Hamlet: Prince of Denmark

Background: Shakespeare's most famous tragedy, though this is debated almost as much as Hamlet debates killing Claudius/himself.

A very quick summary of Hamlet, since I really need to get some sleep before this final week of finals begins.

So... the ghost of Hamlet's father appears and tells him that the new King (the old king's brother) killed the old king by pouring "poison hebanon" in his ear. Hamlet is supposed to revenge his father, but instead he goes a little crazy and bursts into his girlfriend Ophelia's closet and freaks her out. She tells her weasel-y father who makes her show her love letters to the king and queen to convince them that Hamlet is mad with love for Ophelia (its all part of  Polonius' plan to put his daughter on the throne). Anyway, this plan doesn't work and just pisses off Hamlet further as he organizes for a play pantomiming King Claudius' bloody deed to be performed before the court, so Hamlet can see if his uncle really  is guilty (either he didn't believe the ghost or he's just stalling). The King stands up during the play (this was a big deal back then), thus proving his guilt (or maybe he just wanted some popcorn) and Hamlet goes to confront...his mother!?!?!? After preaching abstinence to his mother, he stabs Polonius, "Ho! A rat!", thinking it was Claudius spying. This gets him carted off to England with his super fake 'friends' Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In Hamlet's absence and in light of her father's death, Ophelia goes legitimately crazy and drowns herself. Meanwhile, Hamlet has a run in with the convenient-plot-device-pirates and returns to Denmark, leaving R and G to die. Laertes has returned from France to avenge his father, and now his dead sister, but can't seem to finish Hamlet off while brawling in Ophelia's suicide grave (yeah, its morbid). Finally, Hamlet realizes that he cannot live in Elsinore, and walks to his death, "There is providence in the fall of a sparrow"  (Harry Potter Moment!). During a fatal duel with Laertes, they are both slain with a poisoned sword. Gertrude drinks from the poisoned cup intended for Hamlet, and Hamlet forces Claudius to drink his own poison before dying in Horatio's arms "Good night sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest". Bromance <3 Then, Fortinbraus, who was eluded to once in the very first scene, comes to take over Elsinore and demands that Hamlet be given the king's funeral, "Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, For he was likely, had he been put on, To have proved most royally." And Denmark is at peace, and old and young Hamlet are at rest.

Characters:

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: Hamlet is faced with the choice to avenge his father and damn his own soul, or to not act, and let his father's soul suffer in purgatory. He feels incredibly alone at Elsinore, and sometimes fears that he is part of the "something rotten in the state of Denmark". He has an intimate relationship with Ophelia, but a more intimate relationship with his mother, and an even more intimate relationship with Horatio, "I am dead Horatio" who he trusts above all others.

Claudius: Hamlets Uncle Scar, who murders his father and marries his mother. His love for Gertrude, more than his desire for power, prompts this. He tries to pray to God for forgiveness, so he is not a one-dimensional evil, but a man overcome with love.

Gertrude: Marries her husband's widow, much to the anger of her son, who frequents her bedroom chamber. She is presented as weak, be that a ploy to survive in a man's world or genuine stupidity, but in the end she is poisoned "The drink! It is the drink!", and gets whats coming to her. When Hamlet's attacks, "Frailty, thy name is woman" are a contrast to her almost flippant attitude towards remarriage, "Methinks the lady doth protest too much."

Ghost: Hamlet's father is more terrifying and demanding than loving "Mark me!". He is accepted as appearing in the opening, when he demands that Hamlet kill Claudius, but appears again (at least in Hamlet's mind) in scene 3. "Let this serve as a remembrance".

Ophelia: Represents the trapped state of Elsinore women. She is defined by her innocence and controlled by her father and brother. When she looses her innocence and becomes pregnant, she looses all sense of identity, all protection, and all control, and drowns herself. This is no secret, for the priest refuses to bury her on consecrate grounds. When she goes crazy, she sings "He is dead and gone...Tommorow is St. Valentine's Day..." with cryptic goodbyes for everyone.

Polonius: Adviser to Claudius; very sneaky but not on Hamlet's level. He will use his own children to get ahead, but just ends up stabbed through a drapery. Yup. 

Laertes: Party boy, further representing the corruption of Elsinore. He is loyal, however, to his sister Ophelia (and there may be some incest there), and brawls in her grave with Hamlet. Before he dies, poisoned by his own sword, he says "Exchange forgiveness with me", and regrets killing Hamlet. 

Fortinbras: Foil to Hamlet. Action guy, very in control and sure of his own desires. What Hamlet might have been had he escaped the disease of Elsinore. He recognizes this, and pays Hamlet respects before assuming the throne and giving Hamlet a fresh start. 

Horatio: Our moral compass- we can trust him absolutely. He is loyal to Hamlet, who dies in his arms. Bromance <3

Themes/Motifs/Useful AP Details

Hamlet is Jesus: cock crows three times, dies for the sins of Elsinore, 30, Holy trinity...

Ophelia is a flower; pure, sweet, delicate, gilded lily? deflowered? "Sweets for the sweet", "Here's rue for you, though we may call it "herb of grace".

Poison motif: "Something's rotton in the state of Denmark", "Poison hebbanon", also, Shakespeare is obsessed with ears, because the secrets and lies are what are rotting Denmark.

Hamlet thinks All The World's a Stage and We are but Players (I know, thats from As You Like It): He wonders if we have free will or if God has already written the script. When the players do "The Murder of Gonzago" he spends about 4 pages coaching the actors on being lifelike. 

