Hamlet Project: Michael Hall, Annie Heisler, Daniel Black, Taylor Wall, Ashlyn Bishop, Henry Freebourn, and Brenissa Flores

Act 1 Scene 1

Bernardo and Francisco are on a platform outside the castle, as they are changing guard Horatio and Marcellus approach. Marcellus asks “Has this thing appear’d again to-night?” As they talk a ghost appears, as it approaches they confirm their suspicions that it does indeed look like the late King Hamlet. Horatio, a scholar and a skeptic that there is in fact a ghost, attempts to question it, “Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!” But even with Horatio’s pleas the ghost never speaks, as the ghost leaves they decide to bring this mater to young Hamlet in the hope that he can learn why his father’s ghost is here.  

Full scene, with dialogue and pictures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZGB5fTaXzc&list=PLC84C5B9B0B170EFB

Funny song recapping all of act 1:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abIverogh-o

Act 1 Scene 2

Woman marries brother-in-law:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/i-married-my-dead-husbands-brother-52661

The reason for Hamlet's sorrow:

People are fake grieving and aren't deeply upset by King Hamlet's death:

Hamlet wants to end his life out of anger but suicide is a sin:

Hamlet: Act I Scene III

Polonius and Laertes are both very protective over Ophelia, their daughter and little sister.  They want her to keep her purity and innocence by staying away from Hamlet as they believe he has bad and selfish intentions.

Before saying goodbye to Laertes, Polonius gives his son a lot of long-winded advice and shared wisdom.  He advises him to live simply and remain true to himself.

Act 1 Scene 4 :

(resource: http://nfs.sparknotes.com/hamlet/page_52.html)

Act 1. Scene IV

SCENE IV. The platform.

Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS
HAMLET:  The air is really cold here dude.

HORATIO:  Yeah.

HAMLET:  What time is it?

HORATIO:  A little bit before midnight man.

HAMLET:  No, it’s way past that man.

HORATIO:  Really?  Oh shit my bad, the ghost is going to come out pretty soon.

(A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within)

What the fuck was that dude?

HAMLET:  The bitch ass king is staying up all night,
And, as he drinks a bunch of expensive shit,
They play a bunch of instruments.

HORATIO:  Is that normal for a king to do or what?  I thought you had to be all proper and shit.

HAMLET:  Yeah:
But even though I was born here
And it’s customary for us, I think
We shouldn’t make it a tradition and shit.
These other dickhead countries
Trying to fuck with us:
They think we’re drunks, and make fun of us
They insult our titles and shit; and I got to say, sometimes being too drunk does affect us
Fucks up our achievements, even though they’re still fucking awesome,
It’s the worst of our character man.
Quite often certain men,
Have this fucked up thing inside them,
That they’ve had since birth (and it isn’t their fault,
Since nature cannot choose his origin)
By the crazy growth and expansion of some compulsion,
That slowly crushes each wall of reason inside of a mind,
Or a habit they have that is weird and shit,
The form of compulsions, that these men,
Who have these flaws,
Being like a child of nature and shit, or some randon thing-
Their motives and morals (though good intentioned),
As infinite as man may undergo--
Will eventually be seen as all fucked up by his peers
Because of that one stupid flaw: the dram of eale
Doth all the noble substance of a doubt
To his own scandal.

HORATIO:  Holy shit it’s the ghost!

Enter Ghost

HAMLET:  Jesus save us!
I don’t give much of a fuck whether you worship god or the devil,
Bring on your bullshit from heaven or your bullshit from hell,
I don’t give a fuck whether you have good intentions or evil ones,
You came in such a fucked up way
That I’ll talk to you: I'll call you Hamlet,
King, father: answer me douchebag!
Tell me man,
Why your old dead-ass bones,
Have risen from the grave, all ominous and shit,
We saw you peacefully cremated before,
God or the devil or whatever opened his huge ass jaws,
To spit you back up again. What may this mean,
That you, you dead motherfucker, still in your armor
Haunt the castle by night,
Making night scary as shit and crazy; and we dumb ass bitches of nature
So disgustingly pretend to make sense
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?

