“Why would fardels bear, To sweat and grunt under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than to fly to others we know not of?” - Hamlet
What Hamlet is referring to in this passage is our seemingly innate fear of death as humans. It has driven countless individuals and even societies to endure great pain and strife throughout history, with slavery being a prime example. Why do people endure such atrocities? It is because humans, as a whole, have a hard time accepting their own mortality. So little is known about what happens to us after expiration that we tend to cling to some spiritual sense of everlasting life, one of the main components of religion. Notice that we are the only species on the planet that hides the dead away and out of sight, so as to give humans an “out of sight, out of mind” school of thought regarding death. In fact, death is so taboo to us that in pop culture death gets tagged with numerous negative connotations such as the color black, skull & crossbones, skeletons, reanimation, etc. Thus, most humans go through life being afraid of death and ultimately become some sort of “typical melancholic character” after a certain age. This is usually around 40-50 years old as people are forced to greet mortality and what we refer to as a “mid-life crisis”. So instead of appreciating the blessing of merely being alive to experience all the wonderful things our world has to offer, people allow the idea of death to loom over their everyday lives. It is a waste of such an incredible opportunity, the opportunity to LIVE.
Basic Passage: “I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent you discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no feather.” –Hamlet
Response: Continuously throughout the play Hamlet is surrounded by superficial people and he struggles with how to deal with their lack of sincerity. He often asks his peers to be straightforward and honest yet everyone continues to play games. This is not an uncommon theme in today’s society. People pretend to be who they think they are supposed to be as opposed to being individualistic. You never truly know anyone because people are so concerned with being what society says they should be. I can relate to Hamlet’s aggravation in feeling like his peers think that all in life is a game. Honesty and originality are as much of a rarity now as they were for him. The most obvious display of superficial humanity is in the political realm. Candidates tell the people whatever they want to hear in order to earn the vote. We the people play along with this foolish game and pretend as though they will actually adhere to their platform. It is all just a rigorous process of lying in order to pretend that they are going to make all the world “rainbows and butterflies.” If a candidate were to actually be honest about what is feasible and their true intentions the American people would not know how to respond. Hamlet thought he had it bad but the manipulation that people are capable of now would really send him over the edge. Predominately, people are out to get what is best for them regardless of what lie they have to tell or what mask they have to wear.
Hamlet: "Thus conscience does make cowards of us all"
I believe all fear can be attributed to one two sources, fear of the past and fear of the future. I also believe that it the basis of most of societies flaws and they feed on one another like sharks preying on injured prey. People who have been hurt in the past, will continuously live in that hurt and let their fear that it may happen again keep them from living in the present. The cycle is vicious and hard to be broken. I believe that the main reason that anyone including Hamlet would contemplate death by their own hand, suicide, is that they cannot handle their intense fear of the future and ultimately failure. I believe that people who tend to rely on their emotions and accomplishment to dictate their worth are in the greatest danger of living in fear. They only feel "good enough" to exist when they are being perfect and have everything going for them in the way they see is best. When dissappointments intrude into their perfect world, it is if they are torn apart. So many people are living in so much anxiety of the future and failure that it is as if they have already committed suicide. People are walkling around dead inside because they can't forgive the problems of the past, or have faith that their future will be good, there fore they are in too much pain, in the present to be happy, productive, loving people.
Quote: It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably everyday for lack of what is found there.
In today's society many writings, stories, and poems now are outdated. Many people express themselves through more modern ways. Where one could write a love letter to another instead they would simply call on cell phones. Through emails, a whole new language has formed where people are using 4 instead of writing out the word “for”. In poems people expressed themselves through writing but today's society tends to be more direct with their feelings with one another. Previously people relied on the newspaper for new information on current events, is slowly being lost to use of the Internet news and other electrical media sources. On the brighter side the Internet allows many writers to share ideas and continue express themselves through writing to a larger audience than ever before.
Instead on waiting days to send the writings that people make through mail, they can now post their story or poem on a website where many people can appreciate them. Though the Internet has changes may ways people express themselves it has also contributed to the growth and expansion of writing as an art form. Though poems and stories have lost most tradition in their creation they still allow many people to express feelings through writing and can be share with the whole world if the writer wanted to do so. Never has it been easier to express one's feelings and emotions with societies all over the world.
The down side to the emergence of the use of the Internet, is that people are not working on the art form of the writing of poetry. They are not taking to time to edit and rewrite their works before posting on websites. They have come to use many symbols for words, as previously mentioned, and the grammatical substance of their work is lacking.
In conclusion, it would be a perfect world if those who are posting works on the Internet would take the time to take classes in writing to perfect their works.
Basic Passage:I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent you discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no feather.” –Hamlet
I think that this pasage could reflect a major theme in Hamlet. Hamlet tries to just settle the uncertain things in his world straight and it realyy takes a tole on his life. In the story Hamlet comes to view and think of life as a big game. For Claudius' states his "new" world will be a world od art and politics. But at the sametime Hamlet would like to live in his "old" world. A world in which there is revenge, meaning, and heroes. It wasn't until Claudius killed hi father that Hamlet truly belived that the world really was just a game to be played! So Hamlet asked himself, Do I play this game? Should I take revenge or just play the game just to fit in?" Such a decision really toke a tole on Hamlet, saw nothing coming easy in the "new" world. in the midst of old vs new,He became a very melacholic,sad and gloomy, character. "What do you do when the world around you falls apart?"
A look at Horatio’s stoic and trustworthy personality (from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”).
Correlation:
In Hamlet’s eyes, Horatio is in some ways a mentor that resembles his (Hamlet’s) father. Even though Horatio may seem somewhat uninteresting to the reader, he is actually a calm and firm character who is somewhat of a backbone in many ways to Hamlet. Horatio can sometimes be thought of as the opposite of Hamlet…even Hamlet praises Horatio for his strength of mind and strength of character, wishing that he could have peace of mind like his valiant friend. Horatio becomes a trustworthy man that Hamlet could rely on: Horatio is the calm one when the ghost appears (he is also asked by the guards to verify Hamlet’s account of it), Horatio is the one whom Hamlet provides his many uneasy feelings and doubts regarding Claudius to. In the end, Hamlet does conform somewhat to Horatio in his reception of destiny and the darkness that is naturally present in all people.
