Friday, November 7, 2008

Hamlet Act 2 Questions

Within the play Hamlet, Shakespeare displays corruption and selfishness. Does this portray Shakespeare’s views on society?


Forbidden love looks like a motif in Shakespeare’s plays, can we expect this one to play out the same way as Romeo and Juliet?

6 comments:

MollyT177 said...

I would say this is a reflection on human nature and society. THough no one really likes to admit we are all selfish in our own way, seeking out what we want, and lloking out for our best intrest. Shakespear seems to personify this through all his characters, whether we choose to accept this or not.

I do believe this could be a 'Romeo and Juliet' situation. Ophelia still seems to be in love with Hamlet, but at the same time she seems to be mroe ehavily infuenced by her father than she is by Hamlet, and Hamlet is not really giving off good signals at the moment, appearing insane and all. So i'm sure it could go either way, a tragic story of lovers, or one not about lovers at all. The story seems to be more centered around Hamlet's strugle than on his love life.

TaylorS2009 said...

I do think that Shakespere does view society as corrupt and selfish, this is a reoccuring viewpoint in his tragic plays. It is in human nature to be selfish and corrupt, it is the only way we can possibly survive and ultimately, it will be our downfall as well.
This also brings in the major possiblilty of the same outcome for Hamelt and Ophelia as there was for Romeo and Juliet. Both of them are blinded by their own wants. But this is merely a side story and most likely won't be played out asmuch as it was in Romeo and Juliet.

KatieO2010 said...

I think that this is very probably a commentary on how Shakespeare viewed society. He even put current events in his play, when he was talking about the two competing players groups.

I think that they will both die, but not because of each other. Hamlet will either kill himself after killing a bunch of other peoplem or get himself murdered. Ophelia will probably kill herself, because she is still in love with Hamlet.

SarahE2010 said...

I do think this is a commentary of how Shakespeare viewed society, but he is not the first writer to convey this element of society in his writing. I think so many writers portray society as corrupt and selfish because these "values" can always be found in some aspect of any society.
I think we already have seen it in the play, but the forbidden love is not between Hamlet and Opehila, but The Queen and Claudius. Their love is forbidden because she remarried her late husbands brother, which is generally frowned upon. We can see it will have a simliar ending to Romeo and Juliet because we know Hamlet plans to kill Claudius.

KCH2009 said...

selfishness is human nature, everyone shows signs of selfishness in everyday life. so yes shakespeare is just writting about what he see's. and i would say we can expect to see the same forbidin love as we have seen before. it makes for a much better story.

Kim C. 2010 said...

I think that Shakespeare does indeed feel this way about society. He is very poetic about basically describing human nature which is selfish. Love comes from loneliness, and humans want something out of everything they do.

I don't think that this is really forbidden love... it seems to selfish to be real love. And i think that Ophelia will die somehow and Hamlet won't kill himself because of her.