Hamlet: The Historical Context

Hamlet, one of Shakespeare's most famous works , and the source of the world renowned quote, "To be or not to be," is estimated to have been written at the beginning of the 17th century, as early as 1601. Historians have assumed that this date is correct, as the play alludes to Shakespeare's other play "Julius Caesar" which is known to be written in 1599. Tragedies were very popular in Elizabethan England, and so it is no surprise that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet as such. The story is most likely based on a certain Amleth, who was also the Prince of Denmark, and lived around the 12th century. The story of Amleth, whose name is even just a rearranged version of Hamlet, is almost identical to Shakespeare's play, which means that the basic story is now over 900 years old.

Hamlet is not as brutal as some of Shakespeare's other works, because around the end of the 1500's the demand for violent plays decreased. Therefore, although like most Shakespearean plays, murder and revenge are very big themes, the manner in which they are presented is less bloody. The play was instantly seen as a great work, and was very popular in when it was first performed. It is also among Shakespeare's most performed plays, and has seen countless reiterations.

John Donne and Andrew Marvell

In the two metaphysical poems, John Donne's "The Sun Rising" and Andrew Marvell's "To My Coy Mistress" there are many notable similarities that involve the typical characteristics associated with this specific style of poetry. As is usual in metaphysical poetry, the poems compare romantic ideas, such as love and dreams, with unworldly entities such as the Sun or space. The differences however, arises when one looks more closely at the happenings in the poems. In "To my Coy Mistress" the speaker is not close to the woman that the poem is addressed to, however in "The Sun Rising" the speaker is in a relationship with the woman already. Therefore in Donne's work, the speaker not only directs his romantic verses at his lover, but also at the Sun, once again demonstrating typical metaphysical form. In a parallel sense, Marvell also mentions the Sun in his poem, although it is not addressed directly.

Black and Blue

Both the narrator of "Black and Blue" by Louis Armstrong and the "Invisible Man"by Ralph Ellison share similar feelings towards the discrimination of people due to their skin color. While in the novel, the narrator questions why his skin color makes him "invisible" to all the other people, Louis Armstrong asks why his skin color makes him so "black and blue." Both narrators are in very similar positions, which is brought out even more as the son is quoted and alluded to in the novel.

The Onion: An Example of Satire

The Onion is a very good source for satirical articles about every topic. Once example can be found by following the link http://www.theonion.com/content/news/american_airlines_now_charging. This article says that American Airlines is now not only charging the people who are flying, but also people that are not flying. This is poking fun at airlines for increasing their prices, by giving a completely exaggerated account of what the airlines are doing. Since the article is written to be serious and funny at the same time, it is entertaining to read, while seriously discussing the issue of ever increasing plane tickets. Therefore this article is a good example of satire, because according to Wikipedia: "In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improvement." As it states, the intent of satire is to bring improvement, which in this case is to ridicule the airlines.

The Mock Exam

The mock exam that we had on Saturday the 13th of December was slightly difficult, but a good exercise for the real AP English Literature exam. The most difficult part was coming up with a good thesis that answered the questions properly. This was difficult because, although one of the questions was easy, the other two essay questions were rather challenging. On the other hand, the multiple choice was not so difficult, and I scored 40 out of 55. Compared to the AP English Language exam the essays were harder, and the multiple choice was about the same in terms of difficulty. I think it was good to have the exam prior to the break, because now if we have to do a second mock, we still have time before the real exam. There is not really a way to prepare for the mock, so I think for not doing any preparing I did quite well.

What Chinua Achebe does.

After reading an excellent essay written by Chinua Achebe, also the author of Things Fall Apart, titled An Image of Africa, my essay on poetry was rather lousy. It is with deceiving ease that Achebe fills his essay with arguments and other information. The aspect that separates Achebe's essay from many others, including mine, is that while it contains lots of information, it still seems easy to read. Unlike many other works, that are also rather dense, and difficult to read, Achebe manages to convey all of this information while still producing a very readable text. Unlike my writing, which is also rather dense, he is capable of making it not only more understandable, but also more interesting. Filling writing with information is the easy part, where it gets more difficult however, is giving the reader your arguments, so that he or she still wants to listen to them. That is what seperates Achebe from countless other writers who do not manage to write so deceivingly simply as him.

The Things They Carried Tennis

The original excerpt can be found on page 40 of The Things They Carried.

In June of 1968, a month after graduating Malcester College, I was selected for the amateur tennis team that I hated. I was twenty-one years old. Young, yes, and inexperienced, but even so, I was good enough for the experienced team. Somebody picked my fate for no reason, it didn't make sense. The very facts were shrouded in mystery: Was it the coach who disliked me? Pure bad luck? Who made this decision and why? Was I just not good enough? I am divided on these and a thousand other issues, and the debate had spilled out across my whole life, and nobody could decide on the most fundamental matters of the issue. The only certainty that summer was moral confusion.