Nope, Maybe He Isn't Brilliant

T.S. Eliot seems pretty intelligent. A poet, playwrite, literary critic, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, I am sure he knows his stuff. So, when he says "which Shakespeare did not understand himself" (Hamlet and His Problems), I kind of, sort of, want to jump up and down shouting yes! I am right! All along, I have said that Shakespeare doesn't exactly seem too amazing. Sure, he has some original plays, but so? Barney is pretty original. Who thinks of a singing purple dinosaur that teaches kids life lessons? But does that make the directors of the show honored members of the genius club? I don't think so.

Shakespeare was probably just some ordinary guy who wanted to make his mark on the world, or even more likely, was just trying to earn a bit of money. So, he made up some plays, and viola! He becomes super known and popular.

But does that mean that Shakespeare created a whole bunch of little secrets to put in his plays? Possibly not. It could be that things just happened coincidentally, and all of those literary geeks had to over look the obvious to find the "hidden meaning". For example, if Shakespeare has one character say "the sky is blue", all of a sudden, everyone is going crazy, and "deep reading" the phrase. It could mean that the guy is depressed, oh wait! He is probably in love, oooh! Even better, he is pregnant.

Obviously I am exagerating just a little bit (okay, alot) and I know that there really are very smart people out there, who write stuff with hidden meanings. But what if some of these Literary geniuses actually didn't really mean what everyone deep reads through their pieces? Couldn't there be some that just meant there works to be taken literally? Maybe, maybe not.

Vocabulary While Speaking of Hamlet

The different opinions of Derek Jacobi, Freud and T.S. Eliot are given in their own works, while interpreting the tragic play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. Although these three men have different ideas concerning the play, they all use their intense vocabulary skills to get across their feelings and portray their point of view. Following are a few words used, their definitions, and pictures to tie them to.

Vocabulary

stratification: the building up of layers

"critics have failed in their "interpretation" of Hamlet by ignoring what ought to be very obvious: that Hamlet is a stratification, that it represents the efforts of a series of men, each making what he could out of the work of his predecessors" (Hamlet and His Problems by T.S. Eliot).

Vicarious: experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions of another person.

"These minds often find in Hamlet a vicarious existence for their own artistic realization" (Hamlet and His Problems by T.S. Eliot).

Buffoonery: behavior that is ridiculous but amusing.

"In the character Hamlet it is the buffoonery of an emotion which can find no outlet in action" (Hamlet and His Problems by T.S. Eliot).

Neurasthenia: a psycho-patholigical term to describe a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headache, neuralgia, and depression

"According to another conception, the poet has endeavored to portray a morbid, irresolute character, on the verge of neurasthenia" (Freud).

Arras: a rich tapestry
"Once upon a sudden burst of outrage, when he stabs the eavesdropper behind the arras," (Freud).

Dreams

"Dreams", Hamlet says. During his soliloquoy, he focuses on three things: Sleep, death, and dreams. Sleep - because he is tired, and obviously needs some rest. Death - probably because he is sort of overwhelmed with his dad asking him to take revenge on his uncle. But dreams? What could dreams mean for him? What would Hamlet dream about?

Maybe Hamlet is talking about the dreams which present themselves while you are sleeping. In that case, he might just be referring to the whole sleep issue again. However, if he means dreams as in 'my goal in life' or 'this is what I want to do someday', then that still doesn't lead me anywhere. Sleeping dreams would probably just be a reoccurance of the whole revenge bit, and for his ultimate dream, or goal in life, what could that possibly be? We know that he doesn't really want to kill the uncle (or else he would have done it by now). It could be that he wants to just live happily ever after with Ophelia. Or, that he dreams of someday as King. But to tell you the truth, I can't really picture him "dreaming" of doing anything. Honestly, I think that he says "dream" with a voice of someone who will doesn't have a dream. One who doesn't want life to go on, sees nothing for himself in the future, nothing to look forward to.

So...

