2003 Open PromptHamlet by William Shakespeare, shows many sides of many different characters, and many people I believe would agree when I say Hamlet is one of the most tragic figures in literature. Throughout the play of Hamlet, we see the evolution of the young Hamlet, and how he reacts to his father's death and what comes after that. Hamlet is the tragic character in Hamlet, and you see how he affects and hurts himself and other characters around him.
The first character Hamlet affects is Ophelia. Hamlet and Ophelia are lovers, but you don't see much loving in the play, because the play begins as Hamlet's life starts to crumble. In all of Hamlet's anger, he hurts Ophelia more than once. The first time was when he ended things with her. He told her he did not love her anymore when he clearly did, causing her to feel hurt and rejection. The second thing Hamlet did out of hate for his father's death and Uncle was kill Polonius, Ophelia's father. This was the last straw for Ophelia, causing her to go mad and drown herself. Another character Hamlet hurt throughout the play was his mother, Gertrude. Some may argue that Gertrude was the one who hurt Hamlet to begin with, but I honestly think they both hurt each other in some way or another. Hamlet brought suffering to Gertrude because of how he acted after Gertrude married her dads mother. At the end of the play, Gertrude tries to redeem herself with Hamlet in the end of the play when she drinks the poison meant for him. This shows the suffering for Gertrude because all she wants is whats best for her son and herself, and Hamlet takes that a little out of proportion. The final person who suffers throughout the play because of Hamlet is Hamlet himself. Throughout the play, Hamlet is so focused on getting revenge, he does not even realize what he is doing to himself. He forgets basic things and what he really should be doing. and he essentially goes crazy. In this time, he ends up killing Polonius, which makes everything worse than it was before. He ruins relationships with life long friends (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern), without even realizing what he has done to himself. In the end, he does in fact get his revenge, but not without the sacrifice of himself. Throughout the whole play of Hamlet, there is suffering and tragedy, but it all starts with one person, Hamlet.
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Response to Course MaterialThroughout the past few weeks we have really been focusing on the upcoming AP exam, along with working with the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
We spent a majority of class time reading Ros & Guil are Dead, see other blog for more detail on that. One thing I found interesting, and why I believe we spent so much time discussing it in class was because it was not like something we had ever read before. The play is a spin-off of Shakespeare's Hamlet, which is interesting because it is like a play within a play within a play of two minor characters in Hamlet. Another thing we have done was write a timed essay, I found this harder because I do not consider myself a strong writer, and when we had an opportunity to rewrite the essay, I wasn't too surprised to see my timed writing was horrific. We have also been taking more time on working on multiple choice questions, which helps me personally, and it helps when we have to write our own and not necessarily just answer some over and over again. Over the past week we have also been reading poems, along with doing a poetry forum. I enjoy reading poetry, I like how many meanings and interpretations some people have of the same piece of work. Some of the poems we read in class: “The Pomegranate” (323) “The Bistro Styx” (326) “A & P” (462) “Woman Hollering Creek” (623) “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” (1033) 2009 Question #3Student #1:
Just to start off, this student wrote a good essay. The thesis/intro was a little vague, but I felt as though the rest of the essay made up for it. While I was reading, I was keeping in the back of my mind that you really are not supposed to summarize the literary work they are analyzing, which I felt one may argue this student did write almost a summary, based essay. The thing about writing the essay this way was the summary is what helped answer the question. The student did a fine job answering the question throughout the essay, and I felt as though he/she got all their ideas on the paper and made it clear what they were talking about the whole time. One thing I would tell the student is work on your handwriting. Yes, I know that it should not be a big deal when it comes to the content of the essay, but if the grader cannot read what you are trying to say, then thats a problem as well. I would have given this essay a 9, which is also what the grader gave it. Student #2: Honestly, when I first started reading this essay, I thought it was terrible. But, I think I was missing the point of it. After reading it over again, and reading what the grader had to say, the essay met the bare minimum of answering the question. I would give this essay a 5 because I felt as though some ideas were a little incomplete, but, the student did answer the question so I am a little conflicted about that. The grader gave the essay a 6, which I also felt was a fair grade. I thought the student's thesis was strong. One thing I also noticed was there were strong points within a paragraph, and weak ones in others. Overall, I felt as though the student did the bare minimum to answer the question, but he/she did it so that is really