You will choose one question and respond to it. You will also comment on another classmate's post. (Two posts total for Act IV).
1. A foil is a character who is like the protagonist in some respects but who has contrasting qualities that "reflect" or illuminate the traits of the main character. Who are Hamlet's foils, and in what ways do their characters shed light on his?
2. Do Hamlet and Fortinbras meet in IV.iv? Why is this significant?
3. Why is Ophelia mad? Does anything she say make sense? What happens to her at the end of Act IV? What does her madness and death symbolize about the kingdom?
4. Look at the scene with Laertes and Claudius (IV.vii). What plans do they have for Hamlet? How does this scene establish Laertes as a foil for Hamlet?
5. Why is Hamlet less present in this act than in the previous three?
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4. Look at the scene with Laertes and Claudius (IV.vii). What plans do they have for Hamlet? How does this scene establish Laertes as a foil for Hamlet?
ReplyDeleteWhen Laertes returns in look for the murderer of his fathers death (Polonius), Claudius notifies him that the one to blame was truly Hamlet. Hamlet was already on his way to being killed in England. But when the letter arrives that Hamlet will be returning, thats when Claudius and Laertes plan the duel and trick to the game. Which would be very convenient to Claudius, because there would be no eras to the crown. So then that will leave Claudius to have all the power. Hamlet either way will die. A well as Laertes, he has nothing to loose because he has already lost everything he had. Hamlet has no other purpose but to kill Claudius, which the duel is a distraction from that goal.
Why is Ophelia mad? Does anything she say make sense? What happens to her at the end of Act IV? What does her madness and death symbolize about the kingdom?
ReplyDelete-we can say that ophelia is mad because she lost her father and also she is mad because of all the things that are happening in the kingdom, we can clearly see how she drastically changes, and at the end of this act we see how she drowns herself. her sorrows are pretty much compared with hamlet's but she kind of goes really crazy, not like hamlet which is a "fake" crazy. her craziness can also be attributed to the fact that hamlet refused her and abandoned her, that makes her really sad that she goes around the kingdom and sings those crazy songs about men and so on. her madness and death symbolizes all the rotten things in denmark and the fall of the kingdom.
--Why is Ophelia mad? Does anything she say make sense? What happens to her at the end of Act IV? What does her madness and death symbolize about the kingdom?
ReplyDeleteOphelia has gone crazy because of the events that have gone around her, like her father’s death and Hamlet telling her that he was never in love with her. This all affected her and caused her to loose her mind especially her father’s death. What she says doesn’t seem to make sense to everyone around her but if you really think about it she seems to talk about her relationship with hamlet. At the end of act IV she is dead because she “drowned,” this is according to Gertrude, but in reality she committed suicide. The only reason why she says that she just drowned was because they wanted to be able to give her a proper burial. Her madness and death seems to foretell what will happen to everyone in the kingdom, it could also symbolize that the entire Kingdom is doomed or will eventually fall.
In responce to Madeline.
ReplyDeleteI think that Laertes took rapid action once he heard of his father’s death. Something that Hamlet did not do. What Hamlet did was sit back and just watch as everyone around him went on with their lives, as if nothing had happened, up until the ghost of his father showed up and told him to take action. Laertes went up to the king and accused him at first and even acted on impulse by trying to charge after Claudius, he however convinced Laertes that Hamlet was to blame for his father’s death. Laertes unlike Hamlet didn’t think things through and acted on impulse while Hamlet seemed to calculate things thoroughly. Thinking things through is the safest way to get things done, but not necessarily the fastest way, while acting without thinking is the fastest way but of course doing this could get you trouble. For example had Claudius not wanted Laertes’ help he could have had him arrested for threatening him and accusing him of killing Polonius. I guess the fact that Laertes doesn’t seem to think things through serves as a way to highlight the fact that Hamlet is actually pretty calculating and rarely does things without thinking of the consequences.
3. Why is Ophelia mad? Does anything she say make sense? What happens to her at the end of Act IV? What does her madness and death symbolize about the kingdom?
