One Sweet World

To the Class of 2012:

FEAR NOT! this class for some reason gets bad hype, when in reality it’s the most interesting english class that i’ve ever been in. This year was a bit crazy for our personal class…but i still learned alot and it brought out a creative side of me that i didn’t know existed.

First of all, do your homework. That shouldn’t really be advice though. You should already do it lolz. Doing homework makes the world of Duke Class go round, and everyone benefits, plus you feel pretty stupid when you know you’re not prepared.

It’s important to look ahead. If you don’t have English homework one night, it’s probably because there’s an ongoing project that’s due probably soon, so you might want to catch up on that. Check for long-running assignments, because they always killed me. I didn’t pay attention to those, so the night before it was due, it’d pop up on my “Due Tomorrow” homework section. that stinks.

Don’t complain. There’s no reason to. Blogging is fun. It’s the easiest way to get points and you can say whatever is on your mind. It’s awkward at first, noooo lie but you get used to it and i’m definitely going to miss it. There are a lot of times when you have to get out of your comfort zone, but that’s good for everyone to do every once in a while.

This is a class where you really can open up and be creative and explore different styles of learning and performing. I really enjoyed the class, so don’t be scared.

Take the punches of junior year and enjoy it while it lasts.

The final portion of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was full of goofiness, discussions about death, and the realization that these two characters are expendable. They mention time and time again that anything could happen to them.

They find themselves on the boat with Hamlet (even though he’s not near them). They are overjoyed that they are alive, because they thought their end was near. Guildenstern says that nothing they do will change the outcome. They can try any scheme, but it will not change what was written and meant to happen. I hate to be this way…but i just watched the Lost Finale and this reminded me of Lost. For any of you fans out there, you’ll know what i mean.

So Rosencrantz and Guildenstern begin wondering which one of them is more important. They want to know how much the other is getting paid to pass on the letters, but both of them are too stubborn to share. Rosencrantz says that he “can’t think of anything original. I’m only good in support” (104) which completely supports his role in “Hamlet.” Then Guildenstern says that they’re “nobody special” (109), which is also true in “Hamlet.” I think that in this act, the two of them truly realize that they will die very soon.

They start to think that they’re already dead and that the boat is an afterlife of some sort. Everything that happens in “Hamlet” happen in this scene, but the two are so uncertain. They try to change the outcome, but they know it isn’t possible. They say that “the whole thing’s pointless without [Hamlet]” (120), which is quite true.

In this scene, the players are rehearsing teh play. But it sounds more like the play of “Hamlet” rather than the play that is performed in “Hamlet.” Rosencrantz and Guildenstern continue to use sarcasm and jokes (74).

The pair have a lot of personality in this section. Rosencrantz is afraid to approach Hamlet to ask him what’s wrong (he almost cries at one point, too). Rosencrantz plays “Guess who?” to the queen, who is really a guy named Alfred. The Player also has a lot of personality. He steps on Rosencrantz’s hand and he is very bossy with the Tragedians. It’s funny when Guildenstern asks if the play is over and the Player is astonished that he said that, because it isn’t over until everyone is dead. He says it with a “duh” tone. He’s very sarcastic.

They play recorders in the dress rehearsal, so i feel like Hamlet will take one and tell Rosencrantz to play it like he does in “Hamlet.” The Player says that actors are bound to the writing and they can’t decide anything for themselves, which reflects Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s situation. They have an interesting conversation about actors and how they do every scene/emotion so many times that how could they possibly be realistic.

I liked this section. It’s a new approach to “Hamlet” and i could see it very clearly here. For example, Hamlet interrupts the dress rehearsal when he’s yelling at Ophelia.

