), I couldn't help but get mad at pretty much everyone in the scene for behaving so irrationally. In one way or another, Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, and Laertes were all to blame for what happened. Despite Hamlet's good intentions of avenging his father, I don't have any respect for him when he so carelessly killed off Guildenstern and Rosencrantz. Laertes shouldn't have listened to what others told him about Hamlet and instead made his own judgement on the situation, which probably would have resulted in the safe avoidance of his and Hamlet's death. Gertrude shouldn't have been so blind/ unfaithful to her slain husband. Claudius shouldn't have let his need for power get to the best of him. It would seem that Shakespeare had these people act they way they did just so that I reacted in this manner four hundred years later, which is interesting. If I have learned anything from reading Hamlet, it is to be sure that the decisions I make are made with careful consideration and awareness for others, so that I don't wind up like Hamlet, Laertes, Gertrude, Claudius, or Polonius. Life is too short to carelessly let it slip away because of the actions of others. Here's a pretty cool TED talk I found this weekend.. media type="youtube" key="gXDMoiEkyuQ" height="315" width="560"

** Hamlet Blog Postings: Week Three **  February 6th- February 12th, 2012  By Conner Jackson, Period 2 This week's readings had a lot do with our period's essential question. We saw the tragic death of Ophelia, the not so tragic death of Polonius and the decision by Hamlet to kill Claudius. While the deaths that take part in these scenes are not quite as dramatic as what happens at the end of the play, I still find these scenes interesting. I believe the sequence in which the events the listed above take place is particularly noteworthy. It is in between Ophelia's death and the death of Polonious that Hamlet decides he is going to kill Claudius, after he sees him praying. While that in itself is big considering Hamlet's indecisive nature, the fact that Polonius dies shortly thereafter **on accident** brings to light the fact that life really is a fragile thing, and that if we place ourselves in bad situations we might pay the ultimate price. The death of Polonius is almost like a warning sign to Hamlet, telling him to not mess around with death as if it were some game to play. We see throughout the play how it would simply be better if Hamlet made a flat out decision to either kill Claudius or not kill Claudius, or essentially take a side. The accidental death of Polonius, and Hamlet's decision to not kill him while Claudius is praying seem to only deter him further from his "objective," if killing Claudius really is what he wants to do. In Claudius' soliloquy, while he is praying, I made note of the last two lines that seem to tie in with what I have been saying above. They are: My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:   Words without thoughts never to heaven go. Apart from rhyming, these two lines also have a unique flow to them that almost makes them sound like a prophecy or something. They tie in with the rest of this blog post in the sense that here Claudius is essentially describing what he and Hamlet are both doing at the time this was said in the play, and that is being indecisive. For Claudius, he is being indecisive about what to do with Hamlet, for while he wants to have him killed, he wants to do it in such a manner that doesn't allow for him to be blamed. He is also unsure if God is listening to him, which is kind of a ridiculous notion that would God would be considering what he did to his brother. For Hamlet, he is deciding to not kill Claudius at this instant, but committing himself to his death later on. I think all readers should see this sign before reading //Hamlet,// just so they know most of the plot is caused people's inability to make a decision.

**Hamlet Blog Postings: Week Two ** January 29- February 5, 2012  By Conner Jackson, Period 2 This week's reading established Hamlet's role in the story: to avenge his father's death. By meeting his dead father in the form of a ghost, we in some ways see how Hamlet becomes crazy as the story goes on. I know that if I were in Hamlet's shoes and I saw my dead father, I would probably start questioning reality a little bit as well. I have now determined Hamlet as a play in general in intriguing in the sense that it offer's a glimpse into how people //could// react if a ghost were to really appear say that it's death needed to be avenged. On a side note, given my previous post, I have also determined that I for some reason am strangely fascinated with ghosts.

In regards to our period's essential question, __//To Be or Not To Be? When is a life not worth living? Who Gets to Decide if Someone Should Live or Die?,//__ I noticed how Laertes and Polonious especially want to direct the course of other people's lives. For Laertes, his desire to keep Opheilia from marrying Hamlet is both an affectionate piece of advice and a cause for conflict with Hamlet later in the story. As one can see in the piece below, Laertes has suspicions about Hamlet, especially when he says "For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour." Is he motivated to give advice because of brotherly love, or just a general dislike of Hamlet? LAERTES My necessaries are embark'd: farewell: And, sister, as the winds give benefit And convoy is assistant, do not sleep, But let me hear from you.

OPHELIA Do you doubt that?

LAERTES For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour, Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more.

OPHELIA No more but so?

One might also ask the same of Polonious (in this case fatherly love), who in one scene gives long pieces of advice to both his children. I think of the biggest things I have taken from Polonious' advice is that while Opheilia seems to resent the advice given to her, Laertes genuinely seems to accept and appreciate the advice given to him by his father. I don't want to jump ahead of the reading though, so I will save my analysis on that topic for a later blog post.

Here's a cool ghost video I found: media type="youtube" key="QfZItov1BUo" height="315" width="420" **Hamlet Blog Postings: Week One ** January 23- January 29, 2012 By Conner Jackson, Period 2 This week we read Act 1, Scene 1 of Hamlet. While it was a pretty short piece it did offer a nice glimpse into the world of Hamlet and the diction that it is worded in. I did not really expect to see a ghost in the opening scene. For some reason I always thought Shakespearean plays consisted of more tangible themes and concepts, not science fiction twists that don't really make any sense. However, it is clear that the ghost serves a vital role in the story; without it, Hamlet would have less of a reason to avenge his father, especially given his indecisive demeanor that kind of drives a person crazy.



While thinking about the ghost and how strange it is that it has such a seemingly important role in the story, I realized that it has a connection to my class period's essential question, which is __//To Be or Not To Be? When is a life not worth living? Who Gets to Decide if Someone Should Live or Die?//__//.// I think one could argue that the ghost of Hamlet Sr. decides who should live or die, for in telling Hamlet Jr. to avenge Hamlet Sr.'s death, Claudius essentially gets chosen to die. Granted, if a ghost is telling someone to avenge its death, then the ghost probably has a good reason for doing so, and therefore is a testament to the idea that even after we die, we may still wish we were alive. One could take the opposite side of the coin, though, and say that if we take our own life for whatever reason (which Hamelt Sr. certainly did not do), then maybe a life is not worth living.

Even though we had a short reading this week, I did manage to find a passage that I thought was stylistically interesting. Here it is:  **MARCELLUS** Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour, With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. **HORATIO** In what particular thought to work I know not; But in the gross and scope of my opinion, This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

I think this passage is interesting because Horatio is (maybe without even knowing it) foreshadowing the blood bath that is to come. It is funny/interesting that he guesses this simply by the apparition of the ghost, which further leads me to conclude that the ghost has more an important role in the story than some may believe.

Finally, I would like to end off this blog post with a video showing just how close people can get to death, in the form of base jumping. While they all survive in this video, I would like to ask if the parachute did not come out, would the people in this video really have any regret? I know that I would not. They are living life to the fullest, and I think that's all that matters.

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