Thursday, February 11, 2016
Close Reading
Select a passage you like (no more than 5 lines in length) and do a close reading (like what we did in class on Thursday) of that passage. There should be no repeat passages among the class. Everyone needs to select a different set of 5 lines. The idea here is to work collaboratively to do a close reading of a variety of lines throughout Act II so that we can gain deeper insight into the entire act through each other's work. Pick lines that intrigue you, puzzle you, delight you, whatever. You should explain the meaning of words and images and then offer an overall analysis of the lines. Again, just as we did together in class on Thursday.
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I was pretty interested in some of the lines Hamlet has in his soliloquy in the end of the chapter when he talks about the First Player. He starts off by saying, “What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba/That he should weep for her? What would he do/Had he the motive and the cue for passion/That I have? He would drown the stage with tears” (Act 2, sc 2, lines 586-589). These lines reference the tale of the Aeneid, as Aeneas tells of Pyrrhus hunting down king Priam of Troy. Hecuba, Priam’s wife, would have been saddened by the loss of Priam, but Hamlet finds it amazing that the Player could talk about the story with a sad and mournful face even though he didn’t know Hecuba personally. However, the analogy goes further because of how Hamlet has set up Hecuba to parallel Queen Gertrude, and how he later references himself as an actor. The double meaning in the lines is comparing not only how the Player might feel about the situation in Denmark, but also, through the lines “What’s Hecuba to him?”, how he’s questioning what Queen Gertrude means to him. Furthermore, the last lines “had he the motive and cue for passion that I have?” tie into Hamlet’s later lines about how he thinks his own actions are cowardly. While the Player would openly cry and do something with his emotions, Hamlet is forced to act in, what he deems, hidden and “villainous” ways.
ReplyDeleteI was really fascinated by this analysis.
DeleteLines 629-634 in Act II, Scene 2 really caught my attention. (Although, coincidentally, Ranjun took the lines that were most interesting to me!) It reads, “T’ assume a pleasing shape; yea and perhaps/Out of my weakness and my melancholy,/As he is very potent with such spirits/Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds/More relative than this. The play’s the thing/Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.”
ReplyDeleteIn reading this passage, Hamlet begins to doubt that the ghost is really his father. Rather, it is the presence of the devil, pushing him to bad things while taking the shape of his father, in order to appeal to his weakness and sorrow. However, he takes it all a step further, connecting the presence of the ghost, the devil, and Claudius. Basically, I’m pretty sure that he is implying that Claudius is in cahoots with the devil, or maybe even that the devil is present in Claudius.
No matter how this connection is happening, Hamlet is beginning to think that Claudius is messing with him.
For me, one of the most interesting scenes of Act 2 took place in scene 2 when Hamlet and Polonius are first talking. A small portion of what they say is “For if the sun breed maggots in a dead/ dog, being a good kissing carrion—Have you a/ daughter?…/ Let her not walk i’ th’ sun. Conception is a blessing, but, as your daughter may conceive” (Act 2, sc 2, lines 197-198 & 200-202). The side notes in the book are extremely important in understanding the text. In the notes “dead” means “flesh,” “good” means a “piece” and “sun” means “to kiss.” Hamlet starts off by quite literally saying that the sun grows maggots in a dead dog. The reason is that the sun sees the dead dog as a good “piece of flesh to kiss.” Hamlet then slyly brings up Ophelia and warns Polonius not to let Ophelia into the “sun” a.k.a. “public.” He then clarifies his reason for saying all of this by stating that conception is great but warns that Ophelia can get pregnant. I think this little passage is very interesting because he uses such a disgusting picture to warn Polonius of Ophelia getting pregnant. The maggots that the sun grows in the dead dog are compared to a baby being grown inside of Ophelia. And it is also quite comical because Hamlet knows who Polonius is but Polonius thinks that he doesn’t know. Hamlet is saying this on purpose to Polonius but he does not even realize that Hamlet is actually making fun of him and Ophelia.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, one interesting part in Act 2 is when Polonius talks to the king and queen about how he believes that Prince Hamlet has gone crazy. Some interesting lines are, “At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him. / Be you and I behind an arras then. / Mark the encounter. If he love her not, / And be not from his reason fall’n thereon, / Let me be no assistant for a state, / But keep a farm and carters” (Pg. 93; Act II, Scene II, Lines 176 – 181). These lines show how crazy Polonius believes Hamlet has become. Polonius goes as far as to plan a trap for Hamlet by allowing his daughter to be close to Hamlet. This is interesting because Polonius is basically comparing his own daughter to an animal (more specifically, he basically refers to her as prey for a predator). Polonius believes that Hamlet’s insane love for Ophelia will cause him to lose all sense of reason and pounce/ attack her. His is so sure that Hamlet has gone crazy that he even says that if he is wrong, he is not fit for helping to run the government. He is so sure of his accusations that he would be willing to risk his current job/ status in government to possibly go manage a farm. I just really find it interesting how invested Polonius seems to be when it comes to disproving Hamlet’s sanity. He goes a far as using his daughter (who he is trying to protect) as bait to show the monster/ “savage” that Hamlet has become. It is also interesting that Polonius thinks that the sight of his daughter will cause Hamlet to lose all sense of reason (loss of thought and morality) causing him to attack or attempt to mate with her.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading Act II of Hamlet, I was amused by the few lines where Polonius reads Hamlet’s letter to Ophelia. The few lines read, “[he reads.] To the celestial, and my soul’s idol, the most beautiful Ophelia — That’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase; “beautified” is a vile phrase. But shall you hear. Thus: [he reads] In her excellent white blossom, etc. — (lines 117-122)”
ReplyDeleteFrom the “excellent white blossom” part of this line, we see a phenomenon very familiar to one we have seen in “The Lysistrata” - the men want mostly physical traits of women and want sex.
