sydney’s blog

Hey new juniors!! Congratulations, you got Mrs. Duke as your teacher, yes that is a Congratulations. You may not realize it now, but you are going to learn so much this year! Do not be scared, I repeat do not be scared! I freaked myself out at the beginning of last year and I can’t even remember why…something about a lot of work, but the truth is…even if it was a lot of work (which for most part it was bearable) it all had something to do with what we were learning. It may not seem like drawing a huge mural for Heart of Darkness is useful, but I guarantee if you are given a quote on the test you will remember that it was the same quote that surrounded the image of the boat on the mural.

So, here are the basics.

-DO YOUR HOMEWORK…ON TIME. she accepts late work, but I promise you get in a habit of turning in things late because “oh she will take it late” no no no…you loose too many points doing that, and it just feels so much better to know you finished and turned it in.

-BLOG BLOG BLOG COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT…blogs are easy 50 points and you have the whole week to do them. It takes a while to get in the habit of NOT doing them on Sunday. Well this is being written on a Sunday because she told us to do it last, but anyways, if you wait until Sunday night, then the other students have to wait also to comment. It’s pretty simple and once you get the hang of it and get in a rythym it shouldn’t be too bad. I would set up “blogging days” say Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday morning, to blog and comment. They are helpful ways to study for tests and to clear up some questions you have about the material.

-VOCABULARY…those of you that have had Mrs. Duke before know that the quizzes are not standard multiple choice. You have to actually understand not only the meaning of the word, but how it is properly used, whether it is a adj, noun etc. Start studying as soon as she gives the assignment, do not wait until advisory.

Once you start reading Heart of Darkness…you might want to kill yourself, but that is never a good idea! Just know that that is the hardest thing you will do all year. Seriously, everything compared to that is a breeze! So keep reminding yourself that after you get this load off your shoulders the rest of the year should be okay!!! Also, we wrote our research paper in the first semester, try and get Mrs. Duke to do that again this year. Trust me you will NOT want to write a research paper with three weeks left of your junior year, you wil be burnt out and it won’t be your best work.

Overall, the year’s syllabus is a good one. You read a lot of novels that you have heard of, but probably don’t know the whole story, The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, and Hamlet are some of the famous one’s we read. We focus a lot on the elements of drama, quest, how the culture is represented in the novel, and heroes.

Good Luck! Do your work on time, participate in class and you should be fine. The year flies by and you will be seniors before you know it, and I will be graduating

Dear Kenneth Branagh,

My name is Sydney and I am a junior at EHS. My English III Class and I watched your version of Hamlet. Although we only watched the first act, I really got a good idea of how you portrayed Hamlet. I think that you focused the most on his inner turmoil. You spoke slowly and used a lot of long pauses. When you used a deep tone of voice, or a whisper, it really showed how Hamlet was thinking about what was going on in his head. I am sure that the costume designers decided to dress you in all black, but it was a great idea and really worked. We were assigned to perform a soliloquy. I chose the famous “to be or not to be”. I watched your performance of it on youtube and used it to help inspire me. I really liked how you used the mirror in the staging, it emphasized the seriousness of his speech and how he was really focusing on himself and what to do. I do not have any criticism yet…but if I ever finish the movie and find something that I think maybe you could have changed, I will let you know. Great Work!

-Sydney

Dear Simon Russell Beale,

My name is Sydney S. and I am a junior at EHS. My English III class just finished reading the famous play Hamlet, which you are very familiar with. We listened to the majority of the play with your Arkangel version. We started watching Hamlet but then we listened to the rest. I liked listening it to it much better because it gave me more room for imagination. Your tone of voice was pretty good for the most part. I have decided that Hamlet was not crazy or mentally ill, just emotionally distressed and I think that you portrayed him as a crazy man. So if I were  you, I would have toned down the craziness. You spoke very slow most of the time, and when I would go back and read it, I read it fast, as if Hamlet was so overwhelmed and confused and he was just letting everything out at once. Overall, I enjoyed your performance, good job!

-Sydney

YAY we are finishd with R&G are dead! Actually, it is kind of upsetting because I really liked this play. It was entertaining and easy to understand, but when you look at the text closely there is SO much you can find, metafiction, irony, basically that whole power point. I didn’t notice much of that in this section, but eh honestly I was kind of just reading to finish.

It took me a while to realize when they were talking about being on a boat, it was the boat to England. And yes when I read any line that said “We are on a boat” that stupid/hilarious song popped into my head, it is very distracting! I really hope I am not the only one that that happened too. Anyways I thought it was pretty cool how Stoppard showed what R&G were doing the whole time Claudius and Laertes were planning the murder of Hammie.

