Response to Course Material #5

     After four Course Material Responses, it's a new year and the first semester is almost over. I'm surprised with the amounts of books and stories we've covered and analyzed. Recently, we didn't start on anything too new; we continued on with Hamlet and began some helpful mood/atmosphere exercises. These exercises seem much more interesting and less work. However, Hamlet took some time.

     Last Course Material, I said that we started reading Hamlet aloud and I had no idea. It's a little different now; I understand the plot. I've noticed that a lot of Hamlet  is illogical which helps me annotate it in ways that may help me to understand. There are several things I wouldn't have known if Ms. Holmes hadn't mentioned. Hamlet's famous soliloquy of "To be or not to be" apparently refers to him deciding over his fate of death. That's something that would've taken me hours to finally understand. As we watched different versions of the play, It helped me realize the strengths of character and their unique characteristics. I assumed that Polonius was just a foolish old man, but that wasn't the case. He's actually very manipulative and likes to have things under his control including the actions and words of his children. We also had a small forum assignment regarding a poem about Ophelia. I feel like there was a deeper level of meaning behind the poem because what I wrote and what my peers wrote were very similar. I think that the author saw Ophelia in a different perspective than a lot of us have. It was interesting to see what other people had to say about one specific character and their actions. We also discussed the opening scene of Hamlet. I said that it wasn't successful, but I change my mind. Ms. Holmes said that every Elizabethan knew the meaning behind a ghost appearing and its connection with the revenge tragedy. If I take that into account, I would have to say that the Act One, Scene One of Hamlet was able to give the audience a skeletal plot... maybe with not enough information though. 

     Compared to the diction/tone exercises, I like the mood/atmosphere one much better. Not that I Participate more than usual, but in a sense that I feel comfortable and better at it. I think that tone exercises were so tedious that I had to look for clues in a passage (something AP students shouldn't avoid), but honestly, I feel like what I see or hear could be totally off from everyone else's opinions, I stop myself. However, in the mood exercise, we're given visual material to work on which gives me a better start position.  I learn that so many people in my class are so talented in expressing things into words. I'm hoping that I improve throughout these exercises.