Narratives are often written about women being pushed around by oppressive men. In fact, living in today’s world with one of the three presidential candidates being a woman, it is hard to relate to many of these types of tales, but Ibsen‘s vividly realistic description of a life lived in the shadow of a man makes this situation easy to imagine and even easy to identify with.
This play does not paint a picture of a bright and colorful life; instead, it digs into the plagues and tribulations of the often forgotten and neglected middle class. There is no sugar-coating, and there is no cushioning. This story is presented through the eyes of the middle class worker and it depicts real life situations and obstacles. The supernatural is a distant notion in “A Doll’s House”. This narrative consists of real people, real troubles, and real events.
“A Doll’s House” is absolutely a form of realism. When I think of what makes life “real” and unique, I think of all of the quirky and quaint actions that go on throughout a day. These interactions are really hard to capture in a narrative because they seem trivial, but they set the stage for reality. An example of this in “A Doll’s House” that grounded this narrative and helped to assure me that these people were absolutely realistic was when Torvald asked Nora if she has “given into her sweet tooth”. These little seemingly insignificant comments are, to me, what makes a story seem realistic. Another example is the fight over money. What real life family does not, at one point or another, argue about frivolous spending habits? This is relatable and slightly endearing.
The story line of “A Doll’s House” contains no extreme plot twists or heavenly influences, but instead, it depicts the life, lies, and weights of ordinary people with everyday problems. This play culminates around a shared forgery and fear of being tarnished in the face of society. This may seem basic and slightly dull compared to death, insurmountable love, and marrying your mother, but these are the big problems that face real people working hour after hour everyday. Reputations are at stake and there is nothing more important that maintaining a good reputation. In addition, when Nora is confronted with the idea that the poor decisions that she makes in her life may negatively affect her children, she is terrified. In reality, there is truly nothing more important than family and Nora is scared that she has dishonored her children and has made them into criminals.
Representation of real life dilemmas and trials pulls the reader in because the reader can relate to the lives being portrayed. Everyone has felt ruled over by an authoritarian and with that established universal common ground; we are brought together by the realistic depiction of life through narration.(514)
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Hamlet
SCENE IV. The Queen's closet.
Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE and POLONIUS
LORD POLONIUS
He (Hamlet) will come straight. Look you (Queen Gertrude) lay home to him:
Tell him (Hamlet) his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
And that your (Queen Gertrude) grace hath screen'd and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll (Polonius) sconce me even here.
Pray you (Queen Gertrude), be round with him.
HAMLET
[Within (Inside)] Mother, mother, mother!
QUEEN GERTRUDE
I'll warrant you (I heed your warning),
Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming. (The Queen is telling Polonius to hide because she hears Hamlet coming. The Queen has heard and knows Polonius’s concerns surrounding Hamlet. She may possibly be whispering when she is telling him to go hide so that Hamlet does not hear her.)
POLONIUS hides behind the arras
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET
Now, mother, what's the matter? (Hamlet is questing why his mother needed to speak to him.)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. (The Queen is telling Hamlet that he has offended his father. This is extremely ironic coming from the Queen)
HAMLET
Mother, you have my father much offended. (This is a stab at the Queen because Hamlet is telling her that she is actually the one that has offended his father because she has married the man that killed her husband)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. (The Queens is saying, “Don’t be fresh with me! Respect me, I am your mother.”)
