When I was in the school I had the benefit of what is referred to as a classical education. I have always been grateful for this, despite the tedium of the detail that was sometimes involved. Perchance, six weeks studying Hamlet seemed like too long to a 16 year old? Yes. Yes it did. Hamlet is an infinite onion of meaning and metaphor. I watched two different movie version of Hamlet. We read each verse and pulled it apart for meaning, and sub meaning. We looked at failures in the cadence, or brilliance in the turn of speech. We examined how meanings had changed, and what dual meanings existed so that coarse phrases could be turned in polite company.
My next year in school I signed up for a different Shakespeare class, promising three plays in six weeks. I was delighted. I wanted to learn more, I was excited to grow my catalog of Shakespeare’s characters. The first day of class our teacher excitedly announced a change in syllabus, we’d be doing HAMLET for the first six weeks.
I nearly cried.
The story of Hamlet, it’s visceral nature, it’s tragedy and the lost love within it became lost to me as I once again dove in to the space between the words for six weeks. I gave up on Shakespeare. Nice stories, but too tedious.
Until 1996 when Kenneth Branagh released Hamlet and I begrudgingly traipsed along to the theater because Kenneth Branagh is hot. (He is, hush).
Hamlet burst to life, a story of grief driven madness, distrust, lost love, heartbreak and death came alive for me and all of the shadow of too much studying rolled away from my brain. It was brilliant. This was a story of a man whose world was collapsing unwittingly by his own design, and by -as he fears – the dark motives of others.
It’s a tragedy. I cried my eyes out at the end, despite having in the past, during other versions, coldly mentally checking people off as they died.
It inspires me, because I believe this is what real teachers do – they make things accessible to EVERYONE. Hamlet wasn’t written only for intellectuals. It was written as a tale for everyone. Branagh brought it back to everyone, in a format that everyone could absorb while keeping the verse intact.
Alas poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio…a fellow of infinite jest…
(That’s foreshadowing of the omnipresence of death just FYI).
Gidge and Yorick Are Wearing:
Bodysuit: ISON – mesh bustier top
Lashes: Amacci – Eyelash Tattoo 4
Amacci – Eyelash Tattoo 5
Yorick’s Hair: /Wasabi Pills/ Haley Mesh Hair – Black coffee
Gidge’s Hair: >TRUTH< Dee w/Roots (Mesh) – swedish
Skin: -Belleza- Chloe Med 1 Cleavage
For Hair Fair 2013 Photo Contest