It looks like the final scene has more to it than just Romeo and Juliet dying. There are a few more characters involved. What do you all think we should do?
Also, maybe it would be good, for those of us who are able to, to get together to practice this weekend a bit. Just so we can have more than just one run through before Monday. Would anyone be up for that?

Well, I think this act has "The End is Near" written all over it. Orphelia has already kicked the bucket, and I don't think she will be the last. And I really don't know how well this duel that they have set will work either. The plan is only to kill Hamlet, but I don't see only one more person dying before this play concludes. Everything in this play seems to be narrowing down, as one by one characters are eliminated. And I also don't know how this attack on "Poland" will turn out. I have a feeling that they aren't planning on just passing through Denmark.

I'm having a hard time grasping the idea that the way the fourth act happened is the way it had to happen. There are some things that happened because of the third act. For example, it makes sense that Hamlet had to come back because in the third act, they plotted to make him leave for England. It also follows that Ophelia drowns herself due to the grief from events that occurred in the previous act. However, I'm not completely convinced that everything happened because it had to. There was a lot of room for things to go differently.

Unraveling is the perfect word to describe what is happening to Hamlet and the others around him in act four. Is everyone familiar with a Rube Goldberg (sp?) machine?

Even though I have heard about the end of this play, these three acts really give you the feeling that a lot of people are going to die. Killing Polonius can only bring more trouble. Not only did he kill one of the king's top people, but it was Ophelia's father. He had already kind of ruined that, but I think this will only make things worse. As for his mother, I think that they only end for her is death. She seemed to realize that marrying her brother in law was a really bad idea. And as for Hamlet, I really don't think he enjoys living anyway.

Throughout act three, I see the action spiralling out of the control of any one character.
Near the beginning of the act, Ophelia and Hamlet have a falling out... Ophelia attempts to give back Hamlet's tokens of love, and Hamlet gives contradictory messages about never having loved her. This interaction kind of hints at the way things are going to end for the two of them.

(I read the whole play so spoilers are involved)

Honestly, what was running through my mind was that Hamlet was getting progressively more and more annoying and that it really was only a matter of time before someone decided to kill him. I was reminded of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "He's not quite dead!". Hamlet's death was only a matter of time (and it took him long enough).

The Comedy of Errors is a comedy which should rely heavily on audience participation. In a representational interpretation I feel like the audience would consider The Comedy of Errors less of a comedy and find it more serious than intended. The Comedy of Errors relies heavily on the audiences knowledge of who the characters are in order to make the play a comedy.

So, after watching ACT Two yesterday in class, I figured I would write my journal on the differences between the two movies and how the charcters are presented. The play is written that whenb Hamlet enters the stage reading, he is "madly attired." However, it was only in Mel Gibson's version in which Hamlet was strangely dressed (He was missing his boot). In my opinion I also believe that his version better suited this particular act than the other movie did.

I don't know if I'm supposed to admit this in a literature class, but I know the basic story of Hamlet because one time they did it on The Simpsons. I hate to admit, that that has been helping me figure out the plot line in the book. Act III is brilliant. I believe Shakespeare is really trying to show the power that theatre can have by having the actors show the King his wrongs. I wish I knew the cultural context because it seems as though Shakespeare could be using this play to reinforce something like Richard II and its political point.