Hamlet has pretty
much consumed the entirety of this past month in AP Lit. We’ve read Hamlet out loud during class, read it at
least once more at home to annotate it, watched half a dozen movie version of
it, listened and read a story about it, read a poem about it… I don’t think
I’ve ever done such in-depth work on a book or play and I am amazed at how much
there is out there on Hamlet. I had
always known it was supposed to be one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, but I
just never heard much more than that.
It’s kind of
funny that I write that though, because as a kid I probably would have had the
opposite reaction. As a kid, if I saw a great movie or read a great book I
would watch/read the same one over and over again and if I mentioned the title
to someone else and they happened to not know what I was talking about, I would
be in shock because I figured if I had heard of it, everyone else must have
too. If I had had this reaction with Hamlet,
I would have been spot on, because not only has everyone else apparently heard
of it (I mean, it is a play that is constantly referenced), but people have
written long articles on it, even taken the play to be preformed in prison.
I actually
really liked listening to the story about Hamlet
being preformed in prison. I didn’t enjoy the other forum assignments quite
as much, but the one about prison was really interesting. It’s cool to think
about how Shakespeare, without actually being a criminal himself, could write
so accurately about how a criminal thinks. As a reader, I feel like his writing
is pretty convincing without being a criminal myself. This feeling is only
heightened after listening to the prisoners talk about how they can really
connect with Hamlet and how some can even learn more about themselves through
the play. The only thing I really didn’t like about listening to that recording
was that is was so long; if only there was a shortened version, it would be a
perfect forum assignment.
The various
movie adaptations we watched on Hamlet
were also interesting, but after a while they just got really repetitive.
Watching the first couple really allowed me to understand the play a bit
better, since I was actually able to see certain scenes acted out on a screen,
but after a while I don’t think it would have made a difference how many more Hamlet movies I saw, they all started to
become kind of the same and I felt like I wasn’t learning anything more about
the play. That being said, I did really enjoy a couple of the versions that we
watched. I thought the Tennant version was pretty well done. I liked that it
was somewhat modern but that they didn’t really change the story to modernize
the movie like in the Ethan Hawkes version. I also thought the Branagh version
was good. The casting wasn’t the best, but I liked the setting and I thought
Branagh played Hamlet well, despite his age and his super pale skin. I
similarly liked the Olivier Hamlet,
even if the kiss shared between Hamlet and his mom was a bit much. The two
versions of Hamlet that I really didn’t
care for were the Jacobi and Hawkes Hamlets. I just felt like the Jacobi
version wasn’t quite as interesting as the others and the scene with his mom
shouldn’t have been more than just a kiss, but it was. I didn’t like the Hawkes
version because I felt like the modern interpretation took a lot away from some
of the themes of the play, and the ghost hardly even seemed like a ghost in the
film. I also thought that Hawkes didn’t play that great of a Hamlet because he
was so one-dimensional.
Jackie,
ReplyDeleteGood relation to the past. The wording is a bit confusing at points, but I think the general idea is conveyed really well. That sounds very similar to my brother Connor who used to watch the Austin Powers trilogy at least once a week. Gosh, it drove me crazy, but he really enjoyed the movie. To him, Austin Powers was probably a masterpiece.
Anyways, it’s kind of funny that you only enjoyed the Shakespeare in Prison forum assignment because I actually felt like the only one that really helped me was the Ophelia poem. It helped me come to understand a character I hadn’t given much thought to before. The radio broadcast was only helpful to a point, and after a while it just got repetitive. And yeah, I get what you mean with almost watching too many adaptations of Hamlet. Our earlier viewings of the Branagh and Tennant versions are very clear and distinct in my mind as a couple of the later films we watched such as the Olivier version are a bit hazy in my mind.
Jackie,
ReplyDeleteI understand reading things over and over. I have done that many times before, not so much anymore since I no longer have all the time in the world. One thing I use to do which is super embarrassing is I watched the first twilight movie like at least 20 times. It is really cliche and kinda of stupid on the relationship part but I was in seventh grade and wasn't mature enough to understand at the time so I watched it over and over. i think the difference between a movie like that and Hamlet is that even reading and discussing Hamlet so many times I still could go either way on a lot of parts in the play. I could argue that the text means opposite things, that's what makes it cool is that your idea of the play can change with the more you learn about it. Twilight....yeah it never changes. It may get worse as a movie as I grow up but the dialog never makes me think in a new way or anything like that.
As for the prison story, I actually didn't mind the length at all. At first I was kind of annoyed I would have to sit down for that long and listen to something but than within the first like ten minutes of the story it was actually really hooked me. I kept listening and listening and I hardly even realized that that much time had gone by. Really good job on your post, I loved hearing your voice as reader and thoughts on all the activities we did in class.
Jackie,
ReplyDeleteFor the course responses you should just let loose!! I'll admit, I was a little excited to read this post because in the close reading and open prompt posts you were so structurally sound. So I thought that maybe I should expect a great contrast with this course response since there are a little bit broader guidelines with this. The time before last I was paired with Blake for a peer review assignment and I remember expecting his course response to be a little more like the rest of his posts, but instead I truly felt like he was just talking, telling me exactly how he felt about Death of a Salesman. He even said that he enjoyed writing the course responses especially because he could just unload (sorry Blake, I know that's not exactly what you said, but it was along those lines if I remember correctly. Just don't quote me Jackie lol).
So basically, take a load off Miss Jackie. This is the post that's supposed to be FUN:) So just enjoy yourself and tell us what you reeeally have to say. And use words more true to your opinions, instead of words like just "interesting," "amazed" and "didn't enjoy." Tell us Miss Jackie, TELL US WHAT YA WANNA SHOUT.