In the play, the two “spies” are killed, then the lights go out and when they come back on, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are lying where the dead actors were…

To live or to die?
is it better to mentally suffer
the bad things in life
or to fight against them
and end them
sleeping, meaning death
heartache and depressing things in life
that we are used to. it’s completed
to be wished? to die, to sleep
to sleep, maybe to live in afterlife. yes, that’s the problem
because in that death rest what will happen in our dreams?
it makes one think…We put up
with unhappiness for most of our lives
who wants to deal with
someone doing them wrong, being insulted
the pain of love that isn’t returned, the law being weak
government being not worthy to serve, unworthy people succeed
when he silences himself
with a dagger. Who bears burdens
and suffers in life
but death is terrifying
it is like a land that hasn’t been explored yet
but noone ever returns once they go. it paralyzes our will
and makes us deal with out problems
rather than start with new ones
knowledge makes us cowards
and the natural color of clear [thoughts?]
is made sick over the pale thoughts
and projects with great importance
but big projects are often not carried out
and they seem to lose importance…here comes ophelia

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern begin analysing their conversation with Hamlet and how it only made them like fools and they hardly got any information out of it. They say, “Half of what he said meant something else, and the other half didn’t mean anything at all” (57) which is somewhat true from the actual play Hamlet.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are joksters with each other. They have an argurment about licking each other’s feet and they seem to know what bugs each other. So they do whatever that is just to get the other one riled up.

The thing about the Chinaman is interesting. He dreams that he’s a butterfly but then he starts to wonder if his being a Chinaman is the dream and being a butterfly is the reality.

They do some more coin throwing and Rosencrantz does a magic trick, making the coin disappear. Later on they agree that it’s not safe because they don’t have a lot of money anyways. So if they lose it all to magic tricks, that’d be bad. that was pretty funny.

The pair talk to the Player that they met at the beginning. They are very witty in this scene and the Player is acting weirdly. He says that actors can see everyone else’s most intimate moments…which is strange.

They start discussing Hamlet’s situation with him and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are funny at this part. They are making an argument, but then they turn to the other for help because they can’t answer the questions that the Player poses. Then they call Hamlet “Stark raving sane” (68) which means that they’ve gotten nowhere, but it’s a funny way to say that. They’re pretty confused at this point.

They begin discussing eternity and death. They mention Saul/Paul from the bible. it’s interesting how Rosencrantz wonders when humans realize that they are not eternal. he says, “We must be born with an intuition of mortality” (72). it’s a very interesting point.

Alright, so basically Hamlet is saying all of this because he’s freaking out about what he’s going to do. He wonders if it’s better to stay alive and suffer or to end his life instead. He has so much going on that he just gets stressed out by it all.

I don’t really understand the audience portion of the analysis….they’re not on the stage? I guess one of his audiences could be the Ghost because he wants to avenge his dead father. So he’s suffering but in the end he decides to do the deed for his dad.

I think that the purpose of Hamlet’s speech is to show his personality. Now we know that he is not a cold-blooded murderer and that he has a conscience. Plus it makes the audience/reader wonder if he’ll actually carry out his plan.

He uses pathos when he mentions the afterlife which makes everyone curious (“To die, to sleep/ No more- and by a sleep to say we end/ The heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to-” (68-71).

He uses Logos because he knows that ending his own life won’t end the suffering. (“Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer…Or to take arms against a sea of troubles/ and, by opposing, end them” (65-68).)

He uses Ethos when he says “Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, the pangs of unrequited love, the law’s delay, the insolence of office…” (79-81). To me these are all of the problems he’s going through and he’s saying that they are the general problems in life, but they are his own problems.

Hamlet uses “sleep” to mean death.  He says “shuffled off this mortal coil” instead of saying ‘When we die.’ He compares enterprises (projects/plans) to water currents that go off from the main water source and soon become just an idea rather than an action. I guess he’s hoping that his plan won’t become an idea and that he’ll really act on it. When he mentions dreams, that probably means something other that going to sleep and dreaming, since sleep is about death. But i don’t know what dreaming would be in this instance. It seems that he calls the afterlife “an undiscovered country from whose bourn/ No traveler returns.” (87-88).

Hamlet’s head is turning so much at this point. He is in a bad state. (shoutout: “Je suis dans un mal état.”) So anyways it was pretty nice of him to make sure that Claudius was remorseful meaning that he was guilty. But he IS planning to kill a man so it’s hard to respect him. Plus he’s a wack-job.

This portion was a lot funnier than the first one we read. But there were still confusing parts. I like when Guildenstern mentions how weird it is to forget how to spell words because i know what he means! Sometimes, writing a word out makes it look really strange and you second guess yourself. But then they start talking about answers and i don’t understand the top of 39 at all. “When he called, we came” (39) confuses me because i don’t know who the man on the horse is and what that has to do with anything.