ReplyDeleteWell let's see. Out of the two women that show up in this play, one slept with one dude AND his brother, while the other goes insane and kills herself. What does this say about Shakespeare?! Anyway, Ophelia goes loopy for mainly two reasons: 1) Hamlet's rejection of her and 2) The death of her father. I believe that Ophelia really loved Hamlet and, like how most girls would be, was devastated when her love told her to get to a baker-I mean nunnery (;)). She was way too bossed around by the others in her life and kept quiet about it. The final straw on the camel's back was the death of her father, finally pushing Ophelia of the edge and into singing songs of nonsense.
If you're referencing Ophelia's weird singing Mr. Owens, then yes I believe that what she's saying does make sense. Ophelia was looked at as more of an object instead of a person, and so was treated as such. She sings about how men would take women just to pleeeeeaaaase themselves (if you know what I mean… T_T) and then would throw them away and forget about them. The reader/viewer never finds out whether Hamlet put his “seed” inside of her, but it’s possible that she’s talking about herself in her songs. I have to admit, I don’t completely understand what she means when she’s singing about flowers, but Ophelia is constantly associated with them. Shakespeare could have been symbolizing her through the flowers Ophelia sings of, due to her beauty, she was being constantly reminded of, and attraction.
As we all should know, Ophelia dies at the end of Act IV. I’m more convinced that she killed herself, but the characters latter argue whether or not she did commit suicide or was murdered. This brings religion back into the play because, as we should remember, earlier in Act II Hamlet contemplates suicide. Religion drives some of the characters to want to believe she was murdered for if she committed suicide then she would go to “the bad place”.
I think that Ophelia’s craziness and later on death foreshadow descending times for Denmark. Later on in Act V, there is turmoil within the royal family which results in all of them dead, leaving the kingdom vulnerable. The death of Denmark comes when Fortinbrass shows up and Horatio tells him that Denmark is his.
To respond to Salma Hayek's post ^u^♥:
ReplyDeleteFirst I must day that YOU ARE WRONG!!!!!!!!!
Tee-hee♥. Just Kidding. =3
But i must disagree with what you said about Ophelia's songs. We never know if Hamlet ever did the "horizontal happy dance" with Ophelia, so the part that she sings about how men just use women to impregnate them and then throw them away is unsure if it has to do with Hamlet and Ophelia. What is definitely true is that Ophelia was emotionally abused by the one she loved and can relate to the women in her songs. It's not that the songs don't talk about her relationship with Hamlet, we just don't know for sure to what extent this was. ;3
4. Look at the scene with Laertes and Claudius (IV.vii). What plans do they have for Hamlet? How does this scene establish Laertes as a foil for Hamlet?
ReplyDeleteThe plan, in a nutshell, is to kill Hamlet. They plan to do this staging a duel between him and Laertes, placing bets on it, and things like that. However, the point of Laertes’ sword will be dipped in poison, but if he fails, meaning Hamlet wins the duel unscathed; Claudius will have a drink ready for him, one that is also poisoned at that.
This established Laertes as a foil to Hamlet because it demonstrates his desire for revenge, just as much as Hamlet. Their situations are very parallel. They both have lost their fathers. They both have been related the stories of their fathers deaths. They both have been incited to take revenge.
However, Laertes is much more direct in his approach. He takes on the a more brute force way of doing things, whereas Hamlet is more intellectual, acting mad in an possible elaborate plot, arguably eventually even becoming mad, in his quest for revenge.
To comment on Javier's Post
ReplyDeleteI agree with Javier. Ophelia seems to be very abused, maybe no directly, but neglected almost as a person. Laertes and Polonius tried to control her in terms of her relationship with Hamlet, and then Hamlet goes all crazy and tells her to go to a nunnery and that he never loved her. When her father died, she didn’t have much left seeing as Hamlet had disowned her. What Javier said about her singing also seems pretty accurate, because, truth be told, we really don’t know much. I think the beautiful thing about this, as a work of Literature, is that in such a short time, it creates an entire world for us to talk and question about.
I think the fact that Ophelia commits suicide is a testament to how much she was in agony. In order to risk going to Hell, I mean, that has to mean things are pretty darn bad and depressing here on Earth.
However, I think that it was King Hamlet’s death that foreshadowed the “descending times for Denmark.” Even though it was before the story actually started, he was constantly referred to as a great King. His brother, on the other hand, may have been good politically, but by killing his brother in a stroke of selfishness, serves a contradiction, in this case to Denmark’s prosperous years.