Dorian Hamlet or Hamlet Gray...

There are many contrasts to the tragic tales of both Dorian Gray and Hamlet.
Whereas Vanity was Dorian Gray's demise, self lust was the last thing on Hamlets mind,
 often having lengthy talks/soliloquy's focusing on his own self consciousness and willingness to die. Furthermore, throughout Dorian Gray, Dorian loses his way in more ways than one; murder,
 negative influence and detrimental vanity all drag him down until he no longer recognizes his own soul. Throughout Hamlet, his misguided actions lead him to a better, more complex understanding of himself.
The nobility of the two men is also under observation. Hamlet dies a noble death, full of repentance, forgiveness and making amends with Laertes while Dorian Gray commits suicide by covering up the
filth that has built up on his soul; a death void of honor, repentance and humility. Dorian Gray and
Hamlet both have love interests that seem educationally bleak. Sybl Vane, a lowly, idiotic actress
 and woman of interest to Dorian and Ophelia, an equally idiotic woman of interest to Hamlet
both die tragically after the detonation of the ties and relationships to their men.  
Both commit suicide and go slightly mad after the relationships break off and both apparently
 have nothing else to live for but their significant others. While having similar love interests,
Dorian Gray and Hamlet differ drastically in the presence of a conscience. Hamlet uses his follies
 to direct him upward into realization and remorse while Gray is steadfast in his arrogance and
slams into his own problems when meeting his untimely death. Concluding, Dorian Gray and
Hamlet are alike in their poor taste in women and the fact that they are both murderers but
unalike in the fact that Hamlet has a conscience and Dorian Gray does not.

Plus, Hamlet seems way hotter than Dorian Gray. I mean, seriously, Dorian Just sounds like a woman with a stronger jawline. Hamlet can sword fight and kill people and he sounds hairy. Ergo babe.

The Differences Between a Swine and a Scumbag

The Picture of Dorian Grey and Hamlet are alike in many ways. Some characters from Hamlet seem to be copied in the story of Dorian Grey. Sybil  Vane is very similar to Ophelia. Both are girls who are loved but have that love Taken away from them. Because of this they commit suicide. Hamlet did love Ophelia and when he said he didn’t, "You should not have believed me…I loved you not." it was to protect her. In the end he shouts to her brother of  how much he did love her over her grave. The deaths of Ophelia and her father ripped at Hamlet's soul and made him feel guilty. In sibyl’s case, Dorian loved her acting then threw her away and was too shallow to even feel sorry about it. Instead he blotted it from his memory.

                Laertes character compares to James Vane. Both have their sisters taken away from them by some man and both die. Hamlet feels guilty about Laertes death and forgives him before he dies. When James Vane dies, Dorian Grey is much relieved.

 The Ghost plays a similar role Lord Henry. Both Hamlet and Dorian Grey were so open to being controlled by ideas of revenge or vanity that one character ,like the Ghost and Lord Henry,  is able to sway them easily .Hamlet is put in  such a huge position of responsibility to revenge his father that he choses to kill to make it right.  Dorian Grey is so willing to listen and take ideas to heart that Henry had to only  say one thing to drive him away from the light. Both Hamlet and Dorian love the King and Lord Henry and it is easy for these elders to control the young men.

Dorian and Hamlet both want to live in a different reality. Dorian Grey uses his painting to escape old age and troubles of the flesh but, in the end, it kills him. Hamlet is angry at the world and sees everyone as betraying him, even his own mother. He thinks of suicide more than once. “To be or not be, that is the question...”  Hamlet instead pretends to be mad to escape the responsibility of the things he does and he starts to like it.  Then, he falls into his own pit of madness and lives in a different reality. In the end, his madness drives him to kill and be killed.

                Hamlet is a confused, scared, angry, guilty, and responsible tragic hero. Some saw his fatal flaw as his inability to act, but the real “flaw” is his moral standards. He tries to play by the rules by not killing Claudius while he was praying. By trying to play by the rules in a world full of deceit, more people are killed. By the postponing of the kings death, Hamlet is being a gentleman and he sees moral standards as more important than anything. Dorian is also guilty and confused but most of his life he had flushed his emotions down the drain, into his blacked soul. Dorian is not a tragic hero because of his inability to repent. In the end, some say that he repents when he stabs the picture, but he really stabs it because he can’t bear to look at himself. Dorian is Hamlet, but a Hamlet with no sympathy, forgiveness or love.

