By now you should have read "On First Sitting Down to Read (or See) Hamlet." The article touches on several different aspects of the play. I would like, as a closing activity to Hamlet, to discuss your responses to a variety of topics. Therefore, No more than FIVE students should respond to any one prompt.
1. The article makes reference to reader/audience sympathy and suggests that Prince Hamlet is not the most sympathetic character in the play. Address this notion by supporting that claim or refuting it. If you choose to refute, suggest who you see as the most sympathetic character. Regardless of your position, be sure to support it with specific references to the article and the play.
2. The article makes reference to Feminist critic, Elaine Showalter, and Shakespeare's portrayal of Ophelia. Discuss Ophelia's role in the play. Consider the double standards of the time, Ophelia as a "double-agent" and her apparent or real madness. Support your position with specific references to the article and the play.
3. The article begins by stating, "Over and over again, we're told that Hamlet is the greatest play by the greatest playwright." The writers then (famously, at least in my mind,) draw the connection between Hamlet and Holden Caulfield. Hamletologists study the many record-breaking statistics about the play. Discuss one of the many records broken by Hamlet, as discussed in the article. Provide outside information (research) to expand on this understanding. Be sure to support your discussion with specific references to the article, the play and your outside source of information.
4. Under the section, "Hamlet Controversies," the writers contend that Shakespeare's brilliance lies in his ability to create ambiguity in what is, ultimately, a psychological drama. Romantics, Victorians, Freudians and Existentialists have all theorized about Hamlet's actions and inaction(s). Consider an ambiguity in the play and speculate as to Shakespeare's intent, using evidence from the text, the article and/or an outside source. (You may consider Hamlet, Gertrude, Ophelia or other minor characters in your analysis.
Assignment parameters:
1. No more than 5 students can respond to any one prompt.
2. Responses should be a minimum of 300-400 words.
3. You must have a minimum of 3 references to the play, the article and/or supplemental information.
4. You do not need to make reference to a classmate's post.
5. Follow the conventions of standard written English.
6. Blog responses must be posted by 7:00 am on January 9th. Late blogs will lose 10 points a day.
The article suggests that “Ophelia commands our sympathy not Hamlet.” And I completely agree because her life wasn’t that good, and her death was tragic. Ophelia deserves more sympathy from the reader because she has no one. There’s no one around to talk to and when she finally does meet someone which was Hamlet her brother and her father either tell her bad things about him or tell her she can’t see him. Everyone in the play has someone to depend on or go to in a time of need, but Ophelia doesn’t. Her brother left and the play doesn’t mention her mother. Her father is old and so doesn’t necessarily understand what she is going through. Then she has Hamlet who loves or loved her and we as the reader are lead to believe that they were intimate, and after having slept with him he started becoming distant. Then they basically broke up. The reader knows and can understand why he broke up with her, but there is sufficient evidence to indicate that she didn’t have a clue of what was going on, she’s similar to Gertrude, and they both aren’t very bright.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, the evidence that can provide that Ophelia should receive more sympathy than Hamlet because as stated in the article, “Hamlet’s madness is feigned, Ophelia’s is all too real: by committing suicide she actually does what he only contemplates.” In other words, yes we know that Hamlet is suffering and he’s going through something that no one really understands, but he has Horatio. And he’s just faking his madness and then using it as an excuse. On the other hand Ophelia is isolated from everyone and has no one, and when she goes mad it’s genuine. She brother left, her father was killed by her lover, and her lover left, and that’s enough to drive anyone mad.
Not only that, but though this might be sexist it is true; usually men can handle distress more than woman can. So even though Hamlet lost his father, and his mother remarried, Ophelia lost everything that she’s ever cared about, and that’s what lead to her madness because after her fathers death she went to people (and in the modern day terms) she told them how she felt about them and what she disliked about there personality, and she didn’t care how they would or did react to her because at that point in her life she had nothing else to lose. She like a neglected child searching for love and compassion and can’t seem to find it. And once she realizes that no one at this point cares for her well being or at least is expressing that they care she committed suicide and that still happens with people today. Some commit suicide while others just “act out” / misbehave. So what that said Ophelia has a lot going on just like Hamlet, but the difference between them is that her madness is sincere and Hamlets is faked.
