The Rainbow- Prose Passage Blog Post #20

         Lindsay Mccalmont graded by essay and awarded it a 6. With the rubric in mind, Lindsay said she believed that my essay scored a high 6  because my writing provided a "sustained, competent reading of the passage" and "a reasonable analysis" of the prose passage. She said believed that I had good control on my writing and was very consistent on characterizing the woman's situation. I also "referred to the text for support" of my claims. What I could have improved on in my essay was introducing more literary devices in my thesis and ones that supported the woman's position more. Lindsay said she thought that I focused more on the woman's situation and feelings than on the literary devices and although I didn't list them all in my thesis I did however try to include others throughout my essay. I was surprised Lindsay awarded me a 6 because I wasn't as confident with my interpretation and literary devices. After reading the rubric and discussing the essay in class, I feel like I was on the right track but there was a lot of things that I missed in the passage and did not address, like some essential devices.

        While reading the passage, I noticed that the word "know" was repeated multiple times as well as references to knowledge or questioning  I attempted at including this in my writing but I wasn't sure how to interpret it as well as how we talked about later in class. We also discussed more about how knowledge supported the woman's position and her feelings towards it, which led to out introduction into self-self-assertation. I had about this pyramid a bit but never would have thought to relate it to the passage. Now I think that I could have used this complexity to better elaborate on some of the ideas that I started to propose in my body paragraph and many people could have related better to the passage and my thesis. 

          Looking back on what I wrote and from our class discussion, I realize that there were some better literary devices that I could have identified and explained, some even crucial to the passage. One of the devices that I brought up was parallelism which I think was solid but I could have been more specific as to what kind of  parallelism was used. I also think there was more than one parallelism which I could have alluded to to strengthen my thesis better. In my essay, I also said that the contrast from a man and a woman as a kind of imagery. I never really included contrast in my thesis but it I did mention it later in my essay. With the pressure of time I feel like I may have somewhat ignored the importance the complexity of the passage and couldn't really find a way to form a concise thesis about it. I think in the future I should do a better job at "working the prompt" to help me lead myself to a better conclusion of the passage's importance.

         A literary device I did mention correctly was repetition. Lawrence used a lot of repetition between the words knowledge and blood, or reference to these two words. He used this to emphasize the woman's dissatisfaction of her position and her desire to know how she got here and how she could get out of it. I think repetition is a great literary device that is easy to point out but it is hard to find the complexity accomplished by using the device. I feel like I lacked in that a little but am ready to improve on that. Overall, I believe that I had the right general idea in my essay but could have incorporated some more important literary devices that I noticed into my writing to support my thesis better and answer all of the prompt and not only part of it. 

Final Portafolio Reflection #19

1. This trimester, I put the most time into the American Drama Assignment. My group was great because from the beginning we agreed on the play in less than two minutes and were content with it, our group was mixed with girls and boys so it was fun and hardworking, we all compromised our time to fit each others schedule so we could get the most work done, we split up the work evenly and overall the play and whole assignment went really well. Everyone in my group put in 100% effort into getting the project done to the best of our abilities. The strengths of our project ended up being our filming, acting, editing and how we used mis en scene techniques to convey meaning in each shot. It was lots of fun and very interesting because we were able to turn a very creepy and old play, The Glass Menagerie, into a funny and modern version of Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

          The project that I am most proud of how it turned out was my group's my Creative Summer Assignment because I feel like I was able to really convey the importance of a book I really enjoyed. From the beginning I loved that we were able to choose our own book to read over the summer which made the experience ten times better, which is hard to say for having to do homework over the summer. The White Tiger was culturally appealing and overall very interesting for someone like me who loves to explore and learn about new cultures. I was intrigued by how the book was an epistolary novel and I really tried to bring out the greatness of the book with my creative project. I believe I was able to really portray really well what Arivand Adiga, the author, was trying to showcase, which was the corruptness of his home country, India. There have been several movies about India and the harshness that comes with a third world country, like Slumdog Millionaire, but this story was very different for me and taught be different things than the other movies had. I was very happy with my work on the project and my grade as well because I put a lot of effort in not just showcasing one symbolism on the book but all of the symbolisms, which derived form the most important symbolism of animal imagery.

