Hamlet Act 5
In this act we see the true style of shakespearian tradgedy. Act opens at Ophelias funeral, and while I may have scoffed at the onset of the play and disliked the plot line, I must give Shakespeare due credit for his masterful work with the tragic emotions at the end of the play. We see Hamlet once and for all torn apart by his emotions not only for the death of his father, or his anger at his mother’s betrayal, but the death of his true love as well.
“forty thousand brothers, Could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum”
This quote from scene 1 act 5, by Hamlet to Leretes, shows what agonizing pain that hamlet really feels, because not only does he love her, but he also comes to the realization that in his selfish ploy to avenge his father, he himself is responsible for her untimely death. We see that this guilt and pain that is mounting upon Hamlet leaves him no will to live, he accepts a duel with leretes, I do not think to uphold his honor, but because he realizes that in the event that he does lose it will not matter for he is already as low as he can get.
In the next and final scene the question is not who dies, the question is who doesn’t die? In an ironic twist of fate, the king himself poisons his own queen, and Gertrude in the realization of all that she had thought of the king had ultimately been lies, and then she utters her final words and collapses to the ground. Then there is the hurried deaths of Leretes and Hamlet as they realize they have both been poisoned, and the death of Claudius at the hand of Hamlet, as hamlet realizes that he only has moments to live he takes the king down with his sword and forces him to drink the wine that so cruelly killed his mother. As if he were in the center of a domino game, the rest fall leaving only Horatio standing.
In this play we are shown how lies form like spider-webs, interweaving all around us. Now in real life we may not all die because of them, but most certainly we learn that they are a dangerous toy to play with.
Hamlet Act 4
Act four, to put it bluntly, is the act where all hell breaks loose. In this act we see Hamlet’s situation spiral as he is forced to face the consequences of his murder of Polonius. With the murder of Polonius comes, in true tragic shakespearian style, the domino of deaths to follow. First was Polonius, then Ophelia, whom driven to insanity by the death of her father at the hand of her love, Hamlet, by accident or suicide, drowns. I found the death of Ophelia fascinating because of its sheer ambiguity. Shakespeare does not specify whether her death was by her own hand or not. He also leaves the reader to speculate on her downfall towards insanity. It was undeniably triggered by the death of her father, but I believe it was the absence of other human relationships that pushed her insanity further. Her brother, Leretes, had left and Hamlet had been banished, she was utterly alone and left to deal with the death of her father. Not knowing the true reason for Hamlet’s own insanity she must have constantly questioned the circumstances of her father’s untimely death. Hamlet and Ophelia did not exactly part on good terms, during their last conversation Ophelia had accused Hamlet of not loving her truly. We do not know if it was simply one of these things that triggered her madness, but it was more than likely a combination of all of them. Because of her volatile state we are also forced to guess as to whether the death could be ruled as an accident or a suicide. Was she really hopeless enough to take her own life, or did she really slip. It is possible that she was not a strong swimmer, but in the likes of a stream, couldn’t she have just stood up and been fine. Who knows, maybe she knocked her head on a rock or something. Shakespeare seems to be commentating on not only Hamlet’s fatal flaws but on the female sex as well. With Ophelia he does not make the strongest willed of characters. She constantly seeks approval from the likes of her father, her brother, and Hamlet as well. With her mental deterioration Shakespeare suggests that women are to frail to deal with tragedy such as the loss of all her close male influences without going crazy.
To foreshadow the death of more characters to come, Claudius encourages Leretes to seek revenge for the death of his father, which, as we see from other shakespearian tragedies, condemns Hamlet and Leretes to death, and most likely all of the other main characters as well.
Hamlet Act 3
And the first character to die during the play is……. POLONIUS! I found this death terribly transparent. First of all, he is hiding behind a tapestry, really Polonius, that is as stealthy as you get? Your best hiding spot is a glorified curtain, couldn’t you at least have picked an armoire of sorts, some sort of device that could not be penetrated by a dagger? I was not impressed by the spying abilities presented in the play. Rule number one, never go spying with two people. If you are caught, it is hard enough to think up an excuse for one person let alone two, the king and Polonius. It is always better to get someone to spy for you, then if they are caught you will not be directly associated. These people are rookies. And Hamlet, what were you doing stabbing things willy nilly (yes that is an allusion)? If I thought someone was hiding behind a curtain, my first thought would be, who is this person, not, how should i kill them. What’s more, stabbing is an awful way to kill someone, so messy. If Polonius was hiding in the curtain than why not strangle him? This would be a far cleaner cover up, and would give you time to get away before people noticed, where as a pool of blood does not offer that opportunity. Secondly, how convenient, with Shakespeare’s tragedies we know that everyone must go, so by killing Polonius, Hamlet will be torn apart from Ophelia for good, and Leretes will want to seek revenge. One can speculate that Leretes is bound to die as well on his journey for revenge. And *spoiler alert* after seeing act 4 of the movie, we know that Ophelia is driven in to the nut-house, and dies soon their after. They are biting like flies in this one.
