Blog #9

What aspects of the play stand out to you?

What stands out to me about Hamlet is how there are so many things going on and its barely the beginning of the play. For example, we know that the king of Denmark (Hamlet's dad) died and his brother took over the throne and married Hamlet's mom. Then there is the dead king's ghost that appears at night. Then there is Hamlet's madness that we are starting to see and also Polonius comes into the story with his son Laertes, that is leaving to France, and his daughter Ophelia, who Hamlet is in love with. Then there is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and the players. There are many characters in the play and they are all very different from each other with different roles in the play but they all somehow connect with each other to form the story that takes place in this play. It also stands out to me how we can see many different things in the play like love, murder, family, friendship, betrayal, and many other things.

Post images that represent three key moments in Hamlet, and write a short description of each, including the Act & Scene.

This is an image of what Hamlet's dead dad's ghost might have looked like. The ghost appears in three scenes so far. In Act I Scene I, IV, and V. I think the most important so far is the when the ghost talks to Hamlet in Act I Scene V because that's when we find out why the ghost is in the story and also when Hamlet starts thinking about revenge and since that point his "madness" starts.

This picture is of Act I Scene III, this is when Laertes is about to

leave and gives Ophelia advice about Hamlet and then we also see Polonius, who gives advice to both his son and his daughter. I feel like this moment is important because at this point we are basically introduced to three characters; Polonius, Laertes and Ophelia. We also get to know Polonius a little better and we start to see him a little more often after this scene. We also get to know more about Laertes's character, who will later on in the story be very important. Also, Ophelia is important because, as Polonius later tells the King and Queen, Hamlet is in love with her and they think that might be one of the causes for his madness.

This is an image of Gertrude and Claudius and they are in a couple of scenes so far but I would want to focus on Act I Scene II because that is when Claudius and Gertrude are first introduced and that's when we start to see how Claudius doesn't really care that his brother died and just keeps thinking of taking over everything. Also, how Hamlet doesn't like how his uncle married his mom and is basically the only one that is sad because his dad died while everyone else seems to have forgotten.