journal 26: madness
What I found to be important in act 2 was the interaction between Hamlet and Polonius. This is the first scene where the reader/viewer gets a feel for the madness that infects the consciousness of Hamlet. He is betrayed by his uncle and mother and in this scene he has to keep the truth within himself, bottled up, though he does a poor job of bottling and his emotions seem to overflow in his conversation with Polonius. Luckily Polonius overlooks Hamlets true meaning and takes it for love-sickness, though Polonius does understand that there is some deeper meaning behind the words of hamlet “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t” he doesn’t grasp the meaning.
Hamlet has something of an advantage as his adversaries do not yet know of Hamlets knowledge of the murder. He is all the more distraught after hearing the player’s speech filled with such passion of long dead people and he is uncertain how to proceed in his own life with more just conditions. The inner turmoil of Hamlet is very prominent giving rise the theme of how uncertainty will led to his downfall.
Hamlet does have the upper
Hamlet does have the upper hand. And he uses it well. The interactions between Hamlet and Ophelia later do make you wonder what happened to them before. Maybe I was tired, but some of the scenes seem disjoint at times. It'll be interesting to see how it all pans out.
Renee
So much two-facedness
Everything between Hamlet and Ophelia and her dad had me confused, to be hones. I mean, it's obvious he likes her, and from the plays we saw today, mostly the last, she seem rather fond too. Yet she goes to her dad with all this information about Hamlet and doesn't put up much of a fight when he puts the nix on their relationship.
It also seems that her dad isnt a big Hamlet fan, but plays it off to others as wanting to save Hammy for a royal pairing.
Erin Kay Schulz
Confusing relationships
I really didn't get what they exactly thought of each other. What seemed weird to me was the inconsistency of some of the characters. First Orphelia is in love with Hamlet, then she starts telling her father all of this. Then she seems crushed when Hamlet refutes her. Then we have her father, who seems to not want his daughter to return Hamlets love. Then he seems to want to use her to get closer to the royal family. Then he gets killed, so I guess he doesn't matter as much. I have had the hardest time figuring out what Hamlet is all about. I don't really know anything about his motives except to avenge his father's death. Otherwise, I am still confused.
interesting
It is very confusing the first time through, I suggest sparknotes for clarity on the plot. And it almost seems a matter of opinion whether Ophelia is really into him or not because in the 2nd version we watched today she was deffinitely into Hamlet and very distaught at having to somewhat betray him. When i read it the first time through i almost got the feeling that she could be having second thoughts about it. idk i think theres more to ophelia than seems to eye.
Ophelia
I don't really trust that Ophelia chick, let me tell you. I mean, I don't care if I had strict fatherly obedience law thing, I wouldn't rat out all of what me and my lover are doing. I think she honestly couldn't care less about what happens to their relationship.
(For Erina and Renee: ♪Ophelia♪)
*Tina
then and now
I think that we like to think that if we were involved in a situation back then, we would act as we would now, but that's not a reasonable approach to take. Odds are much more likely that we would have behaved as the context called for. A woman would obey her father. Polonious wants to protect Ophelia for a good marriage. That's what a counselor to the king would do. He would know that Hamlet would not be free to marry the daughter of an adviser. Hamlet would be expected to marry some member of royalty, to somehow cement some political relationship. Love wouldn't matter. And since Ophelia would need to retain her virginity, or at least the appearance of it, her dalliance with Hamlet in the Brannagh version could very well be her life-long undoing. Bradley
Bradley