Ophelia By Jimmy Guancione

                Ophelia was an innocent girl. Her only mistake which was loving the crazed prince of Denmark. She was a normal girl. Her father had a good job as an adviser to the king and she was happy with hamlet. He told her he loved her but that would not last. After Hamlets father’s death and his mothers quick remarriage the prince seemed to have gone mad. Her father Polonius was convinced that she was the cause for Hamlets madness. He told her to stop seeing the prince. He was not sure about Hamlets intentions for her and didn’t want her getting hurt. Ophelia obeyed this order and agreed to stop seeing him. This lead to hamlet becoming angry and when she tried to return his things, Hamlet became enraged, confessing he never loved her.

                The strain of loving someone you can’t see and then having him say that he lied to you just to get with you, has to put incredible strain on a young girl. Not to mention that this person would later go on to kill your father by accident and have to leave for another country, possibly never to come back.  Ophelia must have been under enormous mental strain. You cannot blame her for going pretty much insane. After all of this stress who wouldn't think about taking the easy way out. Even Hamlet in his to be or not to be speech discussed it. Ophelia was not like Hamlet in this way though. Unlike Hamlet she did not dwell on the thought and made up her mind long before hamlet made up his about killing his uncle.

                I believe that she chose to end the stress and the pain. She apparently slipped and fell into the river. This may be true but she didn’t try to save herself from drowning. She simply let it happen. I believe this is evidence of her choice. Some may say that she took a cowardice way out, but at least poor Ophelia had the courage to make her choice and see her decision through. She may have chosen death but she showed strength in this arguably more than Hamlet showed in the entire play. Even when faced with death Ophelia sang and showed her young and free spirit. She was a normal girl, a girl that only wanted love, but was plagued by tragedy and heartbreak. She was a girl that was consumed by the madness that was going on in Denmark and took her own way out. But she does deserve a christian burial because she was forced to this decision from all of these tragedies and stress. This led to her madness and she should not be punished because of it. She should be remembered for her strength, and innocence. May she rest in peace.

Jimmys delema post

To kill, or not to kill. That is the question. I hope everyone got that little Hamlet joke. That is though the question of this blog post. Did Hamlet make the right choice in spareing his uncle for the time, or should he have just taken the opportunity, killed his uncle, and made the play a whole lot shorter. Hamlet chose to spare his uncle simply because he didn't want his uncle to be let off the hook and get into heaven. Hamlet saw that his uncle was praying. Having just being reminded of how he murdered his brother, Claudius seemed to be repenting for his sins. This is what Hamlet and I believe most others would have thought if in the same situation. So the main question is should this have stopped Hamlet from avenging his father.
I believe Hamlet made the right choice. He believed that his uncle would go to heaven if he killed him then, so he waited for another opportunity. He didn't know he would kill Polonius and have to leave. He wanted to make sure his uncle wouldn't get into heaven so he decided to wait until his uncle has done something else wrong and didn't pray to cleanse himself. If it was me and i had the same beliefs i would have done the same thing

Jimmy Guancione to be or not to be

The first scene that we saw was more ominous than the others. It starts with hamlet on the wall around the castle he is starting off to the sea. He seems to be in deep thought. This is also the only scene where Hamlet is not just speaking. Some of the speech is his thoughts. It really backs up the feeling that he is thinking extremely hard about his life and about suicide. The scene itself has a very mellow somber feel to it. It is the closest of all the scenes to what i imagined while reading the play.

The second scene takes place in a catacomb. Hamlet is walking around inside saying this speech. He is surrounded by graves and skeletons. At some points in the speech Hamlet seems to be talking to the grave.  I got the impression that he is asking the grave what to do. He also comes in and out of the light. This uses the shadows and sort of portrays his emotion through them. When he seems optimistic he steps into the light but he sin goes back into the dark and his mood changes back to dark and depressed. He is very emotional and this shows his internal struggles and how they are affecting his mental state.

The third scene gave a very interesting take on the scene. It takes place inside the castle. Hamlet is giving the speech while looking at himself in the mirror.  This makes it look like he is having a conversation with himself. You can only see his shoulder and side of his head, but you can't see his face. You can only see his face in the mirror. This gives the illusion that it is a whole nother person talking to hamlet. It seems like Hamlet is giving the speech to himself. which he kind of is. This shows his internal struggles and how he's not sure what to do. This entire scene is a very interesting and a very smart adaptation of the famous scene.  

The last scene was from the modern interpretation of Hamlet. This scene takes place in a blockbuster and he is walking around as he his giving the speech. All of the movies and signs say action. There is also an action scene playing on tv. This shows that hamlet isn't sure about killing his uncle or taking action. He is wandering up and down the aisle just looking at the movies and reciting the speech. I know many people do not like this movie adaptation but I find this one the most interesting.

Jimmys ghost scene

It's amazing how one scene can be interpreted in so many different ways. We watched 3 different interpretations of the scene and they each had differences that made their scene unique.  Differences included settings, emotions, and the way the ghost is portrayed. Each difference makes a unique take on a very famous scene. 
The first scene took place in Elsinore castle.  It is a very dark scene and is hard to see anything at times. The director uses lots of Shadows. The Ghost is very hard to see most of the time. He is concealed by shadows but this has a purpose. I believe it is so the audience really focuses on what the ghost is explaining. Once the conversation is over Hamlet gets extremely mad. He looks down on his uncle and mother and looks to be crazed with anger.  He swings his sword at the stone where he was standing. This gives a very crazy feel to Hamlet.
The next scene was very different then the first.  The setting was in the woods. The Ghost once again comes out of the shadows but this scene does not shroud him in shadows. The Ghost is very visible and looks like what i imagine a ghost to look like. He is very pale with weird eyes and talks in a low, strained voice. This scene also included flashbacks that shows parts of the ghosts sorry and murder.  These are very colorful and bright which is much different than the first. 
The third scene is the most unique out of the three. it is more modern and uses a modern setting. This scene takes place in in Hamlets apartment. The Ghost is dressed in a suit and coat and looks very alive. The place is well lit and you can clearly see the ghosts face. This ghost also can touch hamlet. He grabs his hair and hugs Hamlet at the end which is weird considering most people, myself included Imagine ghosts as almost spirit's rather than physical beings. This is is a weird thing that the director put in this scene and might be used to show show the human side of the ghost. The part that stood out the most to me was the hug because it really showed how much he cared. It showed that he's still Hamlets father in a way the others just didnt.