Euno - Hamlab from the perspective of a student-mentor

When my professor announced that our class would be helping teach Hamlet to a class of AP English students, I have to admit I was pretty horrified. I’m not terribly confident in my ability to teach anything to anyone, much less at the hour of 7:45 AM where most mornings I’ll be smashing the “snooze” button on my phone’s alarm. As most of my colleagues will attest (and many of you future college students will soon find out), 7:45 AM is a godless hour for intellectual activity of any sort.

That said, working with Hernan, Joseph, Leslie, Erik (Eric?), Kaidy (did I get that right?), Sindy, Cindy, Jamal, Maria, Nemesis, and Leila has been one of the most fun and rewarding things I’ve done all semester. You guys are probably thinking “dude, Euno, your life must be pretty boring,” and that’s simply not true (OK… it kind of is… but that’s not my point).

First and foremost, I learned a lot of interesting things from Ms. Barrios regarding the performance of soliloquies. Actors, writers, musicians are all related in that all of them rely on the use of and performance of words. A well-written song and a Shakespeare soliloquy are both dependent on an understanding of the emotional context. You wouldn’t sing “I got the eye of the tiger” line from Katy Perry’s “Roar” as if you were reading out of your biology textbook, and you certainly wouldn’t call someone a “bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!” as if you were reading over the menu at McDonald’s.

That said, the students are really lucky to have a teacher like Ms. Barrios teaching them aspects of Shakespeare performance that really wasn’t afforded to me when I was in high school. This is not only going to help the students in college, but also help expose them to Shakespeare at a level that allows them to form an opinion about Hamlet other than “I wish Hamlet would have just stabbed the King in III.iii, married his mom, end scene, roll credits.”

But in order for Ms. Barrios to be able to effectively teach those things, there have to be students who understand what she’s saying, and that was perhaps the most amazing part of the experience of all: I could easily see many of these students being my classmates at USC (or any other university, for that matter) and genuinely caring about and contributing to the areas they’re studying, which (for lack of a more formal phrase) is pretty awesome.

I do have a couple pieces of advice for the students:

-       When you read: don’t trust

the line breaks, trust the punctuation.

-       Like Ms. Barrios says, personalize the character. Make that character yours. For those of you performing soliloquies, Hamlet might have a lot to be angry about, but he’s not always enraged and shouting at the top of his lungs. He’s a lot more emotionally complex than that (that’s what makes him so intriguing), so try to put what he says into the proper context and pinpoint his emotions with each word or phrase.

-       Just general college/life advice: Don’t do it just for the grade or just for the credit. Do it because you love it! Be curious, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and try your best. Eventually the grades, units, degrees, jobs, fame, and the Mercedes-Benz will come. For now, though, don’t forget to love life and learning cause that’s what it’s all about.

Thanks so much for a great experience. Good luck, and I really hope to see you all on October 30^th.

- Euno (the big Korean guy).

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Kevin Martinez - Reflection

Kevin Martinez 

Period 1

Group #2

3-2-1 Reflection

What we learned:

For a fact we enjoyed this interesting seminar on "O,what a rogue and peasant am I". Me and my group learned many different examples of what Hamlet tries to create. At first the significant part of what makes Hamlet a coward is from what he tries to create but can't do because of his lack of confidence in the play. He can think, but he can't do. This is the reason why he attacks himself in this soliloquy. 

Most importantly of how Hamlet lets out his emotions, me and my group were discussing about that Hamlet can be really sentimental at times. As we said before, Hamlet doesn't take action, he argues with himself. He runs away from those troubles.that is why we see him run away from those troubles the fact that someone killed his father makes the plot even more interesting. We see a whole complexity of his thoughts and state of conscience.


Lastly he sets of his judgments and hypocrisy through the play as a whole. 


Questions: Why does Hamlet sometimes says: Am I a coward? Is it because it's ironic?
Also, " Who calls me villain"? exactly mean? how?

Goal/ objective:
Me and my group would like to know the essence of how Hamlet thinks in a rational way through the play as a whole and most importantly how he thinks too

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Bryan Garcia - Reflection

Bryan Garcia
Period 1
3-2-1 Reflection

Things I learned:

“To be or not to be” – Despite being the most famous soliloquy in all English, it doesn't make much sense, according to the professor. It has different meanings and interpretations. To me, it asks the simple question, “Why live?” At the end, it answers that death might be even worse.

King Hamlet’s ghost may not be real after all. It could be all in Prince Hamlet’s mind, caused by a loss of sense. Hamlet goes mad and imagines the ghost, explaining why Gertrude and the audience can’t see him. However, this theory does not explain why Horatio and the watchmen were able to see the ghost in the beginning of the play.

Freud explains that the individual is controlled or influenced by his superego. In the play, the ghost represents Hamlet’s external superego. Freud also interprets the characters in Hamlet as a representation of the renaissance in relation to their individualism and life style at the time.

Questions I have:

Why does Hamlet have an obsession with his mother? Is it because of the lack of respect she seems to have for his dead father or his attachment caused by his desire for a mother that never leaves?

One goal I have:

I will continue to read more on Freud and how his analytic criticism relates to Hamlet and any other piece of literature.

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Deisy Blanco Reflection

Group #3 Period 2

The seminar the seniors attended on October 4th was a great experience! Being present in a college environment definitely expanded the scope of critical thinking we were used to. It was exciting to see the connections we came up with by using Freud's argument/theory on the ego and super ego. 

