Over the past few weeks of class, we have been spending almost all of our time on Hamlet. After we finished up the reading before break, we watched scenes from a few different movies and discussed how the directors interpreted the play. I liked the last Hamlet (new BBC) the best so for, although we haven't seen much of it yet, with the much more modern depiction and the video cameras that can't see Hamlet's ghost. The first one (old BBC) seemed to be the most faithful to the original play, but it didn't really captivate my attention at all. I found it especially difficult to concentrate on the movie (and stay awake) after going to morning practice, as everyone in our class noticed (including Ms. Holmes).... I think that the movies have helped me to synthesize my thoughts about the play as I can see everything quickly and the first scenes are still fresh in my mind when I reach the last ones.
The exercises which we did with Hamlet were also pretty helpful, the one about his relationship with words in particular. I hadn't really thought much about that concept beforehand but it really got me thinking and when I was annotating I developed my thoughts much more. I think that it could be an interesting idea to explore that Hamlet's reluctance to act and reliance on words (and love for theater) could be Shakespeare trying to reveal his own reluctance to act and how he speaks through his plays rather than acting, among the numerous other themes/motifs that we have discussed in Hamlet.
The essay which we got back from chapter 4 (I think?) was also something that stood out to me. I didn't do as well as I had hoped, and I hope to improve before the AP exam because I know that essay writing is probably my weakest area for the exam. Hopefully the blog posts will help me to develop my skills, but as we near the exam I'll probably focus more on that in the time I spend studying for it.
The exercises which we did with Hamlet were also pretty helpful, the one about his relationship with words in particular. I hadn't really thought much about that concept beforehand but it really got me thinking and when I was annotating I developed my thoughts much more. I think that it could be an interesting idea to explore that Hamlet's reluctance to act and reliance on words (and love for theater) could be Shakespeare trying to reveal his own reluctance to act and how he speaks through his plays rather than acting, among the numerous other themes/motifs that we have discussed in Hamlet.
The essay which we got back from chapter 4 (I think?) was also something that stood out to me. I didn't do as well as I had hoped, and I hope to improve before the AP exam because I know that essay writing is probably my weakest area for the exam. Hopefully the blog posts will help me to develop my skills, but as we near the exam I'll probably focus more on that in the time I spend studying for it.
Chris, I also liked the last movie we watched the best. I liked it a lot because of it's modern take on Hamlet, and that makes it a lot more interesting to watch than the first two. Although the first movies were very faithful to the play, they were not the most interesting ones to watch, just like you said. I think it's interesting how you talked about Hamlet's relationship with words. I never thought about how that could be Shakespeare trying to reveal his own reluctance and how he speaks through his plays. I never thought about that before, I just always looked at it as an important aspect of the play for the plot, but not the deeper meaning of it.
ReplyDeleteAs for the essay, I didn't do that well either. So that is something that I'm going to have to work on as well. I definitely think that the blogs that we have to do will help though!
I agree that the first Hamlet movie we watched was the most faithful to the play, and I think that is why we watched it before the others. I like that we did it this way because it helped me to fully understand what was supposed to happen before we really started discussing. Like Mehar, I also found it interesting that you brought up that Shakespeare could have been voicing his own traits in his plays. Throughout the whole time we spent reading, watching, and annotating this play I never really considered Shakespeare's role in it. I did a lot worse on the chapter 4/5 essay than I thought I would as well. For me, it was because I still didn't fully understand exactly what tone was when we wrote them in October. Now, with all of the exercises in class and the blog posts we have done, I think that has helped me to improve significantly.
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