It was clear in this section that Rosencrantz was the stupider (is that a word) one. He actually does just repeat whatever Guildenstern said. “Why don’t you say something original? No wonder the whole thing is so stagnant! You don’t take me up on anything-you just repeat it in a different order” This is kind of funny because it isnt like the actor playing Rosencrantz can just change the script. The whole time I read this section I imagined an older brother as G and younger brother as R, asking the stupid unneccessary redundant questions and the older brother being like yes how do you not understand this.

They talk a lot about death and life again in this section. “Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. You can’t not-be on a boat.” “And then again, what is so terrible about death?” “Life is a gamble, at terrible odds – if it was a bet you wouldn’t take it”

There were a lot of stage directions rather than dialogue in this section which I think is a pretty postmodern element. It gave more about what was going on than the actual dialogue.

Okay so I am pretty sure that we do not publish our paraphrase of the soliloquy…am I right? I have already done it so if you guys comment and say that I need to, lemme know quickly!!

1. Exigence — What needs doing at this point? In other words, what is compelling Hamlet to speak at this moment in the play?

Well starting from the beginning, Hamlet’s father dies, whom we later find out was murdered by his brother Claudius, who quickly after, marries Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. All of this confusion and mess has been bottled up inside of Hamlet. After first paraphrased it, I read it as Hamlet contemplating death, but after going over it a few times I think it is more contemplating whether he should act on revenge or not.

2. Audience – The audience is comprised of people who can in some way act on this exigence. Who is Hamlet’s primary audience and how does that influence his choices? Who is Hamlet’s secondary audience and how does that influence his choices? [Hint: they are not on the stage]

Well since this is a soliloquy, Hamlet is speaking to himself and his conscious and mind influence his choices and decisions. He is debating whether or not to avenge his father’s murder and he is replaying all of the choices that are in his mind, out loud. His secondary audience would be anyone who is reading or watching the play. This is a somewhat common thing that people think about and him speaking out loud kind of relates the character with his audience. So maybe he says things that he knows will help the audience better understand what he is going through.

3. Purpose What is the purpose of Hamlet’s speech?

I think that he is trying to justify his idea of revenge. He has always been kind of scared to go through with plans and so here he is going through all the reasons that make sense for him to get revenge. He has to remind himself and convince himself that what he is going to do is okay.

4. Appeals: Which appeal(s) does Hamlet use to convince and/or motivate his audience? Reference specific lines.

Ethos: Appeal to the character of the speaker

“And enterprises of great pitch and moment with this regard their currents turn awry and lose the name of action.” So it is like he knows that his actions that are important always get lost, and are never completed, therefore not even worthy of being called actions anymore.

Pathos: Appeal to the emotions or interest of the audience

“Who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will” Here he is asking the audience/himself why would anyone want to go through such an exhausting life, and he kind of answers it by saying that death scares people because it is something we are unfamiliar with, “no traveler returns” no one can come back and tell us that there is nothing to worry about. So basically he is saying that people are scared of doing things when we are not sure of what the result will be.

Logos: Appeal to logic

this confuses me…

5. Figures of speech, imagery, diction, syntax: What literary devices does Hamlet employ? Where do you see him making comparisons? Which tropes–similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, etc. does he use? How do these comparisons relate to his rhetorical purpose? What particularly vivid images stand out? What effect do these images have on Hamlet’s rhetorical purpose?

He uses asyndeton in lines 79-82. Asyndeton is like a long list without using conjunctions which he does, “the pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, the insolence of office..” Also he uses enjambment a few lines down, which is when the poet moves one or two words down to the next line to create emphasis on them. ” When he himself might his quietus make – with a bare bodkin?” He waits and puts bare bodkin on the next line to emphasize “with a dagger”. I think the whole soliloquy is an example of hyperbole, it is just one big dramatic over-exaggeration. He uses images of water a lot, “against a sea of trouble……currents turn awry”. When we think of currents and sea, I picture waves crashing fast, which is the way his mind is right now, a rush of ideas and emotions coming and overpowering him quickly.

6. How do you respond to Hamlet’s soliloquy? In other words, what do you think of him right now?

I have never really thought of Hamlet being crazy, and some people, after reading this speech are convinced that he is. And honestly, I don’t see it. I think that Hamlet has been hit with a lot of bad things in a short amount of time and his character has always had a hard time dealing with problems and making decisions on how to solve them. I think that this time is extra-serious so it is even more difficult for him to act on it. I do not think he is crazy, but I do think that he needs to sit down and calm down and really think about consequences of his actions before he does anything extreme.

I love this book, I think that this should be taught in schools instead of Hamlet, same story, much simpler and doesn’t take as long to read it only took about fifteen minutes. I guess it was a little easier to read and understand what was going on because of previously reading Hamlet BUT it is still pretty simple.

