Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Hamlet = Freaking Mad Genius

As Ms. King pointed out in class, traps are most definitely a motif in Hamlet. So far my favorite trap by far is Hamlet's when he stages the play. He is a freaking mad genius. As i was reading Scenes 2 and 3 of Act 3, I was super impressed by Hamlet's oratory skill. It even reminded me of Socrates in the Apology of Socrates written by Plato. Of course Hamlet's genius is really Shakespeare's genius.(Well, I guess we'll have to see after the presentation on Tuesday or after watching Anonymous.) I think I've always only been told how amazing Shakespeare is. Now, however, reading Hamlet, I have really realized Shakespeare's genius on my own and how great he really is! I think it's a combination of Hamlet being really awesome and the fact that we've now had several years of English and, at least for me, have come to appreciate and understand literature more and more!

7 comments:

Mallory said...

I agree that the trap was pure genius and it worked exactly in Hamlet's favor. As soon as the poison was poured into the "player king's" ear, Claudius jumped up and felt it was immediately necessary to go to pray for the sins he committed. Not all of the traps seen in Hamlet work this well. Such as Claudius and Polonius' trap with Ophelia. Hamlet ends up being downright mean to Ophelia and hurting her feelings. Another trap that doesn't work out is Polonius' trap while he is in the queen's chambers. Hamlet kills him thinking that he was the king.

ParkerC said...

He is smart. As I said in a previous comment, I think Shakespeare try's to make his characters very realistic. There are definitely people in the world who are this clever and Shakespeare made a great character.

Christine Catinis said...

I was talking to Will about Hamlet in Spanish Class and he told me that Disney's Lion King was based off of the play. I thought about it and he was totally right. I found this slideshow that sums it up pretty well http://www.slideshare.net/jvanengen/hamlet-lion-king-comparison. This shows how influencial Shakespeare's plays are to modern society, even if its as simple as a Disney movie.

alyb said...

I think it is important to notice that not all of the traps in Hamlet worked, for instance when Polonius is behind the arras he gets killed because Hamlet thinks he is Claduis. Maybe Shakespere is saying that trickery is not always the best option.

Ravin S said...

Wow that is crazy Christine! Lion King definitely has some similarities with it. I was surprised at how well the trick worked honestly. I forgot that Shakespeare always used 5 acts with the third one being the turning point. So, I really shouldn't have been surprised.

Shaina Lu said...

Haha, my favorite part has to be that Timon and Pumbaa are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!

sara pendleton said...

I love the Lion King comment!! That's awesome!!
I think Hamlet is smart and stupid at the same time; he's a smart guy and really quick on his feet and his trap is complecated, smart, calculated and all that BUT at the same time Hamlet is almost too smart (if that's possible) to the point that the trap itself is kind of stupid. Hamlet is really smart, smart enought to avoid being killed in England for example, and he should have realized that his Uncle murdered his father sooner. The play was so intricate, it was clever, but could have gone wrong. After the play, having got tons of conformation that the Uncle was really a bad guy, Hamlet dosn't trap Claudius; I mean Hamlet now totally knows who did it, but Hamlet dosnt spring into action or anything. I guess he just got hung up on his tragic flaw, it's almost kind of frustrating because Hamlet can't just go kill the King. So anyway, he's almost too clever because he kind of traps himself in his own cleverness to the point he can't really act.