hamlet

1. Hamlet’s relationships with the other characters in the play are complicated. Choose three relationships; analyze how Hamlet is impacted by each (three quotations – one for each relationship). 60 points

Ophelia- Hamlet and Ophelia started out as they were dating and seemed very much in love. Ophelia's dad thought that Hamlet did not love her and was just being a player. Many people start to tell her that she should not be with him. She decides to listen to all of them and not stay with Hamlet. At first he didn't know what was going on because her dad wanted her to be able to spy on Hamlet and tell him what was going on. Hamlet begins to understand what is going on and this makes him go crazy. I think he really was in love with her. When Claudius and Polonius decide to trick Hamlet into being alone with Ophelia he tell hers how he doesn't think that you shouldn't have to live a life that you do not want to. Also he believes that all women are selfish whores. When Polonius dies this send Ophelia into a downward spiral and she no longer knows what to do with her life. She ends up singing a song to the queen that makes her sound like she has lost her mind. "He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone; At his head a grass-green turf, At his heels a stone" (4.5.34-370). She is very upset about her father death and she ends up drowning and no one knows if she committed suicide or not. Now that she is gone Hamlet loses his mind ever more. He can't decide if he wants to be alive or not. He gets angry that she is not allowed to have a proper burial because they don't know if she had confessed her sins before she died. Altogether she had a large effect on him, he went from liking her, to loving her, to being angry with her, and than wanting to die because of her not being alive.

Horatio- He is Hamlet's very close friend and he is known to be very trustworthy. When Horatio and Hamlet have conversations is when you get to know best what Hamlet is really thinking. Horatio and Hamlet are very different from each other; Horatio is very calm and and rational where Hamlet is very over the top with everything. Horatio seems to bring Hamlet back to reality most of the time. Hamlet wishes that he could be like Horatio. "Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man As e'er my conversation coped withal" (3.2.56-570). Horatio very much loved Hamlet and when he was dying he was planning on committing suicide so he didn't have to live with out his friend. In the end Hamlet was able to become a little more like Horatio by accepting the fact that all men have some evil in them. (http://www.shakespeare-online.com/playanalysis/horatiochar.html) Horatio was a very good influence for Hamlet and he kept him grounded and made him realize that he didn't have to over react to all of the little things.

Gertrude- she is Hamlets mother who is now married to Claudius. Hamlet is not happy with his mother since his fathers death because she married Claudius (her fathers brother) very shortly after he had died. She is a very questionable person because she seems to want to keep her social standards up and stay queen which could be why she would marry Claudius. Also when we find out it was Claudius who had killed his own brother you never find out if she had known what was going on. Hamlet had to love and respect her though because she was his mother. She ended up thinking he was insane because of all the things Polonius had told her. She was very graceful when she was around many people a knew how to play the crowd. When hamlet talked to his mother he is really hurt by her because she married his uncle and thinks that she knew about his fathers death. " A bloody deed-- almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry his brother." (3.4.34-35). He was talking to her after Polonius's death. He just wished that his mother would be back to normal. (http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/canalysis.html)


2. Revenge, redemption, loyalty, indecision, love, appearance vs. reality, and betrayal are significant themes in the play. Choose three of these and explain how each theme affects the characters and the outcome of the play (three quotations – one for each theme). 60 points

Redemption- It is turning your wrongs into rights and being forgiven. Hamlet and his family believed that to go to heaven you had to confess of your sins before you died. His father did not have a chance to do this since he was killed so quickly by his brother. This is how he came back as a ghost because he was stuck in purgatory until god was able to judge him. Hamlet is able to talk to his father when he is a ghost and this is how he finds out how he was killed. "I am thy father's spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night and for the day confined to fast in fires till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away." (1.5.14-18). Since he wasn't able to confess he was stuck paying off his sins until he could get to heaven. Another case of this was when Ophelia drowned/killed herself in the water. She was not allowed to have a proper burial because they did not know if she was able to confess her sins or not. I think she would of had time to confess if she knew she was going to kill herself. I don't think anyone would want to purposely send themselves to hell. Her not able to have a prober burial also made Hamlet very angry with the people digging the grave because they were not acting sad about it at all.

