JOURNAL TOPIC:
What does this video suggest about motivation and talent? How can we meaningfully describe the passion and dedication with which this young man learns or his teachers teach? Why is this video so moving in a world in which institutions breed cynics who come to believe there is nothing worthwhile about learning apart from the grade or the diploma? Would you rather [hire/admit/reward] a lazy, articulate complainer with a 4.5 G.P.A. or Musharaf?
AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Intro to Hamlet: Act I Scene i
HW:
1. Post vocabulary definitions and sentences to your course blog.
2. Research Hamlet online and answer the following questions
(with citations for any website you consult and/or quote) in comments to
this post: 1)What is the play about? 2)Why is interpreting the play
such a challenge? Why doesn't everyone agree on what the play "says" or "means"?
3. Find at least three other learning communities that are studying Hamlet
(in an AP class, a college/university course, or independently). Introduce yourself and use the principles of "The Art of Hosting Good Conversations Online" to do exactly that! Report the experience(s) on your blog.
1) The play is about a prince trying to get revenge on his uncle because he murdered his brother, the princes father. This was Shakespeare's longest play and it was a milestone for English literature) interpreting the play was hard for me because when your reading something and you don't really understand whats going on or what the characters are talking about it tends to get really hard to keep reading it. I believe not everyone agrees on what the play is about is for one the author is dead so we cant go ask him what he meant, and secondly because we are all different people who have different minds and thoughts and ways of interpreting things.. you can interpret it any way you want but i feel as if only the author really knows what he was trying to convey.
ReplyDeleteWay to be proactive and get a jump on the assignment! Where did you get "longest play" and "milestone" ideas? We may all be different as readers, but we rely on shared/accepted understandings of language and literary technique; our interpretations (as expressed, e.g., on the AP exam) are measures of our fluency and ability in these domains. I hear you regarding resiliency-- have you already attempted reading Hamlet? (Note: please begin proofreading your writing, even if it's a comment to a blog post. :)
DeleteYou should play the Live at Stubb's version of King Without A Crown, personally I think it's a better lol
ReplyDeleteAgreed/will do :)
Delete1. Hamlet's father was murdered by his uncle and then his uncle married his mother. He tries to avenge his father by killing his uncle violently. (sparknotes)
ReplyDelete2. I think it's so hard to interpret because it's not only lengthy but the old English can be very difficult to understand. I believe people don't agree on what it means because the text doesn't just tell you what it is, it's up for interpretation.
Thanks for the reminder about why not to use "SparkBlech" and other shortcut websites. (You will have a much better answer to this once we've begun reading/discussing the play. :) The answer to #1 is a partially complete/accurate plot summary, but it doesn't answer the deeper thematic question.
Delete1. Hamlet is about the revenge Prince Hamlet is instructed to enact upon his uncle, Claudius. Claudius murdered his own brother and then married his brother's widow, Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet
ReplyDelete2. For myself, interpreting the play is a challenge because of the language usage and grammar construction, it is a type literature that we aren't extremely used too. People don't agree on the meaning of the play because people have their own interpretations of everything and because Shakespeare didn't come out and say what the meaning of the play was and how it should be interpreted.
1) I'm not 100% what this play is going to be about, from breaking down the first act today and class, and just the general knowledge I've gathered (which isn't a lot) in life from here allusions to Hamlet, I think this play is going to have themes that majorly play on making decisions in your young life, living up to your father/family member, and childhood getting ripped out from under you.
ReplyDelete2) I think interpreting the play is such a challenge because of a couple reasons. My main reason being because it's written in old English; though we have direct translations of old words to modern words, we do not have direct translations to characteristics and values of society. My other points rest in convoluted areas like perspective, morals, values, tradition, etc of the audience to allow this play to be interpreted so widely and for there to be disagreement found.
