The past few weeks have been mostly devoted to our first read through of Shakespeare's Hamlet. I am so glad we did a read through in class, because there was a lot I would not have picked up on if Ms. Holmes hadn't been there to explain some of the aspects that made much more sense in Shakespeare's time, especially when it came to humor and figures of speech. I also really liked how Ms. Holmes gave us some political background, including the part about Hamlet complaining about Gertrude being incestuous and why Shakespeare had to include that so that he wouldn't get in trouble with Queen Elizabeth, whose father's marriage to his previous wife had been annulled on the grounds that it was incestuous. She also cleared up some of the confusion when it came to the fact that Shakespeare had the play take place during Medieval times, but most of the customs and events were much more relevant to Shakespearean times.
The way we handled Hamlet helped me a lot, but there is still so much I have yet to discover and I'm excited to see what we come up with in our class discussions. I'm a little worried about coming up with a theme statement for Hamlet, though. I think it will be even harder than it was for American Dream or Death of A Salesman, and not only because Shakespeare can be hard to decipher for modern day high schoolers. It seems to me that the other two works focus more on social commentary and less on plot than Hamlet, making it easier to pinpoint what they are trying to say. Hamlet has multiple complex plot lines going on along with religious, moral, and social commentary, and I think it will be hard to wrap it all up into one statement.
This system of wrapping everything up into one statement kind of bugs me, because I feel like a lot of works make multiple statements that don't fit together well, and deserve their own separate statements. I don't think it's possible to combine everything an author is trying to say into one or two sentences without leaving out something major, and I don't see the point in trying to do so. That's how I felt when we were trying to come up with a theme statement for Death of a Salesman. After all of our class discussions (some of which were in a unique shark tank (fish bowl) style, which I found both helpful, because it brought more order to our sometimes chaotic discussions, and aggravating, because I would find myself outside the shark tank dying to say something, only to get in, say it, and not know what to say next), we had a list of motifs ten miles long. We eventually came up with a theme statement about how America's conformist society inhibits the pursuit of one's true dreams, which can lead to tragic outcomes. Although I agree with our statement, I feel like it leaves out important aspects of the book about morals and needing to actually work towards your dreams to succeed. I just think it's silly to try to find an all encompassing statement when it's almost inevitable that something will get left out, but, as a friend pointed out to me, this class is supposed to prepare us for the A.P. Exam, so we have to cater to it. I get so much more out of this class that sometimes I forget that.
Outside of Hamlet and Death of a Salesman, we have done some really cool exercises with syntax and mood. We looked at some inverted syntax, and then we created a sentence of our own and inverted it. I thought it was cool how inverting the syntax can force readers to judge the subject of a sentence and only be able to see it in one certain way before they fully know what the subject even its. I also thought the mood exercises were really interesting. Our class debated for a while over whether the image we chose to describe was tranquil or not, and I was surprised at how varying the vibes people got from the image were. To my disappointment, our class had too many differing opinions to get a coherent sentence written the first time we did the exercise, but the second time we were more successful. I like the DIDLS exercises we do in class. They help me in my reading outside of the class. I'm currently on a Stephen King kick, reading It. As I am noticing the techniques King uses I can see how they contribute to the ominous tone of a lot of his work, which is definitely making the book seem creepier, as well as helping me appreciate his unique writing style and get more out of it than just a scare. I noticed how he will sometimes randomly stick a jarring sentence with some disturbing foreshadow in at a less intense moment of the book and then just keep on going as if that one random sentence never happened. The insertion of these dark details at seemingly random times keeps readers on their toes and makes them eager to keep reading. I am able to appreciate this more and get more involved in the book because the DIDLS exercises are training me to read more sharply and look out for the more subtle techniques (I guess the one I pointed out was rather blatant,but I definitely found some more subtle ones). I can't say enough how this class has helped me improve my reading and writing skills inside and outside the classroom
Sydney,
ReplyDeleteYour experiences with Hamlet are similar to my own: I too found it difficult to comprehend when we sped through it the first time around. I'm sure that as we delve deeper into the story the second time around, both of us will begin to comprehend the story better. Your point about theme statements is certainly an interesting one; I'm surpised I didn't come up with something similar, but I think you are onto something. It is difficult to compress the themes of a book into a few short sentences, and I don't necessarily think that that's a bad thing to do. The author did have intent when he wrote the book, and we as a class are trying to find that intent and whatever themes may come along with it, so I think a theme statement functions better if we try to wrangle out what the author intends. The fact that a theme statement cannot hold everything we want it to points at the subjective nature of literature, and I believe that your complaints with theme statements are entirely valid because of this.
Sydney, I felt the exact same way about Hamlet. If we had not read it in class I probably would've been hopeless in understanding any of the significant aspects of the play like you mentioned, the incest and meanings to some things. I too, though am worried about making a theme statement for Hamlet. Our class has amazingly come together on one for DOS and the American Dream, but those were also much less complicated stories and included fewer conflicts. Even though, when writing those theme statements there were several ideas that played a large role in the stories but we weren't able to tie them in and that frustrated me. Hopefully once we discuss more and I finish my close reading writing one for Hamlet will seem less overwhelming. Besides Hamlet, I have also enjoyed the mood and syntax exercises we have done, I also get frustrated sometimes when the class is struggling to make a sentence due to conflicting opinions. Also, I am also reading a Stephen King book, The Shining, and have too noticed more things in a book now than I ever would have before! I agree this class has taught us so much and I can't wait to see what more it brings, great responses!
ReplyDelete