Betrayal- Through most of the story Hamlet is feeling betrayed. Mostly he feels this from his mother and Ophelia. First his mother betrays him by not seeming to care about the death of his father and her husband. She gets married very shortly after the death. This really upsets Hamlet and he gets very upset about it. "That is should come to this but two months dead-- nay, not so much, not two. So excellent a king, that was to this hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother that he might not beteem the winds of heaven visit her face too roughtly (1.2.141-145). He knows that his father was a great husband to her and can't believe that she was able to let him go that eaisly. He never really gets any peace with subject through out the story, and ends up blaming himself for not doing anything about it. Secondly was Ophelia. He thought that she was in love with him and would want to stay with him, but because her father and other people said that he was just playing her she listend to all of them and decided to not be with him. She was also apart of tricking him into talking to her while Claudius and Polonius where listing to their conversation. She impacted him once she died because that made him want to die all the more. He had been thinking about suicide and this just made that all the more apparent in his thoughts.

Revenge- This story was filled with revenge. It all became most apparent in the end of the book when all of the tenstion between everyone finally turns into fighting. Laertes is very mad about the death of his father, Polonius, so him and Claudius set up a plan to kill Hamlet. They tried to trick him into fencing with Laertes while Laertes would have a poisoned sword. Hamlet had an idea as to what was going on because he wasn't dumb. They also tried to get him to drink out of a poisned drink but he did not want to drink while he was in the match. His mother ended up taking a drink not knowing what was in it and died from the poison. Once Hamlet is able to get the sword from Laertes he cuts him with it and Laertes says, "I am justly kill’d with my own treachery”(5.2.318). He knows that he desierved his death because he tricked Hamlet. Hamlet also makes Claudius drink the poisoned wine, threating him with the sword. Since Hamlet got cut from the sword he died too, but before him or Laertes died they made peace. Which was easy for them to do because they were both going to die and wanted to be able to go to heaven and be forgiven for their sins. Everyone got what they wanted, and also what they didn't want which was themselves dying.

3. Has Hamlet changed?
You may compare the soliloquies from
1.2.133-164
2.2.575-636
3.1.63-99
4.4.33-69
or you may use other textual evidence that you have prepared to answer this question (three quotations – beginning, “middle,” and end). 60 points

In the beginning Hamlet seemed very sad because his father was dead. He felt like his mother had betrayed him and he became more angry sounding because she was married less than a month after his father had died. "She married. O, most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets? It is not, nor it cannot come to good. But break, my heart, for i must hold my tongue." (1.2.161-164). He knows that he has to stay loyal to her because she is his mother, but he is really disappointed with the choices she made. In act 2 he is much more angry than he was before. He has now seen the ghost of his father and he knows who killed him. He calls Claudius a remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindles villain. He than starts to doubt himself and wonders is the ghost was the devil sent to trick him and he is very confused as to what is going on. In act three he is feeling very sad and confused. He isn't angry anymore and is sad that everyone who was once a big part of his life now seems to not be there for him. This is when he asks the famous question. " To be or not to be-- that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind of stuffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them.(3.1.64-68). He doesn't know if he wants to be alive any longer because he feels like no one cares about him and everyone turns against him. In act four he is most angry and himself rather than others. He thinks he needs to take more action against Claudius since he killed his father. "How stand i, then, that have a father killed, a mother stained, excitements of my reason and my blood, and let all sleep"(4.4..59-62). He is ashamed of himself for not doing anything about his fathers death. This is how he changes the most. In the beginning he was angry with his mother for moving on so fast, than he was even more angry with claudius. He has seemed to mellow down and realized he cannot control other people but now wants to take responsibility for what he can do.

Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Folger Shakespeare Library Edition.
Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine, Eds. NY: Washington Square Press, 1992.

Websites:

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/playanalysis/horatiochar.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/canalysis.html

iv part dos

The presence of monsters- There were three main ones in this book. Grendel, Grendle's mother, and the dragon. They were all very different in why they were killing people and creating chaos. Grendel didn't really seem to have any reason as to why he was going around and killing the people. It was that he was showing his strength and wanted people to fear him. It had to make him very proud that no one could kill him and he could do whatever he wanted. He terrorised the people for a long time before Beowulf showed up and was able to out power him. When they were fighting he felt as though he wasn't the most powerful for the first time. "That shepherd of evil, guardian of crime, knew at once that nowhere on earth had he met a man whose hands were harder; his mind was flooded with fear"(Raffel 34 lines 750-752). Beowulf ended up defeating him by tearing his arm off, but not killing him like he would have like to have done. This lead to peace for awhile until the monsters started showing up again so Beo and his men decided to go to where they were. Beowulf was the only one that was able to get down to were they were. This is were he met Grendel's mother. The only reason she wanted to kill him was because she was very angry with him for killing her son. Their fight was a difficult one for him and he probably would not have survived if he had not seen the sword. This fight lasted so long that the men though that he was dead and left the spot. He was able to win and also came back up with the head of Grendel to show to everyone. The last one was the dragon and he was felt like he was disrespected from having someone steal from him. This made him want to burn down everything with his fire breath. Beo heard about this after a lot of the town had been destroyed by him. The dragon almost got the best of Beowulf but thankfully Wiglaf was there to help him. After they had killed him they were able to get all of the treasures that he had hidden away in his cave. Beowulf was just able to see all of these precious things before he died because the dragon had bitten him. All of these monsters were defeated by Beowulf!