I don't know what the deeper meaning or theme of the play is. From what I have read so far, I have very limited knowledge. I know some background details, but that doesn't contribute at all to the greater theme. Interpreting the play is very difficult, because we live in a different time period. Some words in this play have never been encountered in modern literature. We don't have any problem reading the "Hunger Games," but in a thousand years from now, I assume the readers will find difficulty in interpreting the text. Life changes. Since the writer and audience is dead, it can be very challenging to interpret. The author isn't alive to clarify what the story "truly means" and I think it is impossible to read the mind of a dead man.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I know the bare minimum of this play other than what I obtained today in class. I do realize that it is based on the actions and situations of Hamlet and the struggles he faced, but other than that, I am oblivious to it all. I think the play is hard to interpret because of its use of old, English language in which we are not familiar with in today's society. We are only immune to he modern context we are exposed to today, that our interpretations on work that utilizes other language is crap. I cannot wait to actually learn and read the play and the material that goes with it.
ReplyDelete1) "Prince Hamlet mourns both his father's death and his mother, Queen Gertrude's remarriage to Claudius. The ghost of Hamlet's father appears to him" and at this point Young Hamlet is given the task of murdering his uncle Claudius Themes: "revenge and retribution, deception, ambition, loyalty and fate." (http://www.william-shakespeare.info/shakespeare-play-hamlet.htm)
ReplyDelete2) The interpretation of the play is challenging because of the style it is written in, the language used, as well as the time period it is set in. Interpretations of the text differ based on generation/society, as well as how one literally reads and decodes the text. For example, when I read Act I Scene I yesterday, I thought the ghost was that of Fortinbras and not Hamlet. (But now that's all cleared up and I get it!)
1) I don't think Hamlet is solely about revenge. It may play a big part but it also has to do with Hamlet trying to make his own decisions and struggling to act on them. It seems like he has a lot going on and he's trying to deal with it all, while also being young.
ReplyDelete2) Old English is killer. I think we have those people who look for the straightforward answer, and then those people who look in way too deep for hidden context. I think if you just meet halfway you'd be able to come up with some time of reasonable answer.
"Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy, main character undergoes a struggle and suffers a downfall. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is also sometimes characterized as a revenge play in the tradition of the Roman playwright Seneca (4 B.C.-65 A.D.)"
ReplyDelete"Shakespeare might have been inspired by Ur-Hamlet, a lost play by Thomas Kyd, and a surviving Kyd play, The Spanish Tragedy."
Main Setting: Elsinore Castle, eastern Denmark
Protagonist: Hamlet
Antagonist: Claudius
(http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xHamlet.html)
The hurdle to many of Shakespeare's works is the language barrier. Shakespearean Language is difficult to understand and interpret, specially since Shakespeare's words are interpreted differently. The syntax also play a big part in the "understanding-Shakespeare" category. His usage of the iambic pentameter, formal language, and metaphors make the comprehension a bit harder. Hamlet is often interpreted differently because of language and cultural understanding. The current generation of students might interpret it differently because societal views and expectations, language, and general knowledge of life in Denmark differs greatly from their understanding it. Language, specially, is something that changes over time; it gets skewed to better fit the current generation. Words have different meaning to different people, so interpreting Shakespeare's words with your own analysis of the play might differ from someone else's understanding of it.
1) I don't really know about Hamlet, but based on the little knowledge I have, I think Hamlet is about Prince Hamlet taking revenge on his father (King)'s death therefore he deals with difficult tasks and choices at an early age.
ReplyDelete2) I think it is challenging to interpret the text because of the Old English that Shakespeare used. When I was reading the play yesterday, I had trouble pronouncing some words and I also realized that the grammar structure is different than what I am used to.
1) The play seems to be about a revenge for a father’s murder. Although Hamlet deeply hates the murderer of his father, he has a “unstable will”. His thought and actions have trouble being consistent. The internal conflict of Hamlet seems to also be a big part of the story. The tone seems dark for the most part.
ReplyDeleteDowden, Edward. "The History of Hamlet." The History of Hamlet. Theatre History, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
2) The play is a challenge to interpret since Shakespeare’s style of writing is hard for most people to analyze. It was written centuries ago and the context is different from what we are used to reading. Not everyone agrees on the meaning of the play since there are three different versions. Some versions have more text than others. Also, not everyone interprets the play the same, since Hamlet is not an easy text to analyze. I doubt anyone will fully understand the story just by reading it once.
