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About Me
- Bryan Owens
- Blogs are hilarious. If you spend an hour or two just browsing peoples' blogs--you tend to learn some unfortunate things about people in general. For instance, people are generally very boring, and they think that what they are talking about is VERY important. Much like I'm doing now. This whole blogging sensation is a free, easy, accessible way for people to publish a space that is entirely their own; the purposes of which are predominately to make themselves feel self-important. Everyone has something to say about everything. I haven't decided yet if this blogging sensation, as I have flippantly deemed it, is a good thing or a bad thing. Perhaps neither, perhaps both. I don't know.
You will select a question from the list below and respond to it for the Act I thread. You will also respond to another classmate's post. (You should have two posts total for Act I).
ReplyDelete-What is "rotten in the state of Denmark," as Marcellus tells us? What do we learn about the situation in Scene I? In Scene II?
-In what ways is Scene II a contrast to Scene I? What do we learn about Gertrude, Claudius, and Hamlet in this scene?
-What is the function of the Polonius-Ophelia-Laertes family in this play? What parallels exist between their situation and that of the ruling family?
-What does Hamlet learn from the Ghost's speech?
-In scene II, why does Hamlet contemplate suicide? In his solioquy, he resolves not to commit suicide because of God's law against it. However, at the end of Act I, Hamlet resolves to murder Claudius. Discuss how religion will dictate the events of the play.
-What does Hamlet learn from the Ghost's speech?
ReplyDeleteIn this scene, hamlet finds out that his beloved father, the king, was murdered by his own uncle claudius, also he learns that he murdered him while he was asleep, the Ghost tells hamlet that a "serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark " meaning that not just murdered his father, but also took his mother away from him, he continues by saying that "the serpent that sting thy father's life now wears his crown" when hamlet heard this, vengeance ran through his veins, and now he clearly sees why his mother married his uncle so quick after his father's death.
i think that Shakespeare captured the reader's attention by having the ghost telling this to hamlet, i really like that, because is not common, hamlets finds out from the own king what really happened, not having someone else telling him the whole situation.
-In what ways is Scene II a contrast to Scene I? What do we learn about Gertrude, Claudius, and Hamlet in this scene?
ReplyDeleteWell, there’s always the literal context in that Scene II takes place within Elsinore where as Scene I on the outside of the castle. In many ways, this affects the mood and ambiance of the two scenes. The former is much darker, colder, more silent, and more suspenseful as it takes place in the night— stereotypically a sign of impending doom. The latter, within King’s Claudius’s courts, superficially has a brighter and more optimistic feeling to it, while underneath there is much hostility between the characters.
The first scene, like in many of Shakespeare’s other plays, mainly concerns the characters, in this case guards, which are on a lower class. This sort of explosion, while introducing the conflict, also serves the purpose of showing the extent to which the problem has affected many of the other characters indirectly.
In Scene II, the audience is first introduced to the main characters of Gertrude, Claudius, and Hamlet. And several things about them are revealed directly and indirectly. Claudius married Gertrude less than a month after her late husband’s death. The rest of the kingdom has seemingly moved on after King Hamlet’s death, instead celebrating Claudius’ marriage and coronation. Nevertheless, Hamlet persists in mourning and is frowned upon by his mother and uncle for it.
This creates, or rather, shows the subtle brush of hostility between Hamlet and his parents. Hamlet is resentful for his mother marrying so early after his father’s death and even moreso that she tries to tell him to move on. Claudius does this too, acting his masculinity saying “‘tis unmanly grief.” This is further shown in that they allow Laertes to return to France and don’t allow Hamlet to return to Wittenberg. While the true reason for this are unknown, the way Gertrude and Claudius act potentially hint that they want Hamlet to stay in order to keep him in check. They don’t want him trying anything “funny.” And if that’s the case, it’s very possible that Gertrude was involved in the King’s murder to some degree or another (the audience later learns that Claudius in fact did commit the murder, quite sufficient a reason for his apathy and resentment).
