Kelso

Hey juniors! God this year has gone by so quickly. Alright anyway, these blogs may or may not help you in her class because it  depends on what kind of person/student you are. If you are an overachiever, hard working student, or just have nothing better to do than homework, you’ll do well in the class of Duke. She knows her stuff, REALLY REALLY REALLY well, so listen to her. She will teach you things you need to know and don’t know. One way to at leaist get an A- in her class is to do all of your homework. This is what everyone has problems doing, but it really is the absolute easiest way to get a good grade.

We had a lot of problems this year with doing things in advanced, and saying she didn’t even tell us about something; but the truth is, she did. It may have been a month before, but she still did; and unfortunately, you can’t argue with that. Seriously, you will never win with her, so don’t try. It’s a waste of class time, information you may need to know, and energy to continuously argue with her. Also, if you do class discussions and actually participate in stuff, that’s a “cool point” in her book. Cool points are participation points that will definitely come in handy at the end of each semester and it’ll help you understand things better. Don’t listen to other class’s assignments either, because most of them are different from your’s and you’ll screw yourself over if you listen to them.

To sum everything up, if you want to do well in her class: try to do almost every homework assignment, don’t argue a lot, participate, and don’t listen to other classes. Duke has had some troubles with our class, major ones, but I have to say I did learn a lot from her. She really does care about each individual student, and she will focus on them(even if too much sometimes).  Just bear with her, do what you have to do, and you’ll survive.

During the first half of this reading, the main thing that stood out to me was how Hamlet lets Stoppard create a spinoff of Ros and Guil’s story. Their stories are perfectly tied together. When they talk to Hamlet after his nunnery speech with Ophelia is a perfect example. Stoppard twisted the staging to where Hamlet winks at Ros and Guil in the middle of his fight with Ophelia, which adds depth to his characterization and the plot. We talked in class a lot about how they are “stuck” between the lines of the play, Hamlet. So I guess that’s why it was the first thing I noticed.

Their dialogue is kind of aggravating me though. I think the comedy is kind of drifting away, like a joke that’s gone on too long. Now it’s just kind of annoying. They also don’t even talk to Hamlet like they do to each other…or the other way around. Maybe that’s Stoppard’s way of making it obvious that their story is fictional. Or maybe not. There is also foreshadowing at the end of act two when Ros says “Is that all [actors] can do- die?” and the entire scene with the players. Death was the main theme and when they sneak off at the end of act two, it gives us hints about the Hamlet plot.

This reading was probably the easiest to read, either because their conversations are easier to read or I’m adapting to their goofyness. One thing that jumped out at me was when they actually interacted with the audience, and showed they were aware they were there. This is extremely postmodern because it is so different and innovative. Ros yells “Fire!” to display how free speech can be misused, and then points out how the audience didn’t move, which gives the play more comedy. Another really funny part is when they’re threaten’ing the player and keep on talking about what they’ll do to his tongue…just sayin’.

Ros and Guil continue to have their little excursions of life as usual. But they also talk about how Hamlet made an idiot of them because he tricked them into thinking he was mad and then made them confess that they were sent to investigate him. This provides a sense of reality from their perspective because it shows how maybe two best friends would feel if their bestfriend was doing that to them. Also, when Ros,Guil, and the player talk about how actor’s act and are different from other people, is very postmodern. What makes it more postmodern, however, is the stage directions during that scene, when they look at the audience as they speak. If they didn’t, it would change the point of that part. Funny how important staging is.

Paraphrase: To act on this, or not to act on it- that’s the real question. Would it be better to suffer unbearably from this situation, or to fight against it and end it. Should I just die? I would feel no heartache or troubles anymore. That’s something that is very wanted by all. When you die, you would dream. There’s the catch…because when you die, you’ll get away from the problems of humanity and give you a break. That’s the thing that makes us put up with unhappiness for such a long time.  Who would want to put p with these turmoils, people’s faults, arrogance, the pains of love, law, the disrespectful politicians, when unworthy people take the praise for the work, or when he doesn’t take it for bad work with a mere dagger? Who would bear the burden, to slave over their life’s work? Or the dread after you die, the afterlife where you haven’t explored, where no one has ever come back from, stops the want and makes us deal with the burdens we have rather than deal with other burdens? Therefore, knowledge makes us cowards, and the real world is messed up with thoughts and the undertakings of the height of the moment. On this account, the great undertakings are like rivers that, turned aside from their main channels, lose momentum and become stagnant and lose their purpose. Hold up, beautiful Ophelia. Beautiful, in my prayers all of my sins are noticed.