HAMLET
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. (Hamlet is spitting back at the Queen that fact that she asked posed such an offensive question when she is in no place to accuse him)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Why, how now, Hamlet! (She is angered with Hamlet. She is speaking much louder. The Queens is disgusted that her son is treating her with such disrespect)
HAMLET
What's the matter now? (Hamlet pretends that he does not know that he has offended his mother. He is provoking her. This answer is searching for a reaction)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Have you forgot me? (The Queen may at this point be referring to the fact that Hamlet seems a little bit insane, possibly because he is treating her incorrectly)
HAMLET
No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.( This is a very sassy answer. Instead of calling his uncle “Claudius”, Hamlet refers to him is “you husband’s brother” which is another stab in the back referring to her misconduct. Hamlet is speaking with a grin on his face and a sly spark in his voice)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak. (The Queen walks away)
HAMLET
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.(Hamlet want his mother to see that she has in fact done wrong and that she has offended her dead husband. Hamlet must force her to come back and reflect on what she really has done)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho! (I think that she is threatened by Hamlet and his tone and actions. She misinterprets Hamlet’s intentions and she screams in fear for help)
LORD POLONIUS
[Behind (From his hiding spot)] What, ho! help, help, help! (Polonius, not have left his hiding place, hears the Queen yelling for help. Polonius also feels threatened, so he beings to yell for help. In yelling, Polonius blows his cover)
HAMLET
[Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead! (Hamlet draws his sword and is ready to attack the person that just yelled. He is angered that someone is listening in on his conversation with his mother. He in defensive in his tone and his angered in his movements)
Makes a pass through the arras (He makes a swift movement of his sword though Polonius)
LORD POLONIUS
[Behind] O, I am slain! (Still in his hiding place, Polonius has been struck by Hamlet’s sword and has died. I am sure that this is said with great angst. I am sure that Polonius is holding onto his wound before he dies)
Falls and dies
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O me, what hast thou done? (The Queen is saying “Oh my God, Hamlet! What have you done?”)
HAMLET
Nay, I know not:
Is it the king?(Hamlet is playing dumb here. Hamlet knows exactly who he has just killed and he does not feel an ounce of remorse or regret for his actions)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! (The Queen is saying, “That was impulsive! What were you thinking?” I am sure that she is holding her head is amazement and disgust)
HAMLET
A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother. (Hamlet is saying that the queen is being a hypocrite. He is saying that she has done a bloodier deed by killing her husband and marrying his brother. He has been waiting to say this to his mother for a long time and it is said with great force and confidence)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
As kill a king! (She is offended that Hamlet has accused her of killing her husband. She is making a rebuttal and saying that she did not kill her husband. The Queen is very angry that Hamlet has accused her of such a wretched act)
HAMLET
Ay, lady, 'twas my word. (Hamlet is saying, “That is exactly what I said. You heard me.” Hamlet is being very defensive and powerful with his words)
Lifts up the array and discovers POLONIUS
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!(He is angered that Polonius intruded on his conversation and thinks that he deserved his ending)
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune; ( I think that Hamlet was hoping to have killed Claudius)
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,(Now Hamlet is speaking to his mother and has turned to his mother)
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damned custom have not brass'd it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.(Hamlet is angry that his mother has betrayed him by letting Polonius listen in on their conversation. He is calling her a bad person who has a hard heart and has no emotions)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me? (The Queen is saying, probably crying because she is frustrated and does not understand, “What have I done to you that has made me yell at me and disrespect me?” )
HAMLET
Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite( <-- BINGO), takes off the rose (Hamlet is telling his mother to immediately stop pretending that she is innocent that she is not aware of her bad deed)
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed(Hamlet is accusing his mother of making false marriage vows. The Queen has betrayed her husband by marrying his brother and that qualifies as breaking her marriage vows) from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.(Hamlet is telling her that she has committed a sick act)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Ay me, what act,
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?(The Queen is asking, “What act have I committed that was so huge and sick?” )
HAMLET
Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband. Look you now, what follows:
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it love; for at your age
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment
Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,
Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd
But it reserved some quantity of choice,
To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope.