"Hamlet." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Oct. 2014. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
1. Hamlet is about a prince named Hamlet whose father was murdered by his uncle. He is visited by his father's ghost and told to murder his uncle. (Wikipedia)
ReplyDelete2. Hamlet is hard to understand because the language is so old and the storyline is a little complicated because of all the relations to each other and here are two Hamlets and two Fortinbras's. There are differing interpretations because it's hard to understand and a lot of things get lost in translation.
1. I think Hamlet revolves around the theme of revenge. Not only is Hamlet seeking revenge for his father's murder; but I've come to believe all characters are pitted against each other for the need of revenge.
ReplyDelete2. I think Hamlet is difficult to find a universal interpretation because not only is it written in Old English, but Shakespeare seems to attempt and make his pieces open to individual interpretation making for the perfect literature to discuss.
I don't know much about Hamlet, I only know of some insights and plot points important to the play. Interpreting the play can be difficult because Shakespeare wants the audience to know of the play's ambiguity and personal self-reliance. Sometimes we have to reread one or more lines to get the gist of the speech that characters talk in and Shakespearean words are still uncommon to everyday language. Not everyone agrees on the plot or what the message is that Shakespeare wrote it in. People want to believe that the play is straightforward and obvious but there's more to it than finding out what the ending is.
ReplyDelete1. This play revolves around revenge and is quite disturbing considering it is focused primarily on the revenge against family members. This play also shows Hamlet's struggle as he tries to evolve into who he is supposed to be while plotting a murder at the command of his deceased father. He knows what decision he must make, but runs into some conundrums along the way.
ReplyDelete2. Interpreting this play is a challenge because we are lazy (myself included). It's hard to allot an excessive amount of energy to something that you are used to doing so quickly and fluidly. Reading this play is difficult when you are forced to look up new words every other line and try to figure out exactly what Shakespeare is trying to convey. This play was also written quite some time ago, so it is also difficult to keep into consideration the social implications in every scene. There are disagreements over what the play "says" because only Shakespeare had access to its true meaning as it is never explicitly stated. Some people are just better at reading in between the lines and identifying the importance of the symbols embedded in the text.
1.) Act 1 Scene 1 is about a group of watchmen who encounter a ghost they believe is the late King Hamlet and they try to get information out of him but the ghost is as silent as its breath and leaves without mentioning a word. They believe the ghost came to warn of a possible military attack. After the encounter, they suggest that the late King couldn't deny talking to his own son, King Hamlet Jr., so they decide to try and get the son to speak with him. 2.) I believe the play is so misunderstood because of the dialogue and language used. A play is meant to be acted out so the audience can understand the point more in depth not read like a book where one must imagine the scenes being played out and not already told what the scene looks like or when someone enters or exits the scene.. Also I believe the diverse perspectives of people is a factor in interpreting the story. The collaboration of discussing the play could also affect the interpretation because as more and more ideas collide, more extravagant meanings are placed behind a blunt, straight forward message.
ReplyDelete1) I think from today in class the story will be about a teenager who is trying to find his inner-self and voice through the considered tragedy. But I'm not totally sure, it's just what I took out of today and the video we watched. However the another source says, "Hamlet, the man seeking revenge, can't actually bring himself to take revenge. For reason after reason, some clear to the audience, some not, he delays. Hamlet's delay has been a subject of debate from the day the play was first performed,"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.litcharts.com/lit/hamlet/themes
2) Interpreting the play is very difficult because it uses iambic pentameter and it's written in old English so we have a harder time relating to the characters because we don't speak like them. Everyone doesn't agree with what the play says because he writing is hard to understand and interpret so the story line could be confused to many different people of different backgrounds.
- http://www.william-shakespeare.info/shakespeare-play-hamlet.htm
1. I think on the surface Hamlet seems to be about revenge and retribution as he is told to murder his uncle who killed his father, but there is a deeper question that is asked about human existence and the purpose of life. (Hudson Shakespeare Company)
ReplyDelete2. Interpreting the play is a challenge because it is written in old English. This language isn't common in today's society causing confusion. There are many different perspectives one can get from the play depending on how they interpret and analyze it.