We can also see that from Polonius using the terms “vile” and “ill”, that he is quite disgusted of the prince.
We also see Hamlet views Ophelia like a god, literally just because she’s pretty. We infer this from the first few lines - “to the celestial, and my soul’s idol.”
“Confound the ignorant and amaze indeed/ The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,/ a dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak/ Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of the cause,/ And can say nothing” (592 – 596). I was especially interested in this excerpt because I feel that a motif is Hamlet’s self hatred/self doubt/insecurity.
ReplyDeleteIn the first line Hamlet is talking about the ability that the Player has to act and persuade but also to have heart. Hamlet says that the Player would, “Confound the ignorant and amaze indeed.” By this Hamlet means that if the Player were to act out a play that followed a similar storyline to the story of Claudias killing King Hamlet, everyone in the audience would know at the end of the show that Claudias was guilty. Hamlet proceeds discredit his own ability because he is angry with his inaction. He says, “a dull and muddy-mettled rascal…” because he feels childish that he has been able to do nothing in the wake of such unsettling news about his father. However, more so than just foolish, Hamlet feels like he is a purposeless man who only dreams of action but never follows through. The use of the name “John-a-dreams,” which is a dreamer is interesting because it adds to our notion of Hamlet as a sort of immature boyish character.
For me, the part in Act 2 Scene1, in which Ophelia talks to Polonius about how Hamlet has gone mad, is very fascinating. The lines go: “This is the very ecstasy of love, /Whose violent property fordoes itself/ And leads the will the desperate undertakings/ As oft as any passions under heaven/ That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.” (Act II Scene I, Lines 114-118)
ReplyDeleteThese lines not only show Polonius’ naiveté, but also Polonius’ interpretation of love itself. The word ‘ecstasy’ portrays how love can lead a person to become mad, or violent. The second line provides how love has a ‘violent property’, or a violent characteristic inside that attacks the very person who is in love. This was very interesting to me because I have always thought of love as an emotion that lifts people up to happiness or benevolent feelings, rather than bring people down to such violence. Polonius also mentions in the last three lines that love will lead a person to take ‘desperate’, or extreme measures, as a lot of other emotions bring him. This was also fascinating because while I do very much relate to how love can lead a person to change and take risks, I also do not think this is the right reason to justify Hamlet’s behaviors. So far, as of what Ophelia has described Hamlet’s behaviors, he had been acting mad, but has not demonstrated the ‘desperate undertakings’ for Ophelia. This line shows how Polonius mistook Hamlet’s actions, and how this started another misunderstanding that changed the course of Act II.
ACT 2, Scene 2, lines 1-7
ReplyDeleteWelcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Moreover that we much did long to see you,
The need we have to use you did provoke
Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
Of Hamlet’s “transformation”—so call it
Since nor th' exterior nor the inward man
Resembles that it was.
When reading these beginning lines to Scene 2 of Act 2 the first thing that came to mind was nothing good can come from this. Already so early in the book Hamlet has this representation of being a mad man but more importantly a man that Claudius needs to ensure will not be liability. Not only is Hamlet seen crazy through his step-father/uncle but now by Polonius. In the previous lines before scene 2, at the end of scene 1, Ophelia tells Polonius that she is scared for Hamlet and also of Hamlet as she confirms he has gone made because they can not be a couple anymore. Polonius decides to tell the king and these beginning lines I chose to close read are Claudius’s respond to Polonius’s comments on Hamlet. First, it opens with Claudius greeting his two best friends from school. Here, he is not only going beyond Hamlets back talking to him but his mother is in on this too. In the next line, Claudius exclaims how happy he is too see them because he hasn’t seen them in such a long time. Although I do believe he is happy to see them, the real reason he is happy to see them is because they can spy on his nephew not because ‘that we much did long to see you’. As he goes on to speak he then belittles Hamlet by talking about how much he has changed since his father’s death. He goes on finishing this close read by saying he is not the man inside and out he once was. This is important because if his two best friends have not seen since he has gone ‘crazy’, then by Claudius saying this there not only going to have a skewed view of him but also might treat him differently. The main reason why I chose this close read because by Claudius bashing Hamlet like this it runs the risk of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern treating him differently and if Hamlet sees them treating him differently and he realizes there spying on him his reaction could get ugly. Already so enraged if he finds out not only his crocked uncle but more importantly his Mother was behind his friends spying on him it will just add to his anger.