iv

IV
The giving of gifts- Many gifts were given in this epic poem. They normally went along with a great big celebration. Gifts were given to show appreciation and thanks for someone who had done something to help out a group or individual person. Since Beowulf was the hero of this story he received many gifts through out. After he had defeated the monster he was showered in gifts by the people who had been effected by all of the killings. Some of the things he received were very useful to him like all of the swords and the helmet. Also he just got things that would never really be useful but had great meaning and normally had a great line of people that had had it before him. "And he was given a mail shirt, and golden armbands, and the most beautiful necklace known to men: nowhere in any treasure-hoard anywhere on earth was there anything like it."(Raffel 53 1193-1197). He wasn't always the one receiving the gifts though. When he came to the other country to fight Grendel he gave their king gifts so he would allow him to stay and fight. Also when he got home from being gone so long him and his men gave their king many gifts to. They held a great feast and told all about their journeys and what all happened with all of the monsters.

some nice things. shaha

II-
Beowulf believed that he was a very strong person. He shows this by going to fight the dragon when he was an old man, and not backing away even though he only had one other man with him. He did end up dying after the fight but it showed that he was strong and would accomplish what he wanted to. He didn't believe it was all himself though. After all the times he had done something herotic he gave credit to God. He showed that he had a strong christan influence on his life. He thought that God had always gave him the strenght to acomplish all of the great things he did. "The world is God's, He allows a man to grow famous, and his family rich, gives him land and towns to rule and delight in." (Raffel 73 lines 1728-1731). God had given him and good life to talk about, and kept him alive through many tough battles so he had a very strong faith in him. He believed he would always keep him alive, and I don't think he thought he was going to die from the dragon because he had never had any issues before, but when he was dying he didn't blame any of it on God and was okay with it. Beowulf also wanted other people to think well of him. This is why some might say he bragged. He wanted others to know all of the great things he had done and how he had acomplished all of it. He ended up having a very good reputation. "So Edgetho's son proved himself, did as a famous soldier must do if glory is what he seeks: not killing his comrades in drunken rages, his heart not savage, but guarding God's gracious gift, his strength, using it only in war, and then using it bravely."(Raffel 91 lines 2177-2183). After his death people saw him as a good fighter and a great man. He always used what God had given him to the best he could and didn't use it for uneeded issues. Beowulf showed that he believed in God, and wanted to always have a good reputaion both things he kept through out the whole book.

IV

Immortality

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/khamd002/architecture/pacemaker.jpg

As technology is advancing people are finding more cures for diseases. I think medicine will at some point start making people live longer, and could possibly cause some people to never die. Through out the years though people have been searching for it. Like some people have though there is a fountain of youth.


Some people come up with some crazy things that they think will make people not age, or live forever. Alex Chiu came up with an idea that if you were magnates on your fingers or toes while you are sleeping every night it will help you with the quest for immortality. The different magnetic forces is said to help the blood circulate better. Which would increase metabolism. Alex doesn't think that regular drugs don't work as well because if you take them during the day you are moving around and they only go to your arms and legs. http://www.alexchiu.com/eternallife/index.html

This book talks about the many things that can make you more calm in your life which would make you live longer. Its by a science fiction writer and trying to be able to center yourself which will give you more peace and live longer.

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/immortality-book.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lucas_Cranach_d._%C3%84._007.jpg

The fountain of youth is a spring that will bring you back to youth if you drink the water. No one has ever really found anything that has been able to do this. Most popular legend says that it is located in Florida. This has lead back thousands of years even before the US was discovered.