Hamlet is about a son who plans on killing his uncle once the accusations against him are proven. After many people are killed, including himself, his role is completed. Spark Notes
ReplyDeleteI think interpreting it is so hard because the son is always changing his mind, the way he thinks, what he shares with people. He seems just as confusing and mysterious as Shakespeare was himself .Hamlet Guide
Interpretations can be just superficial while others can go deeper, more into the mind of Hamlet himself, rather than just what the character shares with the reader on the outside
1. The play is about "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is visited by a mysterious ghost resembling his recently deceased father, the King of Denmark. The ghost tells Hamlet that his father was murdered by Claudius, the King’s brother, who then took the throne and married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. The ghost encourages Hamlet to avenge his father's death by killing Claudius." This is word for word from http://shakespeare.about.com/od/hamlet/a/hamlet_story.htm
ReplyDelete2. "There are a few basic facts about language that will help in reading Shakespeare's language. Number one: any living, spoken language changes over the course of time. Two fundamental ways in which language changes are phonologically (they way words are pronounced) and semantically (what words mean). We can see how some words have changed in their pronunciation by looking at some of Shakespeare's rhymes: food/good and mood/ blood. We can look at differences in American dialects to see how words are pronounced differently by various speech communities."
http://shakespeare.yoexpert.com/shakespeare-general/why-is-it-so-difficult-reading-shakespeare-s-langu-1232.html
"It's also hard to read because it's a play and we're reading it instead of watching it." Dr. Preston
Not everyone agrees on what the play "says" or "means" because it's ambiguous, and is open to many different ideas and opinions. People can interpret it in their own ways, and get out of the play something totally different than what another person took from it.
1. Based on the resources I've used (today's in class discussion and No Sweat Shakespeare), this play revolves around the idea of young Hamlet seeking vengeance for his father's death and the inner struggles he has while doing so.
ReplyDelete2. I think interpreting the play is difficult because the story is written in old English and often times can be difficult to translate into modern texts. Disagreements of the play's meaning differ because the play itself it open to interpretation.
Based on the reading of the first scene, the reader has to collect clues hear and there to recognize the setting or period of time.
1. The overall theme of Hamlet is revenge in which Hamlet is trying to pay his uncle back for what he did to his father. Also some other themes may be appearance and reality, in which Hamlet is trying to find his voice, as well as moral corruption, in which Hamlet is surrounded by those who don't believe him or participate in immoral activities. Ideas from in class discussion and Royal Shakespeare Company, a website to help aid teachers with the process of teaching Hamlet.
ReplyDelete2. Interpreting this play is such a challenge because of the words used and also how they are placed in a sentence, which to us seems backwards at times. This forces us to take time and try to understand what is being said and even looking up words or phrases that could be new vocabulary or important allusions. This is difficult for us because it takes so much extra time, when all we want is to read it and understand it the first try, which will be very unlikely in this case. Everyone may not agree on what is being said because each person sees things in a different way. One person may find that a phrase or word in the story alludes to one thing, while another student may think that the same phrase or word may allude to something else. Also, people will have different interpretations because one reader may miss some clues or other techniques that help to explain what is happening, while another reader catches those techniques and understands what is being said.
1. It's about Hamlet getting back at his uncle for taking the throne. Themes include morality and revenge, www.rsc.org.uk/explore/hamlet/teachers-resources/themes.aspx
ReplyDelete2. Shakespeare is a literary genius and he wrote this play to be interpreted in different ways. Nobody else thinks like he did so how can we all get the same meaning from everything, or even the same meaning as our neighbor? In this day and age, we don't even speak like that anymore. The time period difference makes some understanding difficult.