He most likely will commit suicide at the end of the play, seeing as he has no initiative to do anything in the days to come.

Death

Death.

What a mystery.

Where do you go after death?

What will it be like after death?

How do you cope with the death of a loved one?

All of these questions, and no one can answer them for certain.

Hamlet is faced with death. It stares him in the face. He has to acknowledge it now, now that his father is gone. But what is death? He says the word with the reverance of something so mighty that its concept is not tangible.

He asks what dreams come with the sleep of death.

Sleeping Beauty

Sleep. Something we could all use a little bit more of. It is that wonderful time between when the sun goes down and comes up, where we close our eyes, and our bodies have to do nothing but keep breathing in and out. Our minds can relax, and can go to whichever part of thought that they want. It is during this time that we can refule, take a break from our complex lives and float into the land of fantasy.

Hamlet says "to sleep". He says this with his eyes closed, and a lustful sigh. Apparently, he needs a bit more sleep. Obviously showing that he has been too busy to sleep, too many thoughts going on in his mind to take a break.

He needs his beauty sleep; maybe if he were to get this sleep, he would be able to think more clearly, and feel less stressed out, resulting in less of the dark contemplation of death, and of his want to -- kill someone.

He should start taking some lessons from Sleeping Beauty. All he needs is for some witch to cast a spell on him so that he can fall into a deep sleep, and eventually be rescued by an overly beautiful person who will take care of all of his troubles.

Wouldn't it be nice to live in a fairy tale?

Big Hutch Can Relate Much... But Can We?

As I listened to the experience of prisoners who acted out Hamlet, I immediatley felt empathy for Big Hutch. His gravely voice, and the way he spoke, made you feel the intensity of his character. This was obviously a man who was in prison for a reason. When he was criticizing the play, and asking why Hamlet kept second guessing his decision to kill his uncle, he told us basically why he was in prison, for murdering the rapist of his daughter. His story isn't out of the usual for the other prisoners. They are all dangerous people, people you wouldn't really want to associate with. People who share barely anything in common with us... the "normal" people. But that is why they can associate so well with Hamlet, and the characters in Hamlet. Those fictional characters hold so many likenesses with the prisoners, that it lets the prisoners interpret them, and relate to them, in such a different way then us mere "normal people" could ever do. And, because of this insight that they hold, they can portray such a different image of Hamlet that we could ever completely understand.
That made me look at my own experience with Hamlet. Let me first say that I am completely opposed to what the uncle did, obviously it was wrong - murder generally is. But why fight fire with fire? Two wrongs don't ever make a right. So what would killing the uncle do for Hamlet? Nothing. Just dirty his own hands. Therefore, I cannot understand Hamlet's actions at all. How can someone who has not experienced something similar to these characters interpret the play? If you are completely naive in a subject like this, how can you relate to the characters? Can I really compare my strong feelings - a failed test, my dog swallowing a sock - to those of Hamlet's? Which would be the murder of his father? I don't really think so. The events that take place in my life are so un-similar to those that take place in Hamlets, that I cannot relate at all, and am left to understand the play with the little knowledge of murder that I have from other movies and books.

Passive vs. Active (+ examples of both)

Is the picture posted below correct in stating that active is better than passive? Follow this link in order to find out!
The following are sentences that are first in passive voice, and then followed by active voice.

1. The statue is being visited by hundreds of tourists every year.

Hundreds of toursists visit the statue every year.

2. My books were stolen by someone yesterday.

Someone stole my books yesterday.

3. These books were left in the classroom by a careless student.

A student carelessly left these books in the classroom.

4. Coffee is raised in many parts of Hawaii by plantation workers.

Plantation workers raise coffee in many parts of Hawaii.

5. The house had been broken into by someone while the owners were on vacation.

Someone broke into the house while the owners were on vacation.

6. A woman was being carried down the stairs by a very strong firefighter.

A very strong firefighter carried a woman down the stairs.

7. The streets around the fire had been blocked off by the police.

The police blocked off the streets around the fire.