-In scene II, why does Hamlet contemplate suicide? In his soliloquy, he resolves not to commit suicide because of God's law against it. However, at the end of Act I, Hamlet resolves to murder Claudius. Discuss how religion will dictate the events of the play.
ReplyDeleteHamlet is deeply emotional, but like all others in the play is deeply religious. if not his sanity, his temperance was certainly sorely strained in the death of his father; one for him not easily forgotten, but his mother felt little the same. Hamlet was given so little time to recover between the death of his father and subsequent marriage of his mother was enough to drive him to some type of drastic measure.
"Hamlet" is many things, but a satire foremost. The religion of the play skewers the medieval Christianity of the day by emphasizing its haphazardly thrown together nature, a loose amalgamation of pagan superstition and rigidly illogical Catholic rules. King Hamlet is condemned to burn longer in purgatory for no reason other than being denied last rites, but is taken away from the mortal realm when the "god of day" rises. Religion is going to be a motive force throughout the play as a way to satirize the extent of its influence in those times.
Incidentally, though you've changed it now, you could have tried editing the html to make the picture fit by adding "img{padding-left:0px;padding-right:0px;}"
-What is "rotten in the state of Denmark," as Marcellus tells us? What do we learn about the situation in Scene I? In Scene II?
ReplyDeleteIn Act One Scene Four, Marcellus, speaking to Horatio, says “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” This remark was made after Horatio and Marcellus had just witnessed young Hamlet follow, what they believe to be the ghost of the late King Hamlet, away to a more secluded area. This led (Horatio and Marcellus) to believe he was crazy for putting himself in danger, “he waxes desperate with imagination”
Act One Scene One starts off during a shift change in between two guards, (I believe to be Bernardo and Francisco) that takes place around midnight which sets the scene for the upcoming appearance of the ghost. Horatio, along with the other guards present that night witness the intrusion of what seemed to be the dead King of Denmark. The ghost spoke to no one and then faded away. As night was becoming day, Horatio went to tell young Hamlet about what he had just seen.
Act One Scene Two takes place during the day when we learn that Hamlet is suicidal and wishes he could kill himself if only God would not condemn him to hell for his actions. He is interrupted by Horatio who informs him of the situation at hand. Young Hamlet decides that he’ll “speak to it, though hell itself should gape”
to comment on Juans post...
ReplyDelete(because i think this is how Im supposed to :) )
I'm wondering when you think that Hamlet actually decided that he would avenge his fathers death. To me, it seems as though for a period of time, he didn't know what to make of the information he was given by the ghost and that is why he decided to test Claudius to see his reactions in order to confirm what Ghost Hamlet had previously told him. And just to throw the question out there, do you think that young Hamlet ever suspected his mother of any foul play in the murder or was he just upset with her because she moved on so quickly?
--In scene II, why does Hamlet contemplate suicide? In his soliloquy, he resolves not to commit suicide because of God's law against it. However, at the end of Act I, Hamlet resolves to murder Claudius. Discuss how religion will dictate the events of the play.
ReplyDeleteIn scene II Hamlet contemplates suicide because of the events that are going on around him, such as his father’s death, his mother marrying his uncle not even a month after his father’s death and the fact that he can’t really do anything anymore, like go back to school. He could feel misunderstood, probably because he’s being asked to stop mourning for his father, by his mother the one who supposedly loved him so much, and his stepfather, Hamlet’s uncle who married his mother no more than a month after his brother’s death.
However due to his faith he resolves against it because God had made it a “law” that people are not to commit suicide, yet he makes the decision to kill Claudius, his uncle/stepfather, after finding out that he was the one who killed his father. Hamlet seems to be selective when it comes to religion; basically he follows his faith only when it’s convenient for him. He won’t commit suicide because he will be sent to hell for doing so, but decides to murder Claudius seeing it as justifiable since he murdered his father. But when he sees Claudius praying he decides to kill him another time because instead of being punished he would be sent to heaven.
