The End And A New Start

"the rest is silence." (V, ii, 384) This phrase pretty much represents the ending of Hamlet. The King, the queen, Hamlet and Laertes all end up dead. With all the ones involved in the conflict dead, everything is just over. There's no more to happen and the only thing left is the story which Horatio is to spread.
In the scene where the king,queen, Laertes and Hamlet all die, all of them die for their own fault. The king and Laertes fell into their own trap. The poison, that they intended to kill Hamlet with, in the end killed them. "The foul practice hath turned itself on me." (V, ii, 336-7) Laertes realizes that only when he is already dying. The death of the king more obviously shows that somewhat deserved to die. "He is justly serve. It is a poison tempered by hiself." (V, ii, 248-9) Laertes and Claudius can not blame any other man for their death. I think it is fair enough to say that their death was just.
The death of the queen is slightly different. The queen drank the poisoned drink and died when, for the first time, she disobeyed the order of the king. Her first act of resistance led her to death, which implys that her obedience is probably what kept her alive until then.
But Hamlet is the "victim" in this situation. He too fell into the trap that Claudius and Laertes set up. It was an die-or-die situation for him. There was no way that he would have prevented dying. However, this is not only because of those two who planned the killing but also because of Hamlet himself. His erratic, almost insane, actions and his indecisiveness is what caused the whole mass murder to happen.
After Hamlet(and everyone else)'s death, Fortinbras takes over Denmark. Fortinbras is a person who has been juxtaposed to Hamlet a few times throughout the play. Thus, his taking over of Denmark can be seen as a extention of Hamlet's life. One can see Hamlet through Fortinbras who is the king of Denmark now. Hamlet's death is the end to the story but then it indicates a new beginning through the character Fortinbras.

From A Point of View

Unconscious
Freud talks about our dream which is something that happens in an unconscious state. We have no control of our thoughts or action in this state. Thus, it is easier for a study to be done on the subject dream and generalizations to be made.

Desire
Freud claims that the death of a close person shows an oculted desire of the dreamer (which even he or she may not have thought of having) to have that person dead in real life. In general, dream is closely related to the dreamer's desire. From my experience, I'd say it is true that a dream represents a unnoticeable desire. I mean, I can dream of something that I sort of wanted rather than to dream of something that I really wanted.

Death
Experiencig death in a dream is considered to be a childhood experience. Jealosy and competition of children can cause them to want those they are competing with to be gone. However death is not a painful process to them. It just means a "going away forever and never coming back". Perhaps that's the reason why they can dream of one of his or her family dead and not feel so bad.

Justification
People do not want to admit they have ever wanted their mother, father or their siblings to be dead. They want to justify their dream to be of something different. The tendency of wanting to remain innocent leads to justifying their wrong thoughts or behaviors. Justification is really what spoils the child.

Interpretation
What Freud talks about is his interpretation of dreams according to his studies and analysis. Although in some parts i did not completely agree with his interpretation, it is very trustworthy for it is based on scientific research.

A Coward?

Claudius tries to act rather indifferent towards Hamlet. But really, he fears Hamlet for what he is capable of doing. “I do doubt the hatch and the disclose will be some danger”. (iii, i, 176-7) He knows Hamlet would cause harm to him someday. He wants to prevent him in every way, so he looks for any flaws that could allow him to send Hamlet away to another country. In Act 3 scene 1, he wants others to sympathize with him about Hamlet. He makes himself sound like he is doing Hamlet a favor so that he is seen as the “good guy”. Mentioning Hamlet’s trip to England, which basically is expelling him, Claudius tells the reasons to be that different experiences would take away the madness in Hamlet’s mind. (iii, i, 179-183) Since this fear comes from the killing of his brother, there’s poetic justice shown. He lives in fear becuase he knows he will be killed if he does not stop Hamlet beforehand.

Ladies

Because of his mother, Hamlet is sick of all women. He can no longer trust even “the fair Ophelia” (iii, i, 97) with her fairness or chastity. He comes to believe that women make men “monsters” (iii, i, 149) He tells Ophelia “you nickname God’s creatures and make your wantonness your ignorance.” (iii, i, 154-155) What has Ophelia done that makes Hamlet say that to her? All he says to Ophelia is really what he feels about his mother. He feels so betrayed by his mother and that formed the different attitude he had towards his lover. He does not want Ophelia to end up like his mother or him to end up as his father. Thus he wants to avoid being close to women.

To Be Or Not To Be, It Does Not Matter

“To be, or not to be, that is the question” (III, I, 64). The famous line from “Hamlet” is the key leading to the tragic end of Hamlet: death. Hamlet says this line when he finds out the truth behind his father’s death. He is in a dilemma where he is to choose between life and death. To live, there are too many painful things to endure, but to escape from all this problems by killing himself is disgraceful and not the best choice either.

The choice he makes at that moment brings unfortunate results. He is blamed for being indecisive and cowardly. But what other thing could he have done? Would killing himself bring any other ending to the play? Would killing his uncle have made any difference to his fate? I don’t think so. Either choice he makes would bring tragedy at the end.

Prisoners' Hamlet

The play “Hamlet” became a significant part of their life for the prisoners who performed the play at the Missouri East Correctional Institution. Once horrifying felons, they became passionate actors while they participated in the play. How the play has changed those criminals’ attitude and thinking impresses me. They were very dedicated to the play although it was extremely hard for them. They went through a tough process of understanding and memorizing the play. I think Agnes is surely a great director/teacher in helping them accomplish that.

Hamlets

The interpretation of Hamlet of the two actors playing Hamlet in the movies is similar but yet slightly different. In both scenes, Hamlet expresses his anger towards something. There is a difference between the two Hamlets in the way of expressing this aggression.

David Tennant’s interpretation of Hamlet shows more of Hamlet’s erratic part. The scene begins with Hamlet taking off a surveillance camera from a corner of the room. Then he sits without motion for a while and suddenly starts moving around the room. He doesn’t show any consistency in his actions. These aggressive and spontaneous actions make him seem like he’s gone mad. In this scene, Hamlet is portrayed as almost insane.

On the other hand, Kenneth Branagh interprets Hamlet as somewhat calmer and more formal. He is very angry but at times he holds his emotions back a little and pretends to remain calmer. Hamlet is being a hypocrite. The suit he wears added to the seriousness of the matter. Even though, he is the only one in the room, he acts carefully as if there were others watching him. Hamlet is portrayed as an emotional but also rational man in this scene.

In both scenes, Hamlet violently expresses his anger. But David Tennant is more aggressive than Kenneth Branagh. The later involves more rational thinking of Hamlet in his interpretation. However, they share one same thing which is that he is very emotional. The Hamlets of the two movies are both different and alike.

Passive Voice Exercise

Directions: Change the sentences below to the active voice.

1. The statue is being visited by hundreds of tourists every year. Hundrends of tourists visit the statue every year.
   
2. My books were stolen by someone yesterday. Someone stole my books yesterday.
3. These books had been left in the classroom by a careless student. A careless student left these books in the classroom.
4. Coffee is raised in many parts of Hawaii by plantation workers. Plantation workers in many parts of Hawaii raise coffee.
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 downstairs by a very strong firefighter. A very strong firefighter carried a woman dowstairs.
7. The streets around the fire had been blocked off by the police. The police blocked the streets around the fire off.
8. Have you seen the new movie that was directed by Ron Howard? Have you seen the new movie that Ron Howard directed?
9. My car is in the garage being fixed by a dubious mechanic. A dubious mechanic is fixing my car.
10. A great deal of our oil will have been exported to other countries by our government. Our government will export a great deal of our oil to other countries.