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn
And reason panders will. (Hamlet is reading the riot act to his mother. She is very angry and very stern in his tone. Hamlet starts by explaining how perfect her husband was and how perfect their life was together. He then goes on to tell her to open her eyes and realize that sin that she made. She has broken the will of marriage and has betrayed her husband. I also think that it was interesting when Hamlet points out that she does not love Claudius, for she is beyond the age of sweeping love. Hamlet is yelling at his mother for her crime)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct. (The Queen has finally listened to Hamlet and has realized the sin that she has done. She sees the black in her heart and in her soul from betraying her husband. She realizes her wrong and she cannot bear to hear it. She asks Hamlet not to speak of it)
HAMLET
Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty,--(Now Hamlet is getting graphic with her act of betrayal. She is asking her how she is capable of sleeping in a tainted bed and how she is capable of making love to the murderer of her husband)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O, speak to me no more;
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet! (The Queen has her hands over her ears so she does not hear the horror that Hamlet is speaking. The Queen is begging from the bottom of her heart that Hamlet not speak about this deed anymore)
HAMLET
A murderer and a villain;
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!(Hamlet has ignored his mother’s request and continues to point out her misdemeanor because it was so terrible that she deserves this treatment. He is telling his mother that she has done all of this for a person that cannot even begin to compare to Hamlet’s father. Hamlet is calling Claudius the murder of his father. Hamlet is also calling Claudius a thief because he stole the position of king from his father by killing him)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
No more! (The Queen still has her hands over her ears and is begging Hamlet to stop immediately)
HAMLET
A king of shreds and patches,--(Hamlet continue to speak poorly about Claudius, but he is interrupted by the arrival of the Ghost)
Enter Ghost
Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure? (Hamlet is now begging the Ghost to help him. Hamlet is down on his hands and knees pleading with all his heart)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alas, he's mad!(The Queen thinks that Hamlet is mad because she cannot see the Ghost that Hamlet is talking to and she thinks that Hamlet is talking to himself)
HAMLET
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command? O, say!(Hamlet is speaking to the Ghost. Hamlet is asking the Ghost is he is angry that he has not talked to Claudius)
Ghost
Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.( The Ghost is asking Hamlet to show compassion to his mother. The Ghost tells Hamlet that he needs to clear his mind and calm his spirit and speak to his mother instead of yelling)
HAMLET
How is it with you, lady?(Now Hamlet is speaking to his mother. Hamlet has taken the Ghost’s advice and is now speaking to his mother with a concerned and compassionate tone)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alas, how is't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?( The Queen is saying, “What is your problem? You are having a conversation with the empty air!” )
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?(The Queen thinks that Hamlet has gone mad and she is concerned. The Queen is asking Hamlet if he is alright. The Queen wants to know what Hamlet is looking at and who he is speaking to. The Queen wants insight into Hamlet’s mind)
HAMLET
On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!
His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. (Hamlet turns to the Ghost) Do not look upon me;
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects: then what I have to do
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.(Hamlet points to the Ghost. Hamlet says that he is speaking to a Ghost and he talks about the Ghost’s appearance. Hamlet wants so badly for his mother to see the Ghost. Then Hamlet turns to the Ghost and tells him not to look at him. The Ghost is telling Hamlet to kill Claudius and Hamlet is pleading to the Ghost. Hamlet is overwhelmed.)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
To whom do you speak this? (The Queen is referring to the second half of the preceding line when Hamlet was addressing the Ghost and she wants to know who he was talking to)
HAMLET
Do you see nothing there? (Hamlet asks his mother if she can see the Ghost)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nothing at all; yet all that is I see. (The Queen says that she cannot see the Ghost. The Queen is verk skeptical about this whole situation)
HAMLET
Nor did you nothing hear? (Hamlet asks his mother if she heard the Ghost)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
No, nothing but ourselves. (The Queen says that she heard nothing but the conversation that she is having with Hamlet)
HAMLET
Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!
My father, in his habit as he lived!
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal! (Now Hamlet is desperate. Hamlet wants his mother to be able to see the Ghost so badly. Hamlet refers to the Ghost as the shadow of his father. Hamlet is being slightly mad in this line)
Exit Ghost
QUEEN GERTRUDE
This the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.(The Queen is calling Hamlet mad. She is accusing him of making the Ghost up. She does not believe that there is a ghost)
HAMLET
Ecstasy!
