DRJ #1 

Initial Reaction: This drama story is perfect for my Cousin Sandy’s life even if she’s a girl in this case. Sandy connects to Hamlet the protagonist. Hamlet real father reminds me of my aunt, Sandy’s mother who is no longer here with us. Claudius and Gertrude, both remind me of my aunt’s niece and her husband. My aunt dies of sickness. The one who cause her sickness was her husband and her own blood niece.

Character Analysis: Claudius, a man who steal his own brother wife because he wanted to rule the kingdom and a man who is the murder of the protagonist father. Shakespeare intentionally use Claudius as in evil who cause war with his own nephew the main character, Hamlet who is searching for whom was the one who murder his real father. A supporting character for Claudius is Polonius who was use as foil to oppose and help stalk Claudius’s nephew, who is now his son to see what he is up to.

Theme Analysis: In this Act 1 I found two themes. Shakespeare uses imagery to synthesize both suicide and evil/good or hell/heaven in this act. Hamlet say “…too sullied flesh would melt/ Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew/ or that the Everlasting had not fixed/ His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!” (1.2.129-132). Hamlet is using kinetic of motion about his father who recently pass away a month ago. I think Hamlet is talking about death here because he talks about his skin how he wanted it to fly away in the air or wondering why isn’t God doing anything about it (suicide). The other quote I found for the theme for evil/good or hell/heaven was “Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned/ Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell/ Be thy intents wicked or chartable/ Thou comest in such a questionable shape” (1.4.43-46). Here Hamlet is using character study to describe the ghost and structure of where he was from, how come he is there. Did he come here for good or bad? So is basically Hamlet is asking question among himself but actually to the ghost.