Saturday 20 February 2010

Hamlet and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern

Hamlet seems to distrust R and G very strongly, whereas if I think about it I don't really know what they did wrong.
They did tell a little lie to begin with to Hamlet, regarding why they came but at the end of the day they were only doing of what they were asked from the Queen etc. and they did come clean, other than that they havn't done anything, yet Hamlet is very aggressive towards them.

He begins by almost mocking them and pretending to have misheard them "O wonderful son, that can so 'stonish a mother"

R reacts to this by trying to bring out his good side, to remind him of the friendship the once had "My lord, you once did love me"

they are very reasonable and try to ask Hamlet why he is acting in this way "Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? "- and they continue to try and reassure him and tell them of what is causing him to act in such a way by saying that he should tell them so they can help him, "you do surely bar the door upon your own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend."

I do not think R and G deserve the treatment they recieve from Hamlet, but I think Hamlet probably pressumes them evil, as they are associated with Claudius, but really all they did was come to ask Hamlet if he could go and see his mother.

Yet Hamlet goes on to have a huge go at them and says after asking G to play the pipe, and G refusing says "Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me!" - Hamlet beleived they played him, made a fool of him.

Thursday 4 February 2010

Hamlet

act 3 scene 1

(aside) "How smart a lash that seech doth give my conscience!.." - This '(aside)' means the character is talking to the audience, the characters inside thoughts. This is the 1st we get from the king.

clues like "than is my deed" suggest the king is guilty.

His words he choses very carefully "painted word" and is therefore suspicious.

Hamlet
"To be or not to be"- does this mean to exist or not to exist? or to kill or not to kill? This could be interpreted many different ways.

"The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" - To accept the bad happenings?

"against a sea of troubles" - or to attack? - Maybe it means to kill himself, as you cannot 'take arms' against the sea. If you swung your sword in to the sea it wouldn't hurt it, so perhaps it could be interpreted as him wanting to kill himself to end his pain and troubles.

"For in that sleep of death what dreams may come" - He is thinking of the bad things that could happen if he killed himself. If he died would he just go into an everlasting dream? what if the dream he has is a nightmare? How would you escape?
The fact that Hamlet is questioning death creates a pause.


Whilst Hamlet is talking what is happening with Ophelia?
Is Ophelia frozen in time, is she meant to hear the speech or not? Is Hamlet aware of the other people? He uses general metaphors which makes us suspicious.

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