Camille

At the beginning of the year we had to read last year’s “Handbooks” on what to do to make it through Mrs. Duke’s class. In my opinion this activity helped because it made me realize what the class was going to be like. Ok, first of all just know that you have to take an English class your junior year and it’s just by chance that you got Mrs. Duke. The other English teachers are just as hard as Mrs. Duke so don’t freak out. Just to let all of you know, we were a terrible class. We misbehaved all the time and were really behind in her class. You do not want to be like our class, your grades will suffer, like ours did. If you just listen to Mrs. Duke and do your work you will be fine. We could have done a lot more to get better grades and a better benefit from Mrs. Duke’s class but our class really had a problem learning in class. The combination of immature people, lack of concentration, poor reprimanding, back talking, and lack of drive to do work. I repeat, you do not want to be like our class!!

I’ll make this pretty to the point…

1. Do all of your homework!! Mrs. Duke will sometimes assign work you think you may not be able to handle but, you can. Just do it. Your grades will suffer if you don’t, she grades everything, there’s no busy work. Everything is always online so there’s no excuse unless you choose not to. I was guilty of that a few times and I really regretted it.
2. Participating in class is also a part of your grade and also will help you understand everything your studying in general. Your homework will be a lot easier and you will be able to have a deeper understanding if you do the activities in class and actually participate. Our class had a huge problem doing this and trust me it was not the good route to take. We ended up having a lot more work than normal and our grades were not that great.
3. Blogging is a must. Just don’t skip on blogging. It’s a really easy grade and you have a ton of time to do it. If I’m not mistaken it’s a 50 point grade per week, which is pretty significant. So just do it. It’s usually very challenging and there’s lots of free posts where you can write about anything. Blog throughout the week, don’t wait till Sunday night or she will stop giving credit for blogs done on sunday night.
4. WORK AHEAD!!! People’s “handbooks” from last year really stressed this and so did Mrs. Duke. You will hear her say “LOOK ONLINE AND WORK AHEAD!!!” about a million times. It’s something you should actually do. If she posts a big assignment/paper/project online, she will do it ahead of time and maybe won’t talk about it in class, so it’d be a good idea to not just ignore it and get a start on it. Working ahead applies to everything. For me, reading was a big one because sometimes Mrs. Duke will assign a pretty big chunk of reading and it will be best to get it done over time instead of all in one night.
5. Respect Mrs. Duke. She’s a really smart person and a good teacher. A lot of people in our class we’re really disrespectful towards her and they suffered behavioral consequences. Sometimes she might say something that makes me angry or whatever but just suck it up. She’s an adult so respect her. She really loves her job so don’t make it hell for her to teach…like we did…which was really rude of us as a class.
6. READ!!!!!!!!!! Tons of the class activities that include participating and discussion require that you have read before coming to class. Some of the books we read are REALLY hard to understand. Heart of Darkness and Perceval and Frankenstein and some others were really hard to understand, they way they are written are really complex. You’re going to have to ask questions and Mrs. Duke won’t answer if you haven’t read. You will benefit from discussion if you don’t fully understand the reading.
7. Don’t talk to the other class. She assigns different activities and assignments to her different class periods. They don’t all do the same stuff in each class and some are behind and some are ahead. If you are wondering your homework assignment, look online or ask Mrs. Duke or ask someone in your exact class period. It also makes her pretty mad when you talk to the other classes… you don’t want to do that!!
8. Bring the book you’re currently reading to class. Pretty self-explanatory; you’ll use it in class almost everyday.

Ok, so I know we were only supposed to read half of where we left off but, I just decided to stop at Act 3 . This reading was more in and out of Hamlet text than other readings. There were a few key events of Hamlet shown in Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, like the players performing for Hamlet, the King, and Queen, and when they see Hamlet with the dead body, and the crazy scene with Ophelia. Rosencrantz and Gildenstern seem really confused this chapter and almost fearful at times of what to do about Hamlet.

I realize why were were discussing acting yesterday in class. Well, the player explains to Rosencrantz and Gildenstern about acting and how to act. We were talking about the “if” method. The player explains to them about acting and methods to acting. I thought there was some foreshadowing with the player about the “eight corpses”. The scene with the players and Hamlet and Ophelia and Claudius and the Queen was very dramatic whenever the play was going on.

