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October 19, 2005
Sense of a Problem
Shakespeare, Hamlet (Acts 1 & 2) -- Drama as Literature (EL 250)
Hamlet relized that the nightgaurds have seen a ghost walking around the platform before the castle. At first he wanted to know who this ghost was:
HAMLET:... That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me!...
Then, when Hamlet realizes that it was his father he sense that there was a problem. The ghost need to reveal something to Hamlet. Of course you know what it is(if you read). But think about the reason why the ghost was there in the first place.It something like a revelation...that the ghost of Hamlet's father endures the most painful expierience a soul could go through...Hell to tell what happened to him and what Hamlet should do.It seems like some of the plays performed in Elizabethan era always have a divulgence of something. Do you think it is necessary to reveal a secret through supernatural means? If Shakespeare wanted Hamlet to find out about his father, he could have just written in the play a witness who saw the king's murder. Do you think that it the only way to get the point across in a play during this time?
Posted by KevinHinton at October 19, 2005 11:42 PM
Comments
That's a good question, Kayla. I think that may have been the only way to let Hamlet know what really happened to his father. There weren't any witnesses so King Claudius is really the only person who knows how Old Hamlet really died. And I don't think he would come right out and confess to Hamlet or anyone. So yes, I do think having a supernatural being in the play is one of the only reasonable ways Hamlet could find out the truth about his father's death. Do you like the fact that Shakespeare put a ghost as a character to reveal the truth to Hamlet, or do you think he could have thought of a better way?
Posted by: AmandaNichols at October 20, 2005 1:16 PM
hahah KEVIN I am so sorry. I called you Kayla!! You and her both have different blog titles and I always get confused. haha Sorry!!!
:)
Posted by: AmandaNichols at October 20, 2005 1:17 PM
I agrew with Amanda but I also think that he might have wanted to make the readers try to think about that and firgure out that the ghost is indeed his faher. And since this was Shakespeare, it was probably performed so that could have made sense in that way as well.
Posted by: Danielle Meyer at October 20, 2005 1:37 PM
It not the ghost it self that I dislike... it the frequent use of them Amanda.
Posted by: Kevin Hinton at October 20, 2005 5:17 PM