Board 8 > Save My Hamlet Scene - WINNER - 3.1

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PumpkinCoach
12/07/18 9:29:59 PM
#1:


In a final score of 6 to 3, Act 3 Scene 1 is the best scene of Hamlet. Congratulations!

1. 3.1 - "to be or not to be"; nunnery

Eliminated:
2. 5.2 - Hamlet explains how he got R&G killed; duel; everyone dies; Fortinbras becomes king
3. 1.5 - ghost describes murder, Hamlet swears revenge; oath
4. 2.2 - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; fishmonger; players arrive; "rogue and peasant slave"
5. 5.1 - Gravediggers; Laertes jumps into the grave; Hamlet jumps into the grave
6. 4.5 - Ophelia's madness; Laertes demands vengeance
7. 3.4 - Hamlet berates Gertrude; kills Polonius; ghost appears to Hamlet only
8. 1.1 - ghost appears during night watch
9. 3.2 - The Mousetrap
10. 4.7 - Claudius persuades Laertes to follow his plan for killing Hamlet; Ophelia drowns
11. 1.2 - wedding banquet; Hamlet learns about ghost; "sullied/solid flesh"
12. 4.6 - Horatio reads letter from Hamlet about being captured by pirates
13. 3.3 - Claudius confesses and prays; "now might I do it pat"
14. 4.3 - Hamlet eventually reveals where he put the body; Claudius plans to have Hamlet killed in England
15. 1.3 - sending Laertes off; advice for Ophelia
16. 1.4 - waiting for ghost; ghost beckons Hamlet to follow
17. 4.4 - Fortinbras on his way to Poland; "how all occasions do inform against me"
18. 4.2 - R & G beg Hamlet to tell them where he put Polonius's body
19. 2.1 - Reynaldo; Ophelio affrighted
20. 4.1 - Gertrude tells Claudius what happened; Claudius determines to send Hamlet away

So if ever you want to stage Hamlet where it just gets progressively better, and where you cruelly hold "to be or not to be" back until the very end, why not try it in this order? Some of it won't make sense, but look, time is out of joint.
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ExThaNemesis
12/07/18 9:32:03 PM
#2:


One of my very favorite scenes in any play ever.
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PumpkinCoach
12/07/18 9:33:39 PM
#3:


how am i only just now seeing the 'ophelio' in the description for 2.1
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PumpkinCoach
12/08/18 2:01:36 AM
#4:


me rambling stupidly about what the play would be like in this order. don't read this.

20. 4.1 - Gertrude tells Claudius what happened; Claudius determines to send Hamlet away

Not a bad start. Like the real play, it's preceded by a murder, though this one will make it onstage later. It won't last, but you can imagine the roles shuffled here - we have a villain Hamlet running around, and the king who must deal with him, possibly take revenge for his advisor. Given they're foils, this exchange of roles is entirely appropriate. It's going to somewhat colour Hamlet's agonizing about his revenge when we already know that he's capable of murder from the beginning, but at the end of the day it's about the hows and whys and not just the act itself so it's probably not too bad.

19. 2.1 - Reynaldo; Ophelia affrighted

I like this. It's like we're building a reputation for Hamlet and his supposed madness before he shows up. Of course, there's also the small problem of Polonius being alive, and that problem isn't going to go away. I can thing of a few ways to go about this:

1. This is a flashback - Terrible cop-out. What would even be the point? Let's speak of it no further.
2. There are two people named Polonius - Incredibly stupid. This would mean when we get to 3.4, it would be the second Polonius he kills. If that's the case, there absolutely needs to be a scene inserted where it's reveal that Claudius's real name is also Polonius.
3. He's just back and it's not explained - Maybe everyone who interacts with Polonius expresses mild suprise in their face, but are otherwise too polite to comment. This is where we say "time is out of joint" and dismiss the problem. Look, the barrier between life and death is porous. Ghosts exist. Time is out of joint. Something is rotten in Denmark. Whatever.

I'll go with 3, but 2 is tempting.

18. 4.2 - R & G beg Hamlet to tell them where he put Polonius's body

It kind of takes the tension out of this scene if Polonius is alive. I suppose for now only Reynaldo and Ophelia knows.

17. 4.4 - Fortinbras on his way to Poland; "how all occasions do inform against me"

We skip the reveal of where the body is, and go straight to Hamlet already on his way to England. Luckily, Claudius has already expressed his intentions in 4.1. We're almost going in order, just starting in Act 4.

16. 1.4 - waiting for ghost; ghost beckons Hamlet to follow

What the hell, Hamlet, shouldn't you be in England? Two Hamlets is tempting, but let's say he snuck away from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern between scenes to get back to Denmark. It's too bad he already talked about his revenge in "all occasions", because I kind of like how much action we have without motivation. He's just troubled, and acting out. I suppose we don't have the full picture yet, so for now "all occasions" hints at something bigger, but leaves some mystery about what's going on with Hamlet.

15. 1.3 - sending Laertes off; advice for Ophelia

Still a pretty tight lid on Polonius's resurrection. Only his children, and a trusted servant knows so far. These are weird conversations to have about Hamlet after what already happened. If Polonius wants to warn Ophelia away from Hamlet, how about "he murdered me?" Maybe Polonius is over it, or he doesn't want Ophelia to know who killed him for some reason. Some unclear motivations, but nothing too impossible.
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PumpkinCoach
12/08/18 2:01:42 AM
#5:


14. 4.3 - Hamlet eventually reveals where he put the body; Claudius plans to have Hamlet killed in England

I don't know what to do with this one without leaning heavily on stuff happening between scenes. So they recapture Hamlet, and this time he actually reveals where the body is. It won't be there, but there's no body discovery scene so we're in the clear. Claudius plans to have Hamlet killed, which means last time it was just regular banishment.

