"Hamlet"- overall reflections and questions

Reflections:

I enjoyed reading this play, although it was a challenge to read at the beginning, I slowly got better at it. However, I didn't enjoy it just because it got easier to understand. I enjoyed reading it because of how much was going on and thus how many different interpretations could be taken and discussed. I liked how we weren't assigned anyone we "had to like" because almost all of the characters were flawed that you could make your opinions of them and they didn't  have to change because the author says so (although the opinon's of many characters often still didchange because of new actions/information). For example, Hamlet can be disliked by many people because he kills people and is cruel to people, or he can be pitied because his sense of obligation and desire to do well by his father drives him to these actions, or he slowly grows on people as the play goes on because he is slowly revealed to be a very moral person who is stuck in a hard position (having to kill his uncle to avenge his ghost father that keeps reminding him of his task) while acting/being insane. 

Questions: 

Why poison all the swords? In their planning, Laretes and Claudius makes it seem like will only be Laretes' blade that positioned. Is it Laretes' guilt that makes him decide to poison all of them?

Why was it so important that Ophelia be buried in "Christian" ground? Why were victims of suicide not given this privilege? 

Is Hamlet, or any other character, able to be considered a tragic hero? 

"Hamlet"- the end (Act V post)

In this blog post I will be discussing the final lines of the play with Fortinbras and Horatio. 

In the final lines of the play, Horatio suggests that he explain what happened to result in 4 deaths at one party in the form of a play. This proposition and then the following preparations made me wonder at what the rest of the play was: was it Horatio's play or was it a more "truthful" play because Horatio hadn't been in every scene, but just heard about the scenes he wasn't in from other people. This second play recounting the same story as the play I was about to finish reading reminded me of many of the conversations we had in class about what is "real" and what is not while we were reading The Things They Carried. I think that Horatio's proposed play within a play, along with other ironic allusions to acting and stages throughout the play, and with the inclusion and focus on madness (something which can be caused by a difficulty at determining what is real and what is not) that Shakespeare was trying to challenge the idea that people immerse themselves in entertainment/literature and make it "real" when in it isn't truly "real", only a story being told by a group of people who take on the personas of fictitious (even if they were potentially based upon actual people) characters in order to tell it.

"Hamlet"- Gertrude and the Ghost

Why can Gertrude not see or hear the Ghost in Act 3 Scene 4?

One possible answer to this question could be that only those who have the desire for revenge can see the ghost. Gertrude has no desire for revenge, or at least revenge through violence, so she cannot see/hear the cause of her son's insanity (desire for revenge caused by the Ghost's story, thus the Ghost is the cause of Hamlet's madness). However, if this is the reason why Gertrude cannot see/hear the Ghost, then what drives the guards to want revenge? Perhaps the guards can see the Ghost because they will be involved in Hamlet's revenge or they are lying in wait for Fortinbras' army of revenge to come attack them.

Another, simpler, explanation could be that the Ghost can choose who is able to see him. He could have chosen not to reveal himself to Gertrude in order to keep her from going into any further shock, or to keep Hamlet's persona of a madman alive in order to ensure that he will get his revenge (thus helping the Ghost), or a combination of the two, or for some other inexplicable reason.

"Hamlet"- Challenges

In this post I will be discussing how reading Hamlet has been different for me than reading other Shakespeare plays.

Shakespeare is one of my favorite authors, so I'm really excited that we are reading Hamlet. Overall, I am enjoying the play so far, but this play is much more challenging than any play I have ever read before. In the past with Shakespeare, I can read it normally like a book and pick up what it is saying (or look up a few things in the side notes).  However, so far with Hamlet, I have had some trouble understanding what is going on and have had to look at the notes frequently for guidance on what the characters are saying. I think that this challenge comes from several places. First, I haven't read Shakespeare for English class in two years (we read Macbeth sophomore year), but I have read several plays for fun in the years between, as well as for my Independent Study in Theatre this year (A Midsummer Night's Dream), which sort of negates this reason. Secondly, and I think more accurately, that Hamlet is a more complex play with respect to underlying meaning/themes than many of the others that I have read, and thus the language needs to be more complex to reflect that. I think that, as we discussed in class, that Hamlet focuses much more on the psychological (which results in more difficult readability in contemporary English) than on action. To overcome this challenge, I will read more closely and possible check things that I am still very confused on with No Fear Shakespeare (although I typically don't like their translations, but it might help clear some plot confusion up). 