1) On the surface, at first I thought Hamlet was a romance story while Prince Hamlet seeks revenge for his father's death. Then, after many discussions (even before beginning to read Hamlet in class) and reading "To curate or not to curate" and understanding Hamlet beneath the surface I realized that it is about Prince Hamlet struggling while standing on the thin line of "I know I should do it but should I?" or "I know I want to do it but I don't know." It is about the inner battle of making a decision and the struggle involved in it. But today, when I researched Hamlet, I came across this article from The New Yorker. It featured an essay that this guy named Sigmund Freud wrote, which remained unpublished during his lifetime, and how he discusses Hamlet being about desire. But Simon Critchley, a professor at the New School, and Jamieson Webster - a psychoanalyst - says otherwise. They both say the theme of desire is too shallow. They conclude that Hamlet is truly about the love and internal contradictions. In the end they make us conclude that Hamlet is truly about illusions. "They suggest that the play has a lot to tell us about the value of illusion in our own lives, and they justify our sense that the tragedy in "Hamlet" isn't really about the pile of bodies left on stage. Instead it inheres in Hamlet's disillusion."
ReplyDelete"http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/hamlet-a-love-story"
2) Based on this article, I can definitely conclude that interpreting the play and what it truly says is hard to determine. I feel as if it's easier to understand the superficial theme, the one that I first understood about revenge, but the deeper meaning is extremely hard - especially with Shakespeare's use of allusions, diction, syntax, puns, etc. I think the disagreement is caused by the possibility of having more than one themes but also personal experience, which plays a major role in developing a unique perspective.
P.S. I would definitely recommend the article.
All I really know about Hamlet is that his father died and his uncle married his mother. His uncle is king when he should be. It ends with almost everyone dead.
ReplyDeleteBecause of Hamlet's classic status, it has been remixed into many different pieces of contemporary art. Plenty of TV shows and movies are loosely based on Hamlet's plot. For example, the basic plot outline of Hamlet is recreated in Sons of Anarchy. The connection to Hamlet can be seen throughout the show's plot, though the connection is relatively loose. Jax is the Hamlet of the story. His father was killed by Clay Morrow, who then married his mother. I'm sure you can guess most of the show's main plot through this.
The only other piece of Hamlet that I know is the "To be or not to be" speech, or at least very small fragments of it.
Interpreting the play is difficult because there is no single interpretation. There are many different ways of viewing/interpreting the play and its meaning. Also Shakespeare's Old English makes parts of it very difficult to understand. Some of the original content may have been lost in translation.
1. "Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is instructed to enact on his uncle Claudius. Claudius had murdered his own brother, Hamlet's father King Hamlet, and subsequently seized the throne, marrying his deceased brother's widow, Hamlet's mother Gertrude." -Wikipedia
ReplyDelete2. Shakespeare's work like any text with a deceased author it is easy to say anything works. The greatest example of this is the Bible it underwent multiple translations from the classical languages, is impossible to determine who wrote which part, and therefore people will come to different interpretations and conclusions about it, there are over 30,000 Christian denominations along with individuals who have differing views on every passage. Hamlet is no different.
1. The play is a story about a prince named Hamlet, who is trying to get revenge on his uncle because he killed his own brother, who is Hamlet's father. While he tries to get vengeance on his selfish uncle, Hamlet goes through personal struggles on how to take this plan into action and if he can actually achieve it. Source - Sparknotes
ReplyDelete2. Everyone doesn't agree on what they play is trying to convey because it is written in a time period and diction that most of us today wouldn't really understand or relate to. From reading the first act of Hamlet, I can honestly most of us were very confused and had to use another resource to make the whole reading make sense to us. Also, from Shakespeare's use of Old English it has many people interpret different kind of perspectives of just one line out of his many written works.
1) Hamlet is about raw vengeance. Hamlet wants to avenge his father's death by killing Claudius, his father's brother. He has to figure out way too kill the new king in an honorable way, but of course, he has problems along the way. (http://shakespeare.about.com/od/hamlet/a/hamlet_story.htm) 2) The play is a challenge to interpret because of the language that is used. While it is in English, it can be difficult to decipher meaning, allusions, or other literary elements because when read, mos people focus on trying to figure out what is happening.
ReplyDeleteHamlet is about Hamlet Jr avenging Hamlet Sr. because Jr's uncle killed Sr. That's essentially what it is, and iread the plot summarry on wikipedia. I think that the play is harder to interpret meaning from because it's being read as astory instead of being acted out as it was originally written, and Shakespeare primarily uses indirect characterization, which in an old language can lead to ambiguous interpretaions.
