Hamlet - Blog Posts

time capsule from 2003. 9 years later, I'm still not good enough to understand Shakespeare world.

John Barrymore from Hamlet!

Cannot communicate with my spouse anymore. I told them that 💀 is the tone tag for Hamlet and they haven’t stopped responding to any messages containing it with “HAMLET????” since….

If Shakespeare were alive today, he would live in constant fear of high-schoolers

i make fun of horatio for finding the most dramatic person he could and just enabling his behavior

and then i look in the mirror like "huh shakespeare in the park is looking a lil different this year"

hamlet: makes everything infinitely more complicated than need be, spends half his time wallowing and procrastinating

me:

can someone please explain to me the trend in the 90s of doing films of Shakespeare but setting them with a vaguely Victorian/Edwardian aesthetic? Like, Midsummer '99, Hamlet '96, and Twelfth Night '96.

i know theres a "gay best friend" trope but i feel like we need to formally acknowledge the "due to unfortunate circumstances i am gay for an absolute bastard" trope

now this is, of course, just another excuse for me to point out how gay nick carraway and horatio are

benvolio, mercutio, horatio, and ophelia all have a group chat called "bastard-free zone." sometimes they go out to brunch just to get away from romeo and hamlet's bullshit

i identify with hamlet because i, too, am a bisexual disasterpiece.

"We know what we are, but not what we may be."

- Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5

suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune brb!

A Love Letter to History

(if you could call it that)

On a cold January morning in 1914, James Joyce published the first part of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In that very part, on a similarly cold morning just after Christmas Break, Stephen Dedalus stood huddled with other Clongowes students and watched the snow moulding itself around their boots, wondering what made Simon Moonan and Tusker Boyle, in all their ordinariness, kiss in the square.

Napoleon Bonaparte was not born Napoleon Bonaparte. He was born Napoleon Buonaparte. Napoleon Buonaparte was not born in France, but he was born French enough. Of course, they’ve forgotten that by now. They often aren’t allowed to remind themselves, either.

There is very little to say about Fahrenheit 451 that it has not already said about itself. Any review of it is only ever a paraphrasing of some chapter or other, intentionally or otherwise. In the past twenty years, it has been banned at least ten times in the US alone. I imagine censoring a book about censorship gave many people the opportunity to pat themselves on the back. Unfortunately, their intentions, however malevolent, are misplaced. In the book, the people are on the side of banning books. There is no oppression, and no need for revolution. The bars caging a mind are not so easy to topple. The guillotine falls over an empty basket, and symbolism overflows from an empty cup. There is nothing to overthrow when the fault lies with time.

History. What a heavy word.

Christopher Marlow was excommunicated by the Church, and so was one of Shakespeare’s daughters. It is claimed that he based Ophelia off of his wife. I wonder why.

Five years after that day in the square, Stephen Dedalus refused to back down from his claim of Byron’s brilliance. Words like 'blasphemous' and 'irreligious' pooled around his feet. He cupped his hands in the water and lapped it up. Everything I write now contains some shred of Stephen’s name. I wonder why.

Why is a muse called a muse? To muse is to think, to think deeply. Is a muse’s job to be a conductor of thought? Must all thought be equivalent to love? Why does the word smell like the thickest honey? Why does it sit so heavily on my tongue?

Icarus never meant to fall. If he raced toward the sun, it was only to prove that he could. And he was never on fire. Oh, he burned, alright — the melting wax made sure of it. Did he grasp at the feathers as they came free from the harness? Did he watch them drifting towards the sea? Did he notice anything happening at all? For a moment, a brief, shining moment, the sun was neither hope nor doom, but triumph.

I never could write anything on either the 31st or the 1st. There is something about endings, and something about beginnings. The sun dawned the same on New Year’s Day, but at the stroke of midnight, my phone sang like I lived my whole life before the first light.

Fifteen years after that day in the square, Stephen Dedalus parted with Cranly, unafraid of being alone,

“— and not have any one person who would more than a friend, more even than the noblest and truest friend a man ever had.”

“Of whom are you speaking?” Stephen asked at length.

Cranly did not answer.

