week 12 paper question 1

Alright so the question i have been given is perhaps the easiest question one can be asked about Hamlet.  I have been asked to write about wether or not the play promotes revenge.
Okay, before i end my paper with a simple no, lets look at the events of the play.
First Hamlet decides to take revenge on Claudius for killing his father, Hamlet dies.
Second Laerties takes revenge on Hamlet, Laerties dies.
Third and perhaps less obvious, Rosencrance and Gildenstern agree to kill Hamlet because of the way he has treated them so in a way they are trying to get revenge, they both die.
So after looking at the events of the play and taking in all evidence (and studying verbal irony) I shall conclude by giving a simple answer. 
Does this play promote revenge?  Absolutely!

week 12 (I think) Third movies the charm.

I watched the BBC television film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet produced by Seb Grant and John Wyver,
directed by Gregory Doran and starring David Tenant as Hamlet.
The reason I chose this Movie to watch was because I had seen David Tenant portraying the best incarnation of Doctor who and I was curios to see how good of an actor he was in other movies.
Tenant does not disappoint in this movie, portraying perhaps the best Hamlet on screen thus far.  While his mad scenes are entertaining, I believe his serious speeches outshine them.
His interactions with Horatio are probably the best portrayed out of all the rest of the movies.
The only character I dislike in the movie is Mariah Gale's Ophelia.
This portrayal is lacking both in personality and acting skill in general.

Hamlet lesson 3 review question 4

The way hamlet treats Ophelia in this act is very interesting to say the least.
First of all it is influenced by the fact that Hamlet knows (or at least has a very good guess) that Ophelia is acting as Polonius's tool to find the cause of his madness.
So Hamlet drops some hints of still loving Ophelia while mixing them with utterings of slander and nonsense.  Hamlets interactions with (and perhaps even true feelings for) Ophelia are also influenced by Hamlets mother's actions.  Hamlet is Exceedingly angry at his mother for being so fickle with his recently deceased father, and those events also taint his opinion of women in general.

Hamlet lesson 3 thought question 4

The characters of Brutus (from Julius Caesar) and Prince Hamlet (from Hamlet) are similar in many ways.  For instance, Brutus killing Caesar leads to Brutus's own death while Hamlets plots of revenge lead to his demise as well.  The two characters both see ghosts as well, (Brutus of Caesar and Hamlet of His father) and both are involved with those characters deaths.  Hamlets father is involved because he convinces Hamlet to plot the revenge that leads to the prince's demise.  The ghost of Caesar, because seeing the ghost drives Brutus partially mad, and Brutus finally kills himself in order to escape the accusations of Caesar.

branaugh vs gibson

ok here we have an easy one, Branaugh's Hamlet movie vs Gibsons hamlet movie.
Here i do believe Branaugh's Hamlet movie is the obvious winner.
First its much more true to the play, second it has better acting, better lighting, better sets... just better everything!  Lastly, Branaugh's depiction of hamlet is more accurate, Gibsons hamlet is poorly depicted and is in the wrong emotional state in nearly every scene.

week 9 review question 8

At the beginning of hamlet, prince Hamlet is both distraught by his fathers death,( "How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me a the uses of this world!")  and he feels betrayed by his mother because of her marriage so soon after his fathers death ("frailty thy name is woman").

Julius Caesar lesson 3 thought question 2

Upon murdering Caesar, Brutus and Cassius say that they have not murdered the emperor of Rome, destroyed the happiness of Calpurnia and thrown Rome into chaos needlessly, but rather, "they have benefited Caesar by cutting short his time of fearing death."

 Now this is a pretty pitiful justification for their actions, especially since they do not do even that much seeing as in Caesars own words, "...Cowards die many times before their deaths ... it seems to me most strange that men should fear death."

But I suppose, it just goes to show that we sinful humans will believe just about anything to relieve ourselves of the pain of guilt.

julius caesar lesson 3 thought question 1

At the end of act two and in the beginning of act three, we see Artemidorus has prepared a warning note to give to Caesar to thwart the Brutus and Cassius's plans to kill Caesar.
However,  he is a bit overenthusiastic about the urgency of the note which causes Caesar to refuse the note, wondering "...is the fellow mad?"

Another factor at play here is Caesars air of confidence when entering the capitol, given him by Decius's interpretation of Caesars wife Calpurnia's dream.   Because Caesar has been led to believe that today is the start of Rome "sucking of reviving blood from Caesar," Caesar does not consider what warning might be contained by a message presented by a stranger.

In short, Caesars pride and arrogance lead him to think the fellow mad rather than concerned for his continued life.