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: it is not madness
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that mattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
For in the fatness of these pursy times
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.(Hamlet is angry that his mother does not believe him and he begins this passage yelling at his mother for not trusting him and think that he is mad. Then he turn his tone and beings to repent. Hamlet wants his mother to understand him and he wants his mother to admit to her sins and confess her wrong doings)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. (Hamlet has broken his mother’s heart)
HAMLET
O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night: but go not to mine uncle's bed;
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery,
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either [ ] the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night:
And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,(Hamlet tells/demands his mother to choose the right path and to follow a good heart and not to go back to Claudius tonight)
Pointing to POLONIUS
I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,
To punish me with this and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
One word more, good lady.(Hamlet admits that he feels bad for killing Polonius, but he tells the Queen that Polonius must pay for his wrong actions)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
What shall I do?(The Queen wants to know what to do. She thinks that she should go back to Claudius, but knows that Hamlet does not want her to go, so she asks Hamlet what she should do)
HAMLET
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top.
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.(Hamlet is listing all of the actions that he does not want his mother to do. Hamlet also wants to touch on the fact that he is not mad in his mind, but he is fierce in his actions. Hamlet continues to advise his mother as to what she should do. Hamlet tells his mother how to act. Hamlet tell his mother that she must listen to his words and that she must do as he is telling her because this is a very serious situation that she is in)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.(The Queen assures Hamlet that she has heard what he has told her to do and that she will honor what Hamlet has said to her)
Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE and POLONIUS
LORD POLONIUS
He (Hamlet) will come straight. Look you (Queen Gertrude) lay home to him:
Tell him (Hamlet) his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
And that your (Queen Gertrude) grace hath screen'd and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll (Polonius) sconce me even here.
Pray you (Queen Gertrude), be round with him.
HAMLET
[Within (Inside)] Mother, mother, mother!
QUEEN GERTRUDE
I'll warrant you (I heed your warning),
Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming. (The Queen is telling Polonius to hide because she hears Hamlet coming. The Queen has heard and knows Polonius’s concerns surrounding Hamlet. She may possibly be whispering when she is telling him to go hide so that Hamlet does not hear her.)
POLONIUS hides behind the arras
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET
Now, mother, what's the matter? (Hamlet is questing why his mother needed to speak to him.)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. (The Queen is telling Hamlet that he has offended his father. This is extremely ironic coming from the Queen)
HAMLET
Mother, you have my father much offended. (This is a stab at the Queen because Hamlet is telling her that she is actually the one that has offended his father because she has married the man that killed her husband)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. (The Queens is saying, “Don’t be fresh with me! Respect me, I am your mother.”)
HAMLET
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. (Hamlet is spitting back at the Queen that fact that she asked posed such an offensive question when she is in no place to accuse him)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Why, how now, Hamlet! (She is angered with Hamlet. She is speaking much louder. The Queens is disgusted that her son is treating her with such disrespect)
HAMLET
What's the matter now? (Hamlet pretends that he does not know that he has offended his mother. He is provoking her. This answer is searching for a reaction)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Have you forgot me? (The Queen may at this point be referring to the fact that Hamlet seems a little bit insane, possibly because he is treating her incorrectly)
HAMLET
No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.( This is a very sassy answer. Instead of calling his uncle “Claudius”, Hamlet refers to him is “you husband’s brother” which is another stab in the back referring to her misconduct. Hamlet is speaking with a grin on his face and a sly spark in his voice)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak. (The Queen walks away)
HAMLET
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.(Hamlet want his mother to see that she has in fact done wrong and that she has offended her dead husband. Hamlet must force her to come back and reflect on what she really has done)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho! (I think that she is threatened by Hamlet and his tone and actions. She misinterprets Hamlet’s intentions and she screams in fear for help)
LORD POLONIUS
[Behind (From his hiding spot)] What, ho! help, help, help! (Polonius, not have left his hiding place, hears the Queen yelling for help. Polonius also feels threatened, so he beings to yell for help. In yelling, Polonius blows his cover)
HAMLET
[Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead! (Hamlet draws his sword and is ready to attack the person that just yelled. He is angered that someone is listening in on his conversation with his mother. He in defensive in his tone and his angered in his movements)
Makes a pass through the arras (He makes a swift movement of his sword though Polonius)
LORD POLONIUS
[Behind] O, I am slain! (Still in his hiding place, Polonius has been struck by Hamlet’s sword and has died. I am sure that this is said with great angst. I am sure that Polonius is holding onto his wound before he dies)
Falls and dies
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O me, what hast thou done? (The Queen is saying “Oh my God, Hamlet! What have you done?”)