Within Hamlet there proves to be much ambiguity due to the fact that scenarios and scenes have the ability to be interpreted in differing ways. Each character seems to have their own ambiguous situations. When referring to Ophelia, one scene was when Ophelia died. There was evidence towards whether her death was suicide or it was accidental. Her death could have been suicidal due to the fact that “Her clothes spread wide,/And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up,/Which time she canted snatches of old tunes”(4.7.174-176). This shows that she was conscious and aware of what was going on yet she did not call for help therefore leading herself into her own death. Her death could have been accidental because she could easily be someone who does not understand the potential danger associated with some situations. She is naive in most senses. Because of this ambiguity, Shakespeare leaves the reader wondering what his intentions were without ever coming to an absolute conclusion.
ReplyDeleteIn accordance with the article, another ambiguous scenario in this play is whether Hamlet is insane or just exhibiting normal side effects to his situation. The Victorians viewed Hamlet as insane by saying “Because if he was sane, how could they justify the terrible way he acts through the play” (Jackson). The terrible acts that they refer to are how he killed Polonius and how he talks to his mother. On the other hand, I feel that he is sane given the circumstances. He kills Polonius because of his need to kill Claudius and because he was not aware that Polonius was the person that was there. He talks to his mother in these ways due to the way she has acted over the course of the play and how her actions have affected Hamlet. Shakespeare uses ambiguity here because it adds extra suspense and wonder about what Hamlet will do next. The theorists who believe that he is insane will have differing opinions than the theorists who believe that he is sane therefore making Hamlet an even more dynamic character.
Another ambiguous scenario displayed in the article was whether Hamlet believes in the ghost or not. As the article states, “In the “To be, or not to be” speech, Hamlet says that death is a country from which ‘no traveler returns’” which does produce ambiguity because the ghost appears in act one and the reader is under the impression that Hamlet believes that he truly sees him. This then goes back to Hamlet’s insanity in the fact that the Victorians definitely believe him to be insane. Shakespeare probably put this ambiguity over the ghost in the play because it shows the indecisiveness of Hamlet and how his situation with his mother and the kingship leads him to believe one thing one minute and then something else the next minute.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with the reference to Hamlet not being the most sympathetic character in the play. From my understanding, I think Ophilia was the most sympathetic character in the play. The article also suggests that “it is Ophilia, not Hamlet, who commands our sympathy.” She becomes neglected by everyone important around her like Hamlet (her lover), her bother, and father. Hamlet abandons Ophilia after finding out that she was being used as a tool and wouldn’t even confess to what she was doing when he asked. Laertes, before he leaves for university, harshly tells Ophilia to not lose her virginity which conflicts her mind. Polonius doesn’t treat Ophilia as if she was his daughter and shows no sympathy for what she is going through. He goes as far as to use Ophilia for King Claudius and his hunger for information. Ophelia becomes “torn between her allegiances to her father and her lover,” as stated in the article. When Hamlet appeared to be at his worst, he still had the support from his friend Horatio and not to mention, Hamlets faking of emotions. Hamlet wore a mask of emotions towards everyone around him. He made everyone think that he was crazy and emotionally damaged but in reality he wasn’t. On the other hand, when Ophelia’s father died, she really did become emotionally damaged. The article says, “and while Hamlet’s madness is feigned, Ophelia’s is all too real.” Ophilia becomes so oppressed by all that she has lost and most importantly her father’s death, she gives in to her last option to commit suicide. She floats in the water long enough to save herself from drowning but she didn’t because she didn’t have anything to live for: “Fell in the weeping brook, Her clothes spread wide; and, mermaid like…old tunes” (Hamlet IV.7.174.). In one of Hamlets most famous soliloquy’s, “To be or not to be”, Hamlet expresses suicidal emotions. I think these emotions were faked because Hamlet knew Claudius and Polonius were listening behind the arras. He contemplated taking his life and ultimately didn’t because he was a coward while Ophilia did take her life. Like according to the article, Ophilia is all too real “by committing suicide she does what he only contemplates.”
