tuckergegr1′s Blog

Just like is it a boy or a girl. In Shakespeare, is it a comedy or a tragedy? Now the title says tragedy, but that’s like an ultrasound. Once you see the outcome, then it is confirmed.

How is it a tragedy? Everybody dies immediately. What’s the reason that Shakespeare did this? The 16-17th century audience was stupid. Why was I upset at the ending? Anyone could have come up with this boring end. The only reason a 16th-17th century enjoyed this ending is because they would have been tired from paying close attention. Instead, they get a fight to the death. Of course I was upset with the haste that the play ended with. In about a span of 5 minutes Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, and Laertes die. If this is not an annoying quick wrap up of a great play, I don’t know what is? (Maybe I would enjoy watching a fight rather than reading about one.)

The most annoying thing I found was that Oephilia was dead. Yes, they introduced it late in Act 4, but it was still too sudden. I expected some epic soliloquy. “O Hamlet, what has’t thou done to me? The sun shines when your face doth show, but clouds hath covered that sun in haste. Mine own father killed by mine greatest love, o the agony. I cannot go on like the wretch I am. Ophelia falls in the lake. Take me, fair lake, for the sky I wish to join” (what should have been in Act 4/5). Instead, I get a gravedigging clown. What gives? Shakespeare, I wrote something that should have been yours. I can’t copy Shakespeare, but this is what it would be like in a nutshell.

A reaction to the overall play: Why didn’t the relationship between Hamlet and Oephelia flourish? I thought that it was a relationship that could have been. However, the timing was terribly off. Oephilia loved Hamlet when his father died, his mother remarried quickly, and the kingdom is in turmoil. Even though Hamlet was hitting on her, he never could have truly loved her unless his attitude changed. I expected a Shakespearian relationship like Romeo and Juliet, but instead I didn’t get a relationship.

Overall I enjoyed this play (and much more than other plays such as Romeo and Juliet). I was totally hooked in Act I, but it lost its touch in Act V. I am overall happy with the play, but it could be improved greatly in Act V.