HAMLET
Nay, I know not:
Is it the king?(Hamlet is playing dumb here. Hamlet knows exactly who he has just killed and he does not feel an ounce of remorse or regret for his actions)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! (The Queen is saying, “That was impulsive! What were you thinking?” I am sure that she is holding her head is amazement and disgust)
HAMLET
A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother. (Hamlet is saying that the queen is being a hypocrite. He is saying that she has done a bloodier deed by killing her husband and marrying his brother. He has been waiting to say this to his mother for a long time and it is said with great force and confidence)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
As kill a king! (She is offended that Hamlet has accused her of killing her husband. She is making a rebuttal and saying that she did not kill her husband. The Queen is very angry that Hamlet has accused her of such a wretched act)
HAMLET
Ay, lady, 'twas my word. (Hamlet is saying, “That is exactly what I said. You heard me.” Hamlet is being very defensive and powerful with his words)
Lifts up the array and discovers POLONIUS
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!(He is angered that Polonius intruded on his conversation and thinks that he deserved his ending)
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune; ( I think that Hamlet was hoping to have killed Claudius)
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,(Now Hamlet is speaking to his mother and has turned to his mother)
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damned custom have not brass'd it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.(Hamlet is angry that his mother has betrayed him by letting Polonius listen in on their conversation. He is calling her a bad person who has a hard heart and has no emotions)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me? (The Queen is saying, probably crying because she is frustrated and does not understand, “What have I done to you that has made me yell at me and disrespect me?” )
HAMLET
Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite( <-- BINGO), takes off the rose (Hamlet is telling his mother to immediately stop pretending that she is innocent that she is not aware of her bad deed)
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed(Hamlet is accusing his mother of making false marriage vows. The Queen has betrayed her husband by marrying his brother and that qualifies as breaking her marriage vows) from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.(Hamlet is telling her that she has committed a sick act)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Ay me, what act,
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?(The Queen is asking, “What act have I committed that was so huge and sick?” )
HAMLET
Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband. Look you now, what follows:
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it love; for at your age
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment
Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,
Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd
But it reserved some quantity of choice,
To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope.
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn
And reason panders will. (Hamlet is reading the riot act to his mother. She is very angry and very stern in his tone. Hamlet starts by explaining how perfect her husband was and how perfect their life was together. He then goes on to tell her to open her eyes and realize that sin that she made. She has broken the will of marriage and has betrayed her husband. I also think that it was interesting when Hamlet points out that she does not love Claudius, for she is beyond the age of sweeping love. Hamlet is yelling at his mother for her crime)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct. (The Queen has finally listened to Hamlet and has realized the sin that she has done. She sees the black in her heart and in her soul from betraying her husband. She realizes her wrong and she cannot bear to hear it. She asks Hamlet not to speak of it)
HAMLET
Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty,--(Now Hamlet is getting graphic with her act of betrayal. She is asking her how she is capable of sleeping in a tainted bed and how she is capable of making love to the murderer of her husband)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O, speak to me no more;
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet! (The Queen has her hands over her ears so she does not hear the horror that Hamlet is speaking. The Queen is begging from the bottom of her heart that Hamlet not speak about this deed anymore)
HAMLET
A murderer and a villain;
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!(Hamlet has ignored his mother’s request and continues to point out her misdemeanor because it was so terrible that she deserves this treatment. He is telling his mother that she has done all of this for a person that cannot even begin to compare to Hamlet’s father. Hamlet is calling Claudius the murder of his father. Hamlet is also calling Claudius a thief because he stole the position of king from his father by killing him)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
No more! (The Queen still has her hands over her ears and is begging Hamlet to stop immediately)
HAMLET
A king of shreds and patches,--(Hamlet continue to speak poorly about Claudius, but he is interrupted by the arrival of the Ghost)
Enter Ghost
Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure? (Hamlet is now begging the Ghost to help him. Hamlet is down on his hands and knees pleading with all his heart)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alas, he's mad!(The Queen thinks that Hamlet is mad because she cannot see the Ghost that Hamlet is talking to and she thinks that Hamlet is talking to himself)
HAMLET
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command? O, say!(Hamlet is speaking to the Ghost. Hamlet is asking the Ghost is he is angry that he has not talked to Claudius)
Ghost
Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.( The Ghost is asking Hamlet to show compassion to his mother. The Ghost tells Hamlet that he needs to clear his mind and calm his spirit and speak to his mother instead of yelling)
HAMLET
How is it with you, lady?(Now Hamlet is speaking to his mother. Hamlet has taken the Ghost’s advice and is now speaking to his mother with a concerned and compassionate tone)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alas, how is't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?( The Queen is saying, “What is your problem? You are having a conversation with the empty air!” )
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?(The Queen thinks that Hamlet has gone mad and she is concerned. The Queen is asking Hamlet if he is alright. The Queen wants to know what Hamlet is looking at and who he is speaking to. The Queen wants insight into Hamlet’s mind)
HAMLET
On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!
