...Mikkel Kristensen. 3.U. 21/9-14. Hamlet I would like to make a few remarks about the Oedipal and existential themes in Shakespeare's play 'Hamlet'. I will do this by looking specifically at three scenes; the conversation with the ghost, the to be or not to be scene, and the scene that takes place in the bedroom of Queen Gertrude. Hamlet is a timeless tale, with timeless meaning and there are countless ways of interpreting the play. From quotes to characters, the play is one of the most well-known in the entire world. In conversation with the ghost a group of guards comes running up to Hamlet, eyes filled with both fear wonder, they tell Hamlet what they have seen. As the wondrous meeting with the ghost of Hamlets late father the king. Hardly able to comprehend what he is hearing, his curiosity gets the best of him, and he decides to follow the guards. As the band of guards and prince Hamlet ventures up on the city walls, the ghost suddenly appears before them. As the ghost starts to leave the group, Hamlet swiftly decides to run after the ghost. When Hamlet finally catches up to the ghost a conversation, which serves great importance to the story, is started. The conversation with the ghost is in some ways, what creates the entire plot of the story. The deceased king tells Hamlet how he died, and why. He also tells him that the murderer is his uncle, who recently married the queen. This scene touches on some interesting things. We get an understanding of how death...
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...metaphors in Hamlet. The main focus was on the Cup of Sovereignty, which is the metaphor for the cup King Claudius drinks from during the marriage proposal. Even though I read information from this source I am not going to use this because it does not relate to my thesis. However, it does explain the significance of the cup referencing to corruption and the poisons that ruined many lives. This article helped me understand the symbolism of deception in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Barron’s. Hamlet. New York: Barron’s Educational Series, 2002. Print This book contains the Shakespeare’s play Hamlet and a modern interpretation of the script. This source was used to read the play and fully understand exactly what action was taking place. I am not using this book to quote any material because it is a form of cliff notes; however it was helpful in interpreting scenes and breaking down Elizabethan sentences. Boyd, Brian. “Literature and Evolution: A Bio-Cultural Approach.” The Johns Hopkins UP 29.1 (2005): 1- 23. JSTOR. Web. 4 December 2013. This article is about the “sophisticated concealment and deception” Shakespeare incorporated in Hamlet (Boyd 16). I am using this source because it relates to my thesis. It explains how Shakespeare uses deception to exaggerate life-and-death issues. This was helpful because it analyzed the deception within Hamlet and how Shakespeare used counter-deception to prevent predictability. Gorfain, Phyllis. “Play and the Problem of Knowing in Hamlet: An Excursion...
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...Lies, deception, and corruption can destroy a man mentally and physically. Hamlet by William Shakespeare shows how lies and deception go against one another as well as rejection to self doubt. Shakespeare uses various forms of conflict to project his opinions and explanation of his ideas relating to the themes of the play. Internal conflict, as well as external conflict are dominant features in the narrative. Shakespeare merges the ideas of lies, deception and self doubt resulting in shall we say a “domino effect” of moral dilemma and personal complications. This gives way to the continuous concept of revenge, broken family relationships, and the questioning of life. In the form the play is written it assists in creating tension and raising questions about revenge and lies. Shakespeare uses external conflict in order to explore the theme of revenge in this play. This leads Hamlet into a state of internal conflict as he agonizes over what action and when to take it as to avenge his father’s death. Using the idea of external conflict, the play is able to demonstrate the aftermath of a difficult decision, leading to personal moral dilemma. Hamlet is presented as thinker who takes a lot of time contemplating how to avenge his father’s death. He plots against Claudius and schemes to kill him. We see that Hamlet is a man of logic; we also see his weaknesses such as his procrastination and his self doubt. The play, like many tragedies concludes with the death of many of the characters...
