Mr. Sullivan, my 12th grade English teacher, made us dress up in Burger King crowns and sword fight with paper towel tubes to make sense of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Here at the American School in Guadalajara we are going to use the internet instead. In the posts below, follow us as we seek to understand why this really is the greatest play in the English language.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Act V, 2
The ending of Hamlet is very famous for it’s quantity of bloodshed.In all of this mess, is justice served?
Yes and no the people who deserved to die died but some people who didn’t deserve to die, died. Claudius, Hamlets uncle deserved to die for killing his brother, Hamlet deserved to die for killing Laertes father, and Laertes deserved to die for cheating. Justice is served to them, but the queen, even though in some peoples eyes is bad, did not deserve to die. Neither did innocent Ophelia, nor Osric deserve to die. That makes 3 deserved deaths and 3 non-deserved deaths. So in the end justice is served but at a price.
I don't think justice was served but neither it was unfair. Claudius, Gertrude, and Polonius deserved to die. And in some way Hamlet also deserved to die because he contributed in making Ophelia crazy and commit suicide. Also he didn't come up with any brilliant plant to kill his uncle like he was suppose to. Instead, he let himself to fall into Claudius' trap foolishly. Rather than justice, tragedy was achieved.
I don't think Hamlet gets the revenge or justice he seeked for, yes he killed Claudius but not in a meticuluosly planned way, it was just the rage of the moment and it was all very primitive. I think that for hamlet to feel fullfilled in justice he would have to have killed claudius in a perfect plan and then have the rest of his life to enjoy it, in which this case he only has like 30 seconds to enjoy it before he dies.
there is just no real justice in the world, only revenge I think, but hamlet didn't even get that.
Justice was pretty much served, Hamlet needed to die just to close everything and not to be that really sappy ending. Laertes was too concentrated on his father and sisters death and Claudius was the evil that needed to be killed. Gertrude although annoying I felt was a wasted death almost like it was included just so pretty much everyone would die. Im glad Horatio lived because he was the loyal friend till the end and so he could tell the story. But in the end the play is a tragedy so its probably good it ended this way.
It could be said that Justice was attained, in part. According to dictionary.com, Justice means: the administering of deserved punishment or reward. The only case in which Justice (by this definition) was served was in the case of Claudius death. But all the other casualties were not deserved and was both Claudius and Hamlet's fault. Claudius for triggering Hamlet's anger, and Hamlet's for taking so long to take revenge. Ophelia, Laertes, and Gertrude, among others did not deserve to die, yet fell in the tragedy of the story. Giselle
I think all of the deaths in the last scene were well served of justice.
Claudius had killed his brother Gertrude was a probably incestous woman Hamlet killed Claudius and Polonius Laertes killed Hamlet
Ophelia and Polonius were more of an accident, Opelia might have killed herself but I don't think it was a matter of justice. It was just something that she wanted.
Claudius got what he deserved; but I don't think that neither of the rest of the characters deserved to die, even though they had done things that may have been wrong, but not unforgivable. I mean Gertrude participated in a murder without noticing and she was extremely dumb, Hamlet mistreated everyone else and was responsible for the death of two other people, Laertes blamed Hamlet without proof and murdered him. In a twisted sense, they do get what they had been lining up for, but its just so dramatic and quick. Maria Astrid Quirarte
i COMPLETELY agree with Evan.. best answer ever to the question, not only did hamlet acheive what he seeked, he never said he wanted to live, the mom who as starting to feel guilty and didnt want to live the way she had with hamlet being such an a$$ with her and well the king and the other guy had to die.. they just had to haha besides, it was better for the whole kingdom... justice was definately served:P loved the blog mr.... going to miss it hehe
OH WHAT A TRAGEDY!!!!!!!!!! Yes justice is served! I found it great that after all that drama, they were all killed. They were ALL (except for Horatio) so stupid, ignorant, annoying, self-centered, and too-proud individuals. They were all just DUMB. Gertrude deserved to die for her annoying ignorance and whoreiness(or however you would say that). Laertes is just STUPID, ophelia.. OMG what an arrogant and blind girl!, Polonious: FOOL. Claudius: ·%&/$%... murderer, traitor and so on. And Hamlet, Oh what an annoying characeter: too wound up in his own mess, that he would hold his head up high: DUMB DUMB. hahahahahahaha well.. the point is they all served their justice and Horatio: which was the only characer I liked: survived. So that was great! With that story, these was the best possible ending.
