Act I, Scene i: The play begins on the outer ramparts of Elsinore castle. It is late and Francisco, a guard, is on duty waiting for Bernardo to relieve him from his watch. Francisco is nervous because the previous two nights he and Bernardo have seen a figure who appears to be the ghost of the recently deceased king wandering around. Bernardo approaches, accompanied by Horatio (Hamlet’s only friend and confident). Even though Horatio dismisses the idea of a ghost, the guards start to retell the previous nights’ encounters. As the guards begin, the ghost appears before them- much to Horatio’s surprise. The guards urge Horatio to speak with the ghost. Because Horatio is a student, they feel he should be able to communicate with the ghost, and their previous attempts to talk with it have failed. Horatio’s attempts also fail. The scene ends with Horatio stating that he will go and inform his friend Hamlet of these incredible events.
Act I, Scene ii: This scene opens in contrast to the first scene. The first scene takes place on the dark, cold isolated ramparts; this scene begins in a brightly lit court, with the new king, Claudius, celebrating his recent wedding to his new wife, Gertrude. Everyone in the court appears happy and joyful, except one character who is sitting off to the side. He is dressed in black, the colour of mourning, and does not like what he sees. The lone figure is Hamlet, the main character of the play. He is wearing black because it has been only two months since his father, Hamlet senior the ghost on the battlements, died and he still is mourning his father’s death. To further upset Hamlet, Claudius’ new bride is Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. Hamlet is upset because his mother married Claudius so soon after becoming a widow. To add to all the injustices Hamlet is feeling at this time, Claudius is also related to Hamlet. Hamlet’s uncle is now his step-father and Gertrude’s brother-in-law is now her husband.
Act I, Scene iii: This scene opens with Laertes saying his goodbyes to his sister Ophelia, before he leaves for school. We find out from their discussion that Hamlet has been seeing Ophelia and is very serious about their relationship. He has been alone with Ophelia on many occasions and has professed his love for her during these times. He has also given her gifts during these visits. Leartes, who knows about his sister’s suitor, tries to warn Ophelia that because Hamlet is destined to become King, he can never be serious in his relationship with her. Hamlet may seem virtuous and noble at this time, he warns, but he will leave her to fulfill his duties to the kingdom when the time comes. She promises to be careful in this relationship and reasserts that Hamlet has never taken advantage of her, nor has he ever been anything but a gentleman in their relationship. The conversation ends with Ophelia lecturing her brother that he should practice what he preaches and not fall into any casual relationships foolishly, and not to worry about her. At this point, Polonius enters and gives his son one more lecture before he leaves on how to conduct himself when he goes back to school. The fatherly advice includes thoughts on not borrowing or lending money, because it can cause more problems than it is worth. He also tells his son not to say things that might make others think he is foolish, to hold his tongue and to be careful of getting into quarrels, but once in one give a good show for yourself. Finally, before Leartes leaves, Polonius tells him to be ‘true to himself.’ In other words, if you do the right things for the right reasons you can never do any wrong to others.
Act I, Scene iv: It is the night following Horatio’s first encounter with the ghost and it finds him, the guards and Hamlet on the platform waiting for the ghost. There is a celebration going on in the castle and Hamlet explains to Horatio that it is customary for the king to hold a celebration where cannons are shot off in honour of the King’s health. This celebration is something Hamlet does not agree with; it is too excessive and other countries look upon the Danes as foolish because of it. The ghost appears and Hamlet, realizing that the ghost does look like his dead father, approaches it and asks that it speak to him. At this point, Hamlet doesn’t know whether or not the ghost is there for good or evil purposes. The ghost beckons Hamlet. When Hamlet considers leaving with the ghost, Horatio and Marcellus try to dissuade him. They are concerned for his safety. If the ghost is there for evil purposes, it might lead Hamlet to his death. Hamlet forces his way past them and follows the ghost. The scene ends with Horatio and Marcellus following Hamlet to try and protect him.
