Imprisoned Hamlet

This radio show, I found shocking. It amazes me how the prisoners each relate to a different character, and how each role connects to their past. Reading Hamlet will now be different, a little maybe. The way the prisoners change the characters by talking about them and relating them to their lives make the play deem different. Big Hutch for example, says Hamlet has no problem, no conflict. He knows Claudius killed his father, he doesn't just sit to think about it, he is supposed to do something. Just as he probably did.

It's amazing how the people start to open up, some of them more than others. Talking a little about their families and the reason for their jail time. It shocked me how, for example, in the play Claudius is talking about the remorse he feels after killing his brother. These people feel the same, some of them would like to change the past. More than a play, it's a reality to them. They have to face the consequences of killing someone.

I like to write, and often times, i don't connect the writing to reality. Or i do, but it just seems fantasy, a little imagination. This radio show helped me realize, that what i write about, is or can be someones reality, and they can't do anything about it.

As Big Hutch sees himself, how he compares prison to the sea is a little ironic. To start, the sea is very wide, there is lots of freedom, and the prison is the complete opposite. But he is right in some points, the big one controls the little ones, as he says, the killer whale controls the guppies.

I like very much how the characters that played Hamlet did it. It really shows the confusion going on in Hamlet and how he tries to deal with it but he really can't. It was mentioned, that Hamlet was just one more person in the Hamlets crew. The four prisoners probably had messed up lives, just like Hamlet did.

After hearing this show, I will pay closer attention to Hamlet. I am sure from now on I will make connections to the prisoners, thinking about their reaction and their way of interpreting everything.

Crazy, Crazier

"The dramatic effect produced by Hamlet's personality and behaviour" is Ernest Jones essential concern. He gives a very clear example on how Hamlet's insanity is special and brings the reader towards it. When Hamlet's insanity is compared with that of Ophelia a mayor contrast arises. How is it that Ophelia's craziness ends in death but Hamlets is developed during the entire novel? As Robert Bridges says in his text, The Testament of Beauty, "whereby Shakespeare so gingerly put his sanity in doubt", this calls the readers attention. Questions such as, is he really crazy? start to arise and the reader must keep on reading to discover the answer.

Jones expresses that Shakespeare possesses, "a degree of insight that it has taken the world three subsequent centuries to reach". Looking at this words, Hamlet's character also possesses qualities that no one can easily equal. The attention his craziness gets is a clear example, and how he uses it to his power is another way of showing the reader that he is intelligent and he can do things even if he doesn't see it that way.

With everything that is going on at once in Hamlets life, he has a mayor concern. That is sharing his mother. It was hard when he had to share her with his father, but it is even worse now. Hamlet knows the king got killed by Claudius, adding to that, the queen has married his uncle. Giving no correct mourning to his father.

Hamlet is being torn and tortured by an insoluble inner conflict.

Thinking Makes It So

August Wilhelm Von Schlegel talks mostly about Hamlets personality. He tells the reader how Hamlets personality can't be explained by him on one sentences as Goethe does. He reflects oh Hamlets personality as a man that is, "open in the highest degree to an enthusiastic admiration of that excellence in others of which he himself is deficient" his wise words open a new perspective about Hamlet. He doesn't see excellence in himself the way he sees it in others. The way he is crazy can be equaled by no one. His intelligence is big and he uses almost any method to keep his cover. From challenging them to telling them lies. Also he mentions that Hamlet's weakness is too apparent.

His craziness starts to gain power and seem more real when he starts thinking about sceptical doubts. He starts to believe in the ghost only when it is seen and when it disappears it "appears to him almost in the light of a deception".

Augusts Wilhelm summarizes Hamlets personality ans shows us how troubled his mind is with quotes like,"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so", this shows to us that Hamlet has started to think of everything in a very deep way. Questioning his thoughts and always thinking about thinking.

Being Judged, Losing Everything We Have Accomplished

In this critical extract written by Northrop Frye, a very interesting idea has been mentioned. The thought, "A man's quality may be inferred from the record of what he has done, or it may be inferred from what he is trying to make of himself at any given moment" clearly reflects both Hamlet and Claudius.

Claudius actions made him what he is now, the King. Unfortunately, Claudius's "great potential (has been) fatally blocked by something he has done and can never undo", that is killing his brother. Hamlet will forever see his uncle as a murderer without taking into consideration those actions were intended to make him king, "you've done such and such, so that's forever what you are".

Frye talks about a limited repertoire humans have, as they age, it becomes narrower. We all build secondary prisons out of our actions, as Frye's expresses, consciousness could be connected to the prisons. For example, after Claudius has killed his brother, he starts to feel remorse, preventing him from truly acting. Not only do we limit ourselves, but the society that surrounds us has a huge impact on us. The way consciousness could be cured, is by actions, because even our conscious is a murderer, it kills actions.

The play Hamlet, was very significant because it shows the conflict of consciousness and action. The fact that it talks about "action and thinking about action so deeply", has made literature deeper and bolder. If it wasn't for Hamlet, the Romantic movement might of never existed.