I don't know if I'm approaching the question with too much of a personal bias. But, for me, bloodshed can NEVER translate into justice. It's hard to explain, but as Hamlet repeatedly said, in the end, we all die. So, I don't really see how killing someone can give you revenge (like Hamlet and Laertes thought). Perhaps I'm even more evil than anyone in the play,hehe, but I think that for Justice to have been served, the characters should have had to deal with the consequences of their action while being ALIVE! For example, it would have been far more rewarding to see Claudius get de-throned - since being king was what he wanted most- and then Gertrude running away or something. Leaving him to deal wih the embarassment for the rest of his life. muajajaja. :D
I don't know, in the end, death, despite how dramatic Shakespeare can make it, is just death. It happens to everyone and it's actually quite normal. Plus, it has no real repercussions for the person that dies (duh! their dead!). So, no, I don't think justice was served.
JAJAJAJA MAJOOOOOOO got into the whole acting thing.. but i think justice was served. I mean it was the only way it could end, with a "realistic" ending. Even though it was dramatic, and bloody and disgusting and frustrating, it is probably one of the most intense scenes i have ever seen. Everyone that deserved to died.. died and Horatio, the only respected man in this play survived.. so justice was indeed served..
Everyone that died deserved to die. CLAUDIUS because he wanted to kill Hamlet in the first place, but karma got him when Gertrude drank the poisoned wine. GERTRUDE for sleeping with the brother of his dad husbandand for nt doing a thing when Hamlet told her that Claudius had killed his fther. She wa too stupid she deserved it. HMLET for killing Polonius even if it was accidental and for being a sisy and waiting until the last minute to kill Clauidus. Justice was served perfectly. Everyoe got what they deserved. I only feel sad about Horatio who is left alone when the kingdom is conquered. The GHOST was revenged amd all that was needed to be done, was done jaja
It is a dramatic tradegy and i think justice was served although i think it was unesessary thst Ophelia died. Hamlet had to die becasue of all the drama he brought upon Denmark. Claudious for murder and for trying to kill Hamlet. Gertude because of incest and failing to protect her son. Laertes died fairly because he attempted to kill Hamlet and poor Polonious died accidently for meddling in affairs that did not concern him. IN the end...Hamlet is just a tradegy.
maria jose celis I believe that apart from the bloodshed justice was serve in a certain way. The truth about Claudius' actions was shown and the noble were able to see the treachery commited under their eyes. The deaths that happened are proof of the justice. Hamlet deserved to die after all the chaos he caused by delaying his actions. Laertes and Ophelia are probably the only ones, in my opinion, that didn't deserve to end the way they did. As nicole said, it is a tragedy!! it needs death, blood and lots of drama and that is what Hamlet gaves us :)
I loved what Maite said: It would have been better justic if everyone had had to live with the consequences while they were alive. I'm kind of against the death penalty for the same reason: you can punish someone much more severly while they're alive rather than just killing them (at which point they stop feeling completely, its like getting off free).
I felt terrible about Osric's death. He was cute and did not deserve to die. If I were to use death as punishment, then everyone else who died deserved it. Ophelia annoyed me and was too passive. Laertes shouldn't have blamed Hamlet for Ophelia's madness or tried to kill him so sneakily. Hamlet, Claudius and Gertrude are self- explanatory.
I'm going to miss this blog. PS. Mr Gerber- I was about to criticize this question like the other one... but I've realized that the questions are not the problem. The problem is that most of the Honors class share similiar opinions and thought patterns, making the answers to ethics questions like this one dull.
I agree with Maite. The murders were either by accident or for revenge, none had the strict purpose of finding justice between the events. Real justice would have been to lock up Cladius like they did with poor Ophelia. hahaha I'm kidding, but, I mean, seriously do you think Cladius suffered for the murder he commited?? What about Hamlet? After all, he is responsible for the majority of the other murders! On the other hand, yeah this is a tragedy, so why not exaggerate it right? Hahaha I had a lot of fun watching almost all of the characters die!!! But in real life, let's stick with bad people being punished in JAIL :)
Yes and no the people who deserved to die died but some people who didn’t deserve to die, died. Claudius, Hamlets uncle deserved to die for killing his brother, Hamlet deserved to die for killing Laertes father, and Laertes deserved to die for cheating. Justice is served to them, but the queen, even though in some peoples eyes is bad, did not deserve to die. Neither did innocent Ophelia, nor Osric deserve to die. That makes 3 deserved deaths and 3 non-deserved deaths. So in the end justice is served but at a price.
ReplyDeleteAlex Verlage
I don't think justice was served but neither it was unfair. Claudius, Gertrude, and Polonius deserved to die. And in some way Hamlet also deserved to die because he contributed in making Ophelia crazy and commit suicide. Also he didn't come up with any brilliant plant to kill his uncle like he was suppose to. Instead, he let himself to fall into Claudius' trap foolishly. Rather than justice, tragedy was achieved.