 2. In class this trimester, I feel that, as I grew more confident with the material. At first I was intimidated with the poetry we were learning and all the presentations we creating but now I feel much more confident about next trimester and the AP English exam. From the beginning, I did all of the assignments that I was asked to do and kept my blog updated. I learned the most I could from all the presentations we did and constantly looked back at others people’s blogs and their presentations. The presentations for me were what really build my confidence because I felt so much more knowledgeable about famous myths, fairytales, and literary periods that will surely come back up in my life.

          I might not have asked as many questions as I could have or really pitched in on class conversations but I took notes on most of those conversations and paid attention because I sometimes I felt intimidated with other peoples answers but I knew to take advantage of them. I feel like I really learned a lot on how to build a purposeful thesis that could really build my essay well. Writing a thesis is something that I really started working on since AP Comp but I think this class’s essays were different that AP Comp’s so it taught me how to write thesis that fit those kinds of essays. Now I know that to really write a great a thesis I need to first of all understand everything that the prompt is asking me to analyze and in return answer it all on my thesis. In effect, I struggle with attempting to not make the thesis too wordy while I try to answer everything the prompt is asking of me.

 3. Looking back on the measurable goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the trimester, it is evident that I have improved greatly. On the first practice AP test that we took, I received a 50%. On the practice AP test that we took for our Unit 1 test, before test corrections I got a 65%. On the practice AP test that we took for our final exam, before test corrections I got a 69%. In just one trimester, my performance on the practice AP exams has improved by 19%! And I still have almost all of second trimester to improve as well. If I show as much improvement next trimester that I did this trimester, then a reasonable goal would be to get around an 87% on the second trimester final exam which is a great score to go into the real AP test with. The important thing for me will be that since I have AP Lit again second trimester it will be essential for me to keep studying and keep going back to my blog and my peer’s blog.

           On the first practice test I really had no idea the difference between Petrarchan or Shakespeare format of a poem but now I do. Although, I do feel like I need to keep reviewing the different things that each structure includes like how many couplets or quatrains. Another thing is that I need to improve on being able to narrow down the answers to a 50/50 chance because I usually struggle between at least three out of the five questions, which does not make me confident at all. I do believe I have improved a lot on knowing the differences between metaphors and the actual names for each. I do struggle with the vocab on the exams, which is just a matter for me getting used to the exams. I will for sure take practices exams either online or on the 5 steps workbook every once a month so that I feel more confident during the exam. Overall, I am proud of my progress in this class so far. I think that as of now, I am on a solid path to be able to achieve most of my goals by the time I take the AP exam.

Final Hamlet Essay Blog #18

Hamlet Blog Post #5

Ophelia's Funeral Song:

Cough Syrup- Young The Giant

Lyrics:

Life's too short to even care at all, oh
I'm losing my mind losing my mind losing control, oh oh

These fishes in the sea they're staring at me oh oh

Oh oh oh oh

A wet world aches for a beat of a drum
Oh

If I could find a way to see this straight
I'd run away

To some fortune that I, I should have found by now

I'm waiting for this cough syrup to come down, come down.

Life's too short to even care at all, oh
I'm coming up now coming up now out of the blue, oh
These zombies in the park they're looking for my heart
Oh oh oh oh

A dark world aches for a splash of the sun, oh 

oh

If I could find a way to see this straight
I'd run away

To some fortune that I, I should have found by now

And so I run now to the things they said could restore me
Restore life the way it should be
I'm waiting for this cough syrup to come down

Life's too short to even care at all, oh
I'm losing my mind losing my mind losing 

control, oh oh

If I could find a way to see this straight
I'd run away

To some fortune that I, I should have found by now

So I run now to the things they said could restore me
Restore life the way it should be
I'm waiting for this cough syrup to come down

One more spoon of cough syrup now (oh whoa) [x2]

Justification: 



I feel like this would be the perfect song for Ophelia's funeral because it is sad while at the same time has a bit of a lovely beat to her, which kind of defines her. I thought the lyrics fit really well because this sing has to do with committing suicide because the person doesn't care about life anymore. Cough syrup is meant to be the way they commit suicide. I thought the lyrics in which it says "I'm losing my mind…losing control" because she starts singing Well, God 'ild you! They say the owl was a baker's/ daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not/what we may be. God be at your table!/", which prove how she is slowly losing her mind and going mad (4.5.42-45). 