Hamlet >< Gertrude

     The sweet mother-son relationship is so stereotypical. We all know of it! Could be the "momma's boy" case; or, maybe the crazy-respectful-I will protect you like a husband should-situation. However, when comparing to Hamlet and his relationship with his mother, Gertrude, we see neither stereotypes.

      The result of one death negatively affected both Hamlet and Queen Gertrude's entire lifestyle. King Hamlet was reigning in Denmark for years and was happily married to Queen Gertrude. After the unexpected death of the King, their lives would then slowly unravel. The unraveling didn't occur  long after, however! A month following King Hamlet's passing, Gertrude married Claudius. Yea marriage! Wrong. Claudius was King Hamlet's brother. That's disturbing. Because of that wedding, Claudius then became king of Denmark, replacing King Hamlet's position. Position in government and, perhaps, position in Gertrude's heart. That was a fast recovery of loss, no?  The Queen's intentions, it seems, was to keep life "normal." However, her absurd actions stirred anger, confusion and resentment in Hamlet's heart.

     Who wouldn't be shaken up by: the death of a father, the quick replacement of his uncle by marriage to his mother and then the appearance of a ghost? I would go mad. Wait a second, ghost? Yes, the ghost was of the King, explaining to his son Hamlet that Claudius was responsible for his death. Claudius murdered him; all for the sake of the throne.

    Trying to cope with the flux of dreadful discoveries, Hamlet seems to go psycho. It appears to be logical, right? I mean, after all Hamlet has been through a lot at this point? I have yet to answer that question myself. Nonetheless, Hamlet bottles up all of his feelings, attempting to keep them to himself. This doesn't last long though. Hamlet finds himself in the room of his mother, spilling all of the news that has so negatively affected himself. He tells of all the wickedness relating to Claudius. Gertrude cannot believe her own ears. She longs to wish she had never heard what Hamlet exclaims.

     Hamlet; not afraid of how he feels, portrays that and suffers. Gertrude; lover of normalcy and longs for things to remain how they were. Two polar opposite characters in how they think, act and handle the situation altogether. Although Hamlet and Gertrude lack sameness, they seem to share one thing in common: they both lose in the end.

    
    

Hamlet vs. Momma

     Queen Gertrude and Hamlet each responded to King Hamlet's death in very different ways. The queen tried to ignore her husband's death by trying to replace him. Only one month after the king's death, Queen Gertrude chose to marry her late husband's brother, Claudius, who took the position as King of Denmark. Despite her attempt to keep the balance of things in this way, this action only fueled the anger in her son Hamlet. Unlike his mother, he was deeply bothered by the loss of his father. While she had simply forgotten him, he just couldn't let go. Hamlet could not understand why she had acted this way as he describes the strong love she once had felt for her husband. But now that was gone. This show of weakness infuriated him. In addition to this, Hamlet was visited by the ghost of his father who tells him that his brother had murdered him. After learning that his father was murdered by his own brother, the very same man his mother had married, the hatred for Claudius increases and a strong desire for revenge grows in him. The burden becomes too much for Hamlet to carry, but he tries to suppress his emotions by telling himself, "Let me not think on't"(11). Later in the story when Queen Gertrude calls him to her room to speak with him, he decides that he can't hold in how he feels any longer. He tells her that she married a wicked man and called her senseless and blind. Hurt by this she begs him to stop and tries to refuse to believe any of it to be true. Although Hamlet was a very cunning character, he let the tragedies in his life destroy him. Despite the fact that Queen Gertrude and Hamlet each had their own ways of handling their problems, in the end they both fell.