ReplyDelete1) The play Hamlet "dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet is instructed to enact on his uncle Claudius." (Wikipedia) However there exists a complex inner struggle within Hamlet as he tries to bring himself to actually murder his uncle, and this leads to the questioning of human nature.
ReplyDelete2) Interpreting the play is difficult not only because of the old English being utilized, but also due to the many rhetorical figures Shakespeare includes in his writing. As readers, we must have previous knowledge on his style of writing and on the significance of his many allusions, and this is were some misinterpretations can arise.
1.Claudius kills his brother, King Hamlet, becomes his successor and marries his wife Gertrude. Young Hamlet or Prince Hamlet seeks revenge against his uncle but has trouble figuring out how to do it.
ReplyDelete2. I feel this play will be hard to interpret because everyone is going to look at it differently so there's going to be many versions of what Hamlet means and you never know which one is right so you have to go along with what you feel you understand best.
1. Hamlet wants revenge on his uncle Claudius for killing his father and then marrying his mother Gertrude and taking over his father's throne.
ReplyDelete2. I think the play is so hard to interpret because Shakespeare uses a lot of puns and references specific to his time period. I also think it's hard because we're so used to people just saying what they mean without a ten minute monologue.
1) I don't know for sure what Hamlet is about but I'll take a guess. I'm guess it has something to do with revenge and and vengeance and what is perceived as morally right vs morally wrong.
ReplyDelete2) Interpreting the play can be difficult because of the different syntax and diction. In Shakespeare's time the structure of sentences were a bit different, but on top of that, he adds his own spice to the language of the play. Once again, I'm not sure what the play means, but I assume that people have arguments over the meaning of the play because of the various ways it can be interpreted. The language and the behaviors of the characters could all add up to mean several different things based on what angle you look at it.
1. Hamlet is about the young Hamlet seeking revenge on his uncle, Claudius, after Claudius murders his father, the king.
ReplyDelete2. I can absolutely understand how people can get different meanings from many of the things that go on in the play. If i t weren't for the discussion in class today, along with some quick conversation with friends, I would have a significantly different understanding of the events that took place in just the first scene. Things can get especially out of hand when characters in the play have their impressively large monologues. It takes a lot of attention and backtracking to be able to follow everything that a character (e.g. Horatio in the first scene) is trying to say. I think these giant monologues are the cause of a lot of different interpretations of the play.
1 the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is instructed to enact on his uncle Claudius. Claudius had murdered his own brother, Hamlet's father King Hamlet, and subsequently seized the throne, marrying his deceased brother's widow, Hamlet's mother Gertrude.
ReplyDelete2) The play can be seen with different meanings because we all get different meanings from words, such as the monologues and not to mention the different syntax and diction that the play was written in.
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2011/01/hamlet-resources.html
ReplyDeletehttp://www.angelfire.com/oh/Pretzel/dogsummary.html
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/hamlet.html
http://shakespeare.about.com/od/hamlet/tp/Hamlet_Themes.htm
The play incorporates the ideas of revenge and Hamlet’s inability to commit such a crime. He is the protagonist and therefore the good guy but his delays result in death. His delay of doing something bad because he is a good person results in something bad happening, irony. The sight I had used the word delay his intentions which is wording that I liked because it insinuates that Hamlet knew what he wanted to do and just couldn’t act on it. Interpreting the play is hard because everyone has their own ideas and bias of how things should be. No one reader has the same exact thought because each thought is tweaked a little to the reader and their personality. Shakespeare wrote in a different language and time than now and that helps in confusion with word meaning and allusions. Well educated people will see something different than someone who hasn’t had a formal or extensive education because their knowledge and perspectives are different. Everyone wants to be right with their interpretations and think that they figured out the mystery of Hamlet or discovered something new. It’s hard to compromise on something that you believe in.
1.) Still not fully confident I have a total grasp on the play so far, but I believe it revolves around the theme of vengeance for the death of his father. His uncle, Claudius, has wrongfully taken the thrown by killing Hamlet's father and married Hamlet's mother.