ReplyDelete2) I feel Ophelia's purpose in Hamlet was to represent the role of women in Elizabethan times and how men looked down upon on them. Back in the day, women were no more than secondary compared to men and they possessed very few rights. Similar to these times, Ophelia is treated poorly and abandoned by most, if not, all of the men in the play. They only saw her nothing more as promiscuous woman and Hamlet’s “play toy”, and when they actually look onto her positively, she’s only complimented on for her good looks. As I mentioned before, women back in Shakespeare’s time played a small role in society. Ophelia, bearing almost no significance in society’s terms, has a low self-esteem and only wants to please the men in her life. However, regardless of the love she gives, she receives almost no affection in return. Her father and her bother questions her continence and warns her not to get too imitate with Hamlet, since society doesn’t want a women who’s been deflowered prior to marriage. Polonius even treats her as an object of gathering information, as mentioned in the article. We then have Hamlet, who originally acts as if he had genuine feelings for Ophelia, but after getting intimate with her, he rejects and demeans her in front of everyone. In Act 3, scene 1 we witness Hamlet bashing Ophelia, saying “Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinner” (3.1 118-119) which implies he wants her to go to a whorehouse, where in his eyes, is where he belongs. Although this ignites Ophelia’s breakdown due to Hamlet’s rejection, she continues to act loving towards him and other men in the play.
ReplyDeleteThis scene mirrors the situation women would’ve been in during Elizabethan times since they could not file for a divorce or argue back without being severely punished. They would merely stand back and let their husbands humiliate them. Ultimately, Ophelia’s role as a double agent is what drives her to insanity near the end; she’s torn between the loyalty to her family and the loyalty her lover. Furthermore, the article mentions how back in the day virginity was “something to be warily guarded in a world where all men are false” Hamlet immediately thinks her, along with his mother betrays him. Feminist Elaine Showalter even mentions that “nothing” was the Elizabeth slang for the female genitalia. Hamlet thinks nothing lies between a maid’s legs and the Queen assumes that Ophelia’s madness is only “a speech of nothing,” which shows how much she has degraded at this point. Overall, Ophelia’s role in the play shows how women were regarded in Shakespeare’s time. Despite being relatively innocent, she’s insulted by almost all the characters in the play, which leads to her madness.
4. The play Hamlet is full of ambiguity, and countless debates have taken place over every aspect of the play. However, one controversy mentioned in the article that I had not considered previously was whether or not Hamlet believed in the ghost. It seemed apparent to me that he did, since he speaks to the ghost several times in the play. In Act 3 Scene 4 when Hamlet speaks with Gertrude about Claudius, and the ghost appears, Hamlet is surprised when Gerturde can’t see the ghost, so he points it out to her, saying, “Look you how pale he glares. His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones, Would make them capable.” He then speaks to the ghost, as he says, “Do not look upon me, Lest with this piteous action you convert My stern effects.” As Hamlet not only describes the ghost to Gertrude, but speaks to it himself, I assumed he thought the ghost was real. However, the article noted that “In the ‘To be, or not to be’ speech, Hamlet says that death is a country from which ‘no traveler returns.’” The article suggests that this contradicted Hamlet’s experiences with the ghost in Act 1, which should have convinced him that people can return from the grave. However, when Hamlet refers to the traveler, he says, “...but that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others we know not of?” I thought that by comparing death to a land no traveler returns from, he was talking about the mystery of what comes after death, since he ended the sentence with the thought that people cope with problems in their lives rather than dying because people don’t know what comes after death. I didn’t think Hamlet meant that ghosts don’t exist, since despite seeing the ghost, what happens after death is still a mystery in some respects. However, despite the fact that Hamlet speaks to the ghost, the lines in his “To be, or not to be” soliloquy make Hamlet’s belief in the ghost one ambiguity in Hamlet.