His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. (Hamlet turns to the Ghost) Do not look upon me;
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects: then what I have to do
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.(Hamlet points to the Ghost. Hamlet says that he is speaking to a Ghost and he talks about the Ghost’s appearance. Hamlet wants so badly for his mother to see the Ghost. Then Hamlet turns to the Ghost and tells him not to look at him. The Ghost is telling Hamlet to kill Claudius and Hamlet is pleading to the Ghost. Hamlet is overwhelmed.)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
To whom do you speak this? (The Queen is referring to the second half of the preceding line when Hamlet was addressing the Ghost and she wants to know who he was talking to)
HAMLET
Do you see nothing there? (Hamlet asks his mother if she can see the Ghost)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nothing at all; yet all that is I see. (The Queen says that she cannot see the Ghost. The Queen is verk skeptical about this whole situation)
HAMLET
Nor did you nothing hear? (Hamlet asks his mother if she heard the Ghost)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
No, nothing but ourselves. (The Queen says that she heard nothing but the conversation that she is having with Hamlet)
HAMLET
Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!
My father, in his habit as he lived!
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal! (Now Hamlet is desperate. Hamlet wants his mother to be able to see the Ghost so badly. Hamlet refers to the Ghost as the shadow of his father. Hamlet is being slightly mad in this line)
Exit Ghost
QUEEN GERTRUDE
This the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.(The Queen is calling Hamlet mad. She is accusing him of making the Ghost up. She does not believe that there is a ghost)
HAMLET
Ecstasy!
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: it is not madness
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that mattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
For in the fatness of these pursy times
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.(Hamlet is angry that his mother does not believe him and he begins this passage yelling at his mother for not trusting him and think that he is mad. Then he turn his tone and beings to repent. Hamlet wants his mother to understand him and he wants his mother to admit to her sins and confess her wrong doings)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. (Hamlet has broken his mother’s heart)
HAMLET
O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night: but go not to mine uncle's bed;
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery,
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either [ ] the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night:
And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,(Hamlet tells/demands his mother to choose the right path and to follow a good heart and not to go back to Claudius tonight)
Pointing to POLONIUS
I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,
To punish me with this and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
One word more, good lady.(Hamlet admits that he feels bad for killing Polonius, but he tells the Queen that Polonius must pay for his wrong actions)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
What shall I do?(The Queen wants to know what to do. She thinks that she should go back to Claudius, but knows that Hamlet does not want her to go, so she asks Hamlet what she should do)
HAMLET
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top.
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.(Hamlet is listing all of the actions that he does not want his mother to do. Hamlet also wants to touch on the fact that he is not mad in his mind, but he is fierce in his actions. Hamlet continues to advise his mother as to what she should do. Hamlet tells his mother how to act. Hamlet tell his mother that she must listen to his words and that she must do as he is telling her because this is a very serious situation that she is in)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.(The Queen assures Hamlet that she has heard what he has told her to do and that she will honor what Hamlet has said to her)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
To attempt to answer your question, Mr. Coon...