ReplyDelete2.) Shakespeare's work has set the structure of almost all we know in literature. Because he is the foundation, it's caused for endless variations and plays have built upon his work. Because of this, it's easy for his intentions to be misinterpreted.
1. Hamlet is about a prince whos father dies and then his uncle takes the throne and marries Hamlet's mother and then his father's ghost comes and tells him that Hamlet's uncle murdered his father and the Hamlet goes insane and so does the woman who loves him then there's a duel and they all die
ReplyDelete2. Hamlet is hard to interpret because of the language and the fact that Shakespeare is dead so we can't ask him what it really means
1. From my understanding, the ghost of Hamlet’s father urges him to take revenge after his own brother, Claudius, who had killed him. Along his “journey” of revenge, Hamlet gets himself into heaps of trouble and conflict, in the hopes of completing his father’s will. (RSC)
ReplyDelete2. The Old English is what makes it nearly impossible for me to stay focused on reading along and understanding what is going on in the play. Considering the play has no specified or single interpretation, everyone will end up interpreting it in their own ways and therefore, not agree on some ideas, when others do.
1) (Prince) Hamlet mourns his father's death as well his mother, Queen Gertrude's remarriage to Claudius. Hamlet's father's ghost appears to him and tells him that Claudius poisoned him. Hamlet vows to get his vengeance on Claudius. Hamlet's behavior is categorized as insanity. He kills Polonius, the court chamberlain, by thrusting his sword through a curtain. Polonius's son Laertes returns to Denmark to avenge his father's death. Polonius's daughter Ophelia loves the Prince but his violent and brusque character drives her to madness. Ophelia dies by drowning. A duel occurs and results in the death of Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, and Hamlet. Themes of the play: seeking revenge and retribution, deception, ambition, loyalty and fate. (http://www.william-shakespeare.info/shakespeare-play-hamlet.htm)
ReplyDelete2) Interpreting the play is a challenge due to the fact that most people, especially adolescents, are not familiar and do not associate themselves much often with Old English. The reason why many people don't agree on what the play 'says' or 'means 'is due to the fact that modern readers get lost in translation with Shakespearean language and do not interpret "Hamlet" as Shakespeare intended one to do so. Also, the language, style, and literary techniques as written in the play intimidates the modern reader which discourages them to understand its true meaning and therefore acts as a barrier for correct interpretation and full comprehension of the text in the play.
Commented nearly four hours ago and it didn't post! (Reason for later comment time)
Delete1. Hamlet is told by the Ghost that Claudius poisoned Hamlet Sr. and this then starts Hamlet Jr's inner conflict. Hamlet wants revenge on Claudius through the form of murder. This play outlines the human condition of revenge. When people are wronged they want to return the wrongdoing just to feel internally fulfilled, but because this is a tragedy Hamlet is going to die at the end of the play. It is unclear to me whether or not his motives will be fulfilled or not.
ReplyDelete2. Iambic pentameter makes word placement awkward and rough for normal people. It is similar to hearing different variations of Yoda speaking but not understanding at all what he is saying. Then the actual word usage is very different, some words haven't been used in modern English for centuries and these word have to be studied for people to fully grasp the meaning. Shakespeare is also an artist with words and is able to make such play a puzzle to understand .This leads me to believe that with all of this "reading between the lines" stuff and interpretation that it is too easy to get lost in the translation and the real meaning behind Hamlet.
Thanks to this website I was able to form a somewhat coherent response:
Deletehttp://shakespeare.about.com/od/hamlet/a/hamlet_story.htm
1. Hamlet is about Prince Hamlet exacting revenge on his uncle Claudius who murdered his brother, Prince Hamlet's father, King Hamlet. Then Claudius seized the throne and married his deceased brother's widow, Prince Hamlet's mother Gertrude. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet (my using Wikipedia as a source is something to cringe at, I know, but that's what came up in the answer box after searching the question.)
ReplyDelete2. Interpreting this play- or any of Shakespeare's work in general- is difficult because it takes time to decipher his complicated vernacular. And even when it starts to make sense grammatically, some of it is open to interpretation.
So I had tried posting my comment before hand, but I guess it didn't post after all. Therefore,.....
