Act I works: Passion

Don't you wish that you could sometimes only work on one class and just go crazy in it? That is how I feel about a lot of my classes this semester, and this project is not helping me want to balance all of my different work loads. I kind of got a little carried away with this project this weekend, and I even wish that I could do more, but I tried to do a bit of everything. Here is what I have so far:

When the ghost appears close to the battlements both with and without Hamlet there, I felt like the mood was dark, but not freaky/Hollywood Halloween movie style. It was more like a moody creepy feel. Like Horatio says in Act I scene i, "It harrows me with fear and wonder." Kind of like how it feels before a huge storm/tornado. Maybe I can do more quick sketches about that mood, but I wanted to do more of an accurate representation of what I was picturing.

The next one is a collage entitled "Frailty thy name is woman." (Act I scene ii) I know that a lot of people take this as an offensive statement by Hamlet, but I felt like it could be true in some regards when applying it to the world around is right now. So, I looked through different popular magazines and created a collage of what I thought was frailty with women nowadays. So, basically this collage is a commentary on how women who are famous for their sex appeal are really frailty because they are ruining the image of what a woman really should be.

The last one I've done is a pen/watercolor work that I did when thinking about the mood of Hamlet in the first Act. His father has recently and unexpectedly died, his mother has remarried his uncle, plus the ghost of his father comes and tells him to avenge his murder that happened to be carried out by his uncle that is now his new step father. That is a ton of turmoil for one prince to be feeling right now. So, I feel like there is a ton of confusing passion that Hamlet is feeling:

Love and hate for his mother: He is still her son (not to mention some scholars believe that he had a Freudian thing going on there) but she just married his uncle when his father was barely interred.

Love and hate for his father: He loved him when he was alive and wishes he were still here, but has now heard this terrible news from his father's ghost and is not sure if it is devilry or if he is really supposed to carry out this bloody task he has before him.

Love and hate for Ophelia: this is still in the workings, but begins unfolding in the first Act as well. Hamlet loves Ophelia, but she has already told her father that she will not respond to Hamlet's advances, so you know that something will happen there.

Poor Hamlet and his tumultuous life. I guess the theme that I have really thought about the most in this reading for artistic purposes is Passion. This can be turned into love or hate, or even madness. I think I am going to try to discover this theme as we go deeper into the play.