Hamlet and King Henry IV pt 1

Though I wrote about it for my paper I still feel compelled to blog about it. I was not able to ignore the vast similarities between these two plays. Both Hamlet and Henry are faced with the same "birth role" issue of not knowing of they are living up to what they are supposed to be or what the were destined to be from birth. They both have father issues and are struggling with protecting their kingdoms from military attacks. Similarities even go as far as the most famous line from Hamlet "To be or not to be," when Henry says "To be or not to be king". The reason why I mention this is because it confuses me why someone with the amount of intellect that Shakespeare has, why would he feel the need to make two plays of such similarity. Was it an intentional method that William was using to test his reader?

Response to Group Presentations

All in all I really enjoyed the group presentations. The ones that I found especially interesting were the ones that chose to put their own comic spin on the plays. For example I would like to give major props to the entire Othello crew. You guys took what is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays and put a very unique spin on it and the song "Ring of Fire" was very effective in its use. I would also like to give more props to Craig West for being in black face during the play.

10 Things I Hate About Explanations

That's right! Say what you will but with special thanks to youtube, I took upon myself to throw the whole movie, "10 Things I Hate About You" up on the blog. Whether or not you watch the whole thing is up to you but I feel that it is important to see film adaptations of Shakespeare plays with popular contemporary actors (RIP Heath). In this adaptation of "The Taming of the Shrew" Hollywood blends a very comedic cast to ad impressive humor to this play. I strongly encourage watching it so you can see the comparisons yourself.