Exigence: He wants to act more efficiently and courageously on his dilemma. Hamlet has just made his plan about the play, but he doesn’t know if it’s enough. He knows of his cowardice and becomes very aware of it so he gets depressed. He begins to talk about how the world sucks, basically, and hates the situation he is in.

Audience: His primary audience is himself. He is speaking to himself because he knows his flaw. He is aware of it, so he tells himself what his flaw is and to fix it. But then the other side of him tells him to just wither away and die because he doesn’t know how to fix it. His secondary audience would be Ophelia, because he adresses her at the end.

Purpose: Hamlet’s soliloquy is to provide characterization for his depressed mood. It opens the audience up to a personal level so they can relate to his misery and provides suspense. It changes the tone to a deep,dark state, also.

Ethos: Ethos is probably the main appeal used because this is a soliloquy- the entire thing appeals to the speaker. This provides strong characterization for Hamlet because he elaborates on his downfall- his timidity. The most famous and very first line, “To be or not to be- that is the question” refers to his inability to act on his situation. Also, line 91, “Thus conscience does make cowards <of us all> . “Of us all” is in parentheses because he adds it in as if this is everyone’s problem, not just his.

Pathos: Hamlet’s soliloquy explains all the troubles in the world and goes way in-depth of each foul thing that happens or that people do. This lets the audience relate to his speech so they can share in his anger and misery. He gives so many examples (lines 79-84) so that every person in the audience can relate to at least one.

Logos: The second half of his speech is asking why would people want to endure the burdens in their life when they can just die and dream forever. This involves logic because it actually does make sense, even if it is a bit dramatic.

Figures of speech, imagery, diction, syntax: Hamlet uses such strong literary elements to intensify the emotions to make the audience really feel what he feels. The diction and syntax makes the speech adds coherence and sound beautiful simultaneously. “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” and “the whips and scorns of time” are  metaphors used by Hamlet to emphasize the bad things that happen in the world. “To die, to sleep-no more-” The long pauses used and the way Hamlet says it shows how miserable he is and how he just wants to die. “The undiscovered country  from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have” stands out to me because it is describing the afterlife and is a very vivid image.

Overall, Hamlet’s soliloquy can pretty much be very relatable. I would be completely distraught and enraged to no end if my father was murdered, and the fact that his mother helped is unbearable. I would, in all honesty, would be considering death also. I don’t blame him for acting the way he does. However, I do not agree with his timidity. If he truly loved and wanted to avenge his father’s murder, he would be yelling it to the town. I would be so mad and I wouldn’t care how Claudius was revealed, I would just do it. I feel as if his cowardness will get him into trouble in many ways, considering it’s his major downfall.

This second reading has started to make muchhhh more sense to me now. These guys are like tweedle dee and tweedle dum on gilmore girls. They talk so quickly and so back and forth, it’s histerical. Ros seems to be tweedle dum because he is always getting confused and flustered about something. There is so much more comedy in this reading than in the last, or maybe I just didn’t catch on to it. Ros makes a comment that really stood out to me though. He says that Hamlet isn’t crazy just because of his father’s death, so if freakin tweedle dum can figure that out, I’m sure Claudius does too. I think Claudius is suspecting Hamlet is figuring things out so he sent Ros and Guil to get the 411.

