Opelia...?

In Hamlet Ophelia clearly had on of the biggest female roles in the play. As our class found out near the end of the play, Hamlet indeed did love her though he made her believe other wise. Every reader might have a completely different/unique opinion of Ophelia, this is mine.

In my eyes Ophelia seemed vulnerable and easily persuaded. I believe this mostly because of the relationship she had with Polonius. I try to take into consideration that the time of the play is completely different then that of the present. Still i think that the way she let her father make her set Hamlet up, though she loves him, seems weak.

The biggest factor that contributed to Ophelia death,without a doubt, was Hamlet. The "change" in Hamlet's behavior in my eyes seemed to play with Ophelia emotions. I believe this along with the pressure and later death of her father could have driven her crazy.Though Ophelia was dealing with so many feeling at the time before her death, I don't think that she meant to kill herself. I believe that the branch breaking was an accident but in my head i picture her almost trying to survive, eventually realizing her fate, and then just giving up.

I do think that Hamlet's mother,Gertrude, watched her drown. I can't think of any other way that she would known Ophelia's death in that much detail. Judging by the rest of the play, an accusation like that would not be surprising or very far-fetched.

Hamlet: "To be or not to be..."

In class we were able to watch three different versions of Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech. Out of them all my favorite version was Franco Zefferelli's. I felt like that versions had so many hidden meaning and a lot of feeling. The fact that the scence took place in a catacome was what interested me the most. It was definitely a great decision on the directors part. It gave much more emphasis on the "question" that hamlet was contemplateing. The director also went a different direction then any of the other versions and decides not to use any music. This makes the scene much more intence. It made me focus in on what Hamlet was really saying in his speech. The actor who plays Hamlet in this version,in my opinion, was the best actor out of all the versions. The emphasis that he put on certain words and things that he said helps the audience understand what Hamlet is feeling and going through at the moment. I'm looking forward to finishing this version of Hamlet.