8. Have you seen the new movie that was directed by Ron Howard?

Have you seen Ron Howard's new movie?

9. My car is in the garage being fixed by a dubious mechanic.

A dubious mechanic is fixing my car in the garage.

10. A great deal of our oil will have been exported to other countries by our government.

Our government will have exported a great deal of our oil to other countries

Repiticion (accent on the o) In the Play of Mi Vida

In Krapp's Last Tape, the poor old man obviously is a little bit... disturbed? It seems to be obvious that this is not the first time that he goes through the cycle of eating bananas, drinking, listening to previously recorded tapes, and then recording a new edition. Hence why it is a cycle, or, to put the term loosely, a schedule. It is normal behaviour - for him - to eat more than one banana, right after the last one. It is normal behaviour - for him - to listen to a recording of his own voice, telling his own story. And this made me ponder a very philosophical question (well, I think it is): does the human being think anything is 'normal' as long as you do it often, and it becomes natural, or are brought up doing it, and that is natural as well?

Well, I started thinking and realized that this could very well be the case. My friends in Germany eat horse, no problem at all, it's delicious meat that comes from an animal. Dip it into mustard, and it makes quite a good substitution if there are no Brat Wursts around.

Also, some friends from Colombia put cheese into their hot-chocolate. Personally, I find that to be absolutely disgusting. Cheese? In your hot-chocolate?! Gross! I thought, but then realized, if I had been brought up doing that, would I find it gross? Most likely not, just as if I had been brought up sleeping in a tent, it would be the normal for me, and therefore my way of life.

So, getting a little bit deeper, if people are brought up around drinking, drug abuse, physical abuse, it is 'normal' for them. They believe that that is the way of life, poor things. Just how I think that everyone brushes their hair right before going to bed, sings in the shower, worries about college, and has to babysit their little siblings, while trying to decide if their dog really needs a bath, or can wait one more week. (And also liking google better than whatever this ridiculous bing thing is, getting frustrated that everyone stares at my hair because they have never seen a blonde head before, and disliking the fact that I have now started calling people "sir" and "miss" without adding their last name to it.)

It is difficult to realize that everyone has different backgrounds, and that your way of life is not the only way. And also, to realize that anything that is out of the ordinary, something that you have never done, is not a wrong or weird way of doing something. It is simply different from what you are used to.

So, getting back to Krapp. Do I think that his little schedule is different from mine? Absolutely. Unhealthy, and unbeneficial for life? Definitely. But does Krapp necessarily think that? No. Probably not. And also, he is a fictional character who was being acted out by an actor, with a script as a guideline.

And then that got me thinking. Am I an actress? Of course not in the actual sense, I can barely talk to one person without a natural pinkness creeping itself across my face, much less act out a different person's words and actions in front of a bunch of people! But, when I think about it, I am kind of given a "script" and told to "interpret" it and do the best I can to make it believable. The script would be the obligation to go to school, do outside activities, be a member of my family, pretty much the script of "obligations of a teenager in the world of 2010". But then I have the option to "interpret" my "lines" the way I want to. Just like an actor. I can be a good student, or a bad student, I could do one or a hundred activities, I could go all emo and not speak to my family, or I could be one of those gushy people who can't seem to stop gushing about how cute her little brother was when he said "Gimee dat wight now, peeeeez!" And subconsciously, I am acting out a lifestyle that my parents impose upon me. Did I just wake up one day and say, "I want to get good grades and go to college"? No. My parents from the beginning gave me that mind set. Of course, everyone is different, and not everyone has this same experience (previous paragraph etc.).

Anyways, instead of going on and on forever and ever, I guess that I should just conclude that I need to not be so quick to judge, in other words have a more open mind to things. For example, with the unhappy and depressing books that we have to read, I just need to take a deep breath, and try to see where the author was coming from.

Even if I prefer the repitition in the play of mi vida.

And to continue with this repitition, I am going to place a picture below this blog. Most likely of something happy.