This is pretty expected, but when Ros and Guil talk to each other, they speak differently than when they talk to Hamlet. The dialogue when they speak to Hamlet is the exact dialoge in the play. This play was written during postmodern times but why would Stoppard make that obvious? Perhaps that’s just a postmodern idea. Also, their elaborate conversations on consistency and the idea of questions is definitely postmodern because it makes fun of the in-depth thinking to the point where it makes no sense. I still don’t get the title though! I mean I’m sure I’m gonna find out sooner or later but it’s really making me wonder.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead starts off with them playing this coin toss game and the quarter landing on heads 90 times in a row. This is completely impossible and Guil(the one who keeps losing) overthinks his life in terms of fate and destiny. Postmodernism has characteristics of comedy and this is hilarious; the fact that Ros doesn’t even think about is as anything is also very comedic. Right when the tragedians start their play after getting so aggravated that they kept losing the coin toss game, the coin lands on tails. Of course that would happen because it’s “fate”. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a postmodern adaptation of Hamlet, also, because it takes two main characters of a plot into two main characters in the play within the book, Hamlet. It also takes a tragedy and turns it into a comedy by making fun of it.

This week is the seniors last week and I am devastated! I am going to miss them so much; yes, partially because of Pabs and the other half is because I feel like next year is going to be so boring. They’re always the ones in the student center yelling and being hilarious. We don’t have much of that in our grade..that is, no one is really that stand-out funny besides Jules. We don’t have a B.Rob to yell or a Tommy to crack out of a dinosaur shell hahaha. Plus the sophomores aren’t really my cup of tea. Some of them are okay, like the junior girls’ boyfriends, but other than that, nothin’.

I don’t even want them in the student center really, so maybe we can rearrange the couches so they only have one, so then they won’t even want to come in there. But still, I’m going to miss them a lot. They are all so much fun, nice, and funny. Graduation is going to be so depressing! I’m going to miss Pabs so much, too, so it’s gonna be verryyy tearful when he leaves! We plan on staying together and we know exactly what we’re in for. It’s going to unbearably tough at times but I think we are strong enough and love each other enough to make it work. But until next year, I’m going to spend as much time with him and the rest of the seniors before they leave!

When I think of drama in terms of plays, the absolute first thing that comes to mind is Shakespeare. When I hear Shakespeare, I think of longs plays in middle english with tons of tragedies. Plays consist of acts, scenes, and have an intermission. They almost completely consist of dialogue.  Hamlet so far seems veryyy dramatic because of the tone of the language. Drama to me means any action, voice, or point of view that evokes emotion. Wow I sounds like a TNT commercial…anyway, drama is derived from conflict. However, staging, characters, and theme also contribute to drama. The characteristics of a person can create drama through their actions and how they interact with others. Staging also produces drama based on the characters’ movement around the stage to provoke certain feelings for the audience. Lastly, the theme produces drama because it gives the audience a certain tone for the play.

was the name of my game this weekend. AKA the best weekend EVA. Lemme just give you a run-down. So on Friday, me and pabs went out to eat with his family, then slept. Saturday, I slept til like 10 then went to jazzfest (which was pretty awesome except for all the smelly mud) , then came home and slept for forever. Sunday, I just flat-out slept. Seriously, all I’m doing right now and have been doing is resting, watching tv, and doing a little homework here and there. Not gonna lie, it’s pretty legit. Sometimes though, when I have nothing to do, I don’t know what to do with myself. Like right now, for example, It’s not even 11 yet and I’m doing homework. I do that because I can’t just sit here and do nothing because I’m not used to it. Regardless, it’s still awesome. So after I finish this blogging and my vocab, I’m SLEEPINNNNN.

Well normally I have this very strict structure built up in my head when writing a paper. I feel like I need to be so uptight and serious with a 5-paragraph essay type of writing. I’ll have a thesis/introduction, body, then conclusion. I always thought this is what a paper should have and be like. However, it has made my writing pretty boring. So, for this paper, I’m going to writing in the opposite of that. I’m going to mess with the structure by writing the body first, and having an introduction later, and make it a little more loose. What I mean by that is that I’m going to write like Ian, basically; add some humor and make it more fun to read. So far I’ve gotten the first paragraph and I’m working on my second one and how I should show my point. Hopefully this turns out like I want it!