Ok so this reading was to page 73. I thought this was the most post modern part of of reading so far. There was much talk about life and death and a lot of metaphors are used. They talk about boxes, dying, the truth, etc. I feel that this section really didn’t connect to Hamlet that much, it was just mostly about Rosencrantz and Gildensterns interactions. They are both really uncertain about how Hamlet, contemplating if he is mad or not. There is really no connection to Hamlet until Polonius and the players come into the text. Rosencrantz and Gildenstern obviously understand the underlying meaning of the performance of the Murder of Gongazo, so is the player. This is significant because more people are realizing the tension within the castle. I think this section is more about showing the personalities of Rosencrantz and Gildenstern.

Exigence —I feel that all the tension in the castle is giving Hamlet reason to give this speech/soliloquy. There is so much going on with Polonius stirring up trouble with the King and Queen saying that he is going mad for Ophelia. There is also a lot of internal conflict going on with Hamlet about Claudius killing his father and his anger against his mother.

Audience –Hamlet is obviously talking to himself here. I know his two audiences are the King and Queen and Ophelia, but I don’t know which one is primary or secondary. They both impact his speech because he speaks of both of them, partially because they’re both giving him trouble. Maybe we are his primary audience because he exposes information about himself to us.

Purpose- I feel the purpose of this speech is to inform us of his flaws and also of his troubles internally with himself and externally with others. This also informs Ophelia.

Appeals: Ethos and Pathos

Ethos- “And, by opposing, end them” line 68. This shows that Hamlet has anger against the situation and wants to end it, his way he thinks death would be the best.

Pathos- “But that the dread of something after death” line 86. This appeals to the audience because it’s bringing up questions of life or death, keeping the audience interested.

Figures of speech, imagery, diction, syntax: The thing that stands out to me the most is the symbolism and metaphors. There is symbolism about death and life in his speech. He uses the sleeping metaphor for death often. Taking arms against the sea is his metaphor for rebellion. He uses a lot of vague language for a very specific situation. His internal conflict is described as the pangs of love. He has a lot going on in his head right now obviously so it is coming out quite strange. His purpose is to expose his conflict so therefore it reflects in his language.

I think Hamlet is really confused. He has a lot of externalities such as the situation with Ophelia and Claudius. This is affecting his already disturbed mind. This internal conflict is tearing him apart, it’s also ruining his relationship with Ophelia. He is isolating himself and he is going mad.

I definitely enjoyed this reading much more, simply because it made more sense. Since we started the beginning of Act 2 from Hamlet, the intertextuality is very interesting. The way Stoppard uses the exact lines from Hamlet really puts a spin on his play that incorporates the other text directly. It is obvious that this “transformation” of Hamlet interally and externally is going to play a big part in Hamlet.

Rosencrantz and Gildenstern gives us just an insight of what they are doing before and during and probably after (we haven’t read that far yet) when they are commanded to cheer Hamlet up. As his friends they are commanded originally to cheer Hamlet up. Stoppard puts an influence that the text of Hamlet doesn’t, that Claudius and Gertrude influence R&G to get information out of Hamlet and figure out whats going on. Probably because Claudius is really guilty and it’s making him wonder.

This reading was much more playful because it played between the 2 texts. Also when R&G were roaming around the castle looking for Hamlet there was a lot short dialouge that was playful and fun. It kind of took the seriousness out the Hamlet’s transfomation. We left off right where they had found Hamlet. I have a feeling Hamlet might tell them what’s going on with the ghost and what not since they are his good friends.

So far to page 35 in R&G I don’t understand a thing!!!! Actually, I take that back, I understood the plot and what was happening and going on but I didn’t quite grasp the importance or significanceof it. I feel like what we read was very post modern because it was completely abstract and started out of nowhere with coin tossing with nothing really concrete. It was kind of rambling so far, almost like post modern train of thought writing. I thought this mostly because it was back and forth long conversation with R and G, but was mostly their thoughts.

I found it extremely unusual because it had so much mathematical and statistical stuff in the reading. There were a lot of references and talk about probability and statistics and even the mention of the law of diminishing return (which I understand from economics class). The whole scene with the private sex show men kind of was random I feel. I’m sure this all has purpose and was all just some sort of introduction into the real “meat” of the story. It was kind of hard for me to draw connections between it and Hamlet since we read so little so far and also because it was so RANDOM!!!!!