ReplyDelete1. Hamlet is about vengeance. Hamlet's father (King Hamlet) was killed by Hamlet's uncle, Claudius. Claudius is also King Hamlet's brother. After killing his brother, Claudius takes the throne and marries King Hamlet's wife. After all of this, Young Hamlet seeks revenge on Claudius.
2. This play is hard to interpret because, just like all Shakespearean plays, it's written in Elizabethan language. This writing is almost like a foreign language to us because we're not used to this dialect at all. It's almost like Shakespeare writes in a code and we have to spend our time carefully "decoding" his writing to interpret it. Not everyone gets the same meaning from his writing because with all the use of puns and other figurative language, different people get different interpretations.
1. I think Hamlet is about Hamlet avenging his fathers death by seeking revenge on his uncle Claudius for killing him.
ReplyDelete2. It's so hard to interpret this play because of the way that it's written. When we read old English many people don't take the time to interpret what is being read, which makes it incredibly hard to understand.
According to then world-wide web, a simple search comes up with this for Shakespeare's Hamlet..
ReplyDelete1) "Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is instructed to enact on his uncle Claudius. Claudius had murdered his own brother, Hamlet's father King Hamlet, and subsequently seized the throne, marrying his deceased brother's widow, Hamlet's mother Gertrude."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet
2) It's such a challenge for people to interpret the play because of Shakespeare's syntax and incredible diction. I wouldn't expect modern readers who read modern text to get Hamlet after a simple skim or even a thorough read. People don't really like to think about what they are reading and be cautious of how /what they are interpreting. it's usually a "what can i read to give me answers as direct as possible with little thoughts as possible" for readers today. It may come from people wanting to be as simple and efficient as possible with this day and age, which is really integrated in this generation's brains.
Hamlet is about a young prince whose father had recently died and Hamlet sees the ghost of his father. Hamlet then attempts to find out who murdered his father and assumes it was Claudius since he married his mother almost as soon as his father had died.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the reason Hamlet is so hard to understand is because it is written based on a different era and most people in our generation don't wanna invest time into understanding what is really going on in the play. I feel like no one truly agrees on what the play means because it can have numerous meanings based on his older text but if we lived back when this play was aired the meaning would have been universally known.
1) The play is mainly about young Hamlet and his quest for vengeance against his uncle who appears to be the main culprit in the recent death of Hamlets father. The story most likely consists of how Hamlet deals with his grief and his movements that move him closer and closer to border line insanity to butchering his uncle and finally gaining everlasting peace with his uncle’s dismay as well as his own demise.
ReplyDelete2) The play is from a different era and most probably find it hard to relate to besides the fact of how the author uses old English which most of us also aren’t use to. This play is very ambiguous when the actors speak which leave many feeling of Hamlets soliloquies and other actor’s monologues up to debate on how he or she actually is presently feeling.
1) From what I was able to draw from this amazing resouce of this post was that this play revolves around the theme of vengence. After Hamlet's uncle kills Hamlet's father he faces the internal struggle with what is right and what is wrong, but he know what he is going to truely do in the end.
ReplyDelete2) I think this play is so hard to understand because it isn't from our time. No one speaks in this way anymore, although people study and become experts on it, they still don't truely understand it because they weren't part of it. This transfer to the idea that there are so many different interpretations due to the fact that the author no long lives and we can not get a direct source of information of what this play was meant to be, but we can infer with our differentiating opinions.
1. So far from what I've read the play I know takes place in Denmark, and after learning that Claudius killed Prince Hamlet's father he is now facing an internal struggle between avenging his father's death or taking another more civil path. I feel Like Hamlets anger and resentment towards Claudius and his mother will overpower his emotions and lead him down a darker path.
ReplyDelete2. Understanding the play is difficult for most people, because the diction is from another time and place that is not familiar to our everyday word use. The language used in the play is unfamiliar to us and its hard to comprehend words and phrases that are part of a different era. It's hard for each person to interpret the play in one way because there are so many different opinions on what a certain phrase or character is trying to say. There's no exact answer on the truth of the tale because everyone from that time period is dead and all that is left is the play and every person's own personal viewpoints.