The language is just great, almost every line I find something ironic or a play on words, or referring to the Hamlet Claudius situation. Also I have noticed like four sections in tonight’s reading that were taken straight from the Hamlet play, one was like a page and a half, when Claudius was talking to R&G about what Hamlet did to Polonius, and when R&G confront Hamlet about it.

The characters talked a lot about death in this section, and actors acting about death. It was so ironic because it is an actor, playing an actor, talking to actors about acting out death, all in one play. Does that make sense?!? I had to think about how to word it, but it makes sense to me.

G: You die so many times; how can you expect them to believe in your death? page 83 and then on page 84 he says, ” No, no, no…you’ve got it all wrong…you can’t act death.”

But that is so weird because the actor playing Guildenstern will eventually have to act out death, and he knows that when he is saying these lines. It is all really confusing because there are so many different levels of actors, but its so neat!!!

I am confused about one thing, is the scene with the prince (Hamlet) killing Polonius behind the curtains in the Player’s play?

Two more things, just some quotes that were so…awesome, I don’t even know how to describe how perfect they are.

Player ” Do you call that an ending? – with practically everyone on his feet? – my goodness no – over your dead body” page 79

Player ” We’re tradedians, you see. We follow directions – there is no choice involved. The bad end uphappily, the good unluckily. That is what tragedy means.” page 80

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern gets funnier and sillier every reading. This time I was really confused as to what they were talking about, northernly? southernly? talking about compass and direction? why? It was at the place in Hamlet when Hamlet talks to the players about adding his scene into the play.

After our discussion in class today, it was MUCH easier to find all of the PostModern elements, and putting them all in the powerpoint is making it all come together. Examples:

talking about/playing with language – pg. 55 “but my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived”

pg. 57 “Six rhetorical and two repetition, leaving nineteen, of which we answered fifteen. And what did we get in return? He’s depressed!”

pg. 62 ‘”Took the very words out of my mouth.” “You’d be lost for words.” “You’d be tongue tied.” “Like a mute in a monologue.” “Like a nightingale at a Roman feast” ” Your dicton will go to pieces” “Your lines will be cut” “To dumbshows” “And dramatic pauses” Also goes under category of the characters knowing they are in the play.

Irony – pg. 56 ‘He murdered us”

Metafiction – pg. 64 ” Brilliantly re-created – if these eyes could weep!…Rather strong on metaphor, mind you. No criticism – only a matter of tatse. And so here you are – with a vengence. That’s a figure of speech…isn’t it? Well let’s say we’ve made up for it, for you may have no doubt whom to thank for your performance at the court.”

pg. 66 ” But we don’t know what’s going on, or what to do with ourselves. We don’t know how to act.” “Act natural. You know why you’re here at least.” “We only know what we’re told, and that’s little enough.” “And for all we know it isn’t even true”

pg. 70 “Yes, I’ve got a show-stopper there.”

I am not sure exactly what category this next quote goes under, but it really caught my attention because it was making the connection between blood love and rhetoric again. pg. 65 “It’s about a King and Queen…” “Escapism! What else?” “Blood-” -love and rhetoric.” “Yes.”

Fate, Future pg. 70 “Yes, one must think of the future”

The last three pages of our assigned reading were all talking about death, and their point of view of death. It is a huge example of dramatic irony because we know they die, obviously because of the title. But in a way, they never die, because the characters live on in the play forever, but at the end of the play they always die.

oh man, I am having trouble pronouncing these names, much less spelling them, okay here it goes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hookay so, today was extremely productive in English class. We finished Act 2 of Hammie yesterday and did a quick recap today, so we decided to read R&G aloud. If I remember correctly, Grace was Claudius, I was Gertrude, Chloe was Polonius, Allie was Guilenstern, Jonathan was Rosencrantz and Robin was good ole Hamlet. First of all, this technique was really helpful and interactive, also I think it helped the whole class pay attention and chime in with remarks.

So many times we stopped just to laugh and talk about how they had to have been high when doing this. It started out pretty normal, with reasonable conversation between multiple characters, and then for maybe seven pages it was just R & G going back and forth being completely ridiculous. Half the time they would ask each other questions, and instead of answering, they would just ask another question. They seemed like little fourth graders bickering, going back and forth. I think that is postmodern because it doesn’t really seem like other literature, just pure three word conversation. I thought it was really funny when they tried to act out what would happen when they talk to Hamlet. How many times have yall seen that done in a movie, or hehehe actually done it yourselves? It is pretty common but I have never seen it in literature.

I really like looking at Hamlet through this point of view, it’s different and actually entertaining and kind of easy to understand. I think that the whole idea of changing an extremely famous play into the point of view of some pretty basic characters is post-modern, but kind of genius!

