What's a lit class without Shakespeare?

Author:
William Shakespeare

Setting:
15th(?) century Denmark, in and around the castle Elsinore

Plot: (don't worry, this one's shorter than my one on DoS)
In the beginning of the play, Old Hamlet is dead and his wife has remarried his brother. These events have made Hamlet extremely depressed. One night, he sees his dad's ghost and discovers that Old Hamlet's death was actually a murder committed by Claudius (the brother). Hamlet vows to get revenge by killing Claudius, and spends most of the next four acts debating whether he actually should follow through with it or not. By the end of the play, almost everyone in the castle is dead and Fortinbras (royalty from Norway) takes the throne, cleansing Denmark of its corruption.

Significant Characters:
Hamlet- Obviously, as the title character, Hamlet is important. Hamlet is the prince of Denmark, charged with seeking revenge for his father's murder.
Claudius- Claudius is Old Hamlet's brother, Hamlet's uncle. He murdered Old Hamlet then married his wife and took the throne for himself. Very selfish.
Ophelia- Ophelia is Hamlet's secret (kinda) lover. She eventually goes crazy and kills herself, presumably pregnant with Hamlet's child.
Polonius- Polonius is Ophelia's dad and next-to-next-in line for the throne. He's essentially Claudius' right hand man. Hamlet kills him on accident.
Laertes- Laertes is Ophelia's brother. He's a kind of foil to Hamlet in that he also seeks revenge for his father's death, but he doesn't debate it for an entire play. He ends up killing Hamlet with a poisoned sword.
Horatio- Horatio is Hamlet's best friend and the only one he really trusts and cares about. He's also the only one who lives through the bloody end.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern- These two are Hamlet's ex-best friends. They spy on him for the king and end up getting killed in place of Hamlet.

Style:
The play, as a play, has no narrator and no omniscient characters. It doesn't really follow one specific character, but focuses on Hamlet and Claudius the most. The tone Shakespeare uses, usually dark and contemplative, helps the reader feel Hamlet's emotions about the events of his father's death and mother's marriage, and the revenge he's promised to seek. One major motif throughout the play is that of incest. Obviously, this applies to Gertrude and Claudius. It can also be applied to Laertes and Ophelia, though their relationship can also just be seen as strong family ties with no sexual undertones involved. The figurative language I noticed most often were similes, metaphors, allusions, etc. to the Bible: Old Hamlet was supposed killed by a snake (serpent in the garden), was actually killed by his brother (Cain and Able), and Hamlet eventually cleanses Denmark (Christ figure). The only real symbol in the play was Yorik's skull, which symbolizes the certainty of death and the physical consequences of it.

Quotes:
"None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest."
"Then is doomsday near: but your news is not true." (II.ii.237-238)
~This quote is one of the best examples of Hamlet's lack of faith in humanity. Hamlet constantly tests those around him to see if they're honest with him, and their usually not. These lines foreshadow the many failed tests that happen in the next couple of scenes.

"So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, / An thou hadst not come to my bed." (IV.v.65-66)
~These lines are part of Ophelia's singing during her display of craziness. This particular song gives reason to believe Ophelia wasn't as innocent as those around her seem to believe and that she was actually pregnant out of wedlock.

"If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart / Absent thee from felicity awhile, / And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain / To tell my story." (V.ii.346-349)
~One of Hamlet's last lines, this really seems to wrap the story up. After all that's happened and the lessons Hamlet has learned about revenge, Hamlet doesn't want to die in vain. He tells Horatio not to kill himself, but to tell his story as a warning, and as a way to clear his (Hamlet's) reputation.

Theme:
Seeking revenge won't yield any rewards.
~Possibly the only thing Hamlet truly learns throughout the play is that revenge doesn't get you anything. His seeking revenge on Claudius lead to him accidentally killing Polonius, which lead to Laertes seeking revenge. Laertes' plan to kill Hamlet backfires and ends up killing him as well. Eventually, everyone who had any part of anyone's revenge is dead. However, Fortinbras stopped his quest for revenge and is rewarded at the end of the play by gaining Denmark for his kingdom.

I still don't remember this book very well...

