I have an online version with no notes or anything, so let's get this bread. Also, really long title like a Fall Out Boy song but this is my life. -Abbigayle Ebling
Okay, so Patrick Stump is going to bless me with his voice while I try and piece together the little intricate parts of Hamlet... because going with my crude online version is interesting since I have no footnotes or things to look at. So, my understanding of this comes from whatever the heckingsten my brain decides to take in.
From Act III, I think we all know the beginning line of this...
"To be, or not to be, that is the question,
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come."
I hadn't known anything other than that first line before today, I'll just be real with y'all... nor did I know exactly where I was quoting it from, although I had always done it in a male voice with some mystery undertone laced in. Don't ask me why because I don't know. I do find it fascinating how much emotion he encases in that one paragraph, and so I wanted to blog on that since it really hit my heart and I couldn't get it out of my head as I read Act III. Maybe Shakespeare didn't have some deeper meaning to this, but knowing him and his works, I can almost conclude that he did and that my understanding of it is elementary.
I don't see a suicidal note in there, but a longing for the end of things... feelings and circumstances and situations. Death seems better than living and sleep is a lesser form of death since you can drift away from reality for a small period of time just to have it come crashing back when you wake up. Death is, by some, seen as the ultimate way out... That can be seen in the high suicide rates that are grievous and sad but nonetheless a dark reality in today's world. I would go deeper but this is a blog post and not a paper, so I don't want to keep you all busy. So I will sum my blog post up with saying that I do believe Shakespeare was able to replicate the emotions and thoughts of a hurting person, and I am curious as to what the development will look like as we progress.
P.s. I commented on the posts of Moriah Nelson and Will Brady.
From Act III, I think we all know the beginning line of this...
"To be, or not to be, that is the question,
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come."
I hadn't known anything other than that first line before today, I'll just be real with y'all... nor did I know exactly where I was quoting it from, although I had always done it in a male voice with some mystery undertone laced in. Don't ask me why because I don't know. I do find it fascinating how much emotion he encases in that one paragraph, and so I wanted to blog on that since it really hit my heart and I couldn't get it out of my head as I read Act III. Maybe Shakespeare didn't have some deeper meaning to this, but knowing him and his works, I can almost conclude that he did and that my understanding of it is elementary.
I don't see a suicidal note in there, but a longing for the end of things... feelings and circumstances and situations. Death seems better than living and sleep is a lesser form of death since you can drift away from reality for a small period of time just to have it come crashing back when you wake up. Death is, by some, seen as the ultimate way out... That can be seen in the high suicide rates that are grievous and sad but nonetheless a dark reality in today's world. I would go deeper but this is a blog post and not a paper, so I don't want to keep you all busy. So I will sum my blog post up with saying that I do believe Shakespeare was able to replicate the emotions and thoughts of a hurting person, and I am curious as to what the development will look like as we progress.
P.s. I commented on the posts of Moriah Nelson and Will Brady.
To me, this doesn't read as suicidal, but I can certainly see that interpretation of the text. To me it seemed the sleep/ultimate sleep was metaphorical of him returning to a 'normal' life of acting sane and accepting his life, only to dream of what his life could be if he had done something. But it doesn't sound really powerful and Shakespeare did masterfully show Hamlet's inner turmoil in this passage, it really is beautiful as a stand-alone piece of poetry.
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