Ghost beckons HAMLET

HORATIO:  It wants you to go with it,
He might do some weird shit to you though.

MARCELLUS:  It sure is a polite motherfucker.
It wants you to go somewhere private:
But seriously don’t follow it.

HORATIO:  No Hamlet don’t go near that dickhead.

HAMLET:  If it won’t talk to me then I’m going after it.

HORATIO:  Don’t go man!

HAMLET:  Why dude, what is there to be afraid of?
I’m not a bitch-ass like you;
And my soul, that ghost can’t do shit,
With my soul all immortal and shit?
It’s still waving, so I’m going.

HORATIO:  What if it wants to lead you into a flood,
Or shove you off a ciff,
Off of his nest and into the ocean,
And there you’ll lose your sanity,
Which will take your control of your own mind
And drive you totally insane? think of this man:
That place will make you desperate for home and sanity and all that  shit,
For no fucking reason, into everybody’s brain
That wants to jump into the sea
And hear the waves smashing their eardrums.

HAMLET:  It’s still waving!
Leave the room, I’ll follow you guys.

MARCELLUS:  Sorry Hamlet but I’m not letting you follow any weird ass ghosts.

HAMLET:  Get your fucking hands off of me before I decide to break them.

HORATIO:  I command you; you won’t go.

HAMLET:  This is my fucking destiny bro,
It makes every single fucking stupid little vein inside me
As fucking tough as like steel or something.
The ghost is still calling me.  Get the fuck off of me guys.
I swear I’ll turn you into ghosts like this bitch if you don’t fucking leave me be!
I said get the fuck away before I pop a cap in you both!

Exit Ghost and HAMLET

HORATIO:  Yo Marcellus I think Hamlet’s lost his shit.

MARCELLUS:  Let's follow that asshole; he’s too insane to obey.  When did he get so mean?

HORATIO:  Let’s do it.  What problems can it cause?

MARCELLUS:  Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

HORATIO:  Jesus will take care of this.

MARCELLUS:  Nah that’s bullshit, if we want this done we do it ourselves.

Exit

Hamlet Act 2 Scenes 1 and 2: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa-ae6_okmg

Mad World by Gary Jules and Crazy sung by Ceelo Green because of the talk of Hamlet's mad mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrbOR1nLkYU

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blush+chet+faker

A song about lust for Hamlet's feelings towards Ophelia and the contents of his love letter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH9A6tn_P6g

Ignorance by Paramore because of Hamlet tricking Polonius and Polonius buying it with blind faith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A63VwWz1ij0

Brick By Boring Brick by Paramore because of Hamlet portraying Denmark as his "prison". (It also has lyrics of castles).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjZSv_KYlWI

Transparent Lies by Alexz Johnson because Hamlet sees right through Guildenstern and Rosencrantz' reason for visiting. 

Hamlet Act 1 Scene 4 & 5

• Hamlet goes with Horatio and Marcellus to the watch to see the ghost of his dead father
• Hamlet sees his father's ghost and he goes with the ghost despite what Horatio and Marcellus say
• the ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius poisoned him and that Hamlet's mother Gertrude knows about it
• the ghost leaves as morning comes and Hamlet returns to Marcellus and Horatio and makes them swear to never tell of anything that happened under any circumstances 

Hamlet Act 1 Scene 3

• Polonius' daughter Ophelia has been seeing Hamlet and she tells her brother Laertes about it
• Laertes warns her about being with Hamlet because of the stress and pressure he has to deal with and because his situation is unstable
• Ophelia tells her father of Hamlet's declaration of love and how he has been acting crazy lately
• Polonius warns his daughter to be careful with Hamlet 