2007. In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present activities, attitudes, or values of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a character must contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character's relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

      In the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë introduces the characters in the present, but she does not stay there for long. The majority of the book is a retelling of a story from the past that eventually helps the reader understand Heathcliff. His relationship with the past leaves him bitter and, arguably, insane.

      In the beginning of Wuthering Heights, Mr. Lockwood arrives at the home of Heathcliff. The reader, and. Mr. Lockwood himself, is left wondering why Heathcliff is distant and bitter. Mr. Lockwood acts on his curiosity and asks a house maid, Nelly, to tell him Heathcliff’s story. As she tells the story throughout the novel, the reader concludes that all of Heathcliff’s faults seem to start with his poor relationship with his adoptive brother Hareton, and reach a peak with Catherine choosing Edgar.

      Although he loves Catherine, Heathcliff has a poor relationship with her brother Hareton. Because their father treated Heathcliff as if he were his own son, Hareton takes his anger out on Heathcliff, constantly bullying him and treating him as less of a person. This leads to Heathcliff’s actions later in the novel when he comes back to their house and wins the inheritance from Hareton as part of his revenge. The last straw for Heathcliff is when he overhears Catherine tell Nelly that she couldn’t possibly marry him. He runs away and is a completely different person upon his return later in the novel. From the moment he returns, Heathcliff tries to get Catherine to chose him, even though she’s already married to Edgar. Heathcliff is no longer just a boy with a crush, he’s a man who will do just about anything to get the revenge he wants.

      As part of his revenge, Heathcliff marries Isabella Linton and puts himself in line to inherit her family’s property. This marriage, having nothing to do love, is doomed from the start. Heathcliff treats Isabella so poorly, she flees to London, where she raises their son alone. After she dies and their son, Linton, returns to live with his father, it is clear that Heathcliff has no intentions of treating him the way a father should treat his son. To Heathcliff, Linton is just another reminder that he didn’t get Catherine. Because Linton isn’t Heathcliff and Catherine’s son, he means next to nothing to Heathcliff.

      The novel comes full circle when Nelly’s story catches up to the present. Mr. Lockwood and the reader both now understand why Heathcliff is bitter, and why the others in the house are reserved. Heathcliff’s relationship to his past is what sets the plot for the entire novel, providing for different characters to get involved in various ways as he seeks his revenge for the love he lost.

Who suffered more: me or Hamlet?

      I mean, sure, his dad died and what not, but he didn't have to annotate himself. Which is what most of the last... six weeks has consisted of. Minus break, of course. I have to admit, I really struggled with this one. Although I picked up on some of the Shakespearean terminology, most of it still left me confused, which made annotating really difficult. I usually try to have a good variety of DIDLS and personal reactions to the story line, but I couldn't get into the play enough to have good reactions to most parts. As a result, my copy of the play is covered in many little purple "diction," "syntax," and "language" notes. Which I guess isn't completely terrible, considering the fact that pretty much everything we do involves DIDLS. The one thing that really helped me through parts of the play was Ms.Holmes' commenting during our first read. I never would have picked up on a lot of what she told us.
      Still on the topic of Hamlet, comparing the movies was a kind of relief for me. I happened to picture the play almost exactly as Branagh did, so when we watched Bennett's version (I hope that's the right director, it took a good ten minutes to find him on the internet), I felt like I got everything wrong. Even though we only watched parts of Branagh's version, it helped me a lot with grasping some of scenes I either missed when we read them or just didn't understand.
      The other thing we did with Hamlet that impacted me was the use of language sheet we did. I missed the first part of class that day, so I only answered a few of the questions, but even just that was helpful. I hadn't really thought of Hamlet's use of language as being intentional; I just thought he liked to show off his superiority. Going through some of the scenes and focusing just on how he used language helped me focus on that more when I annotated other scenes I thought he might be using his language intentionally. That definitely helped me get some more purple "language" notes written.
      Not related to Hamlet, we started doing mood and atmosphere practices, which has been a very interesting experience in 3rd hour. Although we sometimes don't really focus on mood or atmosphere, we get there eventually, so we do get some practice in. And we do it in a fun way, which makes it more meaningful for me. Reading the other hours' examples also helps me more with mood, because I'm more of a reader than a writer, so sometimes I get more out of reading their examples than writing mine.