"These fishes in the sea they're staring at me" relate back to the reason Ophelia committed suicide since she was losing her mind about not having an option between all her men and how they controlled her. The line with the fishes made me think back to her drowning herself as told my Gertrude "So fast they follow; your sister's drown'd, Laertes."(5.7.187) and when she was thinking about it some fish were probably staring back at her and then she decided to be with the fish inside the pond. Gertrude described finding her as with "her clothes spread wide;/And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up"(5.7.187-205). This again reminded me back to the fish and and also her beauty. She was this creature that looks very beautiful and independent but deep down they just want to be loved and are kind of lost between being human or fish. She was lost between what to do and how to choose her men in her life. In the song it says "If I could find a way to see this straight I'd run away", and in Hamlet Ophelia was trying to run away from her status of being controlled by men and her only way of being to do that was to commit suicide, which I think is very sad. 

This song fits her situation and really describes the sadness behind all the craziness in her life. And so The lines in the song "And so I run now to the things they said could restore me/ Restore life the way it should be" reminds me of "something rotten in the state of Denmark" and especially in the royal family since it was all based on betrayal (1.4.90). The relationships between the family were most certainly lacking as the ghost told "The serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown,"(1.4.38-39).  Although Ophelia wasn't directly part of the royal family it all led to her demise since anything that happened to Hamlet affected her severely. Ophelia's madness was practically like her begging for things to go back to how they were when Prince Hamlet would be the rightful heir or better yet when King Hamlet was still alive but it wasn't going to be restored so all she could do was run away and like mentioned before the only way to run away from the problems was for her to commit suicide. 

Hamlet Blog Post #4

The whole castle in Elsinore mourns for dear Ophelia's death because even though she was mad they still all cared for her. Nobody really blamed her for being mad, since it was due due to her beloved father's abrupt passing, and so they still believed she was sane somewhere deep down. Yet, a gentleman named Peter Seng has found a reason behind her bawdy ballads. Ballads are often love songs and are formatted in quatrains.


           Although much of Ophelia's songs express the unjust terms of her father's death and burial such as when she sings, "He is dead and gone, at his head a grass-green turf, at his heels a stone" (4.5.30-32), she speaks of the cause of insanity as well. Seng directs the root cause for Ophelia's corruption back to Polonius and Laertes ruining her belief that every man is as he seems while trying to protect her. Laertes had told Ophelia that Hamlet's love for her was only, "A violet in the youth of primy nature, forward, not permenant- sweet, not lasting, the perfume and the suppliance of a minute; no more" (1.3.6-9). In reality Hamlet actually loves her and we ind that out during her burial. Ophelia tells Laertes of his cause in her downfall through her song when she sings, "false steward that stole his master's daughter" (4.167-168). According to Seng, "[Laertes] fails to recall that it was just such false lovers that he had once warned her against" because Laertes is so set on avenging his father's death and sister's madness.

         Ophelia was only acting upon the words from her father and brother that drove Hamlet to mistrust her. Seng says, "For indeed, she had believed Hamlet; and as it turns out, though tragically and too late, her trust was not misplaced" (Seng). Hamlet may have overreacted and in Ophelia's slight attempts of distrust towards him of her by commanding her to, "Get thee to a nunnery: why would thou be a breeder of sinners? (3.1.118, which drove part of her madness since she was obviously very confused by his feelings towards her. Because Ophelia lived only to please her father, brother, and Hamlet, she took Hamlet's cruel words to heart and expressed her hurt in her song when she sang, "For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy" (4.5.177). Seng believes that this is from a ballard from Robin Hood and that Ophelia is comparing herself to Maid Marian. It is well-known knowledge that Marian is a model of promiscuity. Although Ophelia was not promiscuous, she believes herself to be because Hamlet accused her of it in his anger and she was somehow promiscuous in the ways she threw herself onto Hamlet.