Now, I understand that Polonius needed to die in order to advance the plot, but I detest how Shakespeare unfolds the plot. It all seems so convenient, but I suppose the peasant in 16th century England did not expect the Odessy.
Hamlet Act 2
There is nothing that sparks my interest in Shakespeare like a good soliloquies, unfortunately Hamlet has none of these. Oh sure, he has soliloquies, but they are awful! The one in act two that I particularly detest the most comes at the end of act two, after the play within the play. Hamlet waxes on about the injustice of life, how evil his uncle is, but most of all this soliloquy is rancid with self pity.
But I am pigeon livered, and lack gall
He punishes himself for not having the courage to simply murder his uncle in rightful revenge of his father’s death. He instead insists on using elaborate mind tricks such as the play to force Claudius into guilty admission of his crime. Then realizing that he is wallowing in self-pity, he chastises himself for it, claiming he is like a whore, I have never met any wordy whores, but maybe times were different then, and all whores were scholarly women that wallowed in self pity and soliloquized on their place in life. I for one, find this very unlikely.
So, in act 2 we find that not only is Hamlet increasingly frustrated with his own inaction, but he is also beginning to blur the line between sanity and insanity. At the sight of his father’s ghost once more, he is so disturbed that he bursts into Ophelia’s room but refuses to speak to her. this behavior convinces not only the public that he is mad, but we can see Hamlet unravelling as well.
Hamlet Act 1
Wow, shakespeare you’ve really done it this time, your endless soliloquies and realistic plot twists just keep me enthralled. Not really. While I appreciate Shakespeare for what his work has contributed to the literary cannon, I cannot stand his stories. Yeah sure his wordplay is genius, but his characters are so obnoxious, from Romeo to Puck, I detest them all. With Hamlet we get a whole new cast to banter us to our last wits.
We start act one with Shakespeare’s usual cast of minor characters, a group of know nothing guards that ultimately just provide “comic” relief. We learn of the death of the king and the marriage of his widow to his brother. This plot reminded me of a historic event that happened within Shakespeare’s century, the reign of King Henry the eighth. He married his brother’s widow, becoming king of england. This could be pure coincidence, but it would make sense that the plot came from that event.
Throughout act 1 we meet Hamlet, his mother Gertrude, his Uncle Claudius, Leretes, Polonius, and Ophelia. The relationship I would be most interested in watching develop would be that between Leretes and Hamlet. Leretes is a trusted advisor of the King, Hamlet’s nemisis, but also the brother of the woman that Hamlet loves. I think that there be a pivitol moment as the play progresses that will question Hamlet’s respect of Leretes as either Ophelia’s brother or his uncle’s friend.
Obviously the true struggle in this play will be between Hamlet and Claudius. I didn’t understand why Hamlet would think that acting like a madman would be advantageous, if anything I would think that befriending the king would be more useful. He could exploit that relationship to get revenge.
Thats all for act one but I am sure that there will be more puzzling plot twists that do not advance the characters at all, to come!
Reflections
Overall I really liked this project. I struggled at first with the format of the Edublogs website, but once I got acclimated, it was a breeze. I like that in the blogosphere the style of writing is much less formal than the form of writing I am used to. I am able to do the same analysis without the task of worrying about all the minute details of an analytical paper. What I did have a hard time with was finding a blog that pertained to my subject matter. I found many blogs that had Ginsberg’s poems posted, but they all lacked the in depth analysis that we focused on.
Ginsberg Inspired Poem
consumerist America
cell phones, ipods, laptops-perpetual distraction
MTV, VH1, they will tell you what you like
seventeen, vogue, vanity fair, what to wear and how to do your hair
gangsters and rockers and prudes and emos and hippies-everyone has a type
reality television, i have yet to see that reality come close
everything is disposable, what happened to waste not?
hummers in the suburbs-what war is this?
we threaten to blow each other up, and for what?
