Oh Poor Fool

Well I have to say I think King Lear is about 10x as dramatic and depressing  as Hamlet. At least in Hamlet there was some vengeance for all that accrued. King Lear, like in any good Shakespeare play, had everything in the beginning and was left with nothing in the end. I may find this one more emotional because it is based more on the father- daughter relationship and what happens when the father gets older and how he is treated and regarded. People have choices in life and  since I have a great relationship with my dad, I would have to say that I would never make him go mad(although I'm sure he'd say otherwise).   I know King Lears madness is what makes him King Lear, just like Hamlets madness makes him Hamlet, but I can not see why he would not have just taken up his knights and gone to find Cordelia after his other daughters had been so terrible to him. Would that not make more sense? And yet that would have made for a terrible play.

I think there is something to be said about the suffering of others that makes us understand our selves better. Not so much that we would act according to our thoughts but that it brings awareness to the actions that may be brought up at a different time.

death becomes you....

"Geniuses don't make errors- it is just a portal to another discovery"

And we shouldn't live with shame. 

Ides of March.....

Well, almost getting hit by a speeding car and being inches near death put Hamlet into a whole new perspective.

Do we play to play?

Now for reals. So this is not the play but an interview done with Jude Law. He recently performed Hamlet on stage in London, about a year or so ago. The way he describes what he went through while playing Hamlet was very much like what Mr. Sexson was saying in class about how Hamlet was ( bad way of re-saying this) " he new the meanings behind everything." Jude says that he " somewhat became Hamlet while playing him", being able to see what it took to become "the madness with in the man". I believe that we all, in turn, play Hamlet at one time or another. Maybe not questioning whether or not we should live or die but questioning the cosmos and the way in which we live. Is it not true?

Monsterpeice Theater

Just like Hamlet, Cookie Monster is no more. On the lighter side of things I guess. :)

Karma's a com'n!

So we all know the the famous line "To be or not to be". And as Professor Sexson was saying in class this morning, we've heard about every rendition that anyone could come up with. The line that I find interesting how ever is the line right before that where Claudius's conscience is getting the better of him.

"How smart a last that speech doth give m conscience! 
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art, 
is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
Than is my deed to my most painted word.
O heavy burden!"

With in this, the audience is given a tempted treat. It could go two ways: 1.) It is possible that what Scott was saying that Hamlet is just a raving lunatic (taking freedom with that one) and that he  is over exaggerating the death of his father and that Claudius is just feeling guilty for the pain that the quick marriage to Hamlets mother is putting onto Hamlet. Or 2.) is that it is possible that Claudius really did kill his own brother  and marrying his sister - in- law and becoming king to Denmark, and is living out a plot to take over the throne and create the diversion that Hamlet is the crazy one so that he would be put away and then he (Claudius) wouldn't have to deal with him again.

Either way the fact that Claudius feels guilty for something shows that he knows what he did, by marrying his brothers wife was probably not the smartest thing to have done so quickly.