These are some of the quotations from Hamlet that I like:)

Some of the quotations from Hamlet

       “ To be, or not to be: that is the question.”                (Act 3, Scene 1)

( This the famous quotation it sounds like dilemma of the play, so it says life is worth living can you or should you go on when things seem too hard. Hamlet says we go on, because we scared of death and we don’t know what will happen if we kill ourselves.)

“ Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” (Act 1, Scene 4)

( I think this quotation doesn’t mean about ghost, this is a sign something wrong for all the kingdom)

“ Neither be borrower nor a lender be”                        ( Act 1, Scene 3)

(This is when Polonius says accidently in ironic statements. Taking literally it’s true and good advice to son Laertes, but the guy is giving this advice is fool so how much can you trust this)

“Brevity is the soul of wit”                                                       (Act 2, Scene 2)

( Polonius quotation again …)

Füsun Erol

Hamlet: theme of revenge and madness

 Hamlet: Theme of Revenge and Madness

           The theme of revenge starts off very early in the play, when Hamlet speaks with the ghost of his death father. When the ghost tells Hamlet how Claudius murdered him, Hamlet is angry and overtaken with feelings of responsibility to right the wrong that has been done; to murder Claudius. The effects of this experience on Hamlet are showed clearly in the following quote, "And so I am revenged. That would be scanned: A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, d this same villain send to heaven;". This quote clearly exemplifies Hamlets feeling toward this event. Being his fathers only son, he feels completely responsible for his fathers revenge.

        Throughout the tragedy of Hamlet’s revenge covers the theme and among all of the characters. Whether this revenge is in physical form, or mental form, it is equally hurtful. From the murder of King Hamlet to the murder of Prince Hamlet the tragedy is filled with violent acts of revenge. So this theme is addressed, extremely clearly, and the conclusion, the death of so many characters, many due to revenge, shows how a world filled with extensive revenge can’t exist as a world at all. Hamlet is a deep philosophical story, however, the theme of revenge lies just below the surface, if you look at all of the deaths, you may see that there was a high degree of hatred, bitterness.

      Moreover, the other most important theme is madness. The theme is apparent throughout the play, mainly through the actions and thoughts of Hamlet, Ophelia, and Laertes. Madness is defined as the quality or condition of mental illness. Madness is at the center of the conflicts and problems of the play and  the characters like between Hamlet, Ophelia, and Laertes to contribute to Hamlet’s tragic character.

        Overall, we see that the theme of revenge and madness have significant impact on the conflicts and overall development of the play as well as the characters themselves and is successfully conveyed. I think Shakespeare developed a theme that tied the many important emotions and ideas together to make the play what it is. 

        

          Füsun Erol

Early Modern English

Hello,

Here's a very interesting webpage I stumbled across whilst looking for information about how English would have been spoken around the time of Shakespeare. It is a fairly long article that traces the origins of modern English, and how things like the Great Wovel Shift (ie. the difference that seperates Middle English from Modern English) came about, and it's worth a read (or a skim, depending on your preference). But it gave me an idea about how Shakespeare's lines would have sounded in their day. (And I learnt a couple of new terms along the way.)

http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_early_modern.html


-- Idil

Some Comments on "Humour" from my journal

     The word "comedy" comes from a Greek word "komos" which means rejoicing. Comedy is confused with humour. Humour, which comes from the word "humors" means a pleasant attitude and ability. At first, humour was a celebration of Dionysus, the god of wine, joy. In Renaissance comedy almost disappeared. In the Elizabethan comedy, errors and obsessions came into comedy. In the 17th and 18th century, comedy and tragedy were separated. In Modern comedy, it is from love tragedies to obsessions and even every-day problems. 
     In Shakespeare's plays, it is important to see behind the humours, because it has a serious tone. "Humour is a painful thing told playfully." Shakespeare used humour to overcome the ignorance. In Shakespeare's times, there were a political and religious forces, so he used humour as a weapon. To overcome Puritanism, he creates a character called Malvolio in Twelfth Night. With sharp humorous sentences, Shakespeare explains Malvolio's puritanical arrogance as grandiosity. At the end of the play, Malvolio becomes an unfortunate stupid man. 
     Shakespeare's humour helps us to recognize the truth. He generally uses "fool" in humorous language. Giving an example, in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the humour consists on the artisans. They want to look intelligent but they destroy the grammar in their play Pyramus and Thisbe. ( I see a voice, I can hear my Thisbe's face. Act5,Scene1)  But the major humour is between the young Athenians. They lose their dignity and become ridiculous. 
    Our bodies and their humours are part of the natural world, but they are not always in harmony. Nature's elements can destroy the life they created such as an earthquake or flood. But human culture were supposed to act as vectors to health. 


Burcu Vatanseçer

Hamlet Video

This is an exciting video for Hamlet. It does not cover the whole serious issues but it shows the basic points in a different way.

Enjoy it :)

Burcu Vatanseçer

Sonnets & Stuff

Hi all,

Here's a recording of some of the sonnets, read by Scottish actor David Tennant, who is quite famous over in the UK and has acted in a number of Shakespeare plays (most notably, a production of Much Ado last year and Hamlet in 2009.) Beware, he's got a Scottish accent, but it's rather lovely, so.

 

Here's an online edition of Astrophel and Stella by Sir Philip Sidney. It's a wonderful sequence of sonnets, and this version is not too hard to understand, even though it uses Early Modern spellings of some words. Definitely worth one's time!

http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/stella.html

PS. Luminarium is a great resource for anything to do with the Renaissance, we used it extensively last year in our Renaissance Poetry class at Bath Spa, but I'm not sure whether you need a subscription to use it. Try it anyhow.

Here's a webpage that gives a general overwiew of Elizabethan Soneteers:

http://www.sonnets.org/eliz.htm

And this is a short essay on Petrarchian (or however you spell that) sonnet conventions and how they differ from the English Renaissance sonnets:

http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/ren.sonnets.html

And that's all from me now! I dunno if I put in the links properly or not, but I'll eventually learn, innit. Have yourselves a good (reading) week!

-- Idil

A lit-themed "The New Yorker Cartoons" Joy

"What win I, if I gain the thing I seek? / A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy. / Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?"

- Shakespeare, on leading in The New Yorker Fan Friday poll. 


Below, a 1990 Al Ross cartoon: 

Below, a 1995 Lee Lorenz cartoon: 

Below, a 1991 Stuart Leeds cartoon:

Enjoy your weekend!

Bengisu Kiraz

    Titania in the play of Shakespeare.                              Titania in a Japanese anime called Fairy Tail.

So what do you think?

Batuhan

Comment From My Journal

The title of the play contains dream so some unreal things are not unexpected I believe.  Also Puck says in the end of the play that he is sorry for what happened (He says this to audience) and he requests that the audience should remember the play as a dream.  I found interesting that the play takes place in Athens because we always saw Shakespeare’s plays takes place in England or around England.  In the play, fairies are generally doing the best magic.  They are funny and making the situations in the play funny.  Too much usage of magic in the play causes some problems as I observed.  (For example Puck casts a spell on Bottom and his head will look like a donkey.  He does this because he thinks it will be funny if Titania, the beautiful fairy queen will fall in love with a donkey head.)

Batuhan