This week has gone by SOOOOO SLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! This weekend I am going to Jazz Fest AGAIN!!! It is going to be even more fun because more of my friends are going Saturday and I am going Sunday as well. Saturday there are some awesome bands playing like Galactic, Pearl Jam,  Old Crow Medicine Show, Jeff Beck, Band of Horses, and Rebirth Brass Band. Sunday is just as good with VAN MORRISON, B.B. King, Mannie Fresh, and Juvenile. It’s going to rock! I’m leaving tomorrow morning, and I cannot wait to eat the amazing food. Everyone better try to eat as much shrimp and crawfish as possible because of the oil spill…I know I will be. Crawfish bread is amazing and so is the rest of the food at Jazz Fest, so I will be in the prime place to get my last seafood eating in. Who knows how long the fishes and crawfishes and shrimps will be gone It makes me so sad. I love boiled shrimp more than anything!

This oil spill is really a huge disaster. I haven’t read enough about it but what I have seen on the news is pretty devastating. Why the Gulf of Mexico again? Wasn’t Katrina and all the other hurricanes enough? Everyone should really try to help out somehow, every little thing makes the difference. Eat up and be thinking about all those industries that are going to suffer and for our beautiful ocean and coastline. I really want to help somehow because this is so awful and like Kay Betts said, it is in our backyard and we should do everything we can to help out.

Ok so my first instinct when I hear drama, I don’t really think of Shakespeare and plays and literature. Our generation probably thinks more along the lines of drama socially or something that is dramatic. Since we had that class where we wrote down stuff about drama and learned the elements of drama, it helped a lot. Drama has pretty specific characteristics as we learned.

Everything I know about drama… in the English class sense… Well throughout the course of school I have read a couple Shakespeare plays (Macbeth and one other one I can’t remember). I don’t remember much about Macbeth except for the play format. His works aren’t novels, they are written in dialogue as if a play were to be acted from it as a script. I do also know that Shakespeare is from Stratford upon Avon in England and his plays were performed in the Globe theater (a little history). His plays are also always either tragedies or comedies (sometimes historical).

I have seen quite a few plays in my life, 3 or 4 on Broadway, 1 in London, and a few locally. The staging, dialogue, positioning, costumes, music, etc. are all very respectable because of the work put into everything. I really enjoy plays, I’d much rather go see a live performance than a movie in theaters.

As far as Hamlet goes I am pretty much clueless. I am very curious about the plot and also how I am going to react to reading it, since the language is a bit difficult. I think I will enjoy it from the few excerpts in class I have seen so far. I am going to really keep up with reading this play because I am interested because Shakespeare is so famous, I need to know this stuff just for common knowledge. Drama is also a really popular genre and in literature and I am excited to further my knowledge in the subject.

This weekend I’m going to Jazz Fest in New Orleans!!! It is going to be really fun; I’m going Saturday and Sunday. It is supposed to rain Saturday which is a bummer because it will probably be like big mud pit, but oh well. Saturday the big people playing are Drake, Simon and Garfunkel, Cowboy Mouth, and Better Than Ezra. I really like all of them so I will tough out the rain storm! Sunday is going to be even better though because The Allman Brothers are playing!!!! I am beyond excited to see them, they are one of my all time favorite groups.

This afternoon, Friday, I’m leaving and I’m so excited. I have never been to Jazz Fest before but I hear it’s more cultural than Voodoo Fest. The food is also rumored to be amazing, I don’t doubt it. Hopefully the weather won’t be too too bad Saturday and all the bands will put on an awesome show! Next weekend Pearl Jam and Van Morrison are playing and I think I’m going, hopefully, I’m crossing my fingers.

Well, I have written 4 pages so far and it’s going pretty well. I am very glad the due date is not Monday because I feel like my paper would not be the best possible if I rushed. I am doing a mix between a historical and psychoanalytic essay on Chaucer. Ever since my project I have been more interested in how he writes and why he writes what he does. The test essay question also inspired my thesis because of the cultural and societal issues going on in 14th century England. So, what I am really writing is about how he using his complex text to explore and explain the history by giving his opinions as well. I don’t want to give too much away but that’s generally what it’s about.

This paper will hopefully be better, in a good way, than other from the past. I really have a concrete thesis and good ideas. I’m having a little trouble expanding my ideas and elaborating on them because I have the habit of compacting my thoughts. If I can get past that I feel I will have a really great end product. I am confident that I will reach this goal because I am really working hard to get some good quotes and really explain how I feel about my topic. This paper should be better than some in the past because I am actually more interested in the topic, the work level is the same because I typically work pretty hard on papers. An A is what I’m shooting for.