ReplyDelete4. I agree that ambiguity in literary works adds a tremendous amount to the quality. This works on multiple levels. Most easily represented in horror, ambiguity allows the reader to fill in the blank spaces with whatever to them is worst, so the reader has an easier time relating to the story. Secondly it breeds debate. People love arguing, whether or not they'll admit it, and everyone having a unique viewpoint makes debate very easy. If everyone is arguing about a particular play, there's no doubt that you're going to be sure to see it. All these things helped contribute to Hamlet's success, because of it's ambiguities. Moving on, I felt like the most import point of ambiguity in the play was Hamlet's sanity. Now he was supposedly only acting mad, but how often has the joke, “It's not me that's crazy, it's the rest of the world.” been used? This ambiguity allowed readers to argue about Hamlet's true intent. Some might have thought he was actually trying to avenge the his father's death, while others might believe none of it even happened, and that Hamlet was delusional. It's almost annoying how either option is equally viable, and I'm inclined to say that Shakespeare wrote in this ambiguity just to mess with me. However, I can't really say I believe that's why. In all seriousness though, this could have been written as an earlier, subtler version ofThe Matrix . This is reasonable because like the viewer of The Matrix, a reader of Hamlet can only really speculate as to what is real. Much like the Allegory of the Cave if all someone has ever known is an illusion, there is no way to see through it. As Douglas Adams felt (“Everything you see or hear or experience in any way at all is specific to you. You create a universe by perceiving it, so everything in the universe you perceive is specific to you.”) perception IS reality, and as such Hamlet would not be able to distinguish what was actually happening from what he believed was happening. For the sake of argument, let's say that Hamlet was in fact mad the entire time. Not only does he imagine others seeing the ghost, but he also imagined Claudius reaction to the play, thus “confirming” his reality. Thus, Shakespeare leaves the very crux of the story up to the reader. Tl;dr, Shakespeare was the world's first syndicated troll.
ReplyDeleteUnlike the article, I do not agree that Ophelia is Hamlet's most sympathetic character. The main reason is that, unlike Hamlet, or any other character, for that matter, Ophelia is an extremely passive character. She seems to have no intrinsic drive or motivation to do anything in the play. She is simply an obedient young girl who lets everything happen around her, making no effort to change the fate of Hamlet, Claudius, or anyone else in the play. While this may have been a product of the times that Shakespeare was writing in, that is, a male dominated society where women were expected to be quiet and submissive, it is no excuse for complete inaction. If Ophelia was of high enough status to be “allowed her virgin crants … and and the bringing home / Of bell and burial” even though “Her death was doubtful,” she would undoubtedly have enough influence to steer the plot in some way. Instead, the only way Ophelia affects the plot is the way other characters react to her. In my opinion, there cannot be sympathy without effort or conflict; the countless tragedies that befall Ophelia simply makes her pitiful.
ReplyDeleteHamlet, however, does make an effort. Although he is sometimes slow to act, as the article says, “he realizes that he is a hero” and that “Hamlet had been waiting for the right 'cue.'” From the start of the play, when Hamlet returns from Wittenburg, he receives bad news after bad news. His father is dead, his mother has remarried, and he no longer has claim to the throne. Later he learns his father has been murdered and he must take revenge. Where he differs from Ophelia then, is that he takes action. Instead of descending into madness, like Ophelia, after his father is killed, he pretends to be mad to gain revenge. He organizes the play to confirm Claudius's guilt. He reprimands his mother. Ophelia, on the other hand, sat idly by. And although Hamlet “comes dangerously close to violating the audience's trust in him as a hero,” when he acts like he was disappointed the 'rat' was Claudius, we still trust him because we continue to sympathize with him. Sympathy is not a contest of who can have the most horrible things happen in their life; rather, it is a measure of how much you can succeed in achieving your goals in spite of all the horrible things.
