Ophelia

    Ophelia is an extremely  unique character that has been portrayed differently in various productions of Hamlet. One major difference of Ophelia's portrayal that sticks out to me is that her portrayal by Brannaugh and zeffirelli are completey oppisite to her portrayal in the painting shown in the assignment. In the films she completely loses her mind, acting crazy around everyone. But in the painting Ophelia looks as though she is at peace with herself, she does not look like someone who was crazy in the past life. I found it an intresting comparison, between the painting and the film version.

Hamlet's dillema

    I believe it is not right for Hamlet's hesitation on killing Claudius. Hamlet approached Claudius from behind ready to kill him but he doesn't because he finds Claudius praying. The reason he doesn't want to kill him is because he doesn't want him at peace with God when he dies. Which I find dishonorable. Hamlet wants Claudius dead but he doesn't want him at peace with himself, and because of this desicion many more people die in consequence.

Hamlet Ghost Scene

In Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet, the ghost scene takes place in a very dark atmosphere, and it was also very gloomy. The ghost spoke in a raspy low voice which signifies how dead he actually is. This is not my favorite version of the ghost scene. I found it more gloomy then I imagined when I first read the scene.

In Kenneth Branaugh's Hamlet, the ghost scene takes place in a lonesome forrest. It is not dark out either. This is my favorite version of the ghost scene, and this is because i found that the forrest added a great deal of isolation to the scene, and I found the acting to be superb.

In Michael Almereyda's Hamlet it took place in an apartment building. This was my least favorite one, even though it was still well done, I prefered the other Hamlet's much more. The reason I think this is becausei feel it wasn't as powerful as i thought it should've been.

To be or not to be

In branaughs Hamlet, Hamlet is saying the to be or not to be speech in a large room and he is talking to himself looking at a mirror. He is cotemplating wether he should kill himself or not. There is not much music, the music that is there is rather quiet. The thing that makes this scene particulary powerful is when Hamlet pulls out the dagger, I felt this added a lot of drama to the scene.

In Almereyda's Hamlet, the speech is given in a modern envirement. The setting is in a video store and the scene is filled with tons of symbolism. First off the setting of the scene is a video store, the symbolism of the setting is that a video store is a place where people make choices, and that is where Hamlet is contemplatng suicide.

In Zeffirelli's Hamlet, the setting is the darkest ot of all the other Hamlet's. It is in a catacomb filled with bodies of the dead . The scene was very bleak and it showed Hamlet in his darkest hour, the strongest version of the to be or not to be speech out of all the Hamlet's iv'e seen.

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street

“The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own for the children, and the children yet unborn.”


    What Rod sterling is trying to say here is that people are more dangerous then weapons. The main point Mr.Sterling is trying to get across is that when something happens that can't be easily explained they start to blame others for the events that occurred, and often times this leads to a dangerous outcome.  And I completely agree with this statement. This kind of thing happens repeatedly in history.  The witch hunts of Salem, the blacklisting of the Cold War era, and even today with the terrorism scare.  The nature of people will never change and history is due to repeat itself.

Blog entry 2

(PG.1241)Character: Thomas Putnam

Thomas Putnam is a man with many grievances. 

He is an embittered man for two main reasons.  The 

first reason is because he feels that  his honor among the town has been 

lowered because his brother did not win the vote

for  minister.  Another reason he is embittered is

because he wants to  break his fathers will.