        Seng makes a good pony and provides a lot of the background of what is going on at Elsinore. He also seems to be an educated man as he uses elevated diction. Seng analyzes Ophelia's use of metaphors and symbolism to express how she feels and what she thinks over herself, her father's death, and her relationship with Hamlet. For example, she compares herself to Maid Marian from Robin Hood and also uses plants as symbols like rosemary to symbolize remembrance at weddings and funerals. One flaw that I can think of is that Ophelia may not know that Laertes took part in her downfall. She greets him happily as she sings to him, "I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died" (4.5175-176). By this, I would assume that she means that she would be happy to see him but her father's death has made her depressed, especially since her brother reminds her of her deceased father. It is so sad that only after her death we find out about Hamlet's true love when he admits, "I lov'd Ophelia: forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum," (6.1.216-218). Despite this, which I believed weakened his argument slightly, Seng has cleared up a lot of which has remained a mystery about Ophelia's end. She was just a typical girl who feel in love too deep and unfortbamutley was living in a time when men dictated, especially her life and because she couldn't find away to either please her men or get away from them, she decided to kill herself. It is a tragic love story in some ways and I think Seng strengthened that.

Hamlet Blog Post #3

Soliloquy Analysis

Imagery:

Referring to the uncertainty of death:

·         "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer/The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,/Or to take arms against a sea of troubles" (3.1.57-59).

· "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come/ when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,/ must give us pause" (3.1. 67-69).

· "But that the dread of something after death,/The undiscover'd country from whose bourn/No traveller returns, puzzles the will" (3.1.77-80).

· "Puzzles the will and makes us rather bare the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of?" (3.1.80-82)

Referring to the negative experiences of life:

·         "Suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take action against a sea of troubles"(3.1.58-59).

·         "The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks/That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation" (3.1.62-63).

·          "For who would bear the whips and scorns of time," (3.1.70)

·         "To grunt and sweat under a weary life," (3.1.77)

Appeals:

Pathos used to convince/motivate audience:

Hamlet appeals to the emotional interest of the audience by showing them the difficultly of the decision that he is trying to make:

· "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer/The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," (3.1.57-58)

· "For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,/Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely/The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,/The patient merit of th' unworthy takes," (3.1.70-74)

Ethos:

Hamlet establishes credibility with the audience when he shouts out with emotion so we can realize that although Hamlet seems to have control over is mad façade, he may not which establishes the honesty in his soliloquy:

· "And lose the name of action- soft you now!" (3.1.88)

Logos:

Hamlet uses logos by creating an opposition to his wish of death by contemplating the consequences of his actions:

· "But that to the dread of something after death, the undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of?" (31.78-82)

Hamlet uses logos to convince/motivate audience:

· "And makes us rather bear those ills we have/Than fly to others that we know not of?" (3.1.81-82)

Literary Devices:

•     Paradox: In the soliloquy, paradox appears in the form of an invalid argument. He describes how terrible and painful life is but he also considers the fact that his afterlife could be just as bad or worse so he would put up with life.

•     Parallelism: "Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, the insolence of office and the spurns" (3.1.71-73). It emphasizes the struggle in life that Hamlet faces.

• Synecdoche: Hamlet uses synecdoche to characterize and focus on the question that Hamlet is pondering.

• Tone: The tone of this speech is depressed because Hamlet is struggling with his emotions of sorrow and fear of death.

• Diction: Words like "whips", "scorns", "spurns", "dread", "oppressor", and "sicklied" to create the depressed mood.

• Metaphors:

Death is sleep: Hamlet compares death to sleep in order to make it seem more natural and less intimidating for him to try and ease his own fear of death. He also compares his uncertainty of his afterlife to the dreams that come in sleep.

· "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come/When we have shuffled off this mortal coil," (3.1.67)

· "And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--/No more--and by a sleep to say we end/The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks" (3.1.60-63)

Death/life is an abuse/sickness: Hamlet's compares the hardships of his life to slavery. He endures the pain of slavery everyday and wants to escape his "slavery" by death.