Religion basically influences the characters decisions. Hamlets father, for example, is being tortured in purgatory because he was killed while still sleeping and didn’t have the chance to repent. So now he wants to get back at his brother for killing him, and he does this by asking Hamlet to take revenge for him. Hamlet doesn’t kill Claudius while he’s at the church praying because when he prays he is repenting, so if Hamlet were to kill him God would have forgiven all his sins and Claudius would be sent to heaven and not to hell like Hamlet and his father had intended.
-In scene II, why does Hamlet contemplate suicide? In his solioquy, he resolves not to commit suicide because of God's law against it. However, at the end of Act I, Hamlet resolves to murder Claudius. Discuss how religion will dictate the events of the play.
ReplyDeleteHamlet contemplates suicide because of the sadness he's overwhelmed with from his father's death. This and the fact that his mother got remarried to his uncle in just a short amount of time. Hamlet must have had a great amount of respect for his father, so letting go of him hit Hamlet hard. Plus, I'm pretty sure he noticed his mother got over his father's death pretty quickly, leading to suspicions. Hamlet knew, due to the circumstances, that his father couldn't have died just out of the blue and thought that he was probably murdered. The sense of an unjust death and lack of mourning from everyone else fueled Hamlet's sadness, giving him the incentive to kill himself, which would work as an escape.
Throughout the play, religion is in a way turned on and off between the characters. Hamlet uses religion when the situation best suits him. Like when he contemplates suicide in act two, he says that God forbids "self-slaughter" and therefore has an excuse to not kill himself. However, when taking the vow to avenge his father and kill Claudius later in the play, Hamlet easy forgets that murder is also forbidden. As Mr. Owens mentioned before, Hamlet later has an opportunity to kill Claudius but decides not to because Claudius is praying. Hamlet believes that if he were to kill Claudius while praying, he will got to heaven instead of the "heck he deserves", this being an example of when religion influenced Hamlet's decision.
Religion basically becomes a huge influence of the characters' decisions as the play progresses. In a way, I guess Shakespeare makes fun of religion in that humans far too often pick and choose which rules to follow and which not to.
Here's a cat ♪ (-w-)
ReplyDeleteTo comment on Shelly's post
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw "What is "rotten in the state of Denmark"" I thought that the guards could also be referring to the state of the royal family with Hamlet's "emo-ness", his romance with Ophelia, and how overall things haven't been quite stable. They could also be talking about the state of war in Denmark, and how the young Fortinbrass approaches Denmark, threatening to take back the country (or whatever Denmark is).
IDK, it's just a different viewpoint of the question. =3
In response to Andrew's Comment
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting that you say that it's a satire, because a lot of times when you think of a "satire," you think of something like "Pride and Prejudice" where it is explicitly humorous and in being humorous, criticizes society. While a good chunk of Hamlet is not humorous, I agree that it is a satire of the religion. It comes up in so much, such as when he considers killing Claudius while he is praying in a later Act. Most of them, like you say, pertaining to the "rigidly illogical Catholic rules." Frankly, I don't think there is any other explanation. Hamlet resolving to kill Claudius shows a contradiction, a hypocrisy of sorts that was arguably exhibited by the church of the time.
-In scene II, why does Hamlet contemplate suicide? In his solioquy, he resolves not to commit suicide because of God's law against it. However, at the end of Act I, Hamlet resolves to murder Claudius. Discuss how religion will dictate the events of the play.
ReplyDeleteIn scene two, hamlet is now caught up with a depression, due to his fathers death, and the queen marring after just two moths of his fathers loss. To him it seemed like his mother didn't really have any contemplation towards her husbands loss. That to Hamlet was so heart breaking, and disappointing, to make matters worse, she married to the kings brother; Hamlets uncle.
Religion i think is always a big part of your life, mostly in those times the church was mostly the ruler. Suicide in the Catholic religion is known to send you to hell, because only god can decide when you die, and i think it would be like attempting to take away his power. I don't know the exact details. But the fact is that the only reason that Hamlet didn't commit suicide, is because religion made him not. Of course the church got him not to, but when he learns his fathers spirit seeks vengeance, he is very well determined to uncover the truth, and if the truth is what the spirit has told him, then he will kill the king.