The article suggests that the audience should be more sympathetic towards Ophelia instead of Hamlet, the main character. Ophelia was a young woman who seems to only have Hamlet, Laertes, and Polonious in her life. It is safe to say that the love Ophelia had for Hamlet was pure and genuine. But, just like the article says, “Ophelia is a double agent”; this means that even though she loved Hamlet, she also respected and was willing to do anything for her father. Unfortunately, Hamlet was not able to see that Ophelia’s intentions were never to hurt him. Since Hamlet thought that Ophelia did not really love him and she was on Claudius side, he began to treat her in a disrespectful manner. Hamlet speaks to her like if she were a whore.
ReplyDeleteThis is where we start to see Ophelia’s life go down hill. After her father’s death, she did not have anyone left in her life. She loved her father unconditionally even though “he’s interested in her only as a source of information to pass along to Claudius, and thus make himself politically useful.” Polonius did not seem to care much about Ophelia’s personal life and feelings; he mainly wanted to keep his relationship with Claudius.
Ophelia becomes mad when she finds out about her father’s death because she is now completely alone; her brother in France, her lover left her, and her father dead. The article mentions that “while Hamlet’s madness is feigned, Ophelia’s is all too real”, and we know this because Ophelia appears with her hair down. In the passage about Ophelia, it says that when actors wore their hair down, I signified madness. Not only did Ophelia go mad, but that also led her to the decision of committing suicide. This is a thought that crossed Hamlet’s mind multiple times, but he never dared to do it unlike Ophelia.
Even though Hamlet went through a lot with the lost of his father, and the betrayal of his mother and friends, he always had his best friend Horatio who never left his side. Ophelia did not have a figure like Horatio who cared for her. “At her first appearance we see an innocent, trusting, and spirited young girl, but by hurt last scene she is contaminated, mad, and knowing.” The audience is able to see this change in Ophelia and therefore, they feel sympathy for her and what she had to go through.
2)I believe that Ophelia’s role in Hamlet was to portray the role that women could have during the Elizabethan times if they were wealthy. The fact that Ophelia had a secretive relationship with Hamlet, disobeyed her father and acts like a “double agent” according to the article, shows what a women could have gotten away with if they were born to a wealthy family. First and for most, Ophelia was not married to Hamlet which made their relationship even more inappropriate. Furthermore, there were suspicions that Ophelia and Hamlet had been intimate which again something that was not common during the Elizabethan times. Increasingly, Ophelia acted as a “dutiful daughter and loyal mistress” because she was torn between her allegiances to her father and her lover. During the Elizabethan times woman would not be between the loyalty of a father or a simple lover, they would have to be loyal just to the father. There were many times when Ophelia’s father and brother would tell her to stay away from Hamlet but she would never listen indeed she would do the opposite and keep seeing him. I think that the only reason why Ophelia can get away with this is because of her wealth. With this in mind, another example that exemplifies this is when Ophelia died. In the play it says that she drowned her self which is seen as a sin; but because she was a wealthy Christian she got to get a decent and formal burial.
ReplyDeleteDue to everything Ophelia was going through in terms of her father’s death, and her lover’s denial I trusted Ophelia’s madness to be real and not fake. Unlike the other women in the Elizabethan times Ophelia could be mad and act pretty much hurt, betrayed, and crazy. Also, you can see how mad Ophelia is when she enters the “first Quarto with her hair downe”. In other words, this was Elizabethan shorthand for dementia and grieving which supported her madness. Although this shows her madness it also shows how a woman with wealth in the Elizabethan times can get away with more than an ordinary person. For instance, women had to always have their hair up which was a metaphor for their social and physical constraints. Because Ophelia had her hair down it showed how she didn’t have any social or physical constraint which leads the reader to think it is because of her wealth and the role of her father in Denmark.