· "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer" (3.1.57)

· "For who would bear the whips and scorns of time," (3.1.70)

· "To grunt and sweat under a weary life," (3.1.77)

· "Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," (3.1.85)

· To die, to sleep: to sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; for in that sleep of death what dreams may come" (3.1.64-66).

Comparisons:

• Life on earth to the afterlife: "To grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, the undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveler returns" (3.1.77-80)

• Humans and thinking:

• "Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; and thus the native hue of resolution is sickled o'er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pitch and moment with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action" (3.184-88)

• The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks/That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation/Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--" (3.1.62-64)

· Afterlife: "The undiscovered country, from whose bourn/No traveller returns, puzzles the will,/And makes us rather bear those ills we have/Than fly to others that we know not of?" (3.1.79-82)

· Death: "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come/When we have shuffled off this mortal coil," (3.1.66-67)

Oppositions:

• Hamlet is unsure if he will go to Heaven or Hell.

• He would not be able to avenge his father's death.

• Afraid letting death take him would make him look like a coward

• Death could be more torturous than life

Philosophical Questions:

Hamlet ponder the eternal question of what will happen after death?

He also wonders if it is better to die than to live?

• "To be or not to be: that is the question: whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?" (3.1.56-60)

• "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come" (3.1.66)

• "To grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that to the dread of something after death, the undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of

(3.1.77-82)

Conclusions:

Hamlet is too afraid of the repercussions of going to Hell to allow death to take him as seen in the last line, "Be all my sins remembered." (3.1.89) This shows that Hamlet knows that it would be a sin to kill himself and he doesn't want to commit it. It also alludes to his intentions to instead of killing himself, go and kill his uncle which would also be considered a sin. He is religious but it is questionable what his morals are.

Acting Analysis:

Kenneth Branagh: Minimal editing is used in this scene as the camera angle is continuous until Hamlet is finished with his soliloquy. It makes the soliloquy smoother and emphasizes it's importance over other speeches in the play. The camera angle is very clever as it shows Hamlet's reflection in a large mirror with only the tip of his shoulder visible in front of the mirror. This shows that Hamlet is reflecting deep into his thoughts and analyzing his own sins and morality and whether or not he would go to Heaven or Hell. It also  creates a sort of dominance between the mirror and Hamlet as it captures only his reflection speaking, emphasizing that Hamlet is losing control of himself and his emotions and is at a loss for what to do. The only diegetic sounds in the scene are Hamlet's voice in a whisper and it's echo and the sound and echo of his footsteps as he walks closer to the mirror. The echoes create an eerie tone and the silence behind them emphasizes the seriousness of the words and leave no distractions that could turn their focus away from Hamlet. The only non-diegetic sound was soft classical music that played to signal the audience that Hamlet had reach the climax of his soliloquy in towards the middle-end of the speech. It also brings out the sorrowful aspect of Hamlet's predicament. In this version Hamlet is dressed in a black suit which signifies that he is still mourning his father's death and is in a state of darkness. The props used were the mirror and the castle background to add to the solemnness of the scene and most importantly, he also holds a dagger which show the audience that Hamlet is serious and that it is a very close and tough decision to make whether or not to die.

Laurence Olivier: The scene begins with many choppy, edited shots of stairs up to a tower, tumultuous water, and Hamlet's head and face close up as he peers over the side of the tower. These images set the dark mood of the soliloquy to follow. When the camera reaches the ocean, Hamlet suddenly appears in the shot and the audience sees him watching the ocean, looking as if he is debating whether or not to jump.  After Hamlet begins to speak, there is little switching of angles or editing to interrupt his monologue. The diegetic sounds in the scene are the sounds of the water and wind to set the mood and Hamlet's voice. His mouth is only moving for some of the words that he speaks to show that the contemplation is mostly in his thoughts. The non-diegetic sounds is violent violin music in the beginning to set the fearful mood and in the middle of the soliloquy when he brings the dagger close to him to create suspense and surprise. Intense violin music also plays at the end of the soliloquy as Hamlet is walking away to show that he has come to a conclusion to live. The main prop is the dagger which he moves farther and closer away from his body to show whether his thoughts are leaning closer to life or death. After about a minute, Hamlet drops his dagger and the camera switches to show the dagger as it falls into the ocean, gone forever. This serves to represent Hamlet's ultimate decision to not commit suicide and instead try to fight his problems. Hamlet doesn't appear to be wearing and makeup. And his costume is disheveled and distressed looking which shows his current mental instability.