Julius Caesar lesson two thought question 7

After Portia learns that Brutus is part of the conspiracy as-per her insisting he tell her and slight jabs at his affection for her for instance when she asks if he views her as just some friend that he wants to hang around only when he wants to, and is in a good mood, or to put it in her words..."dwell I only in the suburbs of your good pleasure?"  Remarks such as these eventually wear down Brutus (and about two thirds of his better judgment) and he tells her about his involvement in the conspiracy.
Her reaction I think is parallel to the fear that kept Brutus from telling her in the first place.
She becomes nervous and fearful, as the burden of her new found knowledge weighs heavy on her mind as she says herself when she says, "O constancy, be strong upon my side, Set a huge mountain ’tween my heart and tongue!  I have a man’s mind but a woman’s might.

How hard it is for women to keep counsel!" 

Julius Caesar lesson 2 review question 1

As we read act two we see the pattern that Shakespeare formed for the reader to compare Brutus to Caesar as would be emperors to let the reader decide for himself who is truly fit to be emperor.  Shakespeare shows us how both parties interact both with their colleagues, and with their wives.  
For example, with Brutus's interactions with Portia, we see him resist her request at first, but ultimately give in.  Whereas with Caesar, he tells her he will do as she suggests, but when he finds that she may be wrong, he shames her and follows his own arrogant will.
However though Caesar is just as arrogant with his colleagues, we also see Brutus to be a poor judge of character (as-per his assumptions about Antony), and will not easily heed advice.
We also see Brutus join the conspiracy against Caesar not because of firm evidence that Caesar is unfit, but rather because of what could be.  Whereas Caesar is much more confident about the future unless firm viable evidence is provided him.

Julius Caesar week 1 thought question 6

When in conference with Casca and Brutus, Cassius is informed that during the procession, Caesar fell to the ground foaming at the mouth.  When Brutus asserts that Caesar "hath the falling sickness"
(meaning he is prone to seizures) Cassius says, "No, Caesar hath it not, but you and I, and honest Casca, we have the falling sickness."  While this may refer to Caesar reflecting the rest of Rome,
for my part all I can say is, "I know not what he means by this."

Antony and Julius-week 1 thought question 3

Right from the beginning of the play, we see a strong mentor-student like friendship between Antonius and Caesar that was formed between them during the Gallic Wars.  Caesar holds a deep respect for Antonius as a consultant, asking him to "come on my right side and tell me truly what thou think'st of him." (the him being Cassius)  and Antonius shows his deep respect for Caesar by offering him a coronet during the procession.

Lesson 4 Thought Question 6 and Mirror of All Christian Kings?

After the battle of Agincourt, in a conference with the king of France, queen Isabella, the duke of burgundy and princess Katherine,  King Henry Says that the only way for France to recover its former peace is "...with full accord to all our just demands..."  but behind these words and other ones there lies a threat of further attacks on France and the imminent destruction of it.

For example, when Henry says to Katherine, "no, it is not possible that you should love the enemy of France, But in loving me you would love the friend of France, for i love France so much that i will not part with a single village of it. I will have it all mine..."  there is an underlying threat to that statement as if to threaten that if Henry cannot own France by marrying Katherine, he will not hesitate to revert to more brutal and military ways of obtaining France. 

These exchanges are some of the instances in which Henry's title of "the mirror of all Christian Kings" is called into question,  and if we look back at the play,  Starting a war simply to maintain the churches political power,  having defeated prisoners of the battlefield slaughtered, and basically bullying the King of France and Princess Katherine into letting him marry Katherine with the base goal of obtaining France, not true love, hardly seem the actions of a mirror as in role model for all Christian kings, but rather a mirror as in the opposite of a Christian king!

Piecing out imperfections.

Ok, I have a problem with the assertion that television and movies weaken the imagination.
But before we get started and blindly attack this statement because we don't agree,
let us first confront the reasoning behind the argument.

Here is what a lot of people will tell you.
"when you read a book, you have to fill out any imperfections and lacking descriptions with your mind, whereas in a movie or tv show, everything is shown to us." 

Alright then,  although i agree with there first statement that when reading a book there is a lot of stuff that your imagination has to fill in therefore your imagination is largely active while reading books, and while this is very true, they go on to say that this does not happen when watching a movie or tv show.

Now this is where i disagree with them.  Have you ever, after watching a movie said, "I think it would have been better if..."  Now at that moment your imagination is hard at work creating a completely original scene that would have made the movie so much better.

 This also happens when movies use a technique known as a montage which is used to make a number of years pass by within minutes, only giving you the necessary information of what happened during those years so that it can move the story along smoothly to the next major development.  An example of this can be seen in the movie "Batman Begins"  when Bruce Wayne is being trained by Rahs Al Ghoul.   we only see about 10-15 minutes of his training, but our imagination fills in the gaps so that it doesn't seem at all strange when Bruce is suddenly skilled enough to defeat both his mentor in his final test, as well as several hundred other warriors afterwards.

So in conclusion, I think that books are extremely enthralling and entertaining and there are certainly certain scenes in books that could never work in a movie.  But I also believe that the same thing can be said of movies.