Waking up, and stretching my aching body and taking in the breath-taking heat from the big, bold, yellowish orange Jamaican sun. Is what I did every morning for two weeks on my holiday to Jamaica at the age of 10 years old. We went to the private beach at times as early as 7:00 am, me and my once mix raced sister, who eventually looked like me in the end. Mum and Dad were still asleep. The first day there was very tiring, due to our previous 9 hours flight from Gatwick, England. We left England at 10:00 am and arrived in the afternoon of 12:00 pm in Jamaican time. Me and my sister stayed at the beach by ourselves for about 1 hour and returned back to our hotel room to wake our parents up and go for breakfast. They were twisting and turning in the bed as we were making a racket on the balcony of our room. We got a little telling off, but what did we care? We were on holiday… holidays are for having fun not getting moaned at about rubbish. Your parents don’t want you to go on holiday and sit there and do nothing, they want you to go an enjoy yourselves, but the minute you do you’re in trouble. Finally they got their lazy bodies out of bed and huffed and puffed due to the time that we woke them up. What I could see in my surroundings were the beautiful palm trees and surrounding those palm trees were the evil little buggers of a specie…Mosquitoes! You was surrounded by the smell of tender bacon, sizzling sausages and exotic eggs and many more splendid smells. These smells swiftly collided with the hairs in my nose as if I was in heaven. You could hear the splash in the sea the excitement from kids and the cries from he not so excited babies. All I wanted to do was eat and play eat and play eat and play. Well that is all kids should want to do, if not then you aren’t a normal kid I’m sorry to say.
5 years went by and its was that time of the year again when mum and dad wanted to get away from England again and wanted to go back to sunny Sand Jamaica. This time we stayed at Gran Bahia Principe in Mantigo Bay a 5 star hotel. This time we were told that we were going to do much more exciting things due to be much older than the last time we came. This time mum took me and my now ten-year old sister and my 6 month year old sister many places. The most memorable time was going to Dolphin cove…Dolphin cove was a very exciting thrill seeking tourist site where we got to swim with the silky grey dolphins. I got to ride on the smooth belly of a dolphin and ride on its prominent nose as it tickled and massaged the soles of my foot. The water that we swam in was very salty. How do I know that? Well I had to gargle and spit salt water every time the dolphins sped past me. This one event on my return back to Jamaica is the best so far. I did not care what I did next because I had the most exciting time there and then. Splish splash splosh went the short fins of the dolphins. I also got to kiss the dolphins fishy lips. Eug! Is what I though whilst in the action but oh well. Life goes on as my parents would say. We all have to live throught the good, bad and the ugly.
Running…jogging…speed walking to my lessons, ain’t that torture? Having to hop, skip and trip up the stairs. All this for being treated badly once you’ve got to lesson. Getting shouted at… ‘Hasn’t your mother ever taught you about manners? Is what I hear when I have attitude, but apparently Sir can extinguish his smelly coffee breath in my face. Then again, you get the odd big breasted teacher down in your face hovering over you, telling you what’s right and wrong. ‘School is for learning…not jokes’ Now isn’t that a funny joke? Don’t swing on your chair! Then what do you see… A teacher doing the same on the other side of the classroom. ‘Oniel…Oniel… Oniel is what I hear when talking to a friend, but your supposed to wait for a teacher to finish talking. ‘Your really starting to p*** me off now’ are the words of one of my role models. HEY! foul language isn’t tolerated in school….HYPOCRACY!
The Symbolism in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ becomes more noticeable as you read more into the book… “The concrete pillars supporting its south roof where too strong for their burden” The people of Maycomb county were not considering how the black citizens felt and would punish them by discriminating their colour and the way they looked. The concrete pillars could be the black person and the other could be a judge. The concrete pillars were the only two things that stayed standing after the fire in 1865 and the year 1865 symbolises the year of the American civil war.
The book/film Spider-man is set in a heroic/villan theme, containing bad and good people which falls into the category of anti hero. Anti hero is classed as a “central character in a story, film, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes”. Which in my language means a main character in the genre of story or film or drama who tries to be the good person but just cannot be due to the fact of lacking the intelligence of a hero. Getting back to the book… The anti-hero side that I see in Spider-man is that he is a very good person trying to the protect the innocent. Whereas in my eyes he is also stooping to the villans levels. This makes me wonder how when some people are trying to do good things it tuns out to being a bad thing. Spider-man goes around hurting the bad people just like the bad people are going around hurting the good people.
This all relates back to the real life society of getting revenge on the people that have hurt you or family or who you just absolutely hate. You going around hurting people just because they have done the same to others puts you in the wrong.
Kerr is wrong! I strongly disagree with the false facts that she is trying to stress. She stated in her article that slang is wrong and is negatively impacting or lives. she has mentioned that we aren’t interested, ” It’s already a constant battle for young people to prove we’re not all apathetic”. Well this isn’t a true statement, due to the fact that we actually do care about what we say and how we say it.