I think that "cook all your books" is referring to the line before it that says "'I hated everyone.' said the sun". I think that the sun, because it hates everyone, decided to "cook" or burn all of the books and by that I think that the sun is saying that he does not want us to have the pleasure of reading and educating ourselves in order to improve ourselves as a race. I may be reading WAY too far into this, but that is what I got from that line. Just an idea.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Sleep Throught the Static
This is a song that I heard for the first time this weekend, and although I have already presented a poem, I thought that I should share these lyrics.
Trouble travel fast
When you're especially designed for crash testing
Or wearing wool sunglasses in the afternoon
Come on and tell us what you are trying to prove
Because it's a battle when you dabble in war
You store it up, unleash it, and then you piece it together
Whether the storm drain running rampant just stamp it
And send it to someone who's pretending to care
Just cash in your blanks for little toy tanks
Just learn how to use them, then abuse them, and choose them
Over conversations relationships are overrated
"I hated everyone" said the sun
And so I will cook all your book
You're too good looking and mistooken
You could watch it instead
From the comfort of your burning beds
... Or you can sleep through the static
Who needs sleep when we've got love?
Who needs keys when we've got clubs?
Who needs please when we've got guns?
Who needs peace when we've gone above
But beyond where we should have gone?
We went beyond where we should have gone
Stuck between channels my thoughts all quit
I thought about them to much, allowed them to touch
The feelings that rained down on the plainsall dried and cracked
Waiting for things that never came
Shock an awful thing to make somebody think
That they have to choose pushing for peace or supporting the troops
And either you're weak or you'll use brut force-feed the truth
The truth is we say not as we do
We say anytime, anywhere, just show your teeth and strike the fear
Of god wear camouflage, cries at night, and drives a dodge
Pick up the beat and stop hogging the feast
That's no way to treat an enemy
Well mighty might appetite
We just eat 'em up and keep on driving
Freedom can be freezing take a picture from the pretty side
Mind your manners, wave your banners
What a wonderful world from this angle we see
But who needs to see what we've done?
Who needs please when we've got guns?
Who needs keys when we've got clubs?
Who needs peace when we've gone above
But beyond where we should have gone
We went beyond where we should have gone
Beyond where we should have gone
-Jack Johnson
Trouble travel fast
When you're especially designed for crash testing
Or wearing wool sunglasses in the afternoon
Come on and tell us what you are trying to prove
Because it's a battle when you dabble in war
You store it up, unleash it, and then you piece it together
Whether the storm drain running rampant just stamp it
And send it to someone who's pretending to care
Just cash in your blanks for little toy tanks
Just learn how to use them, then abuse them, and choose them
Over conversations relationships are overrated
"I hated everyone" said the sun
And so I will cook all your book
You're too good looking and mistooken
You could watch it instead
From the comfort of your burning beds
... Or you can sleep through the static
Who needs sleep when we've got love?
Who needs keys when we've got clubs?
Who needs please when we've got guns?
Who needs peace when we've gone above
But beyond where we should have gone?
We went beyond where we should have gone
Stuck between channels my thoughts all quit
I thought about them to much, allowed them to touch
The feelings that rained down on the plainsall dried and cracked
Waiting for things that never came
Shock an awful thing to make somebody think
That they have to choose pushing for peace or supporting the troops
And either you're weak or you'll use brut force-feed the truth
The truth is we say not as we do
We say anytime, anywhere, just show your teeth and strike the fear
Of god wear camouflage, cries at night, and drives a dodge
Pick up the beat and stop hogging the feast
That's no way to treat an enemy
Well mighty might appetite
We just eat 'em up and keep on driving
Freedom can be freezing take a picture from the pretty side
Mind your manners, wave your banners
What a wonderful world from this angle we see
But who needs to see what we've done?
Who needs please when we've got guns?
Who needs keys when we've got clubs?
Who needs peace when we've gone above
But beyond where we should have gone
We went beyond where we should have gone
Beyond where we should have gone
-Jack Johnson
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