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...Horatio, to watch with them. When he sees the ghost, he decides they should tell Hamlet, the dead King's son. Hamlet is also the nephew of the present King, Claudius, who not only assumed his dead brother's crown but also married his widow, Gertrude. Claudius seems an able King, easily handling the threat of the Norwegian Prince Fortinbras. But Hamlet is furious about Gertrude's marriage to Claudius. Hamlet meets the ghost, which claims to be the spirit of his father, murdered by Claudius. Hamlet quickly accepts the ghost's command to seek revenge. Yet Hamlet is uncertain if what the ghost said is true. He delays his revenge and begins to act half-mad, contemplate suicide, and becomes furious at all women. The Lord Chamberlain, Polonius, concludes that Hamlet's behavior comes from lovesickness for Ophelia, Polonius's daughter. Claudius and Gertrude summon two of Hamlet's old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to find out what's wrong with him. As Polonius develops a plot to spy on a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia, Hamlet develops a plot of his own: to have a recently arrived troupe of actors put on a play that resembles Claudius's alleged murder of Old Hamlet, and watch Claudius's reaction. Polonius and Claudius spy on the meeting between Ophelia and Hamlet, during which Hamlet flies into a rage against women and marriage. Claudius concludes Hamlet neither loves Ophelia nor is mad. Seeing Hamlet as a threat, he decides to send him away. At the play that night, Claudius runs...
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...turned evil by the temptations of the world, or goes insane. There is never the perfect woman in his plays, and a woman is never the hero either. A majority of the time women are viewed as whores and unfaithful. Shakespeare treats his women exactly how the women of his day were treated; not very good. With little to no education and little to no rights, women were expected to run the house and do as their husbands bid. Any woman who doesn't stay within those parameters most often ends up in a Shakespeare play as an antic, whore, or villain. While Shakespeare didn't treat his women well, it was not abnormal at the time. This is not an excuse for the treatment of women during this time, but merely an explanation for the bad reputation women appear to have in Shakespeare's plays. To quote Dusinberre, “Women then are neither completely evil or completely good, but something in...
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...Psychoanalysis of Hamlet’s Subconscious Psychoanalytic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet In the first half of the 20th century, when psychoanalysis was at the height of its influence, its concepts were applied to Hamlet, notably by Sigmund Freud, Ernest Jones, and Jacques Lacan, and these studies influenced theatrical productions. Freud suggested that an unconscious oedipal conflict caused Hamlet's hesitations. (Artist: Eugène Delacroix 1844). In his The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Freud's analysis starts from the premise that "the play is built up on Hamlet's hesitations over fulfilling the task of revenge that is assigned to him; but its text offers no reasons or motives for these hesitations".[83] After reviewing various literary theories, Freud concludes that Hamlet has an "Oedipal desire for his mother and the subsequent guilt [is] preventing him from murdering the man [Claudius] who has done what he unconsciously wanted to do".[84] Confronted with his repressed desires, Hamlet realises that "he himself is literally no better than the sinner whom he is to punish".[83] Freud suggests that Hamlet's apparent "distaste for sexuality"—articulated in his "nunnery" conversation with Ophelia—accords with this interpretation.[85][86] John Barrymore's long-running 1922 performance in New York was characterized as "revolutionary in its use of Freudian psychology; in keeping with the post World War I rebellion against everything...
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...Analysis: Hamlet In the tragedy Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, Hamlet is this young man who experiences close relation death which was his father. He later finds out it was his uncle who murdered his father just to take heir to the throne. Hamlet constant brooding about death and humanity comes ahead. (Tennen) Hamlet is arguably the greatest dramatic character ever created from the moment we meet the crestfallen prince we are enraptured by his elegant intensity. (Mabillard) William Shakespeare hamlet follows the young prince Hamlet home to Denmark to attend his father’s funeral. (Stockton) In “Hamlet” the tragedy hamlet the prince holds a great internal conflict throughout the play. (Studymode) On a dark winter night a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore castle in Denmark. (Sparknotes)The first edition of hamlet was published in 1603 from a previous sketch composed several years earlier the second one following 1604. (Bates) Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy Bernado’s question betrays the mood of uncertainty that prevails throughout the play. (George) So speaks Shakespeare’s prince hamlet of the transient nature of all mankind throughout the play humanity and frailty is a common theme. (Mortensen) In Hamlet the tragedy, hamlet, the prince of Demark with holds a great internal conflict throughout the play. (Directessays) Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play and the play responsible for the immortal lines “to be or not to be that is the question” (Taylor) The story hamlet is set...