They mention how Hamlet loves the two of them and that “there aren’t two people living whom he dotes on more than [them]” (40), so i think that there will be some tension later when Hamlet finds out that they are spying on him (assuming he will find out). And Guildenstern calls the situation a game, but ultimately they’re ratting out Hamlet on what ever they can find. so i think that calling it a game would be putting it mildly.

I LAUGHED when Rosencrantz suggested they make a human pyramid to pass the time. It was weird though…

They start a question game where you have to ask questions and the first to mess up loses and they use tennis scoring.

I looked up ‘non sequiturs’ and it’s when someone asks a question and they get a completely random answer like: “What day is it today?” “Shoes.”

I don’t know why Guildenstern talks to himself in third person either. He’ll say his own name and Rosencrantz will say “what?” and that happens twice. that’s confusing.

The game continues and they continue to tease jokingly. I am starting to see the references to Hamlet a lot better, especially when they say that Hamlet’s changes can’t be solely the upset about his father’s death. We just read that part in the Hamlet, so i easily noticed that.

This was a strange beginning to a story because it is not a classic “once upon a time” scenario. These two men act like they’re brothers. They act like they’re around each other a lot so they bicker and are stubborn with each other. Guil mimics Ros at one point when he repeats something that Ros says “eagerly” with a “tired” tone. They are jokesters as we can see when Ros introduces them with opposite names.

This could relate to Hamlet, because they were just chilling with nothing to do, so it is like the background story that you don’t know about in the actual play Hamlet. There is a mention of Lot from the bible and the “children of Israel.”

The scene with the Players confused me. they’re obviously playing a harmless game of chance, and we figure out that Guil is more clever than the Player, but then Ros calls them perverts, and i don’t understand why. I am sad for Alfred! he just gets tossed around and i think it’s sad that the players deem him worthy of trading. i hope he get a friend in the story.

I was staring at my cat the other day and i was wondering what she was thinking because we were just starting at one another without moving. i started laughing, but she didn’t miss a beat. I don’t know anything about the mental capacity of animals, but i know that the whole time, i was thinking  that had to beat her in the staredown. So was she thinking that i was crazy? or that she didn’t know what to do?

Instead of studying for our French AP exam, margaux, lindsey, and i got into a discussion about how weird it is to think about how French people actually think in french and they talk to their pets in french, who respond only to that language. It’s cool how we are all people, we all want the same things in life, but we can’t necessarily easily communicate. It takes so much patience and experience. Wait…i’m pretty sure i was talking about cats and dogs a minute ago, i just went way off. anyways………….

I always wonder what animals think when it snows, especially in Louisiana. It doesn’t really bother my dog but i always wonder what she thinks it is. I guess they have their instincts and know what the weather is, but i think that if i were a dog, i’d be a bit confused. it’d be cool to be a dog for a day. except for their difficulty distinguishing colors. that’d be weird. I try to trick my dog and stand really still and see if she can’t see me….she always does. I read somewhere that dogs have a visual span of 200-270 degrees, and humans only have 160 degrees, which is COOL!

But i wouldn’t like to be a dog, because all you eat is pellets, day in and day out. And that is no fun. Yuck.

Drama: plays, scenery, dialogue, characters, a big red curtain, a huge stage, the Colosseum, Romeo and Juliet, satire, Shakespeare’s plays were directed towards the lower classes (crude jokes), humor, conflict, have been popular for centuries. Romans and Greeks especially loved plays.

Plays! most stories can be put into playwright form, but often they started as plays and were adapted to books. “Monster,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” “A Streetcar Named Desire” are all plays. One of my favorite plays that Episcopal put on was “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” and it was absolutely hilarious. I remember they also did “Greece” and “Charlotte’s Web.”

I went to the Colosseum which was really cool. It would’ve been cool to see a play there and that’s where they generally were shown because it’s a huge amphitheater and so many people can fit in it.

We learned a lot about Shakespeare freshman year. I really like it. He’s hard to understand, but he’s very clever. He wrote Hamlet, but i don’t know anything about that play. Yay for drama!