I'm glad that we have finally started Hamlet. I am enjoying it a lot more than the other two plays we have done. The play is much more engaging than Death of a Salesman for two main reasons. First, I haven't ever read the play or seen a performance of it as I had with Death of a Salesman, and second because it's set in an unfamiliar time period, which makes the people and events more exotic. With the Loman family, a lot of the details seem boring because they are typical things of a working class family in American. In Hamlet however, the family dynamics and interactions are completely foreign. The play is also much more intellectually engaging than either of the the other two plays because of it's difficult language. The other two plays are written in easily readable english, and to have any thought provoking discussion takes some effort in searching for symbolism and such. With Hamlet, just reading it and trying to figure out what the characters are saying is intellectually stimulating, since their language is so different from our own, and they sometimes speak almost in riddles. On top of that, there is definitely still the aspect of thought-provoking symbolism that the other two plays had.
On a different note, it seems that at least half of the year will be focusing on plays. I would've found this a little odd at first, since typically one does not think of plays as being as literary as novels. But after discussing the play, I realize there is just as much opportunity for symbolism and meaning, perhaps more. The only downside of the plays for me is that it's extremely difficult to identify the authors voice. In most novels, the authors style is clear through the parts where a narrator speaks or the scene is described. In plays, however, there is only dialogue, which makes it hard to distinguish the author's style from that of the characters, actors, and stage director.
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