ReplyDeleteSun Young
I don't think Hamlet gets the revenge or justice he seeked for, yes he killed Claudius but not in a meticuluosly planned way, it was just the rage of the moment and it was all very primitive. I think that for hamlet to feel fullfilled in justice he would have to have killed claudius in a perfect plan and then have the rest of his life to enjoy it, in which this case he only has like 30 seconds to enjoy it before he dies.
ReplyDeletethere is just no real justice in the world, only revenge I think, but hamlet didn't even get that.
Justice was pretty much served, Hamlet needed to die just to close everything and not to be that really sappy ending. Laertes was too concentrated on his father and sisters death and Claudius was the evil that needed to be killed. Gertrude although annoying I felt was a wasted death almost like it was included just so pretty much everyone would die. Im glad Horatio lived because he was the loyal friend till the end and so he could tell the story. But in the end the play is a tragedy so its probably good it ended this way.
ReplyDeleteEvan Baker
It could be said that Justice was attained, in part. According to dictionary.com, Justice means: the administering of deserved punishment or reward. The only case in which Justice (by this definition) was served was in the case of Claudius death. But all the other casualties were not deserved and was both Claudius and Hamlet's fault. Claudius for triggering Hamlet's anger, and Hamlet's for taking so long to take revenge. Ophelia, Laertes, and Gertrude, among others did not deserve to die, yet fell in the tragedy of the story.
ReplyDeleteGiselle
I think all of the deaths in the last scene were well served of justice.
ReplyDeleteClaudius had killed his brother
Gertrude was a probably incestous woman
Hamlet killed Claudius and Polonius
Laertes killed Hamlet
Ophelia and Polonius were more of an accident, Opelia might have killed herself but I don't think it was a matter of justice. It was just something that she wanted.
Aurora van Zoelen
Claudius got what he deserved; but I don't think that neither of the rest of the characters deserved to die, even though they had done things that may have been wrong, but not unforgivable. I mean Gertrude participated in a murder without noticing and she was extremely dumb, Hamlet mistreated everyone else and was responsible for the death of two other people, Laertes blamed Hamlet without proof and murdered him. In a twisted sense, they do get what they had been lining up for, but its just so dramatic and quick.
ReplyDeleteMaria Astrid Quirarte
i COMPLETELY agree with Evan.. best answer ever to the question, not only did hamlet acheive what he seeked, he never said he wanted to live, the mom who as starting to feel guilty and didnt want to live the way she had with hamlet being such an a$$ with her and well the king and the other guy had to die.. they just had to haha besides, it was better for the whole kingdom... justice was definately served:P loved the blog mr.... going to miss it hehe
ReplyDeleteOH WHAT A TRAGEDY!!!!!!!!!! Yes justice is served! I found it great that after all that drama, they were all killed. They were ALL (except for Horatio) so stupid, ignorant, annoying, self-centered, and too-proud individuals. They were all just DUMB. Gertrude deserved to die for her annoying ignorance and whoreiness(or however you would say that). Laertes is just STUPID, ophelia.. OMG what an arrogant and blind girl!, Polonious: FOOL. Claudius: ·%&/$%... murderer, traitor and so on. And Hamlet, Oh what an annoying characeter: too wound up in his own mess, that he would hold his head up high: DUMB DUMB. hahahahahahaha well.. the point is they all served their justice and Horatio: which was the only characer I liked: survived. So that was great! With that story, these was the best possible ending.
ReplyDeleteMARIA JOSE FERNANDEZ :):):):): wuhuhuuy
+++correction: Hamlet wouldNT hold his head up high. He just cared about himself and his revenge and stupid eloquence.
ReplyDelete... dont get me wrong... I DID LIKE HAMLET.. i do like shakespear.. its just the characters and acting that I found very annoying.
I don't know if I'm approaching the question with too much of a personal bias. But, for me, bloodshed can NEVER translate into justice. It's hard to explain, but as Hamlet repeatedly said, in the end, we all die. So, I don't really see how killing someone can give you revenge (like Hamlet and Laertes thought). Perhaps I'm even more evil than anyone in the play,hehe, but I think that for Justice to have been served, the characters should have had to deal with the consequences of their action while being ALIVE! For example, it would have been far more rewarding to see Claudius get de-throned - since being king was what he wanted most- and then Gertrude running away or something. Leaving him to deal wih the embarassment for the rest of his life. muajajaja. :D
ReplyDeleteI don't know, in the end, death, despite how dramatic Shakespeare can make it, is just death. It happens to everyone and it's actually quite normal. Plus, it has no real repercussions for the person that dies (duh! their dead!). So, no, I don't think justice was served.
ps: I'm also gonna be missing the blog :(
ReplyDeleteps 2: wow, majo, talk about strong opinions
ReplyDeleteJAJAJAJA MAJOOOOOOO got into the whole acting thing.. but i think justice was served. I mean it was the only way it could end, with a "realistic" ending. Even though it was dramatic, and bloody and disgusting and frustrating, it is probably one of the most intense scenes i have ever seen. Everyone that deserved to died.. died and Horatio, the only respected man in this play survived.. so justice was indeed served..
