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Post by mayrapuente on Oct 8, 2012 23:05:34 GMT -5
At the end of Act II, there is a reference to the deaths of Priam and Hecuba, the Trojan king and queen. I believe there are two main reasons for the reference of Hecuba. For one, it makes Hamlet rethink his motives. The player who gave the speech of Hecuba had the ability to engage emotionally with the dead figures. Yet, Hamlet, after knowing his father was assassinated by his own blood, does not express the feelings and concerns that should be displayed because of his father's death. Yes, he was awfully gloomy and displayed erratic behavior, but, in my opinion, the player did a better job of mourning for Hecuba, and he was merely acting! Hamlet needs to step it up. In addition, the play was a trap for Claudius! The plot of the play closely resembled the assassination of King Hamlet. It is apparent that Hamlet wanted to catch Claudius guilty by watching him fidget in his seat as his sin was reenacted on stage. Hamlet is quite the sly prince!  |
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Post by berenicecontreras on Oct 8, 2012 23:22:18 GMT -5
Hecuba , queen in Greek mythology is mentioned towards the end of Act ll to express the grief of a woman mourning for her dead husband. This was recited by a player by Hamlets request. The illusion has brought up to show the proper way a woman should deal with the death of her husband. Hecuba is a truly loving woman who devoted her love and life to her husband expressing extreme sadness and morn for him. This point is to make Hamlet's mothers even more unacceptable and looked down upon.
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Post by Maria Corona on Oct 8, 2012 23:28:00 GMT -5
I had difficulty understanding this assignment. I understand that Hecuba was queen during the happenings of the Trojan War. And Hamlet was trying to catch his Uncle's guilty conscious by having a play put on.
What did understand from the passage is mainly the trickery, from the Trojan Horse during Hecuba's time, sneaking in those soldiers and destroying an enclosed kingdom to Hamlet's plan of capturing his wicked murder guilty uncle by having him watch a play enacting a similar death to his fathers. To trick someone in order to gain a point for themselves.
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Post by mayrapuente on Oct 8, 2012 23:29:23 GMT -5
Berenice, good insight! I didn't think of it that way. The fact that "the illusion has brought up to show the proper way a woman should deal with the death of her husband". I hope after watching the play, Hamlet's mother realizes what a bad person she is! Her second marriage was honestly way too quickly! O:
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Post by berenicecontreras on Oct 8, 2012 23:32:03 GMT -5
mayrapuente great point! I automatically connected Hecuba to Gertrude, without even considering Hamlets case. Great observation! & your comment on Hamlet stepping up is hilarious! Not only is it true , but i can totally imagine this occurring now with people being deceitful in competitions. lol
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Post by Maria Corona on Oct 8, 2012 23:35:45 GMT -5
@myra I agree with what you said. I think we have a pretty similar viewpoint. Hamlet is a tricky little boy.
@berenice Your take on the passage opened my mind, I had been very closed minded yet, I seen the connection you made about the grieving woman and how angry Hamlet was when his mother grieved for a month before remarrying.
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Post by Carina Felix on Oct 9, 2012 0:18:25 GMT -5
I feel like there is deeper part of the allusion that I just can't understand...
But anyways, as Hamlet explicitly states, he is using the play to deceive his Uncle-Father (so awk lol) by making him reveal his emotions when watching a play that depicts murder such as the one he has committed.
I also think Hamlet is eager for the Queen to watch the play because in the play, Hecuba is consumed by rage and is very vengeful about the death of her son. Maybe Hamlet wants her to feel a little bit of sympathy on him because, as he has stated, he feels dead and wanted to commit suicide... but all his mom sees is that he is crazy?
Maybe he just wants her to see the truth. After all, she is all that he has left of his father.
I dont knw... I feel way off here!
