On Wednesday we talked about Hamlet, obviously. First, Hamlet claims that he sees no joy in the world, including people. In reality this is one of his many lies (seemingly an explaination for his insanity) to cause confusion. We also discussed the concept derived from Genesis, Hamlet basically says that even though we are the most complicated form of dust, we are still dust. We also see the beginning signs that Hamlet's tradgic flaw is pride (because Hamlet thinks he's so much smarter than everyone else, he is willing to tell the truth to those he doesnt think will catch on).
Today we talk about the significance of the actors. The actors are the perfect symbol for the theme appearance versus reality. In Shakespeare's play he has actors playing actors. The reason why the actors were traveling was that they didn't have a theater to preform in, there was a new fad of children preforming in plays. This is a brief part of Hamlet that is commonly left out in plays. In addition, Hamlet asks the first actor to recite part of the Aenied, the death of Priam. Priam was the old king of Troy and was surrounded by Greek soldiers while Troy was being destroyed. Pyrrhus decides that he is going to be the one to kill Priam. Priam and Pyrrhus are sword fighting and Pyrrhus unarms Priam, and Pyrrhus knocks Priam down. A honorable person would let Priam get up and get his sword but Pyrrhus decides he is just going to kill Priam anyway. Suddenly many surrounding buildings collapse and deafen Pyrrhus for a short time, giving him ample time to rethink killing the king in such a brutal manner, he still kills the king. As a side note, Pyrrhus was described to be covered in blood and soot (giving him a devil like resemblance). Hecuba, Priam's wife, comes out immediately after Priam's death. At the sight of Priam's death she screams and cries in anguish so loud that the gods hear, and the gods feel her sorrow and weep as well. Since kings are chosen by the gods, killing Priam in such an inhonorable way was one of the worst things a man could do.
And yeah guys, Tanya's right we do suck at these notes, its been a week since anyone has posted anything.
1 comment:
I'm sort of wondering if Hamlet's tragic flaw really is pride though! I mean so far we really only have that one example of him getting the best of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet second guesses himself in the soliloquy (at the end of act2scene2) and even calls himself a coward. Possible tragic flaw too right?
-Emily Wallace
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