Hamlet's relationship with words; he uses wit and elevated speech to put up walls and insult people. Ophelia is uniquely clever, and can work on his level, while Polonius, "Are you a fishmonger", is a victim of this mocking. 

Open Prompt Revision

When my peers commented on the first draft of this essay, they had a couple constructive pieces of feedback. In the introductory paragraph, my weak attempt at humor just served to confuse, so I changed that, and separated the exposition into a separate paragraph detailing the most obvious meanings of the red tent. They also said I had a pretty wimpy conclusions, largely due to the fact that I ran out of time, so I added some more connecting details that rounded out my conclusion and essay.

1970   Choose a work of recognized literary merit in which a specific inanimate object (e.g., a seashell, a handkerchief, a painting) is important, and write an essay in which you show how two or three of the purposes the object serves are related to one another.

Anita Diamant's novel The Red Tent is a retelling of the biblical story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob. In this book, a specific inanimate object stands as a refuge for Dinah and her mothers, a connection to their ancestors, and a symbol of womanhood.You guessed it, the Red Tent! 

 

Every new moon, the wives of Jacob enter the red tent for their monthly cycle. According to their culture, women were to be separated from men during this time.When Dinah comes of age, she is accepted into the red tent as a young woman. Here, the fertile women spend three days in peace; resting, praying, and singing.  The red tent, in the tribe of Jacob, was the symbol for womanhood and fertility.

In a patriarch-dominated society, the red tent symbolized refuge from demanding and sometimes cruel men. Ruti, "whose eyes seemed permanently blackened, was the slave-wife of brutish Laban. She found sanctuary in the few days of the month that she spent in the red tent, where Laban could not follow her. Even for the wives with gentler husbands, women were expected to submit completely to their husbands, and could not talk and joke freely in the presence of men, "In their day along in the red tend, Jacob's wives spoke among themselves about their husband's dreams and plans". It was also here that they were able to plot without being overhear. When the tribe of Jacob choose to leave Laban, his daughters steal from him his idols (gods), to take with them to their new home. Leah hides them in the red tent. Laban searches for them everywhere except, "his eyes fixed upon the women's tent on the edge of the camp. It was unthinkable that a healthy man would walk inside that place during the head of the month, among bleeding women - even worse, his own daughters". The taboo of the tent protects them from intrusions; and makes trespasses all the more horrible. Once his idols have been "polluted beyond redemption" by laying in the tent, he believes their magic to protect him is lost, and he never bothers his daughters again. 

As well as being an oasis in a patriarchal world, the red tent is a place for passing on stories. These are the women's tales; being the only daughter of Jacob, Dinah "heard all the stories from her mother and mother-aunts, which her brothers wouldn't be bothered to hear or pass on". Dinah's aunt Bilhah tells her the story of how man first learned to spin wool into thread, and Rachael tells the stories of the births she has midwifed. Along with personal stories, the red tent is a place where Jacob's wives carry on traditions from their grandmothers and great-grandmothers, "The women sang all the welcoming songs while Rachael made fine wheat-flour cake in the three-cornered shape of woman's sex". The make sacrifices to their goddesses and welcome Dinah into the red tent with the traditional ceremony, "they put kohl on my eyes, and perfumed my forehead...painted my arms and legs with henna". The red tent is a place for the women's traditions to be carried on.

The red tent literally symbolizes the isolation of menstruating women, but within, it is a place for Jacob's wives to escape the controlling  men of their time, and share their personal histories and traditions.The strong feminine connotations of this object connect it to the goddesses who Jacob's wives worship, and make Laban's trespass more shocking and invasive. The red tent is the women's domain where they can speak freely and pass on stories to their daughters. The red tent is a very important object with many meanings.

Response to Course Materials

Words. Words. WORDS!
We have been watching Hamlet and discussing the major themes in class. I hope we're not done yet, because I feel like we've spent lots of time just trying to decode the Shakespeare, and not a ton of figuring out what it means. For one thing, there is a lot open to interpretation here, so you can't make any decisive claims about the nature of Gertrude and Claudius' relationship, Ophelia's intelligence, or Hamlet's sexuality, as they change from actor to actor.
There is a lot of bible stuff in here, not just the 'Providence in the fall of a sparrow' monologue. So, in the beginning, there is a father, a son, and a holy ghost. Hamlet is denied thrice before the cock crows. In the end, he dies for the sins of Denmark and is given the burial of a King. He's supposed to be in his early 30s, no older than 33...He's JESUS!  I KNEW IT! ITS ALWAYS JESUS! Okay, at least, in Brit Lit someone was always Jesus... and Shakespeare is British, so it makes sense. (Wait, is Shakespeare also Jesus?)
Aside from being Jesus, Hamlet has an interesting relationship with words. He loves riddles and quips and puns (maybe that is just Shakespeare having fun) and no one seems to understand him. I've heard it said that Shakespeare created Hamlet in his image...
Another motif in the play is the infection and rotting from within Denmark. There is so much treachery and murder and incest going on in the royal house of Denmark, and Hamlet suspects it is inside of him too. All I can think of is..."You're a Horcrux, Harry!"
Think about it; they are both popular, beloved young men in their worlds. Their fathers, who they her0-worship, are dead and gone. There is a great evil looming, and they feel it is inside of themselves. They are short of temper and prone to violent outbursts, yet somehow they are really good at heart. And, in the end, they each walk to their death to save others. And, their names both start with H-a-.
I found this article, "What Harry Potter Could have learned from Hamlet" http://emsworth.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/what-harry-potter-could-have-learned-from-hamlet/

So, in conclusion, Hamlet is Jesus... and Harry Potter. I can't wait to reveal my amazing realization on the AP exam :)