Thursday, June 11, 2015

Hamlets Dilemma

In this scene Hamlet's hesitation to kill Claudius is very present. But why does he not follow through with the killing? He had Claudius at a very vulnerable state, so why did he change his mind in the spur of the moment? In a sense did he disobey his father, or is he doing the right thing by waiting for him to sin. There is some method to Hamlet's madness and many factors could've influenced his  decision.

Immediately when Hamlet spots Claudius alone , he thinks about the mission he was told to do. He slowly sneaks up on him ready to attack, He is set in his way of what he needs to do but then he stops to listen. As he listens to Cladius speak , he realizes he is praying and starts to change his mind. What is the real reason why? Maybe Hamlet started to feel a sense of guilt simply because of the fact that the man was praying. Or maybe he seriously wanted to catch him while he was sinning so he could " send him to hell".Cladius killed King Hamlet and had no regards what so ever on whether he was saved or not. Maybe Hamlet doesn't really even want to kill Claduis , but he is pressured by his late Father so he feels like it is not a option.Who knows what was going on in the mind of young Hamlet.Personally I feel like Hamlet realized he was about to murder a man in a holy state and that because of the fact he was praying, God would even look down upon him even more.

In this scene Cladius basically admits he killed his brother.He is seeking forgiveness from the Lord but does he really expect to have this forgiveness grant?I feel like Cladius was sorry about what he did ,but he wasn't fully remorseful .He only admitted to the Lord that he murdered his brother , he did not tell the rest of the kingdom .So was he truly sorry ?

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Eulogy to Dear Ophelia




       Here lies Gracious Ophelia.She was a flower child and was known to give great grace and light to the kingdom in the beginning. 

She was very loved by many members in the kingdom. 

My fellow mourners,we tend to look at the havoc she caused before the very end of her days, but not at the goodness she provided in her life. 

Many believe she does not  even deserve a proper burial this evening,but she is human just like you and I my friends, everyone has their faults.

Her faults may have caused her insanity and to take her own life, but she still deserves to be buried with honor on earth, for only God can judge her soul beyond the soil where she lay at rest.

In a sense everything came spiraling down for poor Ophelia and she just couldn't handle it anymore.

 Maybe her madness towards the end was a cry for help, but no one answered this cry.


     Ophelia's personality was more on the passive side and she listened to
 authority.

When her father told her to leave Hamlet alone because he was no
good for her,she listened. 

Even though Ophelia loved Hamlet,she knew she must 
obey her father so she broke up with him.

She even agreed to let them spy on her and Hamlet as she brings his belongings back to him.

Ophelia passively watches and listens to hamlet as he speaks to her in a disrespectful way during his play production. 

She lived in the shadow of the kingdom and of Hamlet basically.

   Sweet Ophelia had much on her mind as she left this world.She felt loneliness because she could not be with her lover. 

Feelings of Guilt possibly set it after the death of her dear father. 

Maybe she blamed herself for her fathers death. She possibly felt guilty towards the fact that Hamlet's madness caused chaos and embarrassment to the kingdom and caused him to murder her own father.

 In the end her poor soul couldn't take all the tragedy and she felt saddened and trapped maybe. 

All the feelings of uneasiness,horror and wonder set in all at once and she felt like she had no other choice to deal with her pain.

She showed signs of weakness and that she needed help, but no one answered in time.

 I am not justifying that her committing suicide was the right choice,but my point is,may she rest in peace and be remembered for the good and not the bad. 




Monday, April 27, 2015

Ghost scene

 Today in class we viewed an assortment of film reproductions of the famous scene between hamlet and his father's first meeting after his tragic death.All of the re-creations we viewed portrayed the same image in my mind, but each in a different way.


The dark tone of the Zeffirelli version is immediately set by the low lighting medieval castle and the bafflement of Hamlet. This scene starts off with hamlets friends trying to calm him down. Hamlet is sure his father's spirit is going to visit,but he starts to get anxious. When the ghost  of King Hamlet appears,his figure is not very prominent and seems to lurk behind shadows. The emotion of the ghost is that he is very sadden by the situation and wants revenge. At one point a flashback of his wife and her new husband appears, to show how hurt hamlet and his father is about her remarrying so soon and to his deceitful brother. At the end of the scene, Hamlet is even more enraged knowing that his father was murdered by his own uncle. His main mission is to seek revenge, he informs his friends on what happens and aggressively warns them not to say a word. This was overall my favorite version. I feel like the producer provided me with the imagery I comprehended from the original written play. I also like the fact that it was not too overdone and dramatic.

The Second version differs a lot from the first one,especially the way the setting is organized.The music automatically sets a dark tone.In this scene, Hamlet is running through the forest while random fires appear,lighting is striking the ground, ,smoke is everywhere and many other odd catastrophes are happening. He is also talking in a strange fast paced voice as if he we're trying to summon something.When the ghost appears he gives off a very terrifying and evil vibe to me. Also as he speaks, he goes back and forth between an emotional weeping voice which then transitions to a stern tone with the topic of revenge. At the end of the scene, Hamlet is very upset  in  over dramatic way, he speaks while crying on the wet ground. The producer uses flashbacks of everything including his murder, this is the only quality of this version I like. Other than that,I feel like this version was very over-dramatic and had too much going on. I feel like if the producer used more subtle special effects, it would have been better.

The Almereyda version is set in modern times , which makes it strange in my opinion. This story was written in medieval times so to picture the story in modern times just doesn't make sense to me. The setting is very basic, Hamlet rests on a couch as his father appears to him. King Hamlet's appearance is strange, in the play he is wearing armor, in this version he is wearing a suit. Young Hamlet looks surprised and nervous as did the others, and King Hamlet's tone is stern but in a sense mourning his own murder.He is very touchy with Hamlet and his aggressiveness scares him. But of course at the end of the conversation Hamlet knows what he must do.This version includes no important flashbacks.The only prop that was really used in my opinion was the music variation.Otherwise I feel like interpretation of the play was not very accurate or intriguing.