Hamlet: Gossip Girl Style

            I think that it would be very fun to imagine what the play Hamlet would be like if it took place in a Gossip Girl setting. There are many similar themes, characters, and ideas that relate Hamlet to Gossip Girl which would be fun to explore. I think that they could relate because in the play Hamlet, he and his family have a very high social status because they are royal which is much like some of the characters in Gossip Girl. Denmark is like the equivalent of the New York in Gossip Girl. The people with a high status are the ones living in the Upper East Side. Hamlet would be a part of the Upper East Side and live an extremely privileged life. He and his family would have a very high status, which relates to their royal status in the play. Hamlet would be Chuck Bass and King Hamlet would be like a better version of Bart Bass. They are in general a very successful family with an extremely high status.  After Bart’s death, Jack Bass (Bart’s brother) wants to take over Bass Industries and goes to many extreme measures to get what he wants. King Claudius would be similar to a character like Jack Bass.

            If I were to stage Act 3, Scene 2 of Hamlet in a Gossip Girl and modern New York setting, I would have Hamlet be a privileged kid living a rich and fortunate life. He would be focusing on his education, and his father would be in control of a large company, which is why their family is so wealthy. Suddenly his father dies, and he is left to take over the company, but his uncle wants to take over the company as well. His uncle goes to many extremes to try to take over the company and sees Hamlet as a threat. Hamlet finds out that his uncle killed his father with the intentions of taking over the company and tries to get revenge on his uncle. 

            In the actual scene, Hamlet comes up with a plan to put on a play to try to get Claudius to feel so guilty about what he has done that he has to confess. I would keep the intentions of Hamlet’s plan, but change it to something more modern. I would make this more like sabotage and more of a take down by having Hamlet anonymously spread and leek (onto the internet) what his uncle has done to try to cause controversy and make sure that his uncle cannot take over the company.

           

"To Be or Not To Be"

These are two different versions of Hamlet's "To Be or Not To Be" soliloquy: 

Hamlet portrayed by Ethan Hawke:

Hamlet portrayed by Kenneth Branagh:

            In the first video, Ethan Hawke plays Hamlet. I think that this is a decent portrayal of Hamlet because it is very different than what is expected. This version was interesting because the soliloquy started off in his head, and during the middle, he began to actually speak. I think this was a unique choice because sometimes when we are talking to ourselves, the thoughts are in are heads. Other times, we talk to ourselves out loud. Even though I thought that it was very interesting to watch, I disagree with some of the choices that the director made. I think that it was strange for Hamlet to just be casually walking around and talking in a video store because the content in his soliloquy is a very serious topic. It seemed to me as if he doesn’t care as much as he should. “To be or not to be” is referring to whether or not he should kill himself, and in my opinion, it did not seem like he was taking the topic seriously.

            I preferred the second portrayal of Hamlet, and I think that Branagh did the soliloquy justice, especially in comparison to Hawke. I really liked how it was filmed with Hamlet in the mirror, and I thought that he did a better job in trying to show the severity of the situation and how Hamlet feels. Hamlet is going back and forth trying to decide whether to kill himself or not. Branagh does a great job showing how serious Hamlet is about the situation and how his thoughts about killing himself are an actual possibility. I thought that the ending of the soliloquy was great because he pulls out a dagger. I read this as a sign of how close he is to killing himself. He pulls out the dagger to show us how close to suicide he really is and how he does not want to deal with the pain and suffering that he is currently experiencing.

            I liked the second video more because I thought that Branagh did a better job emphasizing the point and key topic of the soliloquy. It was a more realistic and believable portrayal of Hamlet’s soliloquy than Hawke’s. 

Revised "Miniver Cheevy" Introduction

Original:

      Edwin Arlington Robinson uses the character Miniver Cheevy to show that people are always going to have challenges in their life, but the best way of handling these situations is to accept them, so we can receive positive results. He uses characterization to prove that issues in life should be embraced, and people should live in the present instead of dreaming about the past. Certain things cannot be controlled, and we should not try to change them. In the poem “Miniver Cheevy”, Edwin Arlington Robinson depicts Miniver Cheevy as a child reminiscing about life in a different time period, to send his readers a message about living in the present and adjusting to situations we have no control over.