Today McKenzie and I went to Sunday in the Park and saw my favorite band EVER, Benjy Davis Project. We got there at around 11:30 and were two of the few people there and we sat on the side of the street and watched them warm up. People started coming and they finally started around 12:15. Conner G and JT came and sat with us and it was so much fun. They played “The Day That I Die” first, and then “Still Sweet” which is one of my favorites! Melissa and Katie came and sat with us too. They sounded great, very similar to the CD which I thought was cool. Benjy was really friendly and talked to the crowd. They had intermission for about 30 minutes and Janey showed up! Janey JT and Connor went and played in the fountains, where the water comes up from the ground! And of course they came and gave us all big hugs so we got wet too, but it felt good since it was so hot outside. They played a couple more songs, “Louisiana Saturday Night”, “New Orleans” “Heaven Never Seemed So Small” and some other good ones, THEN they played my absolute favorite song of all time, “I Love You”. Listen to it, it’s great! They played some other fun ones and then ended with a crowd favorite “Do It With The Lights On” yes it is about what it sounds like. Before he played it he goes “EARMUFFS” for all the little kids around, it was really funny because a group of maybe 5 girls who looked about 4 years old got up and started dancing, how ironic! It was so much fun, and after we went and got pictures with them! They were so cool and chill and didn’t seem like they were too good to talk to us. We would say thank you and they would just be like no no thank yall this is great. AH it was wonderful.

I got a really goofy tan though…I look like Chlo did last week after her kayak adventure. My knees down are like super red, and my shoulders are red, but the back of my legs look the same…so there is a really awkward line and I am sure I will get made fun of for it! but its okay, because I saw BDP! McKenzie took some fun pictures so check out Facebook to see them, I’m sure they will be up sometime soon.

Here is a list of some good BDP songs that yall should listen too:

I Love You, Still Sweet, The Rain, More Than Local, Heaven Never Seemed So Small, The Day That I Die, Wait, Sweet Southern Moon (yes they played it and it was awwesome), To Your Door, and of course Louisiana Saturday Night and Do It With The Lights On.

They are playing at JazzFest but I am pretty sure its on a Friday at noon…who is up for skipping school with me

Drama- write everything you know or think you know about plays, drama, theater, andHamlet

hahahah i just watched the whitest kids u know thing about abe lincoln on youtube….you were not kidding mrs. duke, they bleep out stuff almost every 5 seconds. it was funny though!

okay, I am not going to lie, I really don’t know anything about Hamlet except the line “To be or not to be”, well I mean besides that William Shakespeare wrote it and it is a tragedy, but that is pretty much a given. I assume it is filled with dramatic irony, just like most of his other plays, but I probably won’t really understand it at first because I don’t know what happens, except everyone dies.

I have been to one broadway play, and that was The Lion King in Los Angeles, and I remember it being much different from the Disney movie, but that shouldn’t be a surprise, Disney is on it’s own level. I have been to almost all of the school productions, and worked backstage on one in 7th grade with Chloe. (SHEETS OF EGYPTIAN COTTON, I really hope you see this Chlo hahaha) I do not know HOW they remember all of those lines, but I thought it was really interesting when Robin said that she gives her character a background story and everything.

This is a little off topic, but my aunt lives in Los Angeles and writes television shows, she has worked on Orleans, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Melrose Place, and most recently Battlestar Galactica, and co executive producer and writer of Terminator:Sarah Connor Chronicles. So I used to always want to be an actress hah and I really wanted to be on Lizzie McGuire back in the day, but she said that actresses in Los Angeles were brats and she didn’t want me to turn into a brat. HAH so anyways thats a little background about me wanting to act.

SO drama and plays and stuff, I really really like reading them in class, not so much Shakespeare, but I enjoyed the two we read last year. I think that it helps the reader get inside the character’s mind and better know what they are going through. And there are so many ways to read and interpret the text and its really cool finding sub texts.

I think that drama is very influential in todays cultural. Just the fact that there are so many adaptations of different plays shows the variety and creativity that can be put into theater. I have always wanted to be in one of the schools musicals or plays, but it seems that they are very selective, and as my class knows, my um opera skills are kind of lacking. But if they had a musical that caught my attention and was popular I would be more inclined to try out. I remember when we were younger the high school put on really cool performances, Grease, Charlie Brown, Peter Pan. I am not saying that the productions now aren’t amazing, because they definitely are. but it would be fun to get more participation than just the usual people, and I think they could do that by producing a more well-known play, example Hairspray, oh my god that would be amazing.

I am really looking forward to this unit, and hah maybe improving my acting skills, as long as yall promise not to think I am a total goofball when I try to talk Shakespearian.