Attending this seminar made everyone realize that everything has a different meaning and that it has an important significance. For example, on Monday, we all learned the importance of punctuation. My group now sees punctuation differently. We also discussed the importance of the length of sentences. We came to the conclusion that the sentences that were longer seemed to build up, and kind of pile upon each others (kind of like a form of ranting?). This creates a sense of release. In contrast, the shorter lines were a sign of restriction, which, we made a connection between the restriction of the argument that Freud made about the restrictions civilization imposes on the community. 

Questions we still have:

Is the marriage between Gertrude and Claudius simply a political marriage or is there love involved? 

Does Hamlet feel confused about his true identity and standing in society? 
(His confusion might be caused by the fact that after his father was murdered, he wasn't king, but instead his uncle became King. And also because throughout the book, there are moments where he's treated simply like a commoner, and this might add up to his confusion on what his true identity and stand in society really is.)

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Reflection - Manuel Valdez

Manuel Valdez
Period 2
Reflection on Monday's class/ Soliloquy Analysis w/ college student 10/07/13
Group: Myself, Rebecca Segovia, Casey Cortez, Emeli Castillo

The class on monday was very refreshing, I found it interesting to see how a college student who is also studying Hamlet breaks down the "O' what a rogue" soliloquy. I believe I speak for everyone in my group that the discussion we had with our mentor was enlgihtening in the sense that she offered a completely different approach to the soliloquy. I found it interesting how she pointed out that Hamlet switches between talking to himself(I) and what seems to be the audience(He). At certain points he speaks as thoguh he is directing his words towards the audience. For example, when Hamlet asks, "Am I a coward? Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?" it seems that he is directing these questions to someone else. My interpretation of this is that Shakespeare's goal was probably to make Hamlet seem mad and delusional. The entire soliloquy is Hamlet going back and forth cursing himself for not being brave; the pattern stops when he realizes that he must use the only good thing he has, his intellect. This moment is followed by what seems to be an external/internal discussion he has with himself which further adds to the thought that he is mad. 

One question we still had was:
Why didn't Hamlet go straight to the royal court when he had evidence of his death order or use his position as prince to rightfully take the crown and avoid this mess?

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Problems in Hamlet, or, ???

As we all know, Hamlet is full of problems. There are some really big problems that are central to the play, for example: Why does Hamlet delay his revenge? Is the ghost really the ghost of Old Hamlet? Does Hamlet actually go mad, is he just pretending--or a little bit of both?

There are also a lot of little problems, narrative and textual questions that are a result of having multiple editions of Hamlet. For example, does Hamlet talk about his too too SOLID, too too SULLIED or even too too SALLIED flesh?

But the kinds of problems I want to talk about lie somewhere in between: they're not central to the play as a whole, but they're persistently troubling and once you see them, they're impossible to ignore.

 1. Who watches Ophelia drown and why don't they save her?

In 4.7, Gertrude tells Laertes that Ophelia has drowned:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

This is a very vivid description of a slow, lingering death. In fact, it's so vivid that the image has been painted and used in cinema many times, for example, by John Everett Millais:

And more recently, in Lars von Trier's brilliant film Melancholia:
 

But how does Gertrude know that it happened like this? If she was the person watching Ophelia drown, why didn't she try to save her? If it was someone else, why didn't they? And why don't any of the other characters in the play seem to notice?


 2. How old is Hamlet?

Throughout the play, we're led to believe that Hamlet is a pretty young man. He's a college student and unmarried; Laertes says he's still "in the youth of primy nature." All the clues lead us to believe that he's about twenty. But then in the gravedigger speech, we learn that the gravedigger started his job "the very day that young Hamlet was born" and that he's been doing it for "thirty years." So in this scene, we learn that Hamlet is thirty. Did Shakespeare change his mind? If he was thirty all along, why is he still in college? And why isn't he married?


3. Why are there so many birds in the play?

 Ms. Barrios and I discussed this problem briefly the other day: to begin with, there are a lot of hawks and allusions to hawking, a medieval and Renaissance sport in which one trained hawks to catch smaller birds. Hamlet tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he is "but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw." "We'll e'en to't like French falconers," Hamlet tells the players, and Horatio uses the falconer's cry "illo, ho, ho my lord" to which Hamlet replies, "Hillo, ho, ho boy! Come, bird, come." Claudius' comment that Hamlet has returned after being sent to England "checking at his voyage" is also drawn from falconry, as is "pitch" in the phrase "enterprises of great pitch and moment."

It's not just hawks, though. There's a reference to a rooster ("The bird of dawning"), a lapwing ("This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head"), a sparrow ("there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow"), and a very strange comparison involving a basket of birds and an ape ("Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape, / To try conclusions, in the basket creep, / And break your own neck down"). Does this leitmotif reveal something about the kind of world these characters inhabit? If so, what?

Please feel free to post more problems, questions, ideas or even solutions in the comments below!

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Reflection: First day with mentors - Sindy Ayala

On Monday we experienced our first day with our mentors. We learned a lot from Naham and it was quite fun.

The way we divided our soliloquy "O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I" was by seeing where exactly the shifts began.

-We ended up with a total of 8 shifts or units
-We noticed that throughout his soliloquy Hamlet kept on questioning himself and accepting his cowardness.
-At the beginning he questions how the actors are able to portray such emotions that aren't there where he is unable to act or express anything
-He then reflects on himself; then realizes he really is a coward
-He hatches a plan to use the play as a form to see the conscience of the King
-That will be his proof of how the murder the king committed

Words that describe Hamlet
-Questioning
-Reflection on self
-Realization


Questions:
Why does Hamlet choose to use the play as evidence?

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