"The Dead" - response

In this post I will be discussing the similarities and differences between Joyce's "The Dead" and Ibsen's A Doll's House.

It is difficult to tell when "The Dead" is set, but it seems to be around the late 1800s in Ireland, which is the same time period as A Doll's House, except that that was set in the Netherlands.

The male main characters of these two works are also very similar. Gabriel is a successful, intellectual, upper-class man with a seemingly happy marriage, a patriarchal view of women (mostly his wife), and a desire to travel to the more sophisticated Continent. Torvald is a successful, upper-middle/upper class man with a seemingly happy marriage, a patriarchal view of all women, and a high moral code. Both men love and think of their wives in accordance with their societies' traditions: that she is in charge of the household, doesn't have complex thoughts, and exists for no other purposes other than to be his wife and to be a mother to his children (this last piece is very explicitly shown in Torvald). Due to their similar time periods and classes, both Gabriel's and Torvald's societies are similar as well. Both of them express something similar to Victorian age morality, with one of the gravest errors a person can make is lying, as expressed through Torvald's sentiments on the subject, and the lyrics to the song that the party guests sing to the aunts after Gabriel's speech.

The wives too, are very similar to each other (although not nearly as similar as their husbands). Both Nora and Gretta are not understood by their husbands and harbor secrets from their husbands that are revealed at the end of the work. However, their goals are very different. Nora wants Torvald to treat her as an equal, or at least as a fellow human being. She leaves her husband and children in order to discover herself.  It is hard to discern what Gretta desires, but I think she would like to be respected by Gabriel as an intellectual human being. She does not do anything but tell Gabriel the story of the boy she loved when she was young.

As similar as these characters, and the works they are a part of are, there are major differences in aspects not relating to the characters. "The Dead" takes place at Gabriel's old aunts' party, whereas A Doll’s House takes place in the Helmer family home over several days. "The Dead" alludes to political conflicts in Ireland and human mortality (hence the title), in contrast, A Doll's House seems timeless in terms of allusions to events and discusses illusion vs. reality of many things, as well as feminist ideals. "The Dead" as a whole is a much simpler plot structure than A Doll's House, but is much more dense than Ibsen's play and has complex themes concerning morality and patriotism (though A Doll's House has complicated themes in its own right, but due to the style of the play, they can appear to be much more transparent than Joyce's short story's themes).

"The Dead" - word

Mechanical.

"The Dead" - question

What was the "secret life"  that Gabriel mentions several times towards the end of the story?

When I first read about this "secret life", I was very confused, but I thought that it could mean that they really were in love (many couples at the time this was set weren't due to arranged marriages/status marriages). However, by the second time it appears in this short story, I wasn't so sure that it was a happy "secret life". I thought that it could be saying that they really hated/disliked each other, and maybe even lived separate lives under the outward-facing image of a happy marriage.

After thinking about "The Dead" for a little while, I am still very confused about what this "secret life" really is, but I have a couple more theories. One of which is that maybe their "secret life" is their history together; perhaps they were lovers first and got married out of obligation, or that there is some other complication (or even several complications) in the past that Gabriel can define as a "secret life". My second, and final, theory is that their "secret life" is nothing so dramatic as lost love or a complex history, but instead is just that they have a life away from their young children, the elaborate social gatherings, and his aging aunts; a life just as a married couple, however unhappy or happy they might be.