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...|[pic] |Syllabus | | |College of Humanities | | |ENG/125 Version 3 | | |Literature in Society | Copyright © 2010, 2008, 2006 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This course introduces themes in literature and provides guided study and practice in reflecting on themes which describe the human experience across cultural and societal boundaries. The course includes readings from literature in different genres and cultures. Students study the literature in thematic units and are asked to make connections to their own lives and cultures. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: • University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. • Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies...
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...THE BARD & CO Book Review - The Bard & Co: Shakespeare’s Role in Modern Business Editors – Jim Davies, John Simmons & Rob Williams Published – Cyan Books Year – 2007 Place – London No author perhaps has had the kind of influence Shakespeare has had on our lives in different forms. This book is another example of Shakespeare’s influence, this time on the business world of today. Twenty six contemporary writers have paired with a Shakespeare play and one of the lead actors of the First Folio list to give us this delightful new insight of the play and the role. The book is a delightful collection of essays on Shakespeare’s role in contemporary business world. That we have very little biographical sketch to go by demands that “imagination has had to work harder than memory”. And given the “breadth, vivacity, wit and life” of Shakespeares’ plays and their performances, one cannot help but imagine that those actors would be chuckling in sotto voce behind their masks, at our attempt “to capture some sense of their lives and their contribution to the world” It is fitting that a book on Shakespeare’s role in modern business should be introduced by Dominic Dromgoole, the artistic Director of Globe Theatre. According to him, the theatre actor is the most impermanent of all artistes, considering that once a play is over, there is no remanence of his work except the printed “dramatis personae at the beginning of the published play”. He bows in obeisance to that “mysterious...
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...In his dramatic monologue, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot explores the timeless issues of love and self-awareness - popular themes in literature. However, through his use of Prufrock's profound self-consciousness he skews the reader's expectations of a Love Song and takes a serious perspective on the subject of love, which many authors do, but few can create characters as deep and multi-layered as Prufrock; probably the reason that this poem still remains, arguably, Eliot's most famous. The beginning of the poem is pre-empted by an excerpt from Dante's Inferno which Eliot uses to create the poem's serious tone, but also to begin his exploration of Prufrock's self-consciousness. By inserting this quote, a parallel is created between Prufrock and the speaker, Guido da Montefeltro, who is very aware of his position in hell and his personal situation concerning the fate of his life. Prufrock feels much the same way, but his hell and the fate of his life are more in his own mind and have less to do with the people around him. The issue of his fate leads Prufrock to an overwhelming question...(10) which is never identified, asked, or answered in the poem. This question is associated somehow to his psyche, but both its ambiguity to the reader and Prufrock's denial to even ask What is it?(11) gives some insight into his state of internal turmoil and inability to reason. Prufrock's dissatisfaction in his personal appearance is one, but not the most important of his idiosyncrasies...
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... Spelling not yet standardized, thus name spelled in different ways • Shakespeare, Shakspere, Shackspere, Shaxper, Shagspere, Shaxberd, etc. Shakespeare: The most well known playwright of Elizabethan times is Shakespeare. But there were also other writers who in their time were just as, or even more famous than him. WHAT MAKES SHAKESPEARE STAND OUT? – The volume of his works Plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare ■ 14 COMEDIES – funny play – with amusing events – ended in marriage / or happily o Midsummer Night’s Dream, Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Much Ado about Nothing… ■ 10 HISTORIES – Richard III, Richard II, Henry IV… ■ 10 TRAGEDIES – ends in death ← Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Julius Caesar… ■ 4 Romances – ( chivalry and love) Pericles,...