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Post by Carina Felix on Oct 9, 2012 0:24:24 GMT -5
Like you B, my mind immediately went to the Queen. But I think the reference to Hecuba prob has more to do with Claudius than it does with Gertrude /: Anyways, I didn't think that Hamlet was trying to bring his mom down.. I thought he was just trying to help her see the light. But I can definitely see your point now & I agree.. but then I feel like maybe he doesn't want to hurt her? idk.. but I see him as a Momma's boy, even with all the papas he's talked about her  |
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Post by crystalruiz23 on Oct 9, 2012 0:29:48 GMT -5
Hecuba is of great similarity to Hamlet in this act because she shows the sudden behavior that is expressed when she experience the death of her husband. I do believe that Hecuba was put into Hamlet's play because he wants to relate his emotions and also his reaction to his fathers death to Hecuba mournful experience. Hamlet is creating this similarity because he wishes to get his message across that not only does he suffer for his the loss of his father,but to reveal the truth of how his fathers death came upon. I also figured that Hamlet wanted his mother to realize that Hamlet only wants to reveal what truly happened to his father and that the stepfather had been the one who murdered him.
This is why I think Hecuba is of importance but I did have a little trouble understanding.
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Post by crystalruiz23 on Oct 9, 2012 0:35:19 GMT -5
Carina, I can agree with you response. I actually had a similar thought to what you wrote. I can agree that Hamlet only wishes to deceive his Uncle-Father because he is honestly trying to reveal the truth that he was the murder! I also agree with your perspective of Hamlet trying to help his mother see the truth. Only seems that she is too stubborn to realize it in my opinion.  but good job! |
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Post by isaiahcortez on Oct 9, 2012 0:48:40 GMT -5
Towards the end of Act II there is a a short reference to hecuba, honestly it took me forever to get to this point in the play and I found it some what difficult at times to understand and it seemed like i was reading the king James version of the bible. This is what I got from the reference, hecuba was the queen during the Greek mythological era, her husband had died she mourned in a sequentional way, she cried, grieved and was heart broken but what I noticed is that hamlets mom did not did not mourn or grieve like Hecuba did, instead she married her husbands brother. Which is a big "no-no" in our society and I'm assuming it was frowned upon during that time as well. I am more than certain that Shakespeare put Hecuba in the play to shed light on the fact that queen Gertrude was a trifflin scans less woman.
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Post by isaiahcortez on Oct 9, 2012 0:51:28 GMT -5
@mariacarona
I didn't really understand why the Trojan horse was there it really threw me off but thanks for explaining further on it
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Post by Janelle Castillo on Oct 9, 2012 1:13:42 GMT -5
Hamlet uses this story to try and discover if his uncle shows any remorse or guilt over the murder of hamlet's father and to show his mother how one truly in love mourns. Hamlet is so enraged by his fathers death and trying to seek revenge on Claudius that he cannot connect to the story and feel the sadness like the others in the room. I think this shows that letting yourself get consumed by negative feelings can impair you emotionally
Not quite sure what to write...
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Post by Janelle Castillo on Oct 9, 2012 1:19:49 GMT -5
isaiahcortez I really like that you weren't afraid to admit that you had trouble reading and understanding the play, I had trouble with it as well, I have to reread the lines a couple of times in order to start to understand what they're saying. I think for having difficulty you did a good job at understanding the purpose of the reference. A for effort
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Post by Juan Jaimez on Oct 9, 2012 1:21:43 GMT -5
@carina Yeah, I get what you mean, I do feel that there is an even deeper meaning to the allusion of Hecuba and the Trojan War but I just can't find it  What I got from the Hecuba reference was that he made a comparison between the Greek queen and his mother. They both had their husbands murdered, but, unlike Hamlet's mother, Hecuba actually grieved and lamented the death of her husband, according to Hamlet. Obviously Hamlet still thinks that his mother did not really mourn the death of her husband and Hamlet is still having a difficult time trying to process all of the horrible events that have trespassed onto his life. I think, like Carina, that Hamlet is eager for his mother to see the play because she will see how one actually mourns the death of their husband and wants to show her that he is not crazy for being so depressed and saddened all the time. |
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but good job! 