Ashley+Hollister

AJH

Funny Post

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6yksaCcR4s Ashley's Hammy Blog

"To Be or Not to Be? That is the question." Act III scene ii When many people think or hear of this phrase they think Shakespeare, but they may not know which play that line was said. And I may feel like a moron for saying this, but I would always get this line confused thinking it was from Macbeth and then changing my mind back to thinking it was from Hamlet. Once I got it stuck into my head that this phrase was Hamlet, I started to wonder what it meant. Apparently this question was in regards to if Hamlet should be alive and to do nothing about Claudius or if he should just kill himself. Either way neither choice sounds like a good one, but what is funny is by the end of the play he doesn't have to choose between the two because Hamlet, along with everyone else, dies.
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Beyond our essential question another question that seems to be constantly appearing is the question of insanity. It is definitely an element that occurs in a few people in the play such as Ophelia and Hamlet. Here are a couple of scenes of both characters portraying their "insanity." [] The question then lies in what is insanity? The definition of insanity is to repeat things over and over and expect different results, but many people have done that and they haven't been considered crazy or insane. Many people mark people who act "differently" as crazy, but does that really make them crazy? It seems that this question can drive people crazy because they cannot decide on their own what insanity truly is. "Indeed without an oath I'll make an end on't "By Gis, and by Saint Charity, Alack, and fie for shame! Young men will do't if they come to't, By Cock, they are to blame. "Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled me, You promis'd me to wed.'" Act IV scene v This scene is one of the more famous scenes that depicts Ophelia going crazy. What is interesting about this scene is that while Ophelia is seen to the characters as going crazy, she makes sense. This, again, raises the question of what is insanity?
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What's interesting about these depictions, and many other pictures are similar as well, is that they all have shallow water with Ophelia facing in a way that makes anyone wonder how she could have drowned. With the way the play had her acting towards the end of her life, I would think that the death was an accident due to her being ditsy, but because I don't think Ophelia was really crazy, I think that she did in fact kill herself. I don't think that she tried to force her own death, but I don't think that she tried very hard to save herself. The queen seems to be the one to think that it was an accident though. "But long it could not be til that her garments, heavy with their drink, pull'd the poor wretch from her melidious lay to muddy death." Act V scene i.
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Finally comes the end of the entire play: Everyone Dies. With this, comes in our essential question again. At the end the queen goes first due to drinking the poison fromt the wine glass. She figures out that it was the king who killed her, but that his intentions were to have Hamlet die. Hamlet slits Laeretes with his sword which had the poison. The interesting part about this act, though, is despite Laertes's intentions he asks for forgivness and receives it from Hamlet. This makes me then wonder, had Claudius asked for forgiveness with Hamlet, would the play have ended differently? Would Hamlet have killed him sooner had he known for sure, or would Hamlet have figured out a different way to cope with this information. Would Gertrude continue to be married to Claudius? Regardless, Claudius dies because Hamlet kills him and then Hamlet is the last one to go. At the end of the play it seems that everyone loves Hamlet and he becomes a martyr and everyone feels that Claudius had gotten what he deserved, and everyone seems neutral on Laeretes's death. With that in mind: Who had the right to take a life and who didn't? I believe, and I am sure that many people would agree, that Hamlet should not have died and that Claudius had it coming. As for Laeretes, I don't think that he had a right to intervene period and that he should have just left Denmark to overcome his grief.
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