Many celebrities and athletes are seen as icons because they can do things that most of us can’t…and we can learn a lot from them including willpower and confidence. But how many of us actually know somebody like Horatio? Horatio provided confidence in a way that was eventually absorbed by Hamlet. If people would only start looking up to real role models rather than living in a fantasy world full of celebrity madness…the celebrities may seem like an example, but in the end they can’t do anything for you.
Horatio "It beckons you to go away with it, as if it some impartment did desire to you alone." Marcellus "Look, with what courteous action it waves you to a more removed ground: but do not go with it." Horatio "Do not, my lord." Hamlet "Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life in a pin's fee; and for my soul, what can it do to that, being a thing immortal as itself? It waves me forth again: I'll follow it -Act 1, Scene 4 from Hamlet
Correlation:
Does it hurt a story to have a ghost in it? Can something mean more than what it actually is? The topic that I picked for my blog was the prescence of the ghost in Hamlet and the importance of it being included in the story. In the story Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, a ghost wanders the castle and is seen by various people. One such night the ghost directs Hamlet to follow him. The ghost turns out to be the spirit of Hamlet's deceased father. Hamlet's father tells him that his stepfather, King Claudius, murdered him. Having told Hamlet the truth the ghost demands that Hamlet avenge his death by killing Claudius. In Hamlet, the ghost has a much bigger role than meets the eye. It stands for more than just a wandering spirit. It stands for a symbol, revenge. Hamlet's father is outraged that he has been murdered and wants vengeance, so he entrusts the one person to carry out his work, his son. He knows that his son will stop at nothing to bring peace to his father's soul. I do not believe that this hurts the play by having a ghost. It is very true that most people in the world today do not beleive in ghosts and that it would be meaningless to have a ghost in Hamlet. However, the ghost has a major role in the plot of Hamlet. In a sense it sets up the major event of Hamlet and in a way tells Hamlet of his Destiny. In conclusion, something so simple may turn out to be so vital. People must use their judgement and perception to interpret the actual meaning of things in life and the true symbol that it represents.
Is Hamlet not as good because people don’t believe in ghosts anymore? Basic Passage: Ghost I find thee apt; And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear: 'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father's life Now wears his crown. HAMLET O my prophetic soul! My uncle!
Correlation: In the above passage from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Scene 5, Hamlet and the ghost, who has revealed itself as being Hamlet’s father, walk onto an isolated platform to talk. The ghost of the former King tells Hamlet that he must seek revenge against his murderer who is revealed to be Hamlet’s uncle. I chose the excerpt above because it arguably is the most important passage in the play. I say this because if the Ghost had never sought Hamlet and told him who his murderer was, then Hamlet’s quest for revenge would never happen. Today in entertainment, ghost stories usually don’t do well as other topics in the popularity category. The reason for this is that people simply do not believe in ghosts. So, does this mean that the play Hamlet is not as good as it used to be? There is no real answer to this question, only speculation. I know there have been many rewrites of Hamlet, but how can someone judge something as better then the original? You can never do better then the original because it is in its own category; rewrites are simply taking the idea and improvising on it. The story of Hamlet also never changes, so if it was good then, it will still be good in the future, the definition of good will just change. Though people may know that ghosts are fictional, the use of them in a fictional tragedy does not change the view on the story. After all, stories are just what their names’ impose, stories and not necessarily fact. Even though Hamlet heavily depended on the use of a ghost, it will remain a timeless classic. People not believing in ghosts will never change that.
“To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come…”
I believe that most people, like Hamlet, are afraid of death for one reason. That reason is that they don’t know what is to become of them once they die. No one knows what happens when you die and never will. You can’t ask a dead person what its like to be dead. People have different opinions on what happens to you though. Many religious people believe in a heaven and hell. The belief is if you are good person in life than you supposedly go to heaven and if you are a sinner than you will go to hell. Another belief that some people have, such as the Buddhist religion, is that you are reincarnated into something else when you die. In the book What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson, the thought of what happens after you die is that you go to a Place called Summerland where you live a new life that you control, unless you are bad or commit suicide. If this happens then you go to one of the many stages of the lower realm. This is closely related to the heaven and hell concept. But no matter how many ideas and so called “answers” there are to what happens after you die people are always going to be afraid because there is no certain to which of the many ideas is true. This causes discomfort and people like it does to Hamlet. In this case though, it is good because it keeps him from killing himself. It also keeps order because of the fear it strikes into people. No one wants to go to hell or a lower realm. So even though it bothers us that we will never know what happens to us once we die its not always bad because it keeps us from doing ridiculous things.
Basic Passage: "Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe, Yet so far hath discretion faught with nature That we with wisest sorrow think on him, Together with remembrance of ourselves."
Response:In this passage, it seems that Claudius is trying to make it seem like he is being sympathetic towards the situation. Claudis is the one who killed Hamlet's father, but he is trying to make it out to where he is not at fault. If I were reading this and did not know that Claudius was the one who killed Hamlet's father, I would have thought that Claudius was writing this out of care for the family. I feel that Claudius is a very manipulative type of character. He wants to make everyone believe that he is a good guy and he does no harm. But, in actuality, he is the one that killed Hamlet's father. When Claudius was king, he wanted everyone to live in a "new world". He wanted to base his new world off of arts and politics. Hamlet wanted a world of revenge, heroes, and meaning. If I had to choose if I wanted to live Hamlet's way or Claudius' way, I would choose Hamlet's way. I feel that sometimes we should get revenge if we want and I feel that we should have heroes around.
Hamlet’s Influence on Today’s Society Basic Passage: “To be or not to be: that is the question” Response: In today’s culture people do not realize the importance of William Shakespeare. Though in fact, this exact phrase still repeats itself in many works of art! His common phrase has been in many pieces so far in the 21st century such as: 9021, Star Trek, and Billy Madison to name a few. Though Hamlet is not merely a play used for its memorable lines, the entire plays plot and structure has been used repeatedly to influence other works of literature. In fact, Disney’s children’s story The Lion King was based entirely on the exact same plot as Hamlet. In The Lion King the main character, Simba, is a prince whose father is murdered much like Hamlet himself, the main character in Shakespeare’s play. In the play when Hamlet’s father is killed he runs from the responsibility at first and is confused and, much like Hamlet, Simba also runs from his homeland and refuses to return to rule his kingdom. Also, in both stories the two characters father’s appear in a ghostly apparition compelling them to avenge their deaths for what the Uncles have done. The two stories, Hamlet and The Lion King, contain many more similarities throughout the story. The Lion King just serves as an example with hundreds of more works influenced it just proves the old saying “There is no new literature being written, only old literature, redone.”