13. 3.3 - Claudius confesses and prays; "now might I do it pat"

Yeah, this works fine. No one said he's going off to England immediately.

12. 4.6 - Horatio reads letter from Hamlet about being captured by pirates

This still works.

11. 1.2 - wedding banquet; Hamlet learns about ghost; "sullied/solid flesh"

It's funny imagining all of that happening before even the wedding banquet. Claudius made two attempts to get rid of Hamlet on the sly, knowing that officially he must ask him to stay. Fate would not keep Hamlet away from this wedding banquet. The hardest thing to square is Hamlet learning about the ghost after already seeing it. The ghost lead him away many scenes ago, and we've been left hanging. Could we accept, the ghost erased his memory and he's now a sleeper agent? This is the new explanation for Hamlet's irrational behaviour, both in the actual play and introduced by the new scene order.

10. 4.7 - Claudius persuades Laertes to follow his plan for killing Hamlet; Ophelia drowns

But why? Polonius is alive! He was still murdered once so fair point, and maybe Polonius himself is handling it a lot better than his children are.

Alternatively, Polonius is both alive and dead in quantum superposition, and the trauma of this knowledge is overwhelming, but let's not that get into that at this stage.

I'm not amending anything, but there's actually a very simple explanation for Polonius being back that I can't believe I didn't think of earlier: the wound turned out not to be fatal. It wouldn't square this scene, and it's not without its own problems, but I still should have thought of something so simple.

9. 3.2 - The Mousetrap

This is fine. There's actually a lot that's fine just because Hamlet's actions aren't consistent even in a more traditional order.

8. 1.1 - ghost appears during night watch

Haha idk - ghost memory wipe. It's a bad copout and I hate it. We can have multiple ghosts if it helps, and with the ambiguity of what the ghost is already part of the play, it would be appropriate. Whatever, ghosts don't have to make sense.
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PumpkinCoach
12/08/18 2:02:36 AM
#6:


7. 3.4 - Hamlet berates Gertrude; kills Polonius; ghost appears to Hamlet only

Hamlet kills Polonius for real this time, and in similar circumstances as was described by Gertrude last time. This doesn't break anything I don't think.

6. 4.5 - Ophelia's madness; Laertes demands vengeance

Oh no, Ophelia is alive again. Well, let's go with the explanation for Polonius I forgot - she survived. Still traumatized, but she'll take it one day at a time, and some days are better than others. I guess in this version of the play Ophelia survives until the end?

5. 5.1 - Gravediggers; Laertes jumps into the grave; Hamlet jumps into the grave

Oof, nevermind.

4. 2.2 - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; fishmonger; players arrive; "rogue and peasant slave"

Bad time for Hamlet to be asking Polonius about Ophelia. Tonally, this is rough. Oh yeah, and Polonius is still alive. He's unstoppable. Beyond that, Polonius surviving his daughter? Heartbreaking, but just as he stoically bore the pain of attempted murder/murder and resurrection, you can hardly tell. The line "have while she is mine" is now really sad. Hamlet is also planning a play that's already been performed, but let's say it's a different play.

3. 1.5 - ghost describes murder, Hamlet swears revenge; oath

This is a major piece that would have been so useful earlier. This is an interesting spot for it still. Hamlet's done everything so far of his own accord, without being duty-bound to the ghost. Nevermind that the ghost talked about Hamlet's purpose in 3.4. Maybe the ghost forgot that he never actually told Hamlet to take revenge, and Hamlet was being polite and pretending to know what the ghost was talking about.

2. 5.2 - Hamlet explains how he got R&G killed; duel; everyone dies; Fortinbras becomes king

What a decisive Hamlet. He swears revenge, and then immediately does it.

1. 3.1 - "to be or not to be"; nunnery

They're ghosts now. It looks like Hamlet's questions about the afterlife remain unresolved even in the afterlife. His treatment of Ophelia is even more ugly and cruel considering what he knows, even if she is a ghost now. He has fulfilled his duty, but it didn't give him peace. If anything, it made him more bitter. He saw in the material world, a social order he impossibly needed to both transgress and become subsumed by. He believed the roles he eluded existed as gestures and actions he must perform, which he tied to the material world, and his material being, hence the wish that his solid flesh would melt. The body, like the inky cloak is yet another inadequate signifier. However, free from the body, Hamlet is a piece of nothing, babbling incoherent and unaware. As always, he must unpack his heart with words, which are yet more signifiers. He is discovering that there is no inner essence, a floating consciousness that is our pure self trapped by the limitations of flesh. Rather, we are material creatures who self-create through complex, dialectical relationship with the external world and society.
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PumpkinCoach
12/08/18 9:45:08 AM
#7:


bump
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PumpkinCoach
12/09/18 12:44:05 AM
#8:


words words words
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PumpkinCoach
12/09/18 11:31:34 PM
#9:


bump
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Raka_Putra
12/09/18 11:49:22 PM
#10:


I love how you put so much thought into it. You should crosspost that to the literature board!
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SeabassDebeste
12/11/18 7:21:00 PM
#11:


tag for reading
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SeabassDebeste
12/12/18 9:35:18 PM
#12:


bump
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scarletspeed7
12/12/18 9:36:22 PM
#13:


5.1 is my boy :(
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