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...Sophocles' Oedipus is a perfect fit to Aristotle's Ideal Tragic Hero. Oedipus follows all of the rules, with a hamartia, an anagnorisis, and a peripeteia. The audience is introduced to the hamartia, or tragic flaw, of Oedipus early in the play. Oedipus believes he can dodge the oracle given to him at Delphi that he will kill his father and marry his mother. By leaving the city of Corinth and heading to Thebes, Oedipus thinks that he can outsmart the will that the gods have for him. However, the audience knows that one cannot run away from an oracle. The oracle will come true no matter what is done. Therefore, the hamartia of Oedipus is his belief that he can evade his oracle. Oedipus' anagnorisis, recognition, later comes when he is told that it was he who killed the former King Lauis and that he is, in fact, now married to his own mother. The city of Thebes had been searching for King Lauis' murderer in order to drive him out of Thebes to save the city from the plague. With this anagnorisis Oedipus is finally led to his peripeteia, or downfall. First of all, Oedipus is put to shame in front of his entire city because of his incestuous act of marrying his mother. But, more importantly, he realizes that he had not successfully avoided the oracle. In order to try to save himself he blinds himself. If he is not able to see the truth with his own eyes, he should not be able to enjoy the gift of sight. http://personal.monm.edu/ysample/aristotle.htm Oedipus follows ten of the points...
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...Collaborative Writing Bianca Rogers, Steven Rhodes, Danny Russ, William Lindsey Eng/215 April 21, 2011 Margaret Fletcher Collaborative Writing Collaborative writing is a concept design to bring a group of people together to collaborate on a specific topic or idea. The process of collaborative writing: research, rough draft, final draft is just as an individual paper; however, the workload is divided amongst the team. The importance of collaborative writing is to have a group of individuals successfully working together to builds character in the team members. The complexity of a group dynamic is in the team member themselves; with many personalities and different behavior patterns, group work can be undeniably difficult. For a successful paper, the group must demonstrate ethical working habits by dividing the workload evenly, communicating effectively, and demonstrating keen promptness. A divided workload can be very difficult to accommodate; team members generally do not share the same opinion, so common grounds must be settled on to start the paper. Writing collaboratively acknowledges ethos as, “collaborative practices involving distributed participation and collaboration, where rules and procedures are flexible and open to change” (Kittle & Hicks, p.2). This essay will break down the fundamentals of collaboratively writing, using different facts and ideas to describe its practices. A cliché most often used is, “there is no “i” in team.” People used this...
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...introduction must include the author and title of the work as well as an explanation of the theme to be discussed. Other essential background may include setting, an introduction of main characters, etc. The major thesis goes in this paragraph usually at the end. Because the major thesis sometimes sounds tacked on, make special attempts to link it to the sentence that precedes it by building on a key word or idea. A) Creative Opening/Hook: the beginning sentences of the introduction that catch the reader’s interest. Ways of beginning creatively include the following: 1) A startling fact or bit of information Example: Nearly two hundred citizens were arrested as witches during the Salem witch scare of 1692. Eventually nineteen were hanged, and another was pressed to death (Marks 65). 2) A snatch of dialogue between two characters Example: “It is another thing. You [Frederic Henry] cannot know about it unless you have it.” “ Well,” I said. “If I ever get it I will tell you [priest].” (Hemingway 72). With these words, the priest in Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms sends the hero, Frederic, in search of the ambiguous “it” in his life. 3) A meaningful quotation (from the book you are analyzing or another source) Example: “To be, or not to be, that is the question” {3.1.57}. This familiar statement expresses the young prince’s moral dilemma in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. 4) A universal idea Example: The terrifying scenes...
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...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...
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