Ophelia's Eulogy

Here lie the sweet Ophelia. A girl who had hopes and dreams. She was just a normal innocent girl, but all of a sudden things started to change bit by bit in her life. People think that she does not deserve a proper burial, but I indeed think she does. Before she committed "suicide", she did do things that God would be very proud of. She did listen to her father, Polonius (rest in peace), when he told her to stop seeing Hamlet. She was not a wild girl, yet she was a girl who was always to herself and she brought joy to the kingdom.
We probably saw the state Ophelia was in before she had passed. And we all judged her of being mad and crazy. But, did we really know what was going on with her? Nay. We only saw he cover of the book, yet we did no take the time to read the pages. Imagine, having told hat you could not see the one you are deep in love with, and that person telling you that you meant nothing to them. Then when you think things can't gt any worse, they did. The one that she loves killed her dear father. Maybe she could have approached the issue in a different way. But, how can a girl react so quickly to drastic things happening in such a short period of time.
Honestly I don't blame her. Nobody realy paid attention to her, they were always stuck on why Hamlet was acting the way he was. People forgot about asking Ophelia what was wrong. She had no shoulder to cry on. She was alone. So this is to Ophelia. A great inspiration. She was a strong woman and tried her best to make those she loves happy. May she rest in peace and God take care of her.

Hamlet's Dilemna

As we reviewed in class, Hamlet had slight the decision to kill Claudius when he was asking God for fogriveness or killing him another time. I agreed with what he did because Claudius deserves to go to hell after all that he does. Claudius is asking God for forgiveness, yet he does not sound like he's repenting at all. He shows us that he is ignorant and selfish.
Claudius had said that why is he asking for forgiveness, if in the end he has everything and more. That doesn't sound guilty to me at all. Hamlet made the right decision by waiting till he sins, so he knows for sure that God will not show him mercy and kill him and send him to hell for all the wrong that he has done.

To Be or Not To Be

      The 'To Be or Not to Be' speech is famous worldwide. Not only because many people have renacted this famous scene out of Shakespeare's Hamlet, but because the meaning/problem behind the speech is one of the leading cause of death in the entire world. In class, we reviewed four versions of this speech. Out of the four i would say i liked Branaugh's version the best.

       Even though Zeffereli's version was just as good, I just think Branaugh's version attracted me and made me feel the power of the speech more. In Branaugh's version, Prince Hamlet is looking into the mirror, representing that the problem is him. It was not over dramatic and his voice was clear and understandable. The music also went along with the actions of the scene. It was not too loud and exxagerated like his ghost scene.

       All the actors that acted this scene had different tones of voice in each part of the speech. In the beginning they all seem to be depressed, lonesome, hopeless. Then when they had the notion of death may not be always the right solution, there voice went in an uptone like they realized that they could be wrong.

       I think that there are so many versions of this speech is because everybody interprets it into there own way. They have different imagery on how the actor should portray this scene, whether more sad or maybe uplifting. Regardless, there is always one true meaning behind this speech and that is whether to die or to live is the better choice. Shakespeare shows us to open up our minds and not think simple.

The First Ghost Scene

Out the the three ghost scenes, I would say that Zeffirelli's version was the most effective. the other two scenes were well, but lacked in some areas. For example, in Branagh's version, the ghost was talking in a way where the audience, or atleast myself, could not comprehend what he was saying. Also, the imense amount of flashbacks and loud dramatic music were unnecessary. It was overly exxagerated.
My least favorite out of the bunch was Almereyda's. The way the director tried to modernize the story took away from the oraginality. Also, I did not like the way he tried to modernize the play but yet again tried to use the old language used in the original Hamlet. The two do not match. It's either you change both, or change nothing. It was a total mess.
Zeffirelli's version was good because the actors were clear to hear and it is more realistic to believe than the other two. If I had to direct the ghost scene for myself I would have music that goes along with the scene and take away the medieval theme, but something close to Zeffirelli's. I wouldn't make it over dramatic, but dramatic enough to make it seem interesting.

DEJ quote. 11/4/11.

-The doll that Mary Warren made and gave to Elizabeth Proctor.

Response:
What was the reason behind of Mary giving Elizabeth the doll? Since they've been associating with the devil, is it like some type of voodoo doll?