April
17
ELA B30: Ap 17 Hamlet and Ghost, Act II sc i-ii…
- We read through the conversation between Hamlet and the Ghost. There are a few questions left for students to consider as we read the rest of the play:
- The ghost tells Hamlet first that he lost his wife to his brother who seduced her. Then he tells him how he was foully murdered by that same brother. Some people who study Hamlet believe that since the Ghost described the relationship between the Queen and brother before the murder, this is an indication of an actual affair between Queen Gertrude and her brother-in-law before the King died. Whether Gertrude knew about the plan to kill the King, helped with it, was completely unaware but involved with the brother, or was faithful to her husband, no one really can say for sure. Watch for indicators in the rest of the play to help make up your mind.
- We also still don’t know if we can trust the Ghost. Brad had some mishaps today at the beginning of class, which was a great transition into one of the biggest questions yet solved from the play – I asked whether Brad was destined by fate to have troubles and setbacks or whether it was his own decisions that lead him to accidents and such. The same goes for Hamlet – is he condemned by his fate to die a tragic figure or does he decide his own fate and is then responsible for what comes? You decide.
- We read along in our books as we listened to the audio of Act II sc i and ii. Two brave souls, Ken and Shaun, were kind enough to come to the front of our class and act out for us the scene that Ophelia describes to her father of Hamlet’s most bizzare behavior. (See the video below for their performance!)
[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/4I4EYdYeNXw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /] - From that, I left the class with a question to ponder:
- If you had recently had such disappointments in your life as Hamlet (Father dead, mother married suddenly… to Uncle, no crown to expect, everyone drinks to excess and you’re disgusted with life… what is the one thing you would “CLING” to and
try to hold on to? There should be at least one thing you can “count on” and trust in. For Hamlet, the one thing left in his world that made sense was Ophelia and their affection for each other. What would Hamlet do, then, if Ophelia suddenly started acting distant and refused to see him. Wouldn’t he really become depressed and wonder whether anything has meaning at that point? Some people beleive that’s why Hamlet broke into Ophelia’s presence in such an abrupt manner, in this scene. Whether he was play acting, pretending to be mad and faking it even for her, or whether he was actually upset over everything and expressed true feelings of frustration and uncertainty to her, again, is up to you to decide.
- If you had recently had such disappointments in your life as Hamlet (Father dead, mother married suddenly… to Uncle, no crown to expect, everyone drinks to excess and you’re disgusted with life… what is the one thing you would “CLING” to and