Since the last response to course material, we have wrapped up our discussion on Shakespeare's Hamlet, seen a ton of movies and begun our work with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
I think that I understand a couple of the themes of Hamlet really well, but that it would take a couple more reads to be satisfied with how well I know Hamlet overall. I'm certain that I would also notice many other little techniques and ambiguities that Shakespeare put into his work and that my opinions on what the truth is for each of these ambiguities would take shape (e.g: was Ophelia really insane, or was her suicide a calculated political move?
The film interpretations of Hamlet that we watched were interesting, some trying to be very faithful to the original and others taking on new and widely varying settings or other elements. My favorite was the 19th(ish?) century interpretation filmed in a castle, where at the end of the play Elsinore was invaded by Fortinbras as the entire castle was preoccupied with the infighting of the royalty. It seemed to fit a movie interpretation well, allowing the director to mostly stay faithful to Shakespeare while changing major details in the time period. The most modern, independent film-type version (where Polonius is a woman) was extremely odd, and didn't really help me understand Hamlet any better, but it was quite entertaining.
From our in-class reading of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, I'm not sure whether I am going to like this play. It's very different from Hamlet, but it seems to share a similar theme in the discussion of fate and destiny. As Ms. Holmes warned us, I feel like a bunch of what Stoppard is trying to say totally went over my head, but I hope I will pick up more of it as we continue working on this play.
Chris, I agree with you that I would probably have to read Hamlet over again to get everything about it. It was a pretty complex play, but judging from our class discussions, I think we got the basics of it down. As for the movies, the ones that stayed true to the play helped me the most, even though they were not as interesting. The modern film versions were much more interesting for me to watch. As for the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, it was pretty hard to understand after the first read. It was especially hard for me because I missed the whole week that you guys started to read it in class with Ms. Holmes helping out every once in a while. But I do think that knowing the themes and details from Hamlet really helped with our basic understanding of this play, that is, until we got into the deeper meanings of it.
ReplyDeleteOverall, you did a good job with this post! I liked how you didn't just state what we did in class, but you went into more detail about it and how you felt about the plays.
I agree that the different interpretations of Hamlet was very eye-opening. I'm not quite sure whether I like the Hollywood version with Kate Winslet as Ophelia, or the David Tennant version. I really did not enjoy the indie film rendition of Hamlet though. I wasn't sure whether Ophelia was dying from a drug overdose, or if I was seeing something else. Yes, I suppose it was entertaining in the sense that I was constantly face-palming because the director took too many artistic liberties.
ReplyDeleteRosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead turned out to be much better than I thought, anyways. The writing in this play was much easier to understand than Hamlet, but Stoppard was putting so much meaning into everything, so annotating was a bit of a struggle.
This is a well-written response. Good job, Chris.
Chris, This is a very thorough and detailed blog post! Good job. I agree with you that even after all the time we studied Hamlet I don't think we grasped everything there is to know. I still don't think I would like to read it through another time though. After annotating it I pretty much never wanted to hear the name Hamlet ever again. Unfortunately our next play had a lot to do with Hamlet. I agree that the version of Hamlet with Polonius as a woman was very weird. I was fairly confused throughout that one. The one with Kate Winslet had to be my favorite. I liked that their was an actress I knew in it and it had a more hollywood feel which made it more entertaining to me. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern did turn out to be pretty different from Hamlet but also a lot like it! I agree that the major themes were the same. It was also confusing the first time through just like Hamlet. Overall, this is a really good blog post! Good job!
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