The article makes reference to Ophelia being the most sympathetic character when the author says "It is Ophelia, not Hamlet, who most commands our sympathy" I think there are plenty of reasons to say that Hamlet and Ophelia are the both very sympathetic, but I feel as if Ophelia had been through much more than Hamlet did. The biggest problem that Hamlet goes through in the play is loosing his father, while Ophelia goes through much more.
ReplyDeleteFrom how I understood the book, at one point Hamlet complained about how he was alone. But, Hamlet was not alone, the only person who Hamlet lost was his father. Also, Hamlet had Horatio, which was somebody he could trust with his secrets. Horatio was the person who Hamlet could go to when he is in trouble, and Horatio would always help and support Hamlet . On the contrary, I felt that Ophelia was abandoned by her whole family. Ophelia did not only lose her father, but also her brother and lover. I believe since she had nobody to go to she was more sympathetic and she really deserved the reader's sympathy.
Furthermore, we should be more sympathethic toward Ophelia because "Polonious exhibits no tenderness toward his daughter. In other words, I felt that Polonious didn't really treat his daugther as good as he should have and he didn't respect her privacy. For example, Polonious was only interested in Ophelia to get information about Claudius and Hamlet to make him self politically usefull. Additionally, I felt Polonious didn't really respect her privacy when he forced her to confess her intimacies with Hamlet.
Moreover, Hamlet was the last person Ophelia had until he left her as well. Hamlet believed that Ophelia has betrayed him, just as his mother did and that she was a doubl agent. Also, she couldn't decide wether to be faithful to her father or her lover. Therefore, the most sympathetic character in the play is Ophelia.
2.In this play, Ophelia's role, even though she is a minor character in the play, is particularly haunting. Even though she is a minor character she still significantly affects the results of this play. Hamlet is in love with Ophelia and Ophelia is in love with Hamlet, a young and emotionally tormented prince, who was once loving to Ophelia, yet has suddenly become abusive and cold. Ophelia clings to the memory of Hamlet once treating her with respect and tenderness, and she defends him and loves him to the very end despite his brutality and developing manic madness. As the play unfolds, Hamlet spirals into a full-blown psychotic manic episode. Dressed in elegant clothes that weigh her down, Ophelia drowns in a stream full of the flowers she's collected. The most haunting aspect of the story-telling is a device used by Shakespeare to tell of Ophelia's demise. Ophelia drowns off stage-- the audience does not view her death, but the news of her death is brought by another character in the form of a song. i think that shakespeare was a bit sexist as ophelias madness is too exaggerated and over-the-top with her actions and childish singing. Even Claudius says to hamlet at the beginning of the play "everyone loses a father" Why does Shakespeare single ophelia out when everyone goes through these emotions and stressful times? At her first appearance in the play we could imagine a innocent, trusting, and spirited young girl, but by her last scene she is contaminated, mad, and knowing. Whatever she might have become has been blighted. Insane, Ophelia at last speaks the truth, although no one understands her, and Shakespeare gives her one of the most Recent feminist critics see Ophelia's lack of an independent will as representative of a repressive double standard inherited in our traditions. Laertes expects Ophelia to heed his counsel that 'best safety lies in fear.' Her whole education is geared to relying on other people's judgment, and to placing chastity and reputation for chastity above even the virtue of truthfulness. Ophelia has no chance to develop an independent conscience of her own, so stifled is she by the authority of the male world.