Revised:

Edwin Arlington Robinson uses the character Miniver Cheevy to show that people always have challenges, but we should try to create our own happiness. Robinson depicts Miniver as child who wishes he were never born, then talks how Miniver wants to live in another time. To close the poem, Robinson portrays Miniver as someone who will continue to pity and make himself miserable. In the poem “Miniver Cheevy”, Robinson depicts Miniver Cheevy as a child who reminisces about another life, to show us that we should live in the present and adjust to the situations we have no control over.

Portrayals of Ophelia in Hamlet

While reading Act 1, Scene 3 of “Hamlet”, I made my first impression of Ophelia. My first impression of Ophelia is that she respects her brother, father, and their opinions, but at the same time, she has opinions of her own. Many people view Ophelia as a very mild character, who has no say and listens to the people above her. In my opinion, I think that Ophelia actually has some strong opinions, and despite how her father and brother are warning her about Hamlet, she respects their thoughts but keeps what she wants in mind. She is still listening to what they say, but she does not live her life and make all of her personal decisions solely based on what they think.  Portrayals of Ophelia in Hamlet

After watching the portrayal of Ophelia by Mariah Gale in the movie Hamlet, I was pleased, but also disappointed by the performance. I think that she did a great job showing that Ophelia is actually opinionated, especially when she discusses how Laertes is being somewhat hypocritical because he is being selfish and leaving to go to France. When she says “Do not, as some ungracious pastors do/Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven/Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine/Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads/And recks not his own rede (1.3.51-55), I think it was a little too over the top. Ophelia has her opinions about what to do, but based on my observations and impression of Ophelia, she would still listen and respect what her family is saying. Instead, the actress, from the very beginning of the scene, made it obvious that she did not care about what her family is saying, and she used a sarcastic tone throughout the whole scene.

I think that in Hamlet, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, Helena Bonham Carter did a great job of portraying Ophelia. Ophelia is a very hard character to portray because there is really no way to perfectly portray her; there is no right or wrong way. We do not have an exact understanding of her character, and everyone is going to have different opinions about how she should be played. I think that Carter did a great job of portraying Ophelia because she had a good balance of caring about what her family thinks and keeping in mind her own opinions. I could tell that she was still respecting their opinions about Hamlet, but at the same time, she also maintains her own thoughts about Hamlet. 

Claudius: King, Uncle, Father

            My initial impression of Claudius is that he is very self-centered, and he puts himself over anyone else. When he announces that he is marrying Gertrude, he makes it seem like he is doing it for Denmark, but the truth is that he is doing it for himself. He is not marrying her because he feels like it is the right thing to do for the people of Denmark. He is marrying her because he wants to marry her, and it is going to make him happier. Even though he does not always consider other people’s feelings and opinions before his, he does not strike me as a horrible leader. He is sending Cornelius and Voltimand to Norway with the intention of trying to solve a problem and create safety and protection for the people.

            Claudius is Hamlet’s uncle and father now because he has now married Hamlet’s mom, Gertrude. In my opinion, he does not genuinely care about the well-being and happiness of Hamlet, and he is more concerned about using Hamlet to help himself. He tells Hamlet “For your intent/In going back to school in Wittenberg/It is most retrograde to our desire/And we beseech you, bend you to remain/Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye” (1.2.116-120). He is disregarding what Hamlet wants to do because he is concerned about his opinions on what Hamlet should do. He wants Hamlet to stay at court because he is the closest to the throne, not because he wants Hamlet to be happy.

In addition, Claudius wants Hamlet to, in a way, try to forget about the death of his father, move on, and start thinking of him as his father. He is being inconsiderate of Hamlet’s feelings and tells Hamlet “to persever/In obstinate condolement is a course/Of impious stubbornness” (1.2.96-98). He thinks that Hamlet is being stubborn because he is not forgetting about his father’s death, but he is ignoring the fact that it has only been one month since his father passed away. One month is not enough time for Hamlet to recover from his father’s death, and Claudius is ignoring the sorrow that Hamlet feels towards his death. It has only been one month, and he expects Hamlet to somehow move on from the pain and sadness that he is experiencing. If Claudius genuinely cared about Hamlet, he would give him the time that he needs to move on and try to make it easy on him, but instead he pressures him to continue on with his life and makes it harder on him by marrying his mom.