My poem is inspired by ginsberg. It represents his poetry in that the subject manner is of popular culture, dealing with the everyday. He challenged the status quo with his liberal views and groundbreaking openness. While my poem does not, his often addressed sexuality and challenged the idea of a conventional relationship. My poem also emulates those of Ginsberg in that it is free verse and in sentence form. His use of grammar was also unconventional, with hyphens and capitalization or lack there of. I attempt to emulate of these characteristics in my poem, addressing the consumerist, materialistic place that america has become.
The Beat Generation
Allen Ginsberg is often considered the father of the beat generation, with his “Howl” seen as a sort of call to arms, the defining work of a generation.
Here we have Ginsberg with partner, Peter Orklovsky, On the Road author Jack Kerouac, and Orklovsky’s brother. These are mearly a few of the beat poets that defined the literary history of the 60′s and 70′s. With so many participants and influences, I thought it best to make a list of the most notable.
Gregory Corso
This clip shows Corso’s take on what it takes to be a beat poet:
Jack Kerouac
Bob Dylan
*notice Ginsberg in the far left corner chatting with someone*
Ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead
Peter Orklovsky
William S Burroughs
Gary Snyder
The beat generation cast a wide net, catching talent that left its mark on all art forms and society, taking influences from old and new. One of these influences was William Carlos Williams, who mentored Ginsberg during the 1950′s and shaped Ginsberg’s style.
First there was form. Beat poets are generally characterized by there free verse and lack of form, but Ginsberg, influenced by such poems as The Red Wheelbarrow , saw how form could be used to convey messages and make the reader take a more active role in poetry. This can be seen most prevalently in his work, Angkor Wat.
Pink
p
o
n
k of the rain on the roof tin
below my shuttered window
in the neon light a hotel
clean tiled room
He uses the placement of the letters to make a machine out of the poem, to lead the reader to question and ponder. Where is the tin roof? What shuttered window? What kind of Hotel? These are the types of questions that William Carlos Williams used to create his most well known piece, The Red Wheelbarrow.
Walt Whitman
Supermarket in California
What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for
I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache
self-conscious looking at the full moon.
In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went
into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families
shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the
avocados, babies in the tomatoes!–and you, Garcia Lorca, what
were you doing down by the watermelons?I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber,
poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery
boys.
I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the
pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?
I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans
following you, and followed in my imagination by the store
detective.
We strode down the open corridors together in our
solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen
delicacy, and never passing the cashier.Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in
an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight?
(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the
supermarket and feel absurd.)
Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The
trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we’ll both be
lonely.Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love
past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?
Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher,
what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and
you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat
disappear on the black waters of Lethe?
Allen ginsberg emulated not only the style of Walt Whitman, with his sweeping observations of everyday life, but he reveared the poetry of Whitman as well. In this ode to the famous writer, Ginsberg simply watches the everyday action of the supermarket. His poems are not about language, he focuses on images just as Whitman did.
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand
singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as
he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning,
or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work,
or of the girl sewing or washing,
In “I Hear America Singing” by Whitman, he uses everyday people, just as Ginsberg did, to show that every person is a fiber in America’s quilt, not merely the politicians and the wealthy. It is this embracing of the common man that makes their styles so alike and distinct. While at times their poetry does focus on nature, more often they focus on the human condition, which they saw as just as volatile as nature.
Whole families
shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the
avocados, babies in the tomatoes!–and you, Garcia Lorca, what
were you doing down by the watermelons?
This excerpt from “Supermarket in California” most directly reflects this style. With the phrase “shopping at night” Ginsberg leads us to the common man, with work during the day and free time at night. He looks at how this is not only a shopping trip, but almost a social event as well, with all of the wives gossiping by the avocados, and the husbands conversing in the aisles.
First Party at Ken Kesey’s House with Hell’s Angels
Grateful Dead, Day Tripper (Beatles Cover)
First Party at Ken Kesey’s with Hell’s Angels
Cool black night thru the redwoods
cars parked outside in shade
behind the gate, stars dim above
the ravine, a fire burning by the side
porch and a few tired souls hunched over
in black leather jackets. In the huge
wooden house, a yellow chandelier
at 3 A.M. the blast of loudspeakers
hi-fi Rolling Stones Ray Charles Beatles
Jumping Joe Jackson and twenty youths
dancing to the vibration thru the floor,
a little weed in the bathroom, girls in scarlet
tights, one muscular smooth skinned man
sweating dancing for hours, beer cans
bent littering the yard, a hanged man
sculpture dangling from a high creek branch,
children sleeping softly in their bedroom bunks.
And 4 police cars parked outside the painted
gate, red lights revolving in the leaves.
December 1965
