Dear Ophelia....

    Your time with us seemed to go so fast. I've never wished for this to happen to you or to anyone. These last few days before Opelia passed, multiple tragedies occurred. First, our King was found dead. Then Polonius, and now Ophelia. She was a kind young woman, who always tried to follow her dads examples and try to be the best daughter she could. We all knew she loved him very much. Also, she was always modest and calm when she was around others, until the death of her father and Hamlet's madness began.
     Unfortuanetly, Ophelia spent he last moments alone. She was found drowned in a river, but I don't believe she did it on purpose or to hurt others becuase of her death. I believe she needed some way to escape all the terrible things and feelings she had. As well as her sense of sanity was not very well, so she couldn't control he actions or recognize this decision. I wished this never happened but I feel as though she's in a better place now.

"To Kill or Not Kill," That is The Question...

     Hamlet's hesitation to kill Claudius is completely understandable. He wasn't scared, he just wanted the right time to do it. Especially, since Claudius had the idea of repenting for his crime. He wanted to catch Claudius at the right time where he wasn't changing for the better. Personally, I don't think I would have the guts to kill someone, because that would put me at the same level as a murder. I do think Claudius killed Hamlet's father. There were multiple times where he started to become worried or nervous while watching Hamlet's play. Then he began to ask God what should he do to repent. For any reason Claudius did not kill his brother and Hamlet killed Claudius, there would be much misery throughout the play for Hamlet and family.

"To Be or Not To Be"

     Shakespeare changed the whole concept of writing. His plays and poetry reflected obstacles we face in our everyday lives. Hamlet is a great example of this because of his "To Be or Not To Be," speech. There has been many renditions of this play and each one has been different by having diverse actors, directors, setting locations, tones, music, special effects, etc. For example, in the beginning of Oliver's movie clip, he started off with the camera close up to his head. He wanted to show the effect of him just thinking about the troubles of life or death in his mind. Later on he begins to speak out loud, while sitting on top of a cliff, where down below there is a body of water. You can see in one of the lines of the speech it says "current" and in the clip the waves, are breaking against the rocks in the ocean, probably representing the "current," from the actual verse. Hamlet's tone throughout the speech was calm, like the sound of the ocean's waves heard in the scene. Also, some of the props he uses was a dagger.
     In Mel Gibson's interpretation of the speech, "To Be or Not To Be" was completely different to Oliver's. The setting took place in the catacombs. This is very significant because that is where his father was placed and all other noble people who have passed away. During the scene, Hamlet speaks slowly and with sorrow in his voice. As he progresses with the speech, his tone begins to become a bit angry, but yet again, he calmly returns to a gentle, sad voice. This gives the movie and audience a well understanding of Hamlet's emotions throughtout the speech. In his hands, he is not holding a dagger, but at a certain time he kneels down unto a tomb and places his hands into prayer postion. It's something distinct than all the other short clips do not have. Additioanlly, there wasn't any music playing in this verison. The Mel Gibson verion was by far my favorite becuase the way Hamlet is portrayed. 
     Since Hamlet is so universal, there is a modern version to the, "To Be or Not To Be" speech. Ethan Hawke plays Hamlet in the modern movie and the setting takes place in Block Buster. Majority of the time he is walking up and down the aisles and not actually speaking aloud, but in his mind. In fact, he happens to be walking in the action section. Even though he does this, he can't take "action" or make a decision of living a life full of pain or just simply killing himslef. In the background, you can see fire on the TV's representing hell. In addition, there is suspenseful music playeing as well.  Hawke's tone was sarcastic and dark. I anticipated more fro the character, but I didn't enjoy it.
       Last but not least, we have director Branagh's version. In the beginning, his voice was low, but began to elevate a little with anger. While he's in front of the mirror in the ballroom, he takes out his dagger/sword. There was music and it sounded like mysterious voices. He definitely was subtle while saying the speech. I think he wanted to go for a stern, but yet soft voice. Branagh's version was another one of my favorites.

5K FUNDRAISER

Hey everyone! I'm participating in an unofficial 5K to raise money for Young Women Girl's Camp for my church. Just want to let you guys know, if anyone would like to run the 5K as well, it will be at Garrett Mountain Reservation at the Stony Brook Picnic Site. The run will start at 10 AM, so I would get there at least 15 minutes before the actual race begins. If you would like to go, but not run, it's still great! You could eat lunch, buy things at the aunction, or play carnival games that will be there as well.

About the Event:

5K FUN WALK/RUN: Beginning at 10am. You could either run it or walk it. There will be a 1-mile family run too. Winners of the 5K, 1-mile family run and carnival games will recieve prizes :].

How the youth earn money: The youth solicit pledges from friends and family. For example, you could sponser a youth by giving them money for every kilometer they run. Also, you could give them donations. Additionally, all young women have tickets to sell. The tickets include:
5K participant-$10.00
Lunch: Adult-$10.00 Children-$5.00
Family 1-miler-$20.00
Individual 1-miler-$5.00

Auntion: During the lunch, we will be holding a silent aunction. There will be many things aunctioned such as ipod covers, headphones, electronics, etc.
*There will be carnival games too!

It would be awesome to hear from you guys. Let me know if you'll like to know more info. Thanks :)

The Ghost Scenes

    In the first ghost scene, Gibson was chosen to portray the character Hamlet and the director was Ziffirelli. Gibson portrayed Hamlet as sarcastic and discouraged, for the fact that his mother married so quickly after his father's death. This movie was an older version that resembled the elegant and fancy lifestyle of the late 1500. The director used a huge, antique looking ballroom for the wedding of Hamlet's mother and uncle. Also, the costumes used for the actors gave the viewers the sense of style the director was going for, which was more of a classical look. Some of the special effects used in this film were smoke, little lighting, susepenseful music, darkness, etc . At the scene where Hamlet and his father's ghost talk to one another, the king was wearing a black armor. Also, his face was pale and his eyes were piercing blue, which added more affect to the whole scene. The director used visiual elements that showed how the uncle killed his brother. This helped myself and many other classmates to understand what the king meant. Overall, I liked how the characters acted, but the setting decor wasn't my favorite.
     Even though all these ghost scenes came from the same story line, the directors impressions of all of them have several differences. In Branagh's Hamlet, his vision for the film was completely different to Ziffirelli's. His style conformed to a rugged, olden style. For example, it was similar to the film Ever After. It had huge castles, the clothing were netural, darker pallets, and the movie in general more realistic. Not only was Branagh the director, but the character Hamlet as well. He acted this character fairly well. His emotions were portrayed really good, too. There weren't many special effects, nor visiual ones either. Another difference was that the ghost wasn't wearing a black armor.
     The third ghost scene was the most modern one out of all. Hamlet's character (Ethan) Hawke depicted him better than I thought he would. Acting in any movie that was written way back before an acot's time was and still is very difficult. Even though a portion of the actors and actresses in the film made it kind of akward to modernize the Shakespearen Language, Hawke did a pretty good job of making the words flow in a less forceful manner. From the short clip we saw, it didn't show much visiual scenes or much special effects. The setting was okay. In conclusion, the first and third scenes didn't capture my eyes as much as the second one.