Sunday, January 13, 2013
Response to Course Materials 1/13/12
Reading Hamlet in class and watching several different movies of the play has been the bulk of our course material since the last "Response to Course Materials" post. Reading the play in class didn't really help me aside from Ms. Holmes' insight on key points on the play, like Ophelia handing out flowers, the significance of rue, incest, and the fight scene. Certain aspects of reading Hamlet are difficult to understand because of the words and norms used in Shakespeare's time period. Reading plays such as Hamlet with double meanings behind words and phrases has really helped me to pay more attention when reading. It was also interesting to see how directors are able to put their spin on Hamlet's sanity or his gentle/violent personality. Seeing interpretations like this showed me that each person may feel differently about the play.
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I would agree that reading the play in class didn't help, Joyce. I think it would have been better if we just got assigned to read acts each night on our own, and then to have a discussion in class the next day. Anyways, what did you think about the characters? And about what happened in the play? How innocent do you think Ophelia was? You have some interesting thoughts, but I think you should add in some more details and thoughts about the characters and plot.
ReplyDeleteI think that reading in class was helpful just in the fact that Ms. Holmes would explain things along the way and would tell us what specifically was going on at that time. If I had to read it on my own, I probably would become confused/frustrated and would give up. Also, if it was homework to read scenes, I am pretty sure many people wouldn't do it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was interesting to see the different interpretations. I really liked how the same text could be taken to mean so many different things and how it changed the other parts of the play as well. Just like Haley said, maybe you could add more details about the interpretations and how the directors portrayed Hamlet's sanity.