Immortality by Celine Dion

so this is who i am
and this is all i know
and i must choose to live
for all that i can give
the spark that makes the power grow

and i will stand for my dream if i can
symbol of my faith in who i am
but you are my only
and i must follow on the road that lies ahead
and i won't let my heart control my head
but you are my only
and we don't say good bye
and i know what i've got to be

immortality
i make my journey through eternity
i keep the memory of you and me inside

fufill your destiny
is there within the child
my storm will never end
my fate is on the wind
the king of hearts, the joker's wild
but we don't say goodbye
i'll make them all remember me

cause i have found a dream that must come true
every ounce of me must see it through
but you are my only
i'm sorry i don't have a role for love to play
hand over my heart i'll find a way
i will make them give it to me

immortality
there is a vision and a fire in me
i keep the memory of you and me inside
and we don't say goodbye
with all my love for you
and what else we may do
we don't say goodbye

**a nice video =) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTVAyw2EAYE

Analizing Star Wars! (TEST!)

1)
Hero Cycle:
When OBI Wan tells Luke to come fight with him, at first he doesn't want to go but he does because he finds out his aunt and uncle are dead. C3PO and R2D2 are the helpers Luke finds them from the sand people and takes them with him, they will be a big help for the rest of his journey. One test was Luke getting over the fact that his aunt and uncle were dead, once he starts to overcome that test is when the fighting starts. Which shows the battle between good and evil. He also gains another helper, Han. The biggest point is when he goes to see Darth and they are fighting. The emperor than tries to kill Luke but since Darth Vader is his father he ends up saving him, and that's when it shows the Darth Vader has good qualities still in him and is not controlled by the dark side.

2)
Literary Archetypes:
Hero- The main hero in the movie was Luke. He has the values of his society and is the one who goes to see Darth Vader
Antihero- Han Solo because he doesn't believe in the force. He still tries to do the right thing but he is doing it for money.
The Wise Fool- Obi Wan was the wise fool because his idea's of the force are so out there that people don't want to believe him, but he is actually quite intelligent.
The Devil Figure- Is the emperor because he is the root of all evil in the movie.
The Outcast(s)- Are the robots because when they try to get into the bar they won't let them in. But the robots are actually very useful because they have so much knowledge.
The Double- Is Darth Vader because he used to be on the good side when he was known as Annikin. He was than brought to the dark side by the emperor. When him and Luke are fighting the good starts to come back to him. When Luke takes off his mask he is being a father figure to Luke.
The Scapegoat- Was Obi Wan because he sacrifices himself for Luke.
The Temptress- I think it was the dark side because Annikin was tempted to go and he ended up being turned into Darth Vader. Luke was able to not fall for the temptation.
The Good Mother- Was princess Lea because she was there with them through the fighting and always wanted what was best for all the people.

3)
Tragic Man:
Darth Vader is a tragic man because he does still believe in his how freedom and that shows when he can't kill Luke because he is his son. He is also very arrogant in his powers, he knows he is one of the best. He is suffering because when he was turned into Darth Vader the emperor told him that he killed his own wife. Also he knows he is fighting for the dark side and will do it to the best he can, but he doesn't always want to do it. He is committed because he would even fight with his son, and you can tell that he doesn't go easy on him. He protests because he doesn't want Luke to know he is weak, even if that is showing him the good side of himself. When he lets go of that is when he lets Luke take off his mask. He went through the transfiguration when he said he wanted Luke to take off his mask so he could see through his own eyes. That shows to me that he wanted to change and not have to be in the dark side. He impacted Luke greatly. Luke went to see him because he believe that his own father could not hurt him by sending him to the emperor. It took Luke by surprise when Darth Vader started fighting him, but in the end he came back and saved him from the emperor when he was trying to bring Luke to the dark side.

4)
Hero Qualities of Luke
Resiting temptation- Luke resisted the temptation to go over to the dark side even though Darth Vader and the Emperor were trying to get him to.
Dedicated- When they were flying the space crafts trying to get into the center of Death Star and all the men around him where getting shot at and blowing up, Luke could have just given up and went back but he kept on going and accomplished getting the missile into the small hole.
Generosity- He is generous because he cares about the other people around him and not just himself. He was always nice to C3PO and R2D2.

5)
Theme
I think a good theme is love because Luke wants to have a father to love but he can not love someone who doesn't love him back. Also Luke has love for the force because he is loyal to it and will not turn to the dark side. There is also brother sister love between Luke and Leia, they were always there for each other. Leai and Han Solo started having a relationship which is another kind of love. They were together more and it made Han Solo a better person because he started helping out for the right reasons.

Hero Qualities

I think some of the main qualities for a hero to have are: being dedicated, resiting temptation, braveness, generosity, and being strong (more or so mentally than physically)
One very broad them could be good vs evil.