ReplyDeleteOphelia is a Dynamic, dramatic character throughout the play. Ophelia was hamlets lover, Polonius’s daughter, and potentially suicidal female of the story. Critics have hammered Ophelia for multiple reasons, there is information in the story that may prove that she willingly killed herself, and that she had been killed for bearing hamlets child. All of these at the time were highly frowned upon at the time. Not only might she have had sexual relations with a prince of higher social lass but she also might have lost her virginity to man without being married. Both of these are grave mistakes that literally put her in a grave. Some critics think that the heaviness of her actions drove her to suicide and she could no long handle these problems. Based off of some outside knowledge they think that drowning was the best way for a young mother to committed suicide there for adding to the reason they think she was pregnant. Hamlet says, “Go to a nunnery” Also known as a convent because she seemed to be raising her above him. This also empted him to say go to a whore house and this may have pushed her over the edge because after this she talked with her father, breaking hamlets trust with Ophelia. Ophelia’s potential lover killed her father and now she has nothing much to live for. As Hamlet is a tragedy eventually they all will die, but the fact that she might have been pregnant doesn’t help her story of unwillingly drowning. Ophelia could have been a double agent because she played for both sides of the team. Not only was she hamlets lover but she was her fathers informer. So this shows her ability to use both people to her advantage. I think the most powerful person in the whole story might have been Ophelia. Seeing as she had the support of her father as well as hamlet she was invincible, until the stress of her actions aught up to her. These questions should interest any and everybody seeing as no one will know what hamlet was exactly picturing for each of these characters.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Da Boss
3. I found the record that said, “Rarely performed in its entirety, Hamlet is the longest play Shakespeare wrote. The uncut version, dubbed the ‘eternity Hamlet’ by the critic John Trewin, takes four and a half to five hours to perform,” to be interesting, especially due to the popularity of the play and the necessity of every scene. I also find this to be an oddity because of another fact that says, “There are more than forty-five movie versions of the play” and “it’s been translated more than any other play and has inspired more spoofs, spinoffs, offshoots, sendups, burlesques, and adaptations.” I should think that recognition like that would come from having seen the play as a whole and understanding how each part comes together to compose the complex plot that is Hamlet. I would think that it would be difficult to convey the same message and passion that Shakespeare so eloquently wrote into this play if scenes were to be removed.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting fact that I found suggests that Hamlet is being performed somewhere every single minute of every day. That fact is so interesting to me because it is not something that I see advertised frequently or even knew was an option to me. I am intrigued to know which country, then, performs Hamlet the most frequently, and when Hamlet will next be performed in New England. I also wonder how this is determined, and what is included (i.e. local theater troupes, high school productions, street performances, etc.).
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ReplyDeleteShakespeare’s play Hamlet contains much ambiguity that helps emphasize many parts of the play. One such example of Shakespeare using ambiguity in his play was when Hamlet told Ophelia "Get thee to a nunnery..."(Shakespeare 1070) This one statement has many meanings as it could mean go to a nunnery to purify yourself as Ophelia is no longer pure after having been with Hamlet. It also suggests that Hamlet meant that Ophelia should go to a whore house. Shakespeare uses this ambiguity to suggest that Hamlet may have been with Ophelia. It also further highlights Hamlets anger at Ophelia for betraying his trust and talking to Polonius and the King about him. Shakespeare was also very ambiguous with Hamlets concept of death thought out the play. While talking to the clowns in the cemetery Hamlet comes to the disheartening conclusion that no mater who you are you will eventually turn to dust and go back to the earth. Hamlets understanding of death can also be questioned when he says "to be or not to be,.." (1068-1069 Shakespeare) This statement further shows his understanding of life and death and weather or not he accepts life how it is. Another debate that is brought up due to Shakespeare ambiguity is weather or not Gertrude knew the wine was poisoned and drank it intentionally to save her son. This would suggest that she knew and drank the wine to show her son that it was poisoned. Other suggests that she simply did not know. These two suggestions depend on how you depict Queen Gertrude. You can depict the Queen as willingly helping Claudius or as unknowingly helping him. Shakespeare never in the play out right says either one of these but leaves the reader to decide based on their actions and the vagueness he creates in his play.
ReplyDelete