ReplyDeleteKARLA(:
Everyone that died deserved to die.
ReplyDeleteCLAUDIUS because he wanted to kill Hamlet in the first place, but karma got him when Gertrude drank the poisoned wine.
GERTRUDE for sleeping with the brother of his dad husbandand for nt doing a thing when Hamlet told her that Claudius had killed his fther. She wa too stupid she deserved it.
HMLET for killing Polonius even if it was accidental and for being a sisy and waiting until the last minute to kill Clauidus.
Justice was served perfectly. Everyoe got what they deserved. I only feel sad about Horatio who is left alone when the kingdom is conquered. The GHOST was revenged amd all that was needed to be done, was done jaja
Maarena
It is a dramatic tradegy and i think justice was served although i think it was unesessary thst Ophelia died. Hamlet had to die becasue of all the drama he brought upon Denmark. Claudious for murder and for trying to kill Hamlet. Gertude because of incest and failing to protect her son. Laertes died fairly because he attempted to kill Hamlet and poor Polonious died accidently for meddling in affairs that did not concern him. IN the end...Hamlet is just a tradegy.
ReplyDeletenicole
ReplyDeletemaria jose celis
ReplyDeleteI believe that apart from the bloodshed justice was serve in a certain way. The truth about Claudius' actions was shown and the noble were able to see the treachery commited under their eyes. The deaths that happened are proof of the justice. Hamlet deserved to die after all the chaos he caused by delaying his actions. Laertes and Ophelia are probably the only ones, in my opinion, that didn't deserve to end the way they did.
As nicole said, it is a tragedy!! it needs death, blood and lots of drama and that is what Hamlet gaves us :)
I loved what Maite said: It would have been better justic if everyone had had to live with the consequences while they were alive. I'm kind of against the death penalty for the same reason: you can punish someone much more severly while they're alive rather than just killing them (at which point they stop feeling completely, its like getting off free).
ReplyDeleteI felt terrible about Osric's death. He was cute and did not deserve to die.
If I were to use death as punishment, then everyone else who died deserved it. Ophelia annoyed me and was too passive. Laertes shouldn't have blamed Hamlet for Ophelia's madness or tried to kill him so sneakily. Hamlet, Claudius and Gertrude are self- explanatory.
I'm going to miss this blog.
PS. Mr Gerber- I was about to criticize this question like the other one... but I've realized that the questions are not the problem. The problem is that most of the Honors class share similiar opinions and thought patterns, making the answers to ethics questions like this one dull.
Lina Silva
I agree with Maite. The murders were either by accident or for revenge, none had the strict purpose of finding justice between the events. Real justice would have been to lock up Cladius like they did with poor Ophelia. hahaha I'm kidding, but, I mean, seriously do you think Cladius suffered for the murder he commited?? What about Hamlet? After all, he is responsible for the majority of the other murders!
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, yeah this is a tragedy, so why not exaggerate it right? Hahaha I had a lot of fun watching almost all of the characters die!!! But in real life, let's stick with bad people being punished in JAIL :)
Carolina Barbosa Haddad
Closed.
ReplyDelete-Mr. Paul
http://images.google.com.mx/imgres?imgurl=http://anniebower.theworldrace.org/blogphotos/theworldrace/anniebower/v_26_tunnel.jpg&imgrefurl=http://anniebower.theworldrace.org/index.asp%3Ffilename%3Dtight-squeeze-at-the-cu-chis&usg=__LChR720ldtve25xAa8V8sxrNGf8=&h=640&w=480&sz=77&hl=es&start=28&um=1&tbnid=Xbl-4GVVb2QoaM:&tbnh=137&tbnw=103&prev=/images%3Fq%3DCu%2Bchi%2Btunnels%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Des%26rlz%3D1W1GGIE_en%26sa%3DN%26start%3D20%26um%3D1
ReplyDeleteyea!!
I'm gonna miss this blooooooooog :'( this is SOOOOO sad!
ReplyDeletecarolina barbosa haddad
adn THISSSS classs!!! omggggggggggggg i love you guys!!
ReplyDeleteok i'm gonna be EMO somewhere else noww! BYE
this is carolina, of course, who else wouldactually post this other than me? hahahahahahahahahhaa
BYE
I LOVE HOW I'VE BEEN TALKNG TO MYSELF THE LAST 3 POSTS!
ReplyDelete