Monday, May 9, 2016
Blog #26: Hamlet AP Test Prep
Thesis: In Hamlet, William Shakespeare is able to convey the tragic psychological downfall of Ophelia. He uses imagery, personification, and selection of detail to show Ophelia's true thoughts under the guise of her insanity.
Friday, February 26, 2016
Blog #24: Hamlet Act 4
My father is dead. Hamlet is gone. What on earth shall I do? I'm sure many people are worried about me, in fact, just this morning I came across an open journal in the castle library and discovered someone has been writing about me! Analyzing my every action. My songs may come from a loss of sanity but the true source of both of these is the lose of my adolescence and my emotions towards my father and Hamlet. My brother should have noticed but he himself is inhibited and blinded by his emotions as well. He once told me to beware of Hamlet's love, that I should view it as "a fashion, and a toy in blood;/ A violet in the primy youth of nature" (1.2.15) and now I tell him, through the same words "I would give you some violets, but they/ all withered when my father died" (4.2.76-77). The journal I read was correct in saying that these songs I sing "are related to the tragic fortunes to [my family]" (Seng.223). Such sadness has fallen over myself and Denmark.
My adolescence demolished should not alone bring me to insanity, though it is a great factor, this journal identified another component. I have realized, like Hamlet, that "Denmark has become [my] prison" (Seng.222). Hamlet has mentioned this when his father dies, all alone in the throne room he spoke of his grief to his father's death (1.2) and I now know it is like to mourn alone. A father gone is like a god taken away, for now "my lord" (2.1.74) will never return, he is "dead and gone" (4.2.35)
I hope that these words spoken will not forever haunt me as should living here in Elsinore still, but I hear the gravedigger's song, and I fear he may "be digging a grave for Ophelia" (Seng.227)
My adolescence demolished should not alone bring me to insanity, though it is a great factor, this journal identified another component. I have realized, like Hamlet, that "Denmark has become [my] prison" (Seng.222). Hamlet has mentioned this when his father dies, all alone in the throne room he spoke of his grief to his father's death (1.2) and I now know it is like to mourn alone. A father gone is like a god taken away, for now "my lord" (2.1.74) will never return, he is "dead and gone" (4.2.35)
I hope that these words spoken will not forever haunt me as should living here in Elsinore still, but I hear the gravedigger's song, and I fear he may "be digging a grave for Ophelia" (Seng.227)
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Blog #22: Act 3 Blog
Close Reading
Hamlet; To Be or Not To Be Soliloquy; Directed by Kenneth Braugh
Analysis
One of the key components of this enactment that Ii believe makes this soliloquy the best of the ones we watched was the use of the mirror. Hamlet is literally and figuratively reflecting on his life, considering whether or not he should let himself continue to suffer. As Hamlet continues to speak going deeper and deeper into his thoughts he walks closer to the mirror and the camera zooms in to a close up of Hamlet's face, this emphasizing again how these are Hamlet's thoughts that he is saying out loud. When Hamlet says "with a bare bodkin" (3.1.74) he pulls out his dagger, and though one may not know that a bodkin is a weapon, from this choice we can infer due to Hamlet words right before, "when he himself might quietus make"(3.1.75). During this entire scene there is good lighting, which I believe to be a good choice because we can really see Hamlet, he is having a moment of clarity and the mis en scene choice reflects that.
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