last one I promise...

ok... the hours. I know rewind, right? but yeah so I think the hours was a pretty chill book. I don't really feel like there was much I could get out of it. the one thing worth while was the style it was written ("an ordinary mind in an ordinary day") but the plot wasn't to astonishing nor the characters. Just typical people which is the obvious goal of the author. But yeah nothing too special. I wish I could say it was jaw dropping. but I do like the perspective the author gives on life a death and all the simplicities and complexities that lie between. so I appreciated it for the most part. but couldn't something cooler happen on this ordinary day... nothing. she bought flowers.

House of the Seven... what?

I think that I should get an "A" for being the first studen tin the history of this blogto use a picture in their post. Automatic extra credit. But yeah when I picked this book out I didn't know what a gable was. But yeah I know now... took me a while. It's a good thing that it wasn't a very critical part in the book beause I probably would have missed the whole main idea.

But moving on the book is simply a disappointment not because the actually book was bad but the fact companieslike Disney and Pixar did their best to ruin it for us all. I knew I recognized the plot once they began describiing the house with human characteristics. Sound familiar??? Of course it does. But it is still an awesome story and I recommend it to anyone looking for an awesome story that is a fairly easy to read. Have fun team...

Insanity is a sandwich sign hung on the shoulders of people who refuse to adhere to society. I will not discount the people whose brain fails to see the message the way that their optic nerve received it, like a horrible game of telephone. There are real crazy people in the world, but I can’t help but to come to the conclusion that Shakespeare either did not believe in insanity or he really found the root of craziness in those who society has deemed sane. I think that the illustrations of both Hamlet and Ophelia are very much parallel. Both have lost a father and both have lost trust in someone that they had previously held very dear to them. Although Hamlet’s soliloquies and Ophelia’s singing seem a bit pathetic and overdone, this is a drama and humans can only function with a certain number of feet on the ground; when the two characters are leveled, their feet swept out from under them, there is not much keeping the bleak horizon from closing in. For both characters, this condition is not their fault. Hamlet’s father is killed by his mother and uncle and he is enlightened of the occurrence through his father’s ghost. Ophelia’s father is stabbed to death by the man she thought was the love of her life. Both are betrayed by other people, and I think that this desolate existence is what Shakespeare was trying to depict. Not only do I think it pertains to the two lovers, but I think that it is the way that Shakespeare sees the human condition. In some ways, death is not the greatest agony, sometimes life is. Hamlet and Ophelia, undermined by the wickedness of humankind, are turned to face death as a way to be “shuffled off this mortal coil”. We complain and suffer at the hands of other humans, and even insanity can be attributed to the incompetence, ruthlessness, and greediness of people around us.

Shakespeare is a crowd pleaser. If he lived today, he would be rocking the mushroom pants, the puffy sleeves and the ruffled shirts down the red carpet. He would not be the guy making the boring documentaries or the trashy reality television shows, he would be the writing the screenplays that are making millions of dollars at the box office. He never fails to tell a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Incest, death, violence, lust, love, lunacy, suicide, anger, and execution… what more could he have possibly packed in there? The story is still alive. But the fact that this is the where the English language comes from baffles me. How we got from there to here seems like the jump from Neanderthal to Homo Sapien- or maybe the backwards jump- but I feel like somewhere in there has to be the missing link. Shakespeare writes in a foreign time period where people spoke the way the he wrote.

Ending it with Blood

This book, personally, was quite interesting. Sex, murder, and suicide took place in practically everyone of the scenes. I'm still trying to decide if Hamlet was absolutly crazy though. When looking back to when it all started, I honestly think it was all an act but I kind of want to hear what everyone else thinks...so post those comments!!
Good Book...Crappy Movie

Pretending

There is a lot of pretending going on in this play. Hamlet acting mad, tha actors acting out the murder, the king acting innocent, and so on. Shakespeare is trying to represent all of the acting that goes on in real life, people pretending to be who they really aren't just to conform into the society they live in. Shakespeare doesn't believe in this. First of all, all of the fake characters end up dead. Horatio who has been true doesn't die. We see that even if short gains are made by covering oneself up it isn't worth in the end. Also, most conspicuous is Polonius message to Laretes "be true to thine ownself". A prominent theme that Shakespeare reinforces throughout the play. The question Hamlet askx, "To be or not to be" is a question that each of must answer everyday. all of the characters face this question and some chosae truth and some chose false.
Additionally, I think the use of actors in the play make the play seem more real to the audience. It connects them with the characters because they can say, hey, thery're watching a play just like I am, this could happen in my life. Because Shakespeare makes his play seem more realistic to the viewers, his themes resonate all the stronger. We can see a little bits of ourselves in each of the characters and that causes us to reevalueate them and ourselves. However, he also uses royalty to paint a more intense drama and keep a little separation between entertainment and real life. I liked this play because of the drama and action portrayed by conflict between the true and fake characters.

Inevitable Death

To me it seems that a large part of Hamlet's meaning lies in the inevitablity of death. Hamlet explores this when questioned about the whereabouts of Polonius's corpse 4.3.21-28. As well as in the scene where he comes across the gravediggers, and comes to face the skull of the old jester. I think that this inevitablity is also where a large part of the purpose in killing almost all of the characters at the end is. At the end all the characters regardless of political standing, effort, or gender all die. Characters that labored away to achieve high reaching goals, regardless of how hard they struggle die. Claudius works to become the king, Hamlet & Laertes to avenge their fathers' murders, etc. All of them die. They are all equalized and become food for the worms and maggots. The amount of effort they put into life, the stature they achieved, etc. nothing can prevent their death. All men are equal before the reaper's scythe. I think that this is one of the most important central themes.