Tanmayee Yenumula: Class Notes (11.29-12.10)

Hamlet Discussions

The Beginning: Why does Hamlet begin with a question? What is the Significance?

• All about identity: The point of starting with a question was to highlight the importance of identity. The way the answer was given was meant to imply where allegiances/loyalty lie.
• On a brief side-note, in the third season of my favorite TV show, CHUCK, one of the biggest story lines questioned the loyalty of Agent Shaw. We, as the audience, were kept guessing about whether Shaw was a good guy and still worked with the CIA or whether he had defected to the villainous Ring Agency. (hint: this is a connection :D)

The Beginning (continued...): What is the significance of the ghost? Is he trying to be put to rest or is he a demon? 

• A question about night and day: Day is always considered holier than night
• Also, the ghost left as soon as the rooster (crowed?) which marked the beginning of the day...so that points to the ghost as some sort of usurper

All about Ophelia: Innocent Virgin or Manipulative Woman?

• Reference to Jephthah (a biblical story): Polonius is simply using his daughter for his own schemes to gain more power and fortune
• Ophelia may not have been the obedient little girl that everyone thought...
• There are ample pieces of evidence that illustrate that Hamlet has "stolen" Ophelia's virginity, and that she may very well be pregnant with his child
• Drowning was a common method of suicide for pregnant women in the Elizabethan times! (hint: connection anyone?)

Hamlet's Paradoxical Language: To be or not to be...

• Hamlet's long soliloquies were the perfect way to read into Hamlet's thoughts and feelings, because that's how he used words
• However, he was full of paradoxes
• To commit suicide or not to commit suicide
• Day and Night
• Sane and Insane
• Loving Ophelia and Not Loving Ophelia
• Homosexual and Heterosexual

Adam and Eve: The Garden of Eden disturbed

• Gertrude is Eve:
• She was simply having the affair
• Or, she was conspiring with Claudius
• Claudius is the Serpent: He is what set the chaos in motion

Hamlet: Movie Adaptation

• 3 Types of Hamlet
1. The highly emotional Hamlet
2. The angry, forceful Hamlet
3. The cold, detached Hamlet
• Portrayal of Relationships
• Hamlet v Ophelia
• Hamlet v Gertrude
• Hamlet v Ghost