BAIT!

There are many times in the play when baiting is used by the characters to get what they want out of the other characters. Polonius uses Gertrude as bait, King Claudius and Polonius use Ophelia as bait to catch Hamlet, Polonius uses Reynaldo as bait to spy on Laertes, etc. Using the bait often times did not prove to be successful and would just result in a more confusing or disasterous situation. They only time when using bait actually worked was when Hamlet used the players and the skit to catch King Claudius. Hamlet used the play to tell if Claudius really killed his father, and when the king left in the middle of the play in a rage, Hamlet knew his bait had worked. So, for everyone beside Hamlet, the bait did not work. But of course since this play revolves around Hamlet, his bait was successful.

T.S. Elliott!!!

ok, so I think we had to blog about how T.S. Elliott's poem structure helped convey the theme/meaning. Well, he had it written very formally, I guess that would be the word, like it was written in perfect lines and not all over the place like William Carlos Williams poem. I think the regularity of Elliott's poem shows the wallflower part of him more and how everything just kind of blends and doesn't stand out. But then theres a few lines that do break away from the pack and are alone. I think these lines represent the part of him thats wants to be mad for life and is scared of dying and missing the oppurtunites. He sees all that he's missed, he seen a flicker of his greatness and he's let it go. His structure shows his struggle to be both in his life and not one of the two extremes. Being a wallflower is dominating the poem though because that whats he is and he doesn't know how to escape it.

Matts question: Is anyone suspicious that King Claudius left to get some air? aka left during the play.

I'm not sure if anyone in Hamlet, except for Hamlet himeslf, is suspicious when the king left. They don't really have any reason to be because they have not seen or encountered the same things Hamlet has. They have not been warned by a ghost and they do not know king Claudius personally or under what circumstances he and gertrude married. They probably think that the king just needed to get away or that the play was to intense for him. Which is stupid because then he would be an extreme pansy, but I don't know what else they would think.

World views

Hamlets parents (before his father was murdered) did expect him to inherit the throne which can be a worldview in a way. After his fathers death there was the obligation given to Hamlet to avenge his fathers death. His famliy, mostly his mother and uncle, handed down the worldview that he should be tolerable and go along with their marriage. So he is expected to be tolerant of an outrageous situstaion. Hamlet wasn't expected to rebel.