The Truth Shall Set You Free. Response: Hamlet is a very confused man. He has an uncle that has killed his father, the king, and a girlfriend that is fake. He loves her but he just wants her to be real to him. All the people in the play are all superficial and they do not know who is fake and who is real. It relates to the world today in a big way. When people look around today that is just what they are seeing lies and deceit. People will lie and lose everything just to get more than what they already have. People are just the same now as they are in Hamlets time. Hamlet just wanted people to be true and not be fake and superficial. Everyone ends up dying in the end which goes to show that lying and being deceitful will not get anyone anywhere. Cicero says “Where is the dignity unless there is honesty?” This is a very powerful quote to me because it is saying that people should not have pride and dignity if they lie for everything that they have. There are people out there that would rather someone just hand them everything that have no apparent reason. Lying will never get you out of any kind of problem that you are having. It just makes everything 100 times worse and it ends up hurting people more in the end. If Hamlet would have just gone along with all the new changes then the story could have had a happy ending. Basic Passage: “ For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely” Hamlet.
Shakespeare's Hamlet is perhaps one of the most enduring pieces of literature in existence, and is included in just about any literary cannon. The character of Hamlet is an obscnenely depressed melancholic, who finds himself considering ways to escape his existence. Singer/songwriter Elliott Smith was too quite melancholic and eventually committed suicide. His music relfected upon notions of actual suicide in a similar way to Hamlet.
Basic Passage: "To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd."
One Smith song, entitled Twilight, contemplates possible reasonings for suicide: "Go off to sleep in the sunshine. I don't want to see the day when it's dying." Going off to sleep is a metaphor for dying, and he feels like his life is past its prime with the future holding no positives. The song also makes reference to the songwriters depression caused by heroin addiction. Like Hamlet, he felt a need to escape reality, even if it meant hastening the end of it altogether. Another song makes light of this with the line "Waiting for sedation to disconnect my head. Or any situation where I'm better off than dead."
Hamlet and Elliott Smith also share the scorned love motif. Hamlet is infatuated with Ophelia, and she becomes a temporary source of hope for him. Smith wrote several songs about numerous women who let him down and damaged his notions of hope. Ultimately, Ophelia lets Hamlet down due to her vane and shallow nature. I disagree with Hamlet and Smith's melancholic viewpoint, and they both ultimately are destroyed, but there is something to be said for them.
Basic Passage: "That I, the son of a dear father murdered,prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell."
Revenge is something that died long ago. The loss of one’s family is the ultimate loss, especially when family is lost at the hands of another. American society today does not allow vengeance, thus justice is not served. When my cousin was beaten and raped by her boyfriend, her father was not able to do justice to the bastard because my uncle would have been sent to prison for trespassing and assault. If justice had been served, the boyfriend would have been beaten within an inch of his life and had a broom stick shoved up his ass. But injustice prevailed and the boyfriend got shared custody of my cousin’s child. Trash like that needs to be shot in the street like a damn dog.
Injustice is prominent in the political field as well. Obama recently dropped charges on the mastermind behind the USS Cole attack that killed seventeen sailors. The murderer has been kept in Guantanamo Bay for years, with the families of the victims impatiently waiting for justice to be done. Charges were dropped because the terrorist claimed that he was tortured by the US military. Honestly, the guy should have been tortured horribly (not water boarded) and then strung up on a tree. The families know he deserves to die, normal Americans know he deserves to die; why is he not dead yet? Funny thing is, our contractors have their heads sawed off when they’re captured.
It’s time for justice…justice for all and “eye for an eye”.
Basic Passage: “To die: to sleep;/ No more; and by a sleep to say we end/The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks/That flesh is heir to, ‘tis a consummation/Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;/To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub…”—Hamlet
Hamlet is sort of giving himself a “pep-talk” on death. He is torn between reality and fiction. His father has been murdered by his own brother and young Hamlet is confused about what he should do. Should he just move on with his life and live as if nothing happened or should he do as his father’s ghost asks and avenge him? This puts him in a melancholic state of mind.
Correlation: We walk through life trying to prepare ourselves for death. Can you really ever be prepared? It’s like falling asleep for a long long time and never waking up. Not many people our age(18-30) is really worried about death. We walk around and we think we know what it is and when it will come. However, for some of us it will come sooner than others. Why fret about it though? If you set yourself up for death, you will only become a closed away, melancholic nut case. Death is portrayed as such a horrible thing today. However for some people it ends a lot of pain and suffering from a terminal illness. They are prepared for death and they knew they were going to die. But can you really be prepared? Leaving your entire being, friends, family? When people die we tend to remember them sometimes but mostly we act as if there were never an existence of such person until Holidays or their birthdays. No one really knows what happens to us after our number is called. I think some people get caught between reality and the thought of death therefore making it easier for themselves to commit suicide.
Basic Passage: "Hamlet is a melancholic character torn between two options: to take action or play the game. He eventually decides to take action, but due to his over thinking fails in his attempt for revenge." - B. Alford
Coorelation:
A soliloquy is considered to be a dramatization of consciousness where a single individual expresses his innermost thoughts as though in a moment of outspoken reflection.
This element is crucial to telling the story of Hamlet, and is ultimately indicative of the elemental flaw of his personality which led to his demise.
From the beginning of the play we find Hamlet as a "melancholic" character who is obsessivley frustrated with the fake world around him and pondering whether to avenge the death of his father by murdering the king. While Hamlet knows he hates the fake world and is angered by his father's murder, he still hesitates in his decision to cast aside the new concept of "politcs" and take action.
The use of soliloquies gives the reader or audience the insight they need into the workings of Hamlet's thought process as he makes his ultimate decision to take action. Without the soliloquies, we would have no reasoning or true understanding of the events that took place in Hamlet's life.
Ironically, it is the sheer amount of his introspection that led to his downfall. For the entirety of play he entreats others to be real and stop putting up masks. Had he followed his own urgings and stopped thinking so much he would've simply taken action and avoided his own death.