all that matters. One thing I would say to help the student would be improve vocabulary and work on organization! Student #3: This essay was the weakest of the three, by a significant amount. The little information the student had about symbolism and the claims the student was trying to make lead me to believe the student did not understand what the question was, or even what symbolism is. The intro paragraph and the first body paragraph really gave the essay potential, but the rest of the essay was a whole bunch of nonsense that had nothing to do with the question, more like a summary of the literary work the student was analyzing. I would have given the essay a 3, simply because the first two paragraphs showed some promise, but I would not have given it more than that. The reviewer gave the essay a four, for almost the same reason but I still felt the essay was simply too vague and showed little to no understanding of the question or symbolism. One thing I would recommend to the student would be to have a stronger conclusion, a stronger case, and google symbolism. Hamlet by William ShakespeareCharacters:
Hamlet- The Protagonist of the play, son of Old Hamlet and Gertrude, goes mad about half way through the play, full of hatred towards his uncle. Claudius- Hamlet's Uncle, Gertrude's Husband, antagonist of the play, murderer of Old Hamlet, power-hungry. Gertrude- Hamlet's mother, wife to Claudius, not very independent, usually just a follower to Claudius Horatio- Hamlet's best friend from school, loyal to Hamlet Polonius- Lord, loyal to Claudius, father of Laertes and Ophelia, usually airheaded and doesn't really understand what is going on most of the time. Laertes- Son of Polonius, Ophelia's brother, spends most of the play away from Denmark in France, cares for his sister Ophelia- Daughter of Polonius, Laertes sister, Hamlet's lover, goes crazy after Hamlet kills her father, ends up killing herself. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern- Soldiers, friends of Hamlet, spy on Hamlet which ends up getting them killed in the end Fortinbras- Prince of Norway, his father was killed by Old Hamlet so he seeks revenge, ends up King of Denmark, foil of Hamlet Ghost- The ghost of Old Hamlet who tells Hamlet who killed him and encourages him to seek revenge. Setting: Elsinore Castle in Denmark, Elizabethan time Plot: Old Hamlet is killed by his brother, Claudius. Claudius ends up marrying the queen, Gertrude, two months after the death of old Hamlet. Hamlet, the protagonist of the play, is very upset with his mother and Uncle. Hamlet is visited by the ghost of Old Hamlet, who explains that Claudius murdered him by putting poison in his ear. This leads Hamlet to seek revenge on his Uncle, and avenge his father. Hamlet slowly goes mad trying to find the right time to kill Claudius. Polonius, Claudius' loyal friend, is spying on a conversation between Hamlet and Gertrude, and Hamlet, thinking it is Claudius, stabs him. Polonius is dead, leaving his daughter and Hamlet's lover, Ophelia to go mad. Ophelia ends up killing herself, and Hamlet is sent to England to be killed. Hamlet returns to Denmark to find Ophelia dead and him and Laertes battle. This ends up leaving the whole royal family dead, with Horatio and Fortinbras left alive, and Fortinbras becoming the King of Denmark. Symbols: Skull, flowers, ghost Theme: Important quotes: "To be or not to be; that is the question" "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" "Get thee to a nunnery" Review to Course MaterialWe spent a lot of time in class reading Hamlet and watching clips from different Hamlet films.
The movie we watched the full play of was probably one of my least favorite. I know that Hamlet is childish, but I feel as though this film too that to the next level. I also did not like how it was so similar to the modern world, but still trying to be in that Shakespearean time (I felt like anyway). My favorite movie clip we watched was on the final day of clips, the movie that was in black and white. That is what I pictured Hamlet exactly to be like, and I think that is why I enjoyed it the most. I think the significance between the four movies we watched was to show that there are different ways to interpret Hamlet itself, along with emphasizing different points throughout the play. We also did forums, which I found extremely interesting. I thought the story on the criminals was extremely interesting to learn about. I thought it was a great idea and nice to hear an interpretation of Hamlet from someone so different, and someone I normally would not have ever thought to talk about Hamlet to. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Characters:
Marlow- Protaganist, teller of the story, changes throughout the novel Kurtz- Crazy, god-like figure, leader and respected, the person Marlow is looking for Pilgrims- the "civil" people, hate the savages Russian Trader- Sailor, harlequin, devoted to Kurtz Mistriss- Beautiful woman, has some power, representation of Africa Kurtz's Fiancee- Unrealistic figure, loves Kurtz and believes everyone does as well The Crew- The people at the beginning of the book that Kurtz is telling his story to Marlow's Aunt- No name, gives Marlow the job on the boat from London Others- Helmsman, Cannibals, Chief accountant, Brickmaker, General Manager (all fear Kurtz) Setting: London, on the boat on the Congo, Belgian Territory (Africa), after WWI Plot: A man named Marlow gets a job working for a trading company in London so he can live out his dream to ride up the Congo. Marlow arrives at central station, only to find that