Hamlet

Hamlet

The play I chose is Shakespeare's Hamlet.

1.) The point in my reading in which I experienced "catharsis" in Hamlet was following the swordfight near the end of the play. In the sword fight the main character, Hamlet (and various other characters), is killed as well as Claudius. The swordfight is tense, but as the reader there was also frustration for me that Hamlet didn't just kill Claudius sooner, but this over-thinking and less acting is what makes the play a tragedy. After the swordfight the Prince from Norway comes and he hears Hamlet's story and decides Hamlet was a hero, and then honors him- this gesture was the true emotional turning point for me.

2.) One example of mimesis is Hamlets struggle to act on his thoughts; often in real life we think many things- like what our beliefs are, how we think things should be different, but the majority of us never act on those thoughts. We might be for gay marriage and feel strongly about it, but often we do nothing more than post our opinion on FaceBook, almost like that will help when it takes being active to really make a change. A second example, though a bit more dramatic than real life, is when Hamlet accidentally stabs Polonius instead of Claudius. Obviously we don't usually go around stabbing people (I hope), but we do often times make big mistakes when we think we're doing the right thing, and then just after realize we didn't. An example in modern day might be if a friend says something about another friend and we think the other friend deserves to know, so we tell them; then, suddenly no one is friends anymore and it would have been best to not say anything at all.

3.) I felt both pity and fear for Hamlet when he accidentally stabbed Polonius. Pity, because he just stabbed the wrong person and it was pretty stupid of him. Fear, becuase his killing Polonius would obviously have reprocussions.

4.) I honestly can't say I relate to any of the characters situations, but if I had to pick one it...

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