Passage: To be, or not to be: that is the question: - Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Response: To be, or not to be – at this time in the play Hamlet’s father has been murdered by his uncle and Hamlet’s mother has just gotten remarried to his uncle. Hamlet is very sad and severely depressed and is not sure what he should do. Hamlet is trying to decide whether he wants to continue to live and avenge his father’s murder or if he wants to die. As we can see when Hamlet states “To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; for in that sleep of death what dreams may come” Hamlet is uncertain of what may come after death. Since Hamlet is afraid of what happens after you die, he lives with his problems. Can he live with all the politics of the new society? Hamlet is aware that killing ones self is a sin. Hamlet could possible be a real person and his life and problems can be compared to people in today’s society.
Everyday someone is trying to decide if all their troubles and problems are worth committing suicide over. They ponder the questions and issues as Hamlet did. What happens after death is there really an afterlife or do you just die? Depending on your religious beliefs, the sixth commandment states “Thou shalt not kill.” If you commit suicide, then you would be killing yourself, which is considered a sin. If you believe in God and the Ten Commandments, then suicide is a sin you would not be able to ask forgiveness for.
Mellissa Cowley Title: Comparing Shakespeare’s Hamlet with Alexander Fodor’s 2007 version. Basic Passage: 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. Fodor’s contemporary version of Hamlet uses the original text that Shakespeare wrote but there are still differences. There are many scenes in the movie where there is no dialogue which makes it easy to change pieces of the story. The characters of Horatio and Polonius are females in Fodor’s version. This gives the play more of a sexual tone. It also sets the stage for the love between her and Hamlet that is revealed with a kiss while he takes his last breaths. I chose these dying words of Hamlet to Horatio because I thought it best represented how well Fodor could change some of the meaning of the play without using words. These do not seem like what a man would say to a woman he loved as he was dying but Fodor was able to use images to change the play. Ophelia’s drug addiction is an example of something present in the movie that is never spoken. Another difference is that in young Hamlet’s play “The Mouse Trap”, Claudius drugs a drink and then uses a screw driver and mallet to kill King Hamlet instead of just poison. Also instead of a sword fight Laertes and Hamlet play a seemingly harmless game of fencing, tough the tip is still poisoned. By changing Polonius to Polonia, a woman, this helps the audience imagine her conniving personality more easily and Fodor’s version is more contemporary when she is shot in the throat through a one way mirror instead of being stabbed through a curtain. Even in the end, the tone of the play is somewhat different in Fodor’s version when the Ghost looms over all the dead bodies and it seems he is the ultimate winner in this tragedy.
My hour is almost come, When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames Must render up myself
Correlation-
Hamlet has had been honored over and over again by countless productions & renditions. This tradition of the theatres recreation is in essence the theatre itself. So that a play may live on and be performed over and over again is surely the goal of most play-writes. The theatre recreates the work of the master play-writes and while honoring them to the best of its abilities it tries to give the world that feeling again so that it mayn’t forget. How long is it now until the curtain draws back to find that the play-writes greatest works are all lost from their intent? Where do we draw the line? Do we want to remember Ophelia falling from the broken branch of a willow tree, drowning in a brook, or overdosing from heroin and falling into spastic convulsions? There’s almost no reason to recreate a work of art unless for the intent of mockery or satire. The only other reasons are for money, exploitation (money), the selfish desire of promoting oneself, or desperation of one who lacks a muse. Where has the artistic integrity gone? If the works of Shakespeare and other great artists are to be recreated, it should be done so in a way that delivers the original intent of the author, with apologies given first and foremost for stepping on the work of a genius.
Throughout the work of Hamlet, honesty is constantly lacking. It is the vanishing vapor that constantly escaping the grasps of the hero Hamlet. In a setting where honesty and clarity is instead traded for deceit and ambiguous lines, Hamlet is left in despair and confusion. Perhaps the best representation of the entire play is from Polonius.
Main Passage:
Hamlet: Act 2, Scene 1
“Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth: And thus do we of wisdom and of reach, With windlasses and with assays of bias, By indirections find directions out”
Response:
In the play, no one directly says anything. They mask their intentions in drapery of illusions and winding words. Polonius, for example, pretends to not want Hamlet to have anything to do with his daughter. This leads to a number of problems in the play; mainly between Hamlet and Ophelia. The entire Danish court, in the play, goes along with the marriage of Claudius and Gertrude. While I’m sure there were a few supporters of the marriage, it seems very unlikely that it was unanimously supported. Aside from Hamlet, however, the rest of the characters seem to have nothing but praise for the new union. They deliver eloquent speeches full of smoke and hot air. It is only Hamlet who speaks his mind clearly and has any sort of honesty about him.
To be, or not to be: that is the question: 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?
It all comes down to a choice. Everything we do is the end result of a decision we make. Even the seemingly obvious choices we make, like getting up this morning and coming to this class, were still questions with multiple answers. The hard part is when the results set before us are less than clear; not just the choice of the lesser of two evils or the greater of two goods, but choices given whose end results do not have any clear outcomes. Even Hamlet’s decision to avenge his father or move on did not seem to have clear results to him. Even if he did kill his uncle, he would be hard-pressed to find any clear evidence besides the word of himself and a ghost. If he did move on, he would be effectively giving up his title as prince for no fair reason. Either way, his noble father would not return and Demark would still be without a good king. I, personally, agree with his intellectual approach to the problem. Thinking both sides out and finally deciding on a full plan, even if he took far too much time to do it. Horatio, on the other hand, responded far too quickly and too emotionally when faced with a similar predicament. He rashly demanded a duel to the death with Hamlet before getting the complete story of what had happened. Ultimately, and because of the faults in each of their decision making processes, they were both slain by the Shakespearian Fates. In a tragedy, no foul deed goes unpunished. But the thing to consider is that every person at fault here believed, or at least had his own reasoning, that they were doing the right thing at the time. We would all believe that we are doing the right thing with every choice we make, but we will not know for sure until the time of reckoning comes or not.
The Fear of Dying
ReplyDelete“Why would fardels bear,
To sweat and grunt under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than to fly to others we know not of?”