his ship has sunk. It takes months to repair, and when it finally does, Marlow, the cannibals and the pilgirms head up the congo to go find Kurtz, who happens to be Marlow's mission to find. Almost to Kurtz, Marlow and his crew are attacked by natives, and then he finally makes it to where Kurtz is and finds a crazy Russian trader who tells him all about Kurtz. They fianlly bring Kurtz on to the ship, to later find Kurtz planned the attack on their ship to lead them to believe that he is dead. On the shore by the boat is his Mistriss, who people claim is a big influence on Kurtz. Marlow and Kurtz head back, but Kurtz is dying quickly. On the ship, Kurtz gives Marlow some documents and then dies. Marlow returns to London, very sick himself and that is where he finds Kurtz fiancee and talks with her about who Kurtz was when he died. Symbols: Fog, Ivory, the River, Women Theme: In Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad highlights the faults in the human condition to illustrate how eerily similar we all are. Important Quotes: “He struggled with himself, too. I saw it -- I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself.” “It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.” Course Response #3Heart of Darkness:
We have been reading Heart of Darkness (HOD) throughout the past few weeks of school. Please see HOD blog post. Other HOD pieces: Appocolyps Now was a movie we watched that is indirectly involved from the book HOD. I thought this movie went well with the book, even if it did not necessarily follow the same storyline. We also read two poems by T.S. Eliot, "Hollow Men" and "The Waste Land" which were interesting poems that I still do not quite understand. We also did a lot of discussion throughout theses weeks, and the terms pretest. 2006 AP Lit Question #1In the poem “Evening Hawk” by Robert Penn Warren, one can see many uses of language and diction used to convey mood and meaning within the poem. Throughout the poem, Warren uses many forms of imagery to help paint a picture in one's mind of a hawk.
The first stanza in the poem uses strong language to describe the sunset, which can set an uneasy feeling with the reader as night falls. Line two which reads “geometries and orchids that the sunset builds” sets the tone of the stanza because it demonstrates admiration of both the construction as well as the introduction to the hawk itself. Line ten states “the head of each stalk is heavy with the gold of our error,” which one could interpret that as the error of human nature itself, and the image the reader is shown is the corruption of what could happen. In line 21 of the last stanza of the poem, the simile “drip in darkness like a leaking pipe in the cellar” brings out the overall idea of how the use of language is brought out to convey the meaning of the poem. This shows how dark and twisted the actual meaning of the poem may seem, and really paints a picture in the reader's mind about what could happen next. Throughout the entire poem, the use of language and diction describe the scene and help convey the mood and meaning of the poem to the reader. American Dream by Edward Albee
This play was one of the first big things we read in class. Between annotating the play to endless class discussions, it did not take long for me to have a serious opinion of this play. The first read through I thought it was a typical play you have to read in every lit class, but after the second read, I knew that simply was not the case. The play got stranger and stranger after every read, and I still go back and realize things that I didn't before, which I really enjoy while reading. AP Lit testing tips The test we are going to be taking in May is going to be challenging, and I knew that when I signed up for the class, I just didn't realize how challanging it was going to be until now. I find it interesting that you can still get a five on the exam and still get some multiple choice questions wrong. I also do not like how every answer in the multiple choice question could be correct, but you have to choose the one that is more correct. I always feel as though I do bad on those types of tests, so I am glad we have already started to practice the multiple choice questions, and I hope we practice again soon. Literature Criticisms Literature Criticisms was definitely a little challenging for me. I feel as though we moved very quickly through this powerpoint and I do not understand some things from it. One thing I did find interesting from the power point we went through in class though was the use of the urinal. The way people look at a urinal will never be the same, which reminds me that when we read something in class, someone might interpret something in the book different than how I see something. I also find it interesting how, along with the literary movements, criticism changes with different eras. Literature Eras I really enjoyed learning about the different eras. I remember last year in American Lit going through and learning all the different eras and way people thought about literature and art in the past. I like the idea of being a part of the post-modernism era, and I am constantly wondering when the next era will happen. I think my favorite era is romanticism because I really enjoy fantasy now, and enjoy reading things from that time period. I also like the Literature Eras because it is like the history of literature, which I like learning about because we do not cover that in a normal history class. I can not wait to read things from different time periods! |
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