DRJ #4 Hamlet, Act 4

I felt like this act of the play was very action packed and was full of detail. We learn a lot about what is truly happening in the plot and in some of the characters minds. I felt like Shakespeare used this act as a way of unraveling what was really happening in the play and detailing it all to us. I found this the most entertaining act to read through so far.

I really felt like Ophelia played an important part in this act. Upon hearing of her father's death she seemingly goes completely mad, a common trend in this play. I felt that she was used for multiple reasons by Shakespeare. The first reason I found for her strange action was that she, similar to Hamlet, had experienced one too many tragedies and could no longer take all of the pain and stress they were causing her. I think this similarity to Hamlet is a way of reiterating the message Shakespeare is trying to convey. Ophelia eventually starts to incorporate flowers into her madness, with each flower representing something different. She hands these flowers out to various characters throughout this act. The flowers that really got my attention were the ones she gave to Claudius and Gertrude. She gives a flower representing adultery to Gertrude and a flower representing repentance to Claudius, which is a way of describing, through her madness, how she truly feels about these characters. I also felt that when we learn about her drowning, from the details we are given it sounds more like a suicide then a tragic accident.

I felt that the theme of suicide was pretty important towards the end of this act. Up until this point in the play there have been quite a few deaths, but none from suicide. When we learn about Ophelia's death from Gertrude she describes it in a way that makes us think that it was an accident. But once we start to think about the events that happened, especially the lack of any kind of fight to stay afloat once she fell in the water, it seems apparent that Ophelia had simply lost the will to live. I believe that she may have not intended to fall in the water, but once in she simply had no reason to fight to get out. I think that Shakespeare intended this death not to symbolize suicide, but to represent the loss of hope. Ophelia loses more than just her father and her lover, but loses hope in the people around her. With all of the questionable events happening around her, I  don't think that she wanted to live in a world full of murder and adultery, and chose death over life.

DRJ #3 Hamlet, Act 3

My initial thought on this act was that Hamlet had crossed the point of no return, or the threshold of the plot. During this act we find out that Claudius is truly guilty of the crime through Hamlet's clever use of setting up the scene in the play. Up until this point we are lead on to believe that Hamlet's father was murdered through the ghost of Hamlet's father himself. Hamlet has doubts that this ghost is truly what it says it is, and starts to suspect that it was truly a demon. But by the end of the chapter we know that everything is actually what it seemed to be and Hamlet can move further on his path for revenge.

I am going to focus on Claudius for this act. We learn a lot about Claudius in during this act. We also get to see him on his own and away from other characters during the third scene. During this scene we get to witness a confession admitting he is guilty as he prays. When he is not around other people, Claudius seems to be a lot more mellow. He doesn't have the toughness that he portrays in the other scenes. He also seems to be very sad deep down inside. He mentions that he regrets killing his brother and that he doubts he can ever be forgiven for what he has done. One thing that I found very interesting about his praying scene is that he not only admits to his wrong doings, but he also unknowingly saves his own life. When Hamlet walks by his door and sees Claudius alone and praying he gets the idea to kill Claudius right then. Hamlet ends up walking away though because he wants to kill Claudius while he is in the act of doing something that is bad or evil, and not while he prays. Claudius is the main reason behind this entire story. Without him there is no murder and no plot for revenge. He is as important a character as Hamlet is.

One theme that I felt played an important part during this act was guilt. Guilt is exactly what Claudius is feeling after he watches the scene in the play depicting him killing his brother. One thing that I am left wondering is whether Claudius feels guilty about the murder before watching the play. We never get a chance to observe Claudius on his own before this act. Every time we do see Claudius up until this point he never has any sense of remorse about him. He usually seems upbeat and full of energy. But now he is guilty about what he has done. Unbeknown to him, this guilt he feels ends up saving his life as Hamlet decides not to kill him while he prays. This seems to be more then just a coincidence and may signal the beginning of a personality change in Claudius due to his guilt.

DRJ #2 Hamlet, Act 2

In this act we get a more broad scope of what is happening in the story then we did in act 1. In the first act we really only learn about Hamlet and how he is feeling and acting. Most of the scenes in the first act revolve around Hamlet and include him at some part. Act 2 deviates from this trend. We now can get a sense of what other characters are feeling and how they are acting without Hamlet in the scene. I felt this gives us more incite into the story and helps us to understand other characters besides just Hamlet.