- Hamlet
What Hamlet is referring to in this passage is our seemingly innate fear of death as humans. It has driven countless individuals and even societies to endure great pain and strife throughout history, with slavery being a prime example. Why do people endure such atrocities? It is because humans, as a whole, have a hard time accepting their own mortality. So little is known about what happens to us after expiration that we tend to cling to some spiritual sense of everlasting life, one of the main components of religion. Notice that we are the only species on the planet that hides the dead away and out of sight, so as to give humans an “out of sight, out of mind” school of thought regarding death. In fact, death is so taboo to us that in pop culture death gets tagged with numerous negative connotations such as the color black, skull & crossbones, skeletons, reanimation, etc. Thus, most humans go through life being afraid of death and ultimately become some sort of “typical melancholic character” after a certain age. This is usually around 40-50 years old as people are forced to greet mortality and what we refer to as a “mid-life crisis”. So instead of appreciating the blessing of merely being alive to experience all the wonderful things our world has to offer, people allow the idea of death to loom over their everyday lives. It is a waste of such an incredible opportunity, the opportunity to LIVE.
No More Games
ReplyDeleteBasic Passage: “I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
prevent you discovery, and your secrecy to the king
and queen moult no feather.” –Hamlet
Response: Continuously throughout the play Hamlet is surrounded by superficial people and he struggles with how to deal with their lack of sincerity. He often asks his peers to be straightforward and honest yet everyone continues to play games. This is not an uncommon theme in today’s society. People pretend to be who they think they are supposed to be as opposed to being individualistic. You never truly know anyone because people are so concerned with being what society says they should be. I can relate to Hamlet’s aggravation in feeling like his peers think that all in life is a game. Honesty and originality are as much of a rarity now as they were for him. The most obvious display of superficial humanity is in the political realm. Candidates tell the people whatever they want to hear in order to earn the vote. We the people play along with this foolish game and pretend as though they will actually adhere to their platform. It is all just a rigorous process of lying in order to pretend that they are going to make all the world “rainbows and butterflies.” If a candidate were to actually be honest about what is feasible and their true intentions the American people would not know how to respond. Hamlet thought he had it bad but the manipulation that people are capable of now would really send him over the edge. Predominately, people are out to get what is best for them regardless of what lie they have to tell or what mask they have to wear.
Fear is Power
ReplyDeleteHamlet: "Thus conscience does make cowards of us all"
I believe all fear can be attributed to one two sources, fear of the past and fear of the future. I also believe that it the basis of most of societies flaws and they feed on one another like sharks preying on injured prey. People who have been hurt in the past, will continuously live in that hurt and let their fear that it may happen again keep them from living in the present. The cycle is vicious and hard to be broken. I believe that the main reason that anyone including Hamlet would contemplate death by their own hand, suicide, is that they cannot handle their intense fear of the future and ultimately failure. I believe that people who tend to rely on their emotions and accomplishment to dictate their worth are in the greatest danger of living in fear. They only feel "good enough" to exist when they are being perfect and have everything going for them in the way they see is best. When dissappointments intrude into their perfect world, it is if they are torn apart. So many people are living in so much anxiety of the future and failure that it is as if they have already committed suicide. People are walkling around dead inside because they can't forgive the problems of the past, or have faith that their future will be good, there fore they are in too much pain, in the present to be happy, productive, loving people.
Poetry Outdated?
ReplyDeleteQuote: It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably everyday for lack of what is found there.
In today's society many writings, stories, and poems now are outdated. Many people express themselves through more modern ways. Where one could write a love letter to another instead they would simply call on cell phones. Through emails, a whole new language has formed where people are using 4 instead of writing out the word “for”. In poems people expressed themselves through writing but today's society tends to be more direct with their feelings with one another. Previously people relied on the newspaper for new information on current events, is slowly being lost to use of the Internet news and other electrical media sources. On the brighter side the Internet allows many writers to share ideas and continue express themselves through writing to a larger audience than ever before.
Instead on waiting days to send the writings that people make through mail, they can now post their story or poem on a website where many people can appreciate them. Though the Internet has changes may ways people express themselves it has also contributed to the growth and expansion of writing as an art form. Though poems and stories have lost most tradition in their creation they still allow many people to express feelings through writing and can be share with the whole world if the writer wanted to do so. Never has it been easier to express one's feelings and emotions with societies all over the world.
The down side to the emergence of the use of the Internet, is that people are not working on the art form of the writing of poetry. They are not taking to time to edit and rewrite their works before posting on websites. They have come to use many symbols for words, as previously mentioned, and the grammatical substance of their work is lacking.
In conclusion, it would be a perfect world if those who are posting works on the Internet would take the time to take classes in writing to perfect their works.
Lindsay Bishop
ReplyDeleteA Life of Games....
Basic Passage:I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
prevent you discovery, and your secrecy to the king
and queen moult no feather.” –Hamlet
I think that this pasage could reflect a major theme in Hamlet. Hamlet tries to just settle the uncertain things in his world straight and it realyy takes a tole on his life.
In the story Hamlet comes to view and think of life as a big game. For Claudius' states his "new" world will be a world od art and politics. But at the sametime Hamlet would like to live in his "old" world. A world in which there is revenge, meaning, and heroes. It wasn't until Claudius killed hi father that Hamlet truly belived that the world really was just a game to be played! So Hamlet asked himself, Do I play this game? Should I take revenge or just play the game just to fit in?"
Such a decision really toke a tole on Hamlet, saw nothing coming easy in the "new" world. in the midst of old vs new,He became a very melacholic,sad and gloomy, character. "What do you do when the world around you falls apart?"
Basic Passage:
ReplyDeleteA look at Horatio’s stoic and trustworthy personality (from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”).
Correlation:
In Hamlet’s eyes, Horatio is in some ways a mentor that resembles his (Hamlet’s) father. Even though Horatio may seem somewhat uninteresting to the reader, he is actually a calm and firm character who is somewhat of a backbone in many ways to Hamlet. Horatio can sometimes be thought of as the opposite of Hamlet…even Hamlet praises Horatio for his strength of mind and strength of character, wishing that he could have peace of mind like his valiant friend. Horatio becomes a trustworthy man that Hamlet could rely on: Horatio is the calm one when the ghost appears (he is also asked by the guards to verify Hamlet’s account of it), Horatio is the one whom Hamlet provides his many uneasy feelings and doubts regarding Claudius to. In the end, Hamlet does conform somewhat to Horatio in his reception of destiny and the darkness that is naturally present in all people.
