DRJ #4

Initial Personal Reaction: I felt like this act moved a lot quicker than the others. The structure of the act, specifically the fact that there were morse scenes than in any other act and the constant entering and exiting of characters, helped move the pace along. I also felt that as the play progressed it became more and more ridiculous and less “believable.” Ophelia's madness was also very clear through the text, especially how Shakespeare italicized her singing. Call me a skeptic, but I was very hesitant to believe that Ophelia went “mad.” However, I didn't see any evidence of her faking madness, and I believed that she did love Hamlet and went mad over her father's death.

Character Analysis: I felt like Laertes' character became more interesting in Act IV. In the first three acts, he was portrayed as a man who cared about his sister and was somewhat disrespectful of his father. He begged his father to go off to Paris and he spent a good deal of the first three acts there. However, we do learn through Polonius' worrying that his son could potentially be doing up to other things besides studying in Paris. Polonius' worrying for Laertes caused me to question Laertes' motives and character. Why did he want to go back to Paris so badly? To escape his overprotective father? Possibly. In Act IV Laertes has more dialogue and begins to reveal how he can act very quickly. Laertes' character is used as a foil to Hamlet. Hamlet struggles to carry out revenge, but Laertes is quick to act and carries out revenge on Hamlet (which we know backfires). I gathered from the text that Laertes genuinely cared for Ophelia and Polonius because he wanted to avenge his father's death, and because he said “tears seven times salt, burn our the sense and virtue of mine eyes”(4.5.155-160). He was crying over his sister going mad.

Thematic Element: Through the use of irony, Shakespeare reveals that allowing oneself to be used will lead to demise. In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's (R&G) case, being the king's sponge lead to their deaths. Hamlet clearly told R&G that they were “[a sponge] that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such offices do the king best services in the end” (4.2.12-20). Claudius kept using R&G until he eventually “rang them dry” (4.2.19-20). Irony is present because in R&G's obedience to the king's mission to kill Hamlet, Hamlet actually kills them.

Laertes is another example of how being used leads to demise. Had Laertes carried out his own idea of killing Hamlet in church he might have actually gotten away with it. Instead, Laertes allowed himself to be used by the king to kill Hamlet, which ironically lead to his own death.

DRJ #3

Initial Personal Reaction: I felt like this act was when things really started to get interesting, and that Hamlet's plot is starting to be put into action. Claudius finally admits to killing Hamlet Sr., and Gertrude admits to “falling for” Claudius and displays her guilty conscious. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (R&G) become more aggressive in their attempt to please the King and try to kind out what is driving Hamlet “mad.” Act III was the first time that I began to question Hamlet's sanity, specifically when Hamlet and Gertrude are in her bedroom and she doesn't see the Ghost (3.4.130-135). I was also surprised by the brevity of Polonius' death; it wasn't described in great detail, and I didn't expect it to happen so soon into the play.

Character Analysis: The character of the Queen Player, the actor who plays the Queen in the play, is meant to represent Gertrude's character. The Queen Player is a very minor character, and her purpose is to reveal Gertrude's actions. The Queen Player vowed to never take another husband, and if she said she would have no peace (3.2.205-209). What a coincidence because Gertrude took another husband and she felt guilty and bogged down with guilt, which is the opposite of peace. The role of the Player Queen reflects what Gertrude did to Hamlet Sr. when she said, “In second husband let me be accursed! None wed the second but who killed the first” (3.2.165-166). In modern language, the Player Queen said that women only take a second husband when they kill the first, which is exactly what Gertrude did. While the role of the Player Queen is small, the purpose of her character is to reveal what Gertrude did and the Queen Player is sort of a side effect from Hamlet's plan to expose Claudius through the play.

Thematic Analysis: Shakespeare uses foreshadowing to reveal that liars cannot conceal their lies, dark deeds will come to light. Act III in particular backs up this theme because in the act both Claudius and Gertrude confess to their lies. Claudius confesses to God that he killed his brother (3.3.37-70), and Gertrude practically confesses to Hamlet for sleeping with Claudius when she tells Hamlet he has broken her heart and then asks him for advice (3.4.158) (3.4.184). Shakespeare uses foreshadowing when Hamlet says that the actors in the play shall reveal what the play is about. The line, “the players cannot keep counsel. They'll tell all,” foreshadows that the actors, or liars, cannot keep their deeds a secret. 

DRJ #2

DRJ #2 Christina Putnam

Initial Reaction: My initial reaction to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern was that they truly cared about Hamlet, but as Act 2 went on my perception shifted. They were visiting Hamlet because they were ordered by the King, not because they cared about their friend. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern came to talk to Hamlet on the King's orders and they were willing “to be commanded” (2.2.32). I found it interesting how Hamlet could see through their act and pressed them to tell him why they really had come to visit him.

Character Analysis: The character Polonius can be characterized as the King's right hand man. He too cunning, deceitful, and loyal to the King. In fact, Polonius described how his brain “hunts the trail on policy,” which suggests he is politically cunning, in his dialogue with Claudius (2.2.47-48). He is the father of Ophelia and Laertes, and Polonius appears to misunderstands his daughter. He tries to give Ophelia advice about Hamlet and even resorts to trying to trap Hamlet into professing his love for Ophelia. Polonius thinks that Hamlet's insanity is cause by his love for his daughter, and he uses his daughter to spy on Hamlet.