Mel Gibson: Hamlet is captured walking down a large set of stairs into a very dark, dungeon-y room. In some shots, the camera angle is of the room as a whole or Hamlet wondering around the room.  These shots usually occur when Hamlet is changing his mind in his speech and going from life to death or from death to life. The other shots are close ups of Hamlet's face to capture his facial expressions in the peak emotional parts of his soliloquy. The diegetic sounds are the sound of Hamlet's voice and its echo as well as his footsteps and their echoes as he paces around the room, which preludes to his loneliness. There are no non-diegetic sounds to distract the readers from the content and meaning within the words, like there were songs in the other videos. The only props would be the tombs of dead bodies, which are used to set a dark mood and show that Hamlet is close to death and also his envy of those that are dead. It looks as if Hamlet is wearing eye makeup to draw attention to his eyes and the emotions of sadness and melancholy that they will show throughout the soliloquy. Hamlet's costume is dark and blends in well with the shady background, which shows his currently dark mood and thoughts. It also shows how he is still mourning the death of his father.

Ethan Hawke: The scene opens with Hamlet standing in a store that looks to be similar to a Blockbuster. The setting makes the scene much more modern although Hamlet is still speaking in Old English which is a contrast. The shots of him walking show the continuity of the soliloquy until the end when the shot stays on a close up of his face as he stops walking and comes to a resolution. Hawke uses medium shots, long shots, and close up shots throughout the scene to capture Hamlet's emotion, which in this version comes off as very dazed and confused. He is dressed in a suit and winter hat, which symbolizes death, relating back to the Foster chapter, since that is exactly what he is contemplating about. The diegetic sounds are the sound of his voice and footstep to create a solemn mood and limit the distractions as much as possible to keep the attention on Hamlet. Part of Hamlet's words are said out loud and part of them are just a voice over which indicates that his soliloquy is mostly full of thoughts. There is also intense background music, and sound effects of guns, whips, chains, etc. He is walking down the Action aisle most of the time because we can see the Action labels repeated in the selves at his sides. This is almost mocking him in the fact that he has not just taken any action to avenge his father. It is ironic that there is a sign behind him that says “Leave Home Happy”. At about one minute, the sound switches from non diegetic to diegetic and Hamlet is captured speaking. He continues to speak throughout the rest of the scene and at the very end of the scene, a TV screen with a man burning in fire is captured.

After viewing all of the scenes of my love Hamlet speaking his famous soliloquy, I thought that it was absolutely ingenious the way that Hamlet is only shown through a mirror. I believe that this shows a level of self-analysis and reflection that none of the other scenes did. The way that Hamlet spoke all of the words and did not rely on voiceover and also the harsh whisper that he used made the scene more relatable and believable. Kenneth shows in this scene as Hamlet with the way he speaks the words and inches closer to the mirror and utilizes the dagger on his reflection show that he has brought down his walls for a moment and is actually falling apart behind his façade. Him being dressed in his normal attire also give the scene honesty and show Hamlet's humanness and vulnerability. The silence and the echoes, while present in many of the other scenes, spoke the most to me in this particular scene. The only thing I would have changed was the music because I thought it distracted from the soliloquy and trying to get the meaning of what Hamlet was saying, it was also a little cheesy. Overall, the scene was very tasteful and well thought out. It showcased not only Hamlet's words but his inter conflict and deep emotions of sorrow in his mental instability.

The modern interpretation of Hawke's scene was very interesting but also a little bit confusing. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be comical or not with the strange hat and Blockbuster background. If it was supposed to be comical then I think that there should be more props or sounds to show that. That scene was also lacking some emotion compared to the other portrayals which I am not sure was intentional or not. It took back a lot from the meaning of the soliloquy and overall lost me. I guess there was some good symbolism but it was just to modern for the whole soliloquy, which is really the most important part of the scene.