I felt that we got a good idea of who Polonius was during this act. During the first scene Polonius is telling his servant to spy on his son, Laertes. It appears that Polonius is trying to be nosy with his son, maybe a little too overprotective. But I personally think that he is simply being a concerned parent. He wants to make sure that his son is staying out of trouble and being safe. Later on in the act Polonius apologizes to his daughter, Ophelia for instructing her too stop flirting with Hamlet. He realizes that he made a mistake by telling her this, and he thinks that this is the cause of Hamlet's sudden madness. I do not believe that this is what caused Hamlet to go mad, but I believe it's what pushed him over the edge. Hamlet was already upset about the death of his father, the marriage of his mom and uncle, and by adding in his sudden romantic problems the depression and anger just took him over. Polonius does not know about these other problems though and is determined to fix Hamlet's craziness based solely on his romantic troubles.

Madness seems to be a reoccurring theme in this act. Hamlet is most certainly going a little crazy with all of the troubles he has recently ran into and people are starting to notice. Gertrude and Claudius are concerned about what is happening to Hamlet and decide to bring in his close friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They want to use his friends to try and flush out the meaning behind Hamlet's strange behavior. Hamlet is able to pick up on this plan though fairly easily and does not reveal much to them. Polonius also attempts to figure out what is wrong with Hamlet, but he fails completely and Hamlet ends up making a fool of him. We, as readers, know that something is wrong with him though. This becomes apparent when Hamlet tells the actors to perform part of a play, pushing one actor so far that he starts to become very emotional and cry. I found the actors to be very ironic. Instead of bringing joy and happiness to Hamlet, which was why they were there in the first place, the actors only further Hamlet's madness. Hamlet even decides to use them as a way of figuring out of Claudius truly murdered his father or not.

DRJ #1 Hamlet, Act 1

Hamlet acts very much like his age, which is described as being in his late teens. The first person the comes to my mind who is similar to Hamlet is myself. I can understand being frustrated with your parents just like how Hamlet is with his mom during the first act. Hamlet, following the information he is given by the ghost, immediately decides to seek revenge without thinking things through. Another trait that is common for boys at this age. The story of revenge is very common in movies and books these days. One that comes to mind is the last book i the Harry Potter series where Harry is trying to seek revenge on a more powerful figure, Voldemort. A very similar situation to Hamlet seeking revenge on the new king.

Hamlets mother and the current queen of Denmark, Gertrude, is a somewhat difficult character to learn much about at this point. So far the only details given about her are from Hamlet and the one scene where she is having a conversation with her son. We do know that Hamlet does not think very highly of his mother. He is disgusted at the fact that she would marry his uncle, her former husband's brother. He also hates the fact that they got married so quickly, mentioning that the food that was eaten during the funeral of his father was used for the wedding of his mother and uncle. During the dialogue between Hamlet and Gertrude we get a slightly better understanding of Gertrude's character. We learn that she cares a lot about her son and that she wants him to get over his sadness of his father's death. This also gives us an idea that she did not care much about her late husband, as she is telling him to move on from the death and that he needs to grow up. She does not seem very supportive of Hamlet and appears to care more about her new husband. Gertrude is used in the plot to help us better realize how crooked of a man the king is and to help us better understand the unhappiness and rage that Hamlet has.

Love and family seem to play a pretty big role in the theme of the first act. Most of the main characters we are introduced to so far are family member. Claudius the king, Gertrude the queen, and Hamlet the prince and the nephew to Claudius. Hamlet does not consider Claudius to be his father though, as he still remains very loyal to his father. Hamlet also harbors a deep hate for Claudius, even before hearing that he killed his father, because of how he has married his mother. Family matters are often very complicated in a plot-line and the story of Hamlet is no different. Love also comes into question during the first act, centering around Gertrude. We get a clear sense that Gertrude loves Hamlet very much, but we also get a sense that she loves Claudius even more. This is very strange based on the fact that she was in "love" with Hamlets real father just months beforehand. We are left wondering if Gertrude actually loves anyone for real, or if she is faking this love in order to keep her title of queen. We also do not get a clear sense on Hamlet's love. We would assume that Hamlet loves his mother, but he mentions multiple times about how weak she was and how quickly she jumped into bed with his uncle. This suggest that Hamlet's love for her was torn, if not fading away.