April
24
ELA B30: Ap 24 Summary of Act III, the center of the play (literally and figuratively)…
- We got settled quickly and had just the shortest part of Act III sc iv to finish. We quickly did a recap, making sure everyone understood that Hamlet got the proof he was waiting on, decided to wait until Claudius has sin on his conscience to kill him, and goes to confront his mother and “speak[s] daggers to her, though [he uses] none”. There he reveals to his mother what is really going on. We questioned
whether he killed whoever was behind the drapes out of a thoughtful plan (to kill Claudius) or out of panick and desperation to prove to himself that he was capable. - We finished listening / reading the Act. We discussed the questions together, one of which was whether the possibility existed that Hamlet had created the Ghost in his head. I asked this and several said the Ghost could be just his imagination, but Brandon and a few others quickly pointed out that the guards had seen it first so it did exist. Nicole, then, swift and sly, added that Hamlet might be only imagining the Ghost right now, after the murder and in his agitated state of confronting his mother. Wowie, I am so impressed with how quickly some of you are with processing the events of this play! That’s just wonderful!
- We focused, then on two major parts: 1) The closet scene is the absolute climax of the play. Things change irrevocably from there. 2) We also discusssed whether Hamlet is actually doomed, or damned, from this point, but whether we believe that it is what the character of Hamlet believes that is important. Is there any turning back? Is he in control, or does he just truly unwind and let things fall apart and just let it all sweep him away. Is he responsible for his actions or has he given up / given in to his fate?
- We watched a portion of the Ethan Hawke version of Hamlet. Some students explained later that they liked that version, while others were very opposed to it. That’s the beauty with variety, that you have those choices.
The video clip we watched was interesting, because it was more our modern day version of how things would happen, instead of in Shakespeare’s time. It was kind of odd that all of the dialogue stayed the same, though, with people talking so proper and answering with “my lord”. I think it would be cool to do a modern version of the play and translating the words to our dialect. It would be like the “texting shakespeare” thing you showed us one class, because it would appeal more to our generation and those following us.
Nic,
You’re right, it is a strange interpretation. It’s very much like the Leonardo DiCapprio version where they, again, maintain the dialogue but the setting is more recent and they use guns as well instead of swords.
I know one person, at least, who responded very negatively to this version of the play, which it way it maybe hasn’t become a very popular one. I have three others that fair pretty well. We’ll have to see which one suits your impression of the play more.
And creating a play version with your own dialogue would be fun, for sure! I may just have something like that tucked up my sleeve, though. 😉
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, here, Nicole!