Many celebrities and athletes are seen as icons because they can do things that most of us can’t…and we can learn a lot from them including willpower and confidence. But how many of us actually know somebody like Horatio? Horatio provided confidence in a way that was eventually absorbed by Hamlet. If people would only start looking up to real role models rather than living in a fantasy world full of celebrity madness…the celebrities may seem like an example, but in the end they can’t do anything for you.
A Spirit and a Symbol
ReplyDeleteBasic Passage:
Horatio
"It beckons you to go away with it, as if it some impartment did desire to you alone."
Marcellus
"Look, with what courteous action it waves you to a more removed ground: but do not go with it."
Horatio
"Do not, my lord."
Hamlet
"Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life in a pin's fee; and for my soul, what can it do to that, being a thing immortal as itself? It waves me forth again: I'll follow it
-Act 1, Scene 4 from Hamlet
Correlation:
Does it hurt a story to have a ghost in it? Can something mean more than what it actually is? The topic that I picked for my blog was the prescence of the ghost in Hamlet and the importance of it being included in the story. In the story Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, a ghost wanders the castle and is seen by various people. One such night the ghost directs Hamlet to follow him. The ghost turns out to be the spirit of Hamlet's deceased father. Hamlet's father tells him that his stepfather, King Claudius, murdered him. Having told Hamlet the truth the ghost demands that Hamlet avenge his death by killing Claudius. In Hamlet, the ghost has a much bigger role than meets the eye. It stands for more than just a wandering spirit. It stands for a symbol, revenge. Hamlet's father is outraged that he has been murdered and wants vengeance, so he entrusts the one person to carry out his work, his son. He knows that his son will stop at nothing to bring peace to his father's soul. I do not believe that this hurts the play by having a ghost. It is very true that most people in the world today do not beleive in ghosts and that it would be meaningless to have a ghost in Hamlet. However, the ghost has a major role in the plot of Hamlet. In a sense it sets up the major event of Hamlet and in a way tells Hamlet of his Destiny. In conclusion, something so simple may turn out to be so vital. People must use their judgement and perception to interpret the actual meaning of things in life and the true symbol that it represents.
Is Hamlet not as good because people don’t believe in ghosts anymore?
ReplyDeleteBasic Passage:
Ghost
I find thee apt;
And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:
'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged process of my death
Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father's life
Now wears his crown.
HAMLET
O my prophetic soul! My uncle!
Correlation:
In the above passage from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Scene 5, Hamlet and the ghost, who has revealed itself as being Hamlet’s father, walk onto an isolated platform to talk. The ghost of the former King tells Hamlet that he must seek revenge against his murderer who is revealed to be Hamlet’s uncle. I chose the excerpt above because it arguably is the most important passage in the play. I say this because if the Ghost had never sought Hamlet and told him who his murderer was, then Hamlet’s quest for revenge would never happen.
Today in entertainment, ghost stories usually don’t do well as other topics in the popularity category. The reason for this is that people simply do not believe in ghosts. So, does this mean that the play Hamlet is not as good as it used to be? There is no real answer to this question, only speculation. I know there have been many rewrites of Hamlet, but how can someone judge something as better then the original? You can never do better then the original because it is in its own category; rewrites are simply taking the idea and improvising on it. The story of Hamlet also never changes, so if it was good then, it will still be good in the future, the definition of good will just change. Though people may know that ghosts are fictional, the use of them in a fictional tragedy does not change the view on the story. After all, stories are just what their names’ impose, stories and not necessarily fact. Even though Hamlet heavily depended on the use of a ghost, it will remain a timeless classic. People not believing in ghosts will never change that.
Fear of Death
ReplyDelete“To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come…”
I believe that most people, like Hamlet, are afraid of death for one reason. That reason is that they don’t know what is to become of them once they die. No one knows what happens when you die and never will. You can’t ask a dead person what its like to be dead. People have different opinions on what happens to you though. Many religious people believe in a heaven and hell. The belief is if you are good person in life than you supposedly go to heaven and if you are a sinner than you will go to hell. Another belief that some people have, such as the Buddhist religion, is that you are reincarnated into something else when you die. In the book What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson, the thought of what happens after you die is that you go to a Place called Summerland where you live a new life that you control, unless you are bad or commit suicide. If this happens then you go to one of the many stages of the lower realm. This is closely related to the heaven and hell concept. But no matter how many ideas and so called “answers” there are to what happens after you die people are always going to be afraid because there is no certain to which of the many ideas is true. This causes discomfort and people like it does to Hamlet. In this case though, it is good because it keeps him from killing himself. It also keeps order because of the fear it strikes into people. No one wants to go to hell or a lower realm. So even though it bothers us that we will never know what happens to us once we die its not always bad because it keeps us from doing ridiculous things.
Basic Passage: "Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
ReplyDeleteThe memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe,
Yet so far hath discretion faught with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves."
Response:In this passage, it seems that Claudius is trying to make it seem like he is being sympathetic towards the situation. Claudis is the one who killed Hamlet's father, but he is trying to make it out to where he is not at fault. If I were reading this and did not know that Claudius was the one who killed Hamlet's father, I would have thought that Claudius was writing this out of care for the family. I feel that Claudius is a very manipulative type of character. He wants to make everyone believe that he is a good guy and he does no harm. But, in actuality, he is the one that killed Hamlet's father.
When Claudius was king, he wanted everyone to live in a "new world". He wanted to base his new world off of arts and politics. Hamlet wanted a world of revenge, heroes, and meaning.
If I had to choose if I wanted to live Hamlet's way or Claudius' way, I would choose Hamlet's way. I feel that sometimes we should get revenge if we want and I feel that we should have heroes around.
Hamlet’s Influence on Today’s Society
ReplyDeleteBasic Passage:
“To be or not to be: that is the question”
Response:
In today’s culture people do not realize the importance of William Shakespeare. Though in fact, this exact phrase still repeats itself in many works of art! His common phrase has been in many pieces so far in the 21st century such as: 9021, Star Trek, and Billy Madison to name a few. Though Hamlet is not merely a play used for its memorable lines, the entire plays plot and structure has been used repeatedly to influence other works of literature. In fact, Disney’s children’s story The Lion King was based entirely on the exact same plot as Hamlet. In The Lion King the main character, Simba, is a prince whose father is murdered much like Hamlet himself, the main character in Shakespeare’s play. In the play when Hamlet’s father is killed he runs from the responsibility at first and is confused and, much like Hamlet, Simba also runs from his homeland and refuses to return to rule his kingdom. Also, in both stories the two characters father’s appear in a ghostly apparition compelling them to avenge their deaths for what the Uncles have done. The two stories, Hamlet and The Lion King, contain many more similarities throughout the story. The Lion King just serves as an example with hundreds of more works influenced it just proves the old saying “There is no new literature being written, only old literature, redone.”
