Hamlet Response Journal Act 1 scene 1 to Act 1 scene 5

Journal for Act 1, scene 1 to Act 1, scene 5

1.How does the play make you feel at this point? Record your emotional response(s) in a few sentences and then explore them for a few minutes, trying to figure out why you feel as you do. 

 At first, reading through the story, I barely understood anything... The vocabulary in the story was beyond that of my comprehension and I just understood the main idea of the story. Later on, I read an analysis of the story and it helped me a lot. After that, I re-read the story again and I realized a lot of things I didn't see at first. Knowing that this is Shakespeare's (and with people spoiling me) I know that the story won't be filled with a 5th grade plot where there's a king and everyone hates the king and soon the king is overthrown. I am sure there will be some plot twist and somehow Leartes's father and sister will die and everything will be messed up. I just can't wait to read to that point. In conclusion, I guess I'm really excited for what's about to come.

2. In what situations have you felt similar to the characters? What persons, places, or ideas from your own experiences came to your mind while you were reading this portion of the play? Try to list at least three associations, but don't worry about trying to figure out why they come to mind. Just accept that they occur.

 a. When Horatio and Marcellus saw the ghost it reminded me of the ghost stories I had heard about seeing ghosts. I myself had not seen one, but I had had instances where I would hear sounds I shouldn't hear. For example, I would hear the sound of the grandpa clock that has stopped working for a long time. There are a lot of stories but I don't want to tell all of them, you know the main idea.

    I had always been fascinated by ghosts. It makes me wonder why these supernatural beings come to life and visit our world and what they want from us. I would research more on this, but I'm also extremely scared of ghosts. I really hate it when there are screamers. You know, you read an article on it and suddenly a ghost pops out and you jump off your chair screaming, too. Yeah, I hate those.

 b. When Hamlet knows of his family and the state they are in, he was very sad and even said things like he'd be better off dead. Well it reminded me of my own family. I don't feel comfortable to write this where anyone can read this, so let me just put it this way... I'm not so family oriented... Well although my stories aren't as sad and messed up as Hamlet's it still reminded me of that.

 

 c. When Polonius lectured Leartes and Ophelia and when Leartes lectured Ophelia reminded me of all those times that my mom would lecture me. The only difference is that Leartes and Ophelia actually listened while I just mutter "yeah, yeah, yeah," hoping it would end soon. I'm not an obedient child, deal with it. I actually thought that Ophelia would say to Leartes that she would not see Hamlet but when actually she will go and see Hamlet, but I guess it would be Romeo and Juliet inside Hamlet which would make the story really crappy.

 

3. What portions of Shakespeare's language attracts your attention? These might be individual words, phrases, lines, scenes, or images. Make note of whatever features draw your attention. Speculate for a few minutes about what you think they might mean.

 I don't know... The words he used didn't really attracts my attention. It confuses me and being like a potato, I am too lazy to get open some sort of Shakespeare dictionary to search up all these words and just try my best with context clue. For some reason whatsoever, I like the fact that he used the word 'incestuous' quite a couple of times. I don't know it just attracts me... 

4. Make note of any portion of the play, its language, or events that cause you problems. Note any questions that you might ask. 

 Well I had a lot of questions, but I just read the analysis and I just understood most of them. For the language, I have so many words I am not sure of the definition, but I just used context clues... I still will never understand why Gertrude would marry Claudius... I guess maybe Claudius "seduced" her... Oh no I don't want to imagine the scene... Maybe he got Gertrude pregnant and then had to marry her after that... I mean that's why 64.5% of marriages occur. (Yes, I made that number up)