In addition to that, she has also said ” I am embarrassed and ashamed” Now why is she ashamed? I am sure that she has friends that speak with a tone in which is classed as slang. Yes is the answer everyone talks in slang every so often. It doesn’t exactly reflect well on young people who the new additions are mostly related to image, reputation and sex’. Why are you embarrassed? When you were young didn’t you and your folks use words that were classed as slang back then? Yes! Yes is the answer to that question
Our generation of children now use words such as VOM and SELFIE. The words ‘vom’ and ‘selfie’ may not sound right to you but it does. These words are initialisms standing for vomit and taking a picture of yourself. Kerr cannot tell me that she doesn’t use words such as selfie because I know for a fact that her friends do. In addition to that, I know that YOU USE THESE WORDS!
You also state that “Shakespeare would be turning in his grave” Shakespeare introduced new words to the dictionary and nobody ever dared to challenge the things that he put into it. How can Shakespeare add words to the dictionary but our younger generation can’t? Shakespeare added words to the dictionary so that if you do not know a word then all you have to do is go into a dictionary and check the meaning of something. Kerr questioned the word twerk…Well why question the word twerk and not know about it and not want it to be in the dictionary so that you can see the word on a daily basis and know what it actually means? Now come on now Kerr are you that naive and stubborn? How could Shakespeare be turning in his grave and disapproving if he’s the one that started the whole trend in making up words and introducing them into our day-to-day lives. He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together. If he can do this then why can’t we? Gossip is a word that he invented…Now Kerr don’t tell me that you do not use this word regularly.
Kerr doesn’t seem to get the point in these new words but the dictionary needs to be regularly updated otherwise in the future we would be using the same words that were originally said in the 70’s 80’s or even before… Kerr needs to understand that it is the 21st century and that the world is changing and will always be changing, their used to be ‘old English’ but their words were changed. People were probably outraged that words of this famous language were being changed, well now it is happening again. So people like Kerr need to get her foot out her backside and live up to what life is.
In conclusion Kerr has presented herself in her article as someone who is arguing against something she knows nothing about. Clearly she hasn’t researched anything about it and therefore hasn’t got a scrap of general knowledge. she is arguing that slang should actually be in the dictionary which wasn’t her argument. Kerr you need to do your research and get your facts straight and then come back and argue. Why don’t you just go and argue about putting on make-up or something else that you “may” have just a tiny scrap of knowledge about.
How does Baz Luhrmann keep the spirit of Shakespearean theatre alive in his interpretation of Romeo and Juliet?
Soliloquy- E.g When Friar Lawrence is explaining the good/bad poison in the same plant.
Dramatic irony- E.g Balcony scene (Juliet is on the balcony and Romeo is talking about the underneath, but she cant see him.
Language- E.g Modern context
Costumes and exaggerated imagery
Point- State the future that you have chosen
Intro- Use quote from play and describe. Provide outline of the essay
Body- 4-5 paragraphs
Conclusion- Express your view
Point: Write a paragraph that you will be able to use in your final essay
Example: Use quotation from the text that illustrates your point
Explanation: Explain how this example answers the essay question
- Tender- Showing gentleness,kindness, and affection
- Pilgrimage- A journey to a place of particular interest
- Deceased- Recently dead
- Lamentable- (of circumstance or conditions) very bad
- Untimely- (of an event or act) happening or done at the wrong time
- Cleft- split, divided,or partially divided into two
- Shaft- A long narrow part or section forming the handle of a tool
- Trudge- A difficult or laborious walk
- Muffle- To wrap or cover for warmth
- Descend- To move or fall downwards
- Aloof- Not friendly or forthcoming; cool and distant
- Detestable- Deserving intense dislike
- Haughty- Arrogantly superior and disdainful
- Intend – Have( a course of action) as one’s purpose or intention
- Beseech- Ask someone urgently and fervently to do or give
- Conjurations- A magic incantation or spell
- Thy- Archaic or dialect form of you
- Bliss- Perfect happiness; great joy
- Sunder- Split apart
- Abhorred- Regard with disgust and hatred
The early days of Elizabethan commercial theatre. Performances were held in private London inns. Inexpensive. They were held indoors or yard. The audience capacity rose up to 500.
Theatre was new in Shakespeare’s time. The first commercial theatre in the world (The Bulls Inn) was opened when Shakespeare was already fourteen years old, and the world “theatre” was invented by James Burbage, who built the second one.
James Burbage had one of the first theatre companies, and when his son Richard took over the families one of the first things he did was to hire a young actor from Stratford Upon-Avon called William Shakespeare.
The Elizabethan stage had next to no scenery (this is why William Shakespeare changes scene so easily, and also why so many of his speeches tell you what is going on around the characters), but the companies spent a lot of money on costumes and props.
Juliet’s dad makes plans for her to marry Paris, and they are going to make them have a small party, because Tybalt has just died. They make the wedding on a Thursday.