Hamlet: #6

            In Act III scene iv, Hamlet enters Gertrude’s bedroom full of rage. He is mentally set on condemning his mother. He storms into the room and asks his mother why she has sent for him. She says that he has offended Claudius. He interrupts her and says that she has offended his father, King Hamlet, by marrying Claudius. Hamlet goes on to tell his mother how she has betrayed her former husband and verbally attacks her with accusations. What is interesting is that Gertrude originally sends for Hamlet so she can be stern with him, but once he enters the room she becomes a subordinate once again and relinquishes all of her power as a woman. She is so quick to adopt his point of view and says that Hamlet has turned her eyes onto her soul and that she does not like what she sees there. Hamlet is skillful enough to convince his mother that all of his madness is just an act and makes her promise not to tell Claudius. He also pleads that his mother not go to bed with Claudius. Although she thinks Hamlet is crazy when the ghost arrives, Gertrude promises to keep his secret. Gertrude has no leverage as queen. She has no power in her marriage and she has no power in her relationship with her son. Her purpose as a character in this play is to demonstrate the source of Hamlet’s madness: Gertrude’s marriage to Claudius.

Sound & Sense: Chapter 16

I Am Not Different

Why do you hate me?
I am just like every other little girl.
I go to school, I eat my vegetables,
I even do house chores!

Why do you hate me?
I am just like your daughter.
I laugh with my friends, I jump rope outside,
I run around without a care in the world.

Why do you hate me?
I am just like every other human being.
I breathe the same air, I live in the same neighborhood,
I even sing the same songs.

Why do you hate me?
Why am I hiding?
Where are my parents?
When will this end?

Oh, it's because I'm Jewish?
But we speak the same language, we have the same God.
I am you, and you are me.
But I guess that
doesn't matter
anymore...

Hamlet: #5

            Rosencrantz and Guildenstern report back to King Claudius and admit their failures in finding the cause of Hamlet’s madness. Polonius then informs Ophelia of the plan to secretly observe a meeting between her and Hamlet. Polonius tells Ophelia to pretend that she is reading a prayer book to look natural, but then he has a revelation: People act devoted to God to mask their bad deeds, and this happens all of the time. Claudius hears this and declares to himself, “Oh, ’tis too true!/ How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!/ The harlot’s cheek, beautied with plast’ring art,/ Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it/ Than is my deed to my most painted word./ O heavy burden!” (III.i.56-62). The whore’s pockmarked cheek made pretty with make-up is just like the ugly actions Claudius committed, but Claudius is disguising the ugliness with fine words. Polonius’s words makes Claudius realize how guilty he feels. However, in this section of the text there are no clues that to point to what Claudius is referring too. Does his guilt stem from murdering King Hamlet, or from taking the throne from Hamlet, or from marrying Gertrude? One can only infer that Claudius feels guilty of killing King Hamlet because he walks out of the play in the next scene.

Hamlet: #4

“Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,/ That I, the son of a dear father murdered,/ Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,/ Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words/ And fall a-cursing like a very drab,/ A scullion! Fie upon ’t, foh!” (II.ii.611-16).

            Once Hamlet hears the actor deliver a speech, he is embarrassed to realize that he has shown less urgency to avenge his father’s murder than the actor has done in his performance. He realizes that he has been moping around long enough and it is time to take action. Although he has considered all options and weighed the consequences, Hamlet feels that his father’s murderer must be killed. However, before killing Claudius, Hamlet must make sure that Claudius is in fact the King’s killer. He devises a plan to watch Claudius during the scene that mimics his father’s murder to see if Claudius looks guilty and confesses his crime. The fact that Hamlet has hatched this elaborate plan proves that he is not crazy. He is also unlike most of Shakespeare’s villains, as in Hamlet has considered the consequences of killing the new king and is not simply acting on impulse. It is almost as if Hamlet has to be convinced and swayed by the ghost to commit the act of murder; his emotions are not strong enough by themselves to make him avenge his father’s death.

Sound & Sense: Chapter 14 (again)

You Promised

You promised that you would always love me.
Hugs turned into kisses-
You whispered that you would never flee.

You promised that I would become your missus.
Like turned into love-
You swore that we would never forget each other and that's what this is.

You promised that we were the perfect pair, fit like a glove.
Respect turned into admiration-
You assured me that we'd be together forever- well, sort of.

You promised that you would always love me.
Trust turned into jealousy-
What happened?

Well, me became she- and two became three,
And I had to plea because you became free,
Then you two became we
And we became
Nothing.

Hamlet: #3

Bittersweet

Hot summer days turn into cool autumn nights,

Your journey is about to begin, pushing new heights.

What is in your future no one knows for sure,

Greatness, success, triumph- Oh the allure!

As you pack your bags I am overcome with emotion,

But I know that with your studies comes serious devotion.

All I yearn to do is give you advice;

There is so much to tell you, but this will suffice:

Your maturity is overwhelming as I have all the confidence in you,

Stay true to yourself and follow everything through.

Don't be afraid to try new things,

Leap out into this new world and spread your wings.

You've spent your whole life obedient and complying,

So when I drop you off, don't turn back because I will be crying.

Hamlet: #1

            Shakespeare uses the second scene in Act I to give the audience an uneasy first impression of Claudius. King Hamlet’s death is a mystery to begin with, so Claudius snatching the thrown from Hamlet so quickly adds to the suspicion. Gertrude is a symbol of Denmark’s unification, so Claudius thinks that if he marries her, he will automatically gain the country’s respect and trust. The atmosphere in the courtroom is supposed to be cheerful, but it seems superficial. It is odd that only Hamlet is taking the mourning of his father seriously, as everyone else is so quick to move on. Claudius declares that the cycle of death and marriage is a balanced scale: “Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,/ Th' imperial jointress to this warlike state,/ Have we (as ’twere with a defeated joy,/ With an auspicious and a dropping eye,/ With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,/ In equal scale weighing delight and dole) Taken to wife” (I.ii.8-14). However, this cycle is unnatural; a marriage does not perfectly balance a death. Claudius’s speech is also full of oxymoronic language, which symbolizes the oxymoron between King Hamlet’s death and Claudius and Gertrude’s marriage.