They met again, and sixteen years after Oscar’s death, James Joyce retraced his name in “Wilde’s love that dare not speak its name” in a book I have yet to read.

It’s funny how they ban books written centuries ago. Congratulations, Ronald, a pre-industrialization schoolmaster had a broader mind than yours. A clod of dirt shifts as Shakespeare turns in his grave.

History. What a heavy word. I used to think we owed it something.

"DEATH IS THE MOTHER OF BEAUTY"

- literary examples of death as tragic and beautiful in its terror

Ophelia, a beautiful, innocent girl created by Shakespeare, torn by emotions so much that in despair for her lost love, she throws herself into the arms of the river, drowning. This is clearly seen in Millais's painting. Despite her death, a young girl resists the influence of filthy water on the human body. Pale but healthy skin, rosy cheeks and pink lips desperately taking their last breath. A tragic moment captured in such a calm way. Ophelia remains forever beautiful and immortal in the eyes of the viewer.

"Perfume" by Patrick Süskind, a novel about a murderer who tries to capture the most beautiful smell. The smell of death in the form of perfume made from a young body. His victims are again little girls who die in a tragic, sometimes even parodic way, being brutally mercilessly harmed. But in the main character's eyes they still shine like stars in the sky, filling him with pure exhilaration. Especially that one woman who is his eternal inspiration.

Baudelaire creates something similar in the poem "the death of lovers". The couple on its deathbed is not concerned about the coming end. Their love seems to bloom even more, surrounded by fragrant flowers that fill their souls with peace and joy.

Finally, the story of Tristan and Isolde, another lovers, on whose grave a hawthorn grows. A symbol of their eternal love. From their dead bodies, corrupted by decay, something amazing in its beauty is created bearing witness to their everlasting connection.

It reminds me of the words of Edvard Munch: "From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity"

Writers, poets, whole literature itself create death in various ways. But showing it as a gateway to beauty is something particularly special. How death can it be glamorous, artistic and pleasing for our eyes. How to find it among tragedy, mourning, rotten skin and that disgusting smell of decay. And why show it this way at all?

"Because the world is so full of death and horror, I try again and again to console my heart and pick the flowers that grow in the midst of hell" - Hermann Hesse

Can we talk for a second about how Hamlet is only sympathetic if he’s like, 19? That’s not to say you can’t make a good Hamlet with a 32 year old actor, but the main character Will Not be sympathetic if you do that. Which is fine, you can make an interesting movie with that, just don’t expect people to like Hamlet in it.

HAMLET PRINCE OF DENMARK FROM HAMLET BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE!!!

(the OG BPD character fr fr)

characters I’m giving BPD

(this is OUR mental illness now - and these are my blorbos)

Jason Todd (DC)

Scaramouche (Genshin Impact)

Bradley Uppercrust the III (An Extremely Goofy Movie)

Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars)

Jinx (Arcane)

and many more!!!

you can bet I’ll be reblogging my own post later CAUSE IM THAT B*TCH!

in the production of hamlet I was in there was about a week of rehearsal where we workshopped the idea of me (hamlet) playing a fife whilst strangling a guy around this part.

it didn’t make the Final Cut.

Just finished hamlet & had to share THIS

Hamlet-esq work in progress

i’m in a production of hamlet and i made these to promote the show!! i’m in the middle i play marcellus ☝️ guess the scene, GO!

Hey y’all! I made a Shakespeare print/stickers!  click for which plays are which

You can buy them as a group of stickers or as the color wheel version! There’s lots of other things as well! Like pencil cases and iPad cases!  I’d love the support! Thanks y’all! 

BUY HERE as the color wheel

BUY HERE as a group of stickers

ko-fi

Hey y’all! I made a Shakespeare print/stickers!  click for which plays are which

You can buy them as a group of stickers or as the color wheel version! There’s lots of other things as well! Like pencil cases and iPad cases!  I’d love the support! Thanks y’all! 

BUY HERE as the color wheel

BUY HERE as a group of stickers

ko-fi

A parody I came up with the other day: Quantum Hamlet

To be *and* not to be

That is (or isn’t) the quandary

Wether it be nobler in the mind to suffer the particle and wave states of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by observing end them