Pic of the day #13

Hamlet Act 1 Scene 2

• Claudius (Hamlet senior's brother) has married Gertrude (Hamlet senior's wife) and he is now king
• He starts off by saying that although King Hamlet has died recently they must move on
• Claudius then allows Polonius's son Laertes to go to France 
• Hamlet (junior) doesn't like Claudius 
• Hamlet's mother asks him why he is sad and he says he is not 
• He says he is sad inside but doesn't show it, and infers that those that grieve publicly may not grieve inwardly
• Claudius is being a jerk and says it is unmanly to grieve and then tells Hamlet he can't go back to school in Wittenberg
• Hamlet puts on a show of an obedient son to his mother and Claudius, but inside he dislikes his mother for betraying his father in marrying Claudius who he doesn't like either
• Horatio tells him he saw the ghost of his father and Hamlet believes him
• Hamlet tells Horatio he will come tonight to speak to the ghost

Hamlet Act 1 Scene 1

• Bernardo comes to relieve Francisco of his watch at the castle platform
• Francisco leaves and Horatio and Marcellus enter
• Bernardo tells Horatio of the apparition he had seen the night before
• The apparition appears and they think it is the ghost of the recently dead king Hamlet (senior)
• The ghost will not speak to them so Horatio wants to tell Hamlet (junior) they saw his father's ghost and they think it is a bad omen
• They hope the ghost will speak to Hamlet (junior)

Pic of the day #12

Vocab #6

abase - verb cause to feel shame; hurt the pride of
abdicate - verb give up, such as power, as of monarchs and emperors, or duties and obligations
abomination - noun an action that is vicious or vile; an action that arouses disgust or abhorrence; a person who is loathsome or disgusting; hate coupled with disgust
brusque - adj. marked by rude or peremptory shortness
saboteur - noun someone who commits sabotage or deliberately causes wrecks; a member of a clandestine subversive organization who tries to help a potential invader
debauchery - noun a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity
proliferate - verb cause to grow or increase rapidly; grow rapidly
anachronism - noun an artifact that belongs to another time; a person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age; something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred
nomenclature - noun a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline
expurgate - verb edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate
bellicose - adj. having or showing a ready disposition to fight
gauche - adj. lacking social polish
rapacious - adj. excessively greedy and grasping; devouring or craving food in great quantities; living by preying on other animals especially by catching living prey
paradox - noun (logic) a statement that contradicts itself
conundrum - noun a difficult problem
anomaly - noun (astronomy) position of a planet as defined by its angular distance from its perihelion (as observed from the sun); a person who is unusual; deviation from the normal or common order or form or rule
ephemeral - adj. lasting a very short time; noun anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form
rancorous - adj. showing deep-seated resentment
churlish - adj. having a bad disposition; surly; rude and boorish
precipitous - adj. characterized by precipices; extremely steep;done with very great haste and without due deliberation

Canterbury Tales Essay

Chaucer spent a lot of time travelling the world and meeting a vast array of people. He met poor people, rich people, titled people, church people, and many other different people with varying social classifications. This is why in his book The Canterbury Tales he used modern English. He wanted everyone to be able to read his book no matter what class they were. This suggests that his purpose in writing the story was to question the social class system and to question the established literary traditions of his time period. However, his story also honors the class system and literary techniques of his time through the use of societal traditions to write his story. Chaucer both honors and questions the social and literary system of his time in The Canterbury Tales by using a satirical tone to develop his characters, by using humor to emphasize his characters’ traits, and by using irony to question tradition.

Throughout the story Chaucer has a satirical tone that mocks and criticizes his characters’ weaknesses, but he also has an underlying tone of respect for tradition. In The Sea-Captain’s Tale Chaucer uses a tone of mocking when he describes the wife’s predicament. Her husband doesn’t want to pay for her dresses and lavish parties, so she must obtain money from another man. His tone is very satirical in describing what she views as a problem because her weakness is that she cares so much about how people view her. Chaucer also has a satirical tone when describing Brother John because he is very conniving and he uses the husband’s money to pay to sleep with the wife even though he is a monk.  Although Chaucer’s main goal was to provide commentary on society, he does show a level of respect for certain traditions. In The Knight’s Tale Chaucer uses the traditions of chivalry and courtly love to tell the story of Palamon and Arcite’s love for Emily. This shows that he does honor some traditions of society, even if he is criticizing it.