Theme Analysis: Shakespeare uses irony to show how revenge is both the cause and result of death. Throughout the play, Hamlet struggles to avenge his father by seeking revenge on his murder (2.2.555-560). What is ironic, is that seeking revenge creates a never ending cycle of murders, which just adds to the death toll. Laertes seeks revenge on Hamlet for killing his father; however, Laertes ends up killing himself “with his own treachery” when he gets cut with the poisonous sword that was meant for Hamlet (5.2.309). Revenge is caused by death, and leads to nothing but more death.  

DRJ #1

DRJ#1 Christina Putnam
Initial Reaction: Initially, I thought Hamlet was a little dry in the beginning, but after the Ghost was introduced I was hooked. Marcellus, Bernardo, Horatio, and Hamlet's sighting of the Ghost reminded me of the television show Gifted Man, which is about a doctor who sees the ghost of his dead ex wife. At first I wondered if the Ghost was telling the truth about the death of King Hamlet. Polonius and Laertes reminds me of the stereotypical over protective father and big brother. Ophelia is an interesting because she desperately wants to please her father and brother, but at the same time she wasn't afraid to criticize and warn Laertes against “doing as ungracious pastors do” (1.1.45-50). In other words, she warned him against being hypocritical.

Character Analysis: The character Claudius is full of himself, power hungry, unsympathetic to Hamlet, yet loving to his wife Gertrude. Ultimately, he us all about using other people to accomplish tasks that will cover up his problems. He is one of the main characters of the play, and his fatal flaw is his desire for power. He wanted to be king so bad that he killed his own brother. Claudius could be classified as the antagonist because he killed Hamlet's father, and later seeks to kill Hamlet. I'd say that the conflict caused by Claudius is intentional because his lust for power caused him to kill his brother. One doesn't just “accidentally” pour poison in their brother's ear or accidentally sleep with his brother's wife. However, Claudius does seem to genuinely care for his wife Gertrude; he just wants to see her happy, which shows his heart isn't completely blackened by greed and murder.

Theme Analysis: Through repetition, Shakespeare is highlighting that while suicide might have a certain appeal, the fear of the unknown generally outweighs taking one's own life. Hamlet repeatedly expresses how “weary, stale, and unprofitable” life is to him, but his belief that God made a law against suicide holds him back from doing it (1.1.129-1535). Hamlet has grown weary with living, especially because his father just died, but he doesn't know what will happen if he dies. Uncertainty about the after life is what keeps most people motivated to live. We know what to expect on earth. What would happen if Hamlet broke God's supposed “law” against suicide? 

Hamlet?

My first thought about Hamlet was, "meh this looks long."


About 5 pages in I thought is was boring. 


After that, I WAS HOOKED. 


This may just be my favorite play/drama I have ever read.


I Tweeted all my favorite lines as I read them. 


I think so much of the play is applicable to life today, especially the subjects of good/evil, faithfulness/disloyalty, forgiveness, and revenge. 


Favorite line: May you wonder if the truth is a liar, but never wonder if I love. 

Extra Credit

Roselily CCWQ #8:
   
his peace. 
I gave her a passionate kiss. The crowd cheered. Firecrackers went off, and the dogs began to yelp and bark. I see the warm smiles the guests give my wife, but when they look at me their smiles looked pained. I was grateful they didn't interject when the minister asked, "is there anybody here that knows a reason why these two should not be joined?" They judge me for my religion, but I will not be shaken. I am a man of God, and I don't need to explain myself. I grab my wife's hand, and our new family piles into our silvery gray car.

I Am The Grass CCWQ #10:
     The day came for the surgeon to go home. I sent a car to take him to the airport, but I couldn't bear to accompany him or see his face again. Saying goodbye to the surgeon wouldn't be as simple as joking that in my next life I will have thumbs, because the fact of the matter is that I won't. Yes, he had tried his best to give me thumbs, but it didn't work. I am in the worst pain of my life, second to what I endured in war, and I have no thumbs, or big toes.
     The surgeon can get back on a plane, return to his country, and wait for another chance. What about me? Will I get another chance? Our lives move in cycles, repeating themselves endlessly like the four seasons. Planting. Weeding and waiting. Harvesting. Fallowness. 


The final section rewritten from Dinh's point of view leaves me with a less optimistic theme than when the story was written from the surgeon's perspective. The fact that Dinh couldn't show up at the airport left an echo of bitterness and showed a loss of hope. A possible theme could be that there aren't always second chances. 

 

Chopin Thesis Activity

Thesis #2: By contrasting images of life with those of death throughout "The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin highlights the struggle of a person imprisoned by societal pressures and thereby kept from fully being alive.

One instance where Kate Chopin uses contrasting images of life and death to reveal how societal pressures can hinder one from being fully alive is through Mrs. Mallard's sister, Josephine. While Mrs. Mallard had locked herself in her room and "was drinking in the very elixir of life through that open window," Josephine feared that she was making herself ill. In actuality, Mrs. Mallard was experiencing “life” for the first time, as opposed to making herself sick as her sister feared. Another example is when Chopin write, “when the doctors came they said she had died of a heart disease- of joy that kills.” The doctors assumed that Mrs. Mallard was overjoyed that her husband was alive; however, hearing that her husband was alive, which meant she would no longer be free, caused her death.