Alex Newton
ReplyDeleteThe Truth Shall Set You Free.
Response: Hamlet is a very confused man. He has an uncle that has killed his father, the king, and a girlfriend that is fake. He loves her but he just wants her to be real to him. All the people in the play are all superficial and they do not know who is fake and who is real. It relates to the world today in a big way. When people look around today that is just what they are seeing lies and deceit. People will lie and lose everything just to get more than what they already have. People are just the same now as they are in Hamlets time. Hamlet just wanted people to be true and not be fake and superficial. Everyone ends up dying in the end which goes to show that lying and being deceitful will not get anyone anywhere. Cicero says “Where is the dignity unless there is honesty?” This is a very powerful quote to me because it is saying that people should not have pride and dignity if they lie for everything that they have. There are people out there that would rather someone just hand them everything that have no apparent reason. Lying will never get you out of any kind of problem that you are having. It just makes everything 100 times worse and it ends up hurting people more in the end. If Hamlet would have just gone along with all the new changes then the story could have had a happy ending.
Basic Passage: “ For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely” Hamlet.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA.W. Faris
ReplyDeleteNot to be Morbid
Shakespeare's Hamlet is perhaps one of the most enduring pieces of literature in existence, and is included in just about any literary cannon. The character of Hamlet is an obscnenely depressed melancholic, who finds himself considering ways to escape his existence. Singer/songwriter Elliott Smith was too quite melancholic and eventually committed suicide. His music relfected upon notions of actual suicide in a similar way to Hamlet.
Basic Passage:
"To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd."
One Smith song, entitled Twilight, contemplates possible reasonings for suicide: "Go off to sleep in the sunshine. I don't want to see the day when it's dying." Going off to sleep is a metaphor for dying, and he feels like his life is past its prime with the future holding no positives. The song also makes reference to the songwriters depression caused by heroin addiction. Like Hamlet, he felt a need to escape reality, even if it meant hastening the end of it altogether. Another song makes light of this with the line "Waiting for sedation to disconnect my head. Or any situation where I'm better off than dead."
Hamlet and Elliott Smith also share the scorned love motif. Hamlet is infatuated with Ophelia, and she becomes a temporary source of hope for him. Smith wrote several songs about numerous women who let him down and damaged his notions of hope. Ultimately, Ophelia lets Hamlet down due to her vane and shallow nature. I disagree with Hamlet and Smith's melancholic viewpoint, and they both ultimately are destroyed, but there is something to be said for them.
Revenge is the Only Justice
ReplyDeleteBasic Passage: "That I, the son of a dear father murdered,prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell."
Revenge is something that died long ago. The loss of one’s family is the ultimate loss, especially when family is lost at the hands of another. American society today does not allow vengeance, thus justice is not served. When my cousin was beaten and raped by her boyfriend, her father was not able to do justice to the bastard because my uncle would have been sent to prison for trespassing and assault. If justice had been served, the boyfriend would have been beaten within an inch of his life and had a broom stick shoved up his ass. But injustice prevailed and the boyfriend got shared custody of my cousin’s child. Trash like that needs to be shot in the street like a damn dog.
Injustice is prominent in the political field as well. Obama recently dropped charges on the mastermind behind the USS Cole attack that killed seventeen sailors. The murderer has been kept in Guantanamo Bay for years, with the families of the victims impatiently waiting for justice to be done. Charges were dropped because the terrorist claimed that he was tortured by the US military. Honestly, the guy should have been tortured horribly (not water boarded) and then strung up on a tree. The families know he deserves to die, normal Americans know he deserves to die; why is he not dead yet? Funny thing is, our contractors have their heads sawed off when they’re captured.
It’s time for justice…justice for all and “eye for an eye”.
Basic Passage: “To die: to sleep;/ No more; and by a sleep to say we end/The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks/That flesh is heir to, ‘tis a consummation/Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;/To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub…”—Hamlet
ReplyDeleteHamlet is sort of giving himself a “pep-talk” on death. He is torn between reality and fiction. His father has been murdered by his own brother and young Hamlet is confused about what he should do. Should he just move on with his life and live as if nothing happened or should he do as his father’s ghost asks and avenge him? This puts him in a melancholic state of mind.
Correlation:
We walk through life trying to prepare ourselves for death. Can you really ever be prepared? It’s like falling asleep for a long long time and never waking up. Not many people our age(18-30) is really worried about death. We walk around and we think we know what it is and when it will come. However, for some of us it will come sooner than others. Why fret about it though? If you set yourself up for death, you will only become a closed away, melancholic nut case. Death is portrayed as such a horrible thing today. However for some people it ends a lot of pain and suffering from a terminal illness. They are prepared for death and they knew they were going to die. But can you really be prepared? Leaving your entire being, friends, family? When people die we tend to remember them sometimes but mostly we act as if there were never an existence of such person until Holidays or their birthdays. No one really knows what happens to us after our number is called. I think some people get caught between reality and the thought of death therefore making it easier for themselves to commit suicide.
The Function Of Soliloquies in Hamlet
ReplyDeleteBasic Passage: "Hamlet is a melancholic character torn between two options: to take action or play the game. He eventually decides to take action, but due to his over thinking fails in his attempt for revenge." - B. Alford
Coorelation:
A soliloquy is considered to be a dramatization of consciousness where a single individual expresses his innermost thoughts as though in a moment of outspoken reflection.
This element is crucial to telling the story of Hamlet, and is ultimately indicative of the elemental flaw of his personality which led to his demise.
From the beginning of the play we find Hamlet as a "melancholic" character who is obsessivley frustrated with the fake world around him and pondering whether to avenge the death of his father by murdering the king. While Hamlet knows he hates the fake world and is angered by his father's murder, he still hesitates in his decision to cast aside the new concept of "politcs" and take action.
The use of soliloquies gives the reader or audience the insight they need into the workings of Hamlet's thought process as he makes his ultimate decision to take action.
Without the soliloquies, we would have no reasoning or true understanding of the events that took place in Hamlet's life.