Chaucer uses humor to call attention to his characters’ best and worst traits. In The Sea-Captain’s Tale Chaucer uses humor when the wife describes the husband’s performance in bed as horrible in the beginning and great at the end. This parallels her selfishness in not getting what she wants in the beginning, and her being content in the end because she got the money. Chaucer also uses humor to call attention to the merchant’s stinginess when at the end the wife offers sex as payment. In The Knight’s Tale Chaucer uses humor to bring attention to Arcite’s love for Emily by making him sing ridiculous lamentations while frolicking in the flowers. Chaucer’s humor serves to mock the characters’ traits and make them seem even more ridiculous.

There is a lot of use of irony in Chaucer’s stories because he wants to make commentary on how the characters are perceived in society, and what they are actually like. In The Sea-Captain’s Tale Chaucer uses irony when he describes a rich merchant who doesn’t want to pay for any of his wife’s expenses. He also uses irony when he describes Brother John who is a monk, but he lusts after the wife despite his vows. Chaucer uses irony in describing the wife because she only cares about her reputation and how people view her, and yet she would betray her husband to uphold her reputation. In The Knight’s Tale it is very ironic that the knight’s code of chivalry and courtly love is what comes between two knights. It is ironic because one wouldn’t expect the knight’s code to elicit jealousy and deceit. Chaucer’s use of irony is very important because it makes his social commentary very obvious and provides the audience with insight into social problems.

Chaucer encountered many people in his travels, and that shaped his opinions of society and its traditions. He tried to battle the status quo by producing literature in a form that all could read, and by commenting on the illusions society had of certain people. He did honor some societal and literary traditions in his writing by including chivalry and courtly love to tell the knight’s story, but ultimately he criticized a lot of social problems through his use of a satirical tone, through his use of humor, and through his use of irony. 

Vocab #5

shenanigans. secret or dishonest activity or maneuvering
ricochet - noun a glancing rebound; verb spring back; spring away from an impact
schism - noun division of a group into opposing factions; the formal separation of a church into two churches or the withdrawal of one group over doctrinal differences
eschew - verb avoid and stay away from deliberately; stay clear of
plethora - noun extreme excess
ebullient - adj. joyously unrestrained
garrulous - adj. full of trivial conversation
harangue - noun a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion; verb deliver a harangue to; address forcefully
interdependence - noun a reciprocal relation between interdependent entities (objects or individuals or groups)
capricious - adj. determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason; changeable
loquacious - adj. full of trivial conversation
ephemeral - adj. lasting a very short time; noun anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form
inchoate - adj. only partly in existence; imperfectly formed
juxtapose - verb place side by side
perspicacious - adj. acutely insightful and wise; mentally acute or penetratingly discerning
codswallop - noun nonsensical talk or writing
mungo. cloth made from recycled woven or felted materials
sesquipedelian. .characterized by long words; long-winded
wonky - adj. inclined to shake as from weakness or defect; turned or twisted toward one side
diphthong - noun a vowel sound that starts near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves toward the position for another

Green Eggs and Hamlet

1. To quote Freaky Friday loosely, "Hamlet is a guy, he's just bopping around, doesn't know which way's up, I don't think the guy has a clue..." and that's about all I know about Hamlet.
2. Shakespeare was a playwright who wrote Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet etc.  and he lived a few hundred years ago during the 17th century and he used a lot of iambic pentameter. Oh, he also married this chick named Anne Hathaway which I only know because I like the present day Anne Hathaway.
3. People usually frown when they hear Shakespeare because his work is hard to understand because he makes so many allusions synonymous with his time period and you literally have to read between the lines for everything.
4. We can make studying Hamlet a cool experience by acting it out and really getting in to it as a class instead of reading it on our own at home.

The Point of Canterbury Tales is...

Chaucer used The Canterbury Tales to make social commentary on every different class. He did this by using irony, for example the rich merchant who didn't want to give money to his wife, by using humor to make the characters' worst traits seem even more ridiculous, and by creating a satirical tone.