Thoughts on Hamlet

Being a pretty avid Shakespeare fan (I own the giant "completed works" book with the gold pages that weighs about two hundred pounds), I have to say this play is still probably pretty high on my favorites list. My favorite tragedy would be King Leer, favorite comedy would be Midsummer's Night Dream, and my favorite history would be Cleopatra and Antony, just in case you wanted to know.

I actually really liked Hamlet. I had read it before in my freshman year of high school, so it was nice to visit it again. I definitely had much more appreciation for the absurdity of the play. For some reason I didn't remember the scene with Yorick's scull. It really caught be my surprise the second time around.  

I, however, don't really see the supposed incest in Hamlet. I don't understand how the queen, Gertrude, being married to her brother-in-law is considered incest. It doesn't make sense to me! They aren't related at all! (Well, by marriage, but I still don't think that counts as incest). And I do agree that Hamlet and Gertrude have a pretty close relationship, but I think things were different back then. I think it was a little more acceptable for a mother and son to have a close relationship. They never do anything together, and absolutely nothing happens in the infamous bedroom scene. (Besides some lewd jokes. But what Shakespeare play doesn't have some lewd jokes???)

Although, I think I understand why Hamlet delays, and it's not because he's a wimp. I think he is simply confused. A ghost claiming to be his dad tells him to kill his uncle. I don't think I would have jumped right on that. It really was a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't situation. If Hamlet kills his uncle, and he was innocent, Hamlet screws himself over. But if he doesn't kill his uncle, he's also screwed. I don't blame the guy for waiting! That's a confusing, difficult situation!!!

The World is Too Much With Us

Since I just did my presentation on this poem, I figured I'd recap it for all of you. William Wordsworth was ™born on April 7, 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumbria, England. He studied at St. John's College in Cambridge, and came into contact with the French Revolution. He eventually died on April 23, 1850.


™Wordsworth is highlighting the fact that we have nature in abundance but don’t appreciate it, and have given nature up for technology. ™He claims we need to pay attention because we are out of tune with nature itself. ™The phrase the world is "too much with us" implies that it has gotten too big for us to handle. ™It is now possible for us to spend all of our time "getting and spending.“ ™The line, "For this, for everything we are out of tune" implies that man is out of tune with nature, and unable to live in harmony with the world around him
™The phrase "sleeping flowers" describes how nature is being overrun unknowingly .Such advancements come with a heavy price, at least according to the speaker of the poem.

Wordsworth wrote this poem ™during the Industrial Revolution, when there was  far ™more technology and  far less time spent out enjoying nature. ™People had/have less appreciation for the natural world and take it for granted, even to this day. 

A Rose for Emily

The title of "A Rose for Emily" had me beyond confused. In the story, there was a small town in the South where there was a woman, Miss Emily, who was supposed to be part of the "old south". Anyway, she falls for a guy named Homer, and eventually, he goes into Emily's house. Once Emily dies, they go into an upstairs bedroom and there was Homer's rotting body.
So, this is where I got confused. What did the title mean? There were no roses in the story. So, I started thinking. Roses generally symbolize love. Emily was kind of old when she met Homer. The neighbors all thought she would be a spinster. So, perhaps the rose in the title was to symbolize that there was one love, or rose, for Emily. This could be why she kills Homer, in the end. She loves him, and he loved her (I thought anyway). Emily doesn't want to give up Homer. She she never has him buried. She eventually, I think, realizes that he isn't really there anymore (he's dead, hello) and that leads to her boarding up the room.

The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket

This story by Yasunari Kawabata I expected to be like an Aesop's fable. However, I was delighted to be wrong. This story is capable of being both heart-warming and poignant. The ending paragraphs, where the narrator addresses a future version of Fujio, both are uplifting and depressing. The narrator implies that Fujio will only find a world of grasshoppers and forget that there are bell crickets in the world. The narrator hopes Fujio will remember the girl he gave a bell cricket to.
So, I figured there had to be some type of symbolize with the cricket and the bell cricket. So I did a little research. A grasshopper symbolizes a great leap in happiness or faith. For Fujio and Kiyoko, the finding of the grasshopper might lead to a great period of happiness for the two of them. The bell cricket ,however, represents courage. If the two of them have the courage to try and make something out of their little interaction, they could find great happiness. grasshoppers bell cricket

grasshopper

bell cricket

The Lady with the Dog

"The Lady with the Dog", by Anton Chekhov was by far my favorite story we've read this far. The characters were both a little despicable (both cheating on their spouses) but I enjoyed the language of the story. It seemed to me that the story would make a fantastic movie. It just had the kind of settings and  plot line that could eventually make it an Oscar winner.
The story reminded me of an actual novel that I read, "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain. The novel follows the story of Hadley, who starts the novel a spinster but ends up wearing the novelist Ernest Hemingway. The novel was written very similarly to "The Lady with the Dog" stylistically. The characters also seemed very similar. Dmitri was very similar to the novel's interpretation of Hemingway. So, if you liked "The Lady with the Dog" you would also probably enjoy "The Paris Wife". A quick synopsis of the book

Hills Like White Elepants

The short story "Hills Like White Elephants", by Ernest Hemingway had me beyond confused. I didn't understand the main conflict of the story until I read it through a second time. The characters never explicitly say what their troubles are. They speak of it in vague terms, that keep the reader guessing. I took the white elephants line "''They look like white elephants,' she said" (pg 115), to mean an actual baby bump. Hills are round, like a baby bump, and most women keep them covered, which would make them pale. The man says he's never seen one and the woman responds that he wouldn't have. This ultimately means that he would never have seen her baby bump because they're going to be getting rid of the baby.
The line about absinthe "Especially all the things you've waited so long for, like absinthe." (pg 115) was also confusing. I understand this was written at a time when it wasn't understood that drinking was bad for developing fetuses. But what did absinthe have to do with anything? So I did a little research. It is believed that her line is her trying to bring up her pregnancy subtlety. She's saying that she doesn't like the taste of the drink the man ordered for her, just as she doesn't really like being pregnant. The man understands what she's trying to do so he tells her to be quite. The licorice, a.k.a. the color black, and the white of the hills symbolize the difference between sorrow and joy. The bitterness of the absinthe is ironic.      http://www.csus.edu/indiv/m/maddendw/Hem_form.pdf

20/20

The short story "20/20" by Linda Brewer, recounts the tale of Ruthie and Bill as they travel cross-country. Throughout the story, Ruthie sees things that aren't there, according to Bill. This could be because she actually had bad eyesight. I recently got my first pair of glasses. I was ridiculously annoyed. I'm eighteen and never had a pair before in my life. I didn't want them now. But apparently, they're necessary for driving and stuff (who knew?). They have been a big adjustment for me. I am constantly leaving them places, or getting into the shower with them still on. However, I can understand how Ruthie feels. The world looked much more interesting when I couldn't really see it.

A picture of me before I got my glasses.