Ironically, it is the sheer amount of his introspection that led to his downfall. For the entirety of play he entreats others to be real and stop putting up masks. Had he followed his own urgings and stopped thinking so much he would've simply taken action and avoided his own death.
Connie Land
ReplyDeleteIs Life Worth It?
Passage:
To be, or not to be: that is the question: - Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Response:
To be, or not to be – at this time in the play Hamlet’s father has been murdered by his uncle and Hamlet’s mother has just gotten remarried to his uncle. Hamlet is very sad and severely depressed and is not sure what he should do. Hamlet is trying to decide whether he wants to continue to live and avenge his father’s murder or if he wants to die. As we can see when Hamlet states “To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; for in that sleep of death what dreams may come” Hamlet is uncertain of what may come after death. Since Hamlet is afraid of what happens after you die, he lives with his problems. Can he live with all the politics of the new society? Hamlet is aware that killing ones self is a sin. Hamlet could possible be a real person and his life and problems can be compared to people in today’s society.
Everyday someone is trying to decide if all their troubles and problems are worth committing suicide over. They ponder the questions and issues as Hamlet did. What happens after death is there really an afterlife or do you just die? Depending on your religious beliefs, the sixth commandment states “Thou shalt not kill.” If you commit suicide, then you would be killing yourself, which is considered a sin. If you believe in God and the Ten Commandments, then suicide is a sin you would not be able to ask forgiveness for.
Mellissa Cowley
ReplyDeleteTitle: Comparing Shakespeare’s Hamlet with Alexander Fodor’s 2007 version.
Basic Passage:
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.
Fodor’s contemporary version of Hamlet uses the original text that Shakespeare wrote but there are still differences. There are many scenes in the movie where there is no dialogue which makes it easy to change pieces of the story. The characters of Horatio and Polonius are females in Fodor’s version. This gives the play more of a sexual tone. It also sets the stage for the love between her and Hamlet that is revealed with a kiss while he takes his last breaths. I chose these dying words of Hamlet to Horatio because I thought it best represented how well Fodor could change some of the meaning of the play without using words. These do not seem like what a man would say to a woman he loved as he was dying but Fodor was able to use images to change the play. Ophelia’s drug addiction is an example of something present in the movie that is never spoken. Another difference is that in young Hamlet’s play “The Mouse Trap”, Claudius drugs a drink and then uses a screw driver and mallet to kill King Hamlet instead of just poison. Also instead of a sword fight Laertes and Hamlet play a seemingly harmless game of fencing, tough the tip is still poisoned. By changing Polonius to Polonia, a woman, this helps the audience imagine her conniving personality more easily and Fodor’s version is more contemporary when she is shot in the throat through a one way mirror instead of being stabbed through a curtain. Even in the end, the tone of the play is somewhat different in Fodor’s version when the Ghost looms over all the dead bodies and it seems he is the ultimate winner in this tragedy.
Stepping on Hamlet
ReplyDeleteBasic Passage
My hour is almost come,
When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames
Must render up myself
Correlation-
Hamlet has had been honored over and over again by countless productions & renditions. This tradition of the theatres recreation is in essence the theatre itself. So that a play may live on and be performed over and over again is surely the goal of most play-writes. The theatre recreates the work of the master play-writes and while honoring them to the best of its abilities it tries to give the world that feeling again so that it mayn’t forget. How long is it now until the curtain draws back to find that the play-writes greatest works are all lost from their intent? Where do we draw the line? Do we want to remember Ophelia falling from the broken branch of a willow tree, drowning in a brook, or overdosing from heroin and falling into spastic convulsions?
There’s almost no reason to recreate a work of art unless for the intent of mockery or satire. The only other reasons are for money, exploitation (money), the selfish desire of promoting oneself, or desperation of one who lacks a muse. Where has the artistic integrity gone? If the works of Shakespeare and other great artists are to be recreated, it should be done so in a way that delivers the original intent of the author, with apologies given first and foremost for stepping on the work of a genius.
By Indirections Find Directions Out
ReplyDeleteThroughout the work of Hamlet, honesty is constantly lacking. It is the vanishing vapor that constantly escaping the grasps of the hero Hamlet. In a setting where honesty and clarity is instead traded for deceit and ambiguous lines, Hamlet is left in despair and confusion. Perhaps the best representation of the entire play is from Polonius.
Main Passage:
Hamlet: Act 2, Scene 1
“Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth:
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out”
Response:
In the play, no one directly says anything. They mask their intentions in drapery of illusions and winding words. Polonius, for example, pretends to not want Hamlet to have anything to do with his daughter. This leads to a number of problems in the play; mainly between Hamlet and Ophelia. The entire Danish court, in the play, goes along with the marriage of Claudius and Gertrude. While I’m sure there were a few supporters of the marriage, it seems very unlikely that it was unanimously supported. Aside from Hamlet, however, the rest of the characters seem to have nothing but praise for the new union.
They deliver eloquent speeches full of smoke and hot air. It is only Hamlet who speaks his mind clearly and has any sort of honesty about him.
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
ReplyDeleteWhether '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?
It all comes down to a choice. Everything we do is the end result of a decision we make. Even the seemingly obvious choices we make, like getting up this morning and coming to this class, were still questions with multiple answers. The hard part is when the results set before us are less than clear; not just the choice of the lesser of two evils or the greater of two goods, but choices given whose end results do not have any clear outcomes.
Even Hamlet’s decision to avenge his father or move on did not seem to have clear results to him. Even if he did kill his uncle, he would be hard-pressed to find any clear evidence besides the word of himself and a ghost. If he did move on, he would be effectively giving up his title as prince for no fair reason. Either way, his noble father would not return and Demark would still be without a good king. I, personally, agree with his intellectual approach to the problem. Thinking both sides out and finally deciding on a full plan, even if he took far too much time to do it. Horatio, on the other hand, responded far too quickly and too emotionally when faced with a similar predicament. He rashly demanded a duel to the death with Hamlet before getting the complete story of what had happened. Ultimately, and because of the faults in each of their decision making processes, they were both slain by the Shakespearian Fates. In a tragedy, no foul deed goes unpunished. But the thing to consider is that every person at fault here believed, or at least had his own reasoning, that they were doing the right thing at the time. We would all believe that we are doing the right thing with every choice we make, but we will not know for sure until the time of reckoning comes or not.