Hamlet vs. Queen Gertrude

     A tragedy affects everyone in some way. People have different reactions and problems they have to work through. Hamlet and Queen Gertrude face the death of King Hamlet. A good father, a loving husband and a great king was lost when he fell to the hands of his brother Claudius. Although Hamlet and Gertrude suffer the same tragedy, their handling of the situation is anything but the similar.
     After King Hamlet's death, Gertrude spent the rest of her life deceiving herself. She married his brother, Claudius, perhaps believing that she could live life close to the way it was before. She may have thought that Claudius would remind her of King Hamlet or the marriage may have been out of convenience. Either way, she tried her best to move on. She even urged Hamlet to accept his father's death as something normal and insignificant. The queen dealt with arising problems with ignorance. For example, when Polonius died, his daughter, Ophelia, went insane. Gertrude refused to talk to her until Horatio and a gentleman told her of Ophelia's condition.
     The queen's traits consist of care and strong will. An instance of her care is found before she died. She warned Hamlet of the poisonous drink. Her last words were, "No, no the drink, the drink! O my dear Hamlet! The drink, the drink! I am poisoned" (99). She also protected King Claudius. When Polonius died, his son, Laertes, asked the king as to where his father's body was. Claudius, replying "Dead" (75), was followed by Gertrude saying "But not by him" (75). Her strong will was proved when she insistently said that she was going to drink the wine, not knowing at the time that it was poisoned. Her will is further evident in the suppressing of her emotions and trying to move on with life after her husband's death.
     Hamlet, on the other hand, grieved over the loss of his father. After seeing his father's ghost and with plenty of hesitation, he took action and fulfilled his father's wish of revenge. He resorted to acting crazy to get by with things and questioned life itself. He asked "Who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life but that the dread of something after death..." (45).
     His characteristics are composed of cleverness, craft, and determination. He also had some major anger issues. He was mad at his mother for marrying his uncle Claudius, he was absolutely livid at his uncle for killing his father, and he was very upset with his situation. He was very skilled at lacing sentences with sarcasm and wit. He would insult somebody and they wouldn't even know it.
     If Hamlet and Gertrude were to deal with their problems together, they might have kept each other in check and not let things get out of hand. It is a shame that they didn't feel comfortable enough to trust the other to what they were going through. This lack of trust resulted in a down ward spiral of their lives.

Homework this week

- Finish reading and annotating hamlet
- write an essay (post it on the blog) comparing/contrasting EITHER
Hamlet Vs. Gertrude
Hamlet Vs. Dorian Gray

Be ready for five minute Hamlets in class this week!:) Bring Nerf swords if you have them. 

Hamlet

To be, or not to be: that is the question:  Hamlet is questioning suicide.
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer   He wonders if it is nobler to live through misery
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and all of the misfortunes life throws at you
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, or to take arms and kill yourself thus ending all of your troubles.
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; In essence, to oppose would be to end them.  So what shall it be?  Death or life? 
No more; and by a sleep to say we end  No more misery if I were to take a deep sleep/death
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks  All of those moments of heart-ache
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation that we are destined to bear
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; can end if we die.
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; But if we were to take our life and bring death/sleep upon oneself what will our everlasting dream be?
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come  What dreams will come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,  after we have wastefully killed oneself.
Must give us pause: there’s the respect  It is this very reason
That makes calamity of so long life;  that people live so long.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, For why would someone bear the pains of life
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, such as an oppressor's wrong or contemptuous language,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, or the pangs of love and law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns or insolence,
That patient merit of the unworthy takes, or the failings of undertakings,
When he himself might his quietus make  when one can end their life
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, with a large blunt needle?
To grunt and sweat under a weary life, It is because, even after so much grunt and sweat in life,
But that the dread of something after death, the dread of something after life keeps us living.
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn  The unknown of such a place as death
No traveller returns, puzzles the will   where no one ever returns and where death is such a mystery to us
And makes us rather bear those ills we have that we would rather bear life's pain
Than fly to others that we know not of?  than to quickly turn to the unknown pain's that wait for us after death.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;  It is this conscience that makes us all cowards and prevents oneself from taking our life.
And thus the native hue of resolution  So now I have turned pale
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,  over this new theory of thought.
And enterprises of great pith and moment  Now all great undertakings of mine
With this regard their currents turn awry, turn to one side.
And lose the name of action.–Soft you now!   And all of my motivation to take action is lost.
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons  Ophelia! 
Be all my sins remember’d.  Pray for me!