After doing the close read of Hamlet and the annotations, I have decided that I actually enjoy the play very much. Most of the subtlety and meaning, I now realize, went right over my head the first time through. Going over some of the speeches again, especially some Hamlet's, revealed the thought that went into the writing. Some of Hamlet's word play and metaphors are unbelievable clever. The simplest example I can think of is the word play on "lying" in a grave in the first scene of act 5. All throughout the play, Hamlet practically never breaks character from speaking in elaborate riddles and metaphors that, when you think about them, actually have multiple levels of meaning to fit the situation.
With regards to the movies we have watched in class, I found the second movie much enjoyable and in accordance with how I pictured the scenes. The scenery is much more elaborate, and the majority of the characters are cast much better. The first video also took many interpretive liberties, like playing up the relationships between Hamlet and Horatio and Hamlet and his mother. As I have said multiple times, there is really no evidence to make either of those more than wild speculation. And even so, the ambiguity of it is part of the genius and beauty of the play. By making that choice for the reader/watcher the director took away some of the deeper meaning of the play. The only thing I found strange about the second version of the play we watched was the time period. The actors and weaponry and buildings were in a style that suggested a time period much later than I had envisioned.
I agree with you about the 2nd movie being better! I actually really enjoyed that movie and wish that we could have watched the entire thing. Especially, like you said, with the scenery. The first movie the set was boring and bland, but I think the purpose of that was so that the audience would focus on the words and interpretations of Hamlet. But outside of reading Hamlet and watching the movies, you could add more of what we've done in class. Possibly talking about the forums that we have done or the tone word practice we have done in class. I think for these posts it's very important to talk about almost anything that we have done in class. Then you can have a summarized version to review before the AP exam.
ReplyDeleteLike Gabriella said, Hamlet has taken up most of the class recently, but it's important to remember that we've done other work, like those warm-up activities at the start of class and forum and essay assignments.
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you regarding Hamlet's wordplay. We often discuss how Hamlet so cleverly uses language as a weapon, but it's incredible how clever Shakespeare must have been to have written the part. Honestly, it was nice to read Hamlet just to get off the topic of the American Dream, but cracking the code of Shakespeare's language provides its own entertainment. And once you figure that out, it turns out there's yet another level of meaning beneath the puns and verbiage on the surface.
The movies are starting to run together, and I don't really remember which one was the second one, but I also liked the renditions that had greater sets. Shakespeare was known for including little in the way of stage directions, but I doubt that it was because he was opposed to having complex sets, but rather that he left it up to the director, just as he does with all of the ambiguous scenes.