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Ta-da!  The new, and improved, revision! 

1978 Open Prompt using The Picture of Dorian Gray
First posted on September 16, 2012 

1978. Choose an implausible or strikingly unrealistic incident or character in a work of fiction or drama of recognized literary merit. Write an essay that explains how the incident or character is related to the more realistic of plausible elements in the rest of the work. Avoid plot summary.  

Imagine what it would be like to have a body which hid your evil doings by never growing old, with only a haunting portrait to remind you of your corrupt soul.  The 19th century British novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde tells this story of a physically beautiful man with a corrupt and ugly soul, his secret hidden within a fantastic painted portrait.  The portrait, which decays as Dorian commits one evil deed after another, is an unrealistic event which changes the life of Dorian forever.  While it is both implausible and unrealistic, the portrait relates to the realistic elements within the novel, creating a whole and understandable story. 

The changing portrait is not something anyone can relate to.  However, readers of the novel can relate to Dorian's struggle with his outward appearance.  He feels like his beauty is his greatest asset, and that he is a worthy person because of it.  Dorian later despises his perfect appearance, saying that it is not worth being haunted by the portrait.  His obsession with looks is only magnified by the portraits existence, making it an element that the reader can associate with.  

Dorian goes to all sorts of extremes within this novel.  He even reaches the point where his actions are controlled by the portrait, leading him to kill another man after he shares his secret with him.  Being controlled by a desire or secret is a very realistic element many readers can relate to.  While I'm sure none have committed murder in order to guard a secret, it is fair to say that many people have things about themselves they wish not to share and will protect from others.  For example, I have friends who will never, under no circumstances, leave the house without makeup for fear of being seen without.  Is this not unlike Dorian Gray, doing all he can to guard the secret of his inner corrupt being?  I think not.  The portrait is more than a portrait to Dorian, and the reader can understand how they have similar "portraits" they hide.  

It's an absurd idea, that there really could be a "picture of your soul", but Oscar Wilde weaves it in to the point where the reader can't doubt its existence, even if it only is alive in Dorian's head.  And while it may be crazy, it fits. It adds a whole new fantastic level to the novel, while still being familiar and relevant to the reader.

Response:  

At first, 40 minutes seemed like a long time, until I was working on the last paragraph and saw I had 2 minutes to finish it up, and was still planning on writing another paragraph.  It was also difficult to think back to last year when I read the book, and instead had to rely on past knowledge.  As I went on writing it started to all come back, but a review of it would have been very helpful before I started writing!

HAMLET!

THE TRADGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK.

Author:  William Shakespeare, in London, England, 1602 Hamlet was performed

Plot:
-Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, is upset because his dad died recently, and his mother married his dad's brother, Hamlet's uncle Claudius.
-The ghost of the dead King Hamlet returns to tell his son, Hamlet, about how he was murdered by his own brother, Claudius, and to revenge his death.
-Hamlet is very distressed about this, can he do it, should he do it, etc.
-Hamlet's plan is to be feign madness, then somehow kill the king.  Only his BFF Horatio and some other guy knows about this plan.
-Everyone (but Horatio) betrays Hamlet -- Ophelia, whom he once loved, allows him to be spied on by her scheming father Polonius, old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern try to understand his madness so they can report back to the king, and his mother does not understand the depth of his grief at her marriage. 
-Hamlet organizes a play similar to the scenario of how Claudius killed the king in order to ensure what the ghost told him is real.
-Hamlet goes to his mother and tries to convince her of her sin.  Polonius is spying on them behind a curtain, and upon hearing him Hamlet kills him, thinking him to be the king.
-Hamlet has a chance to kill the king, but since the king is praying at the time he refrains.
-Hamlet leaves to go back to school.  He goes with orders from the king to have him killed, and upon discovering this, changes the letters to orders to kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
-Meanwhile, Ophelia is lost in grief over her father, Hamlet, (and possibly the fact that she is pregnant).  We see her madness in her "flower scene". 
-Later the queen reports that Ophelia has drowned herself.
-Ophelia's brother Laertes return, seeking revenge.  The king calms him down, and forms a plan with him to kill Hamlet.
-Hamlet returns, their ship having been overtaken by friendly pirates. 
-Hamlet is at a grave with Horatio, and sees the skull of the old court jester Yorick.
-Hamlet sees Ophelia being buried, and wrestles with Laertes.
-Hamlet and Laertes duel in a (seemingly) harmless, noble fight.
-The king has poisoned the tip of Laertes sword, and poisoned Hamlet's wine to ensure Hamlet dies.
-Laertes cuts Hamlet with the poisoned sword, and in the heat of the duel their swords are swapped and Hamlet cuts Laertes with it.
-The queen drinks some of the poisoned wine, and dies.
-Laertes is aware of the poison, and as he lays dying tells Hamlet what has happened.
-Hamlet then rushes to the king, cuts/stabs him with the poisoned sword, and makes him drink the wine.
-Hamlet instructs Horatio to tell the world his story.
-Everyone is dead.
-Fortinbras storms the castle, and finding all the rulers dead, takes the throne.

Setting: The rotten state of Denmark, in Elsinore (the castle).

Significant Characters:
Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, seriously troubled, more of a philosopher than a fighter.
Queen Gertrude: Hamlet's mother, not given so much blame as Claudius for their marriage.
King Claudius: The murderer and adulterer, the "bad guy".
Ophelia: Once was lover with Hamlet, went mad after he abandoned her and her father died, drowns.
Horatio: Hamlet's BFF, the moral compass for the play.
Laertes: Ophelia's brother, has a very deep love for her, foil for Hamlet, instrumental in Hamlet's death.
Fortinbras:  Foil for Hamlet, meet him at the end when he takes the throne.

Tone: There is a very desperate tone throughout the work.  Everyone is trying to keep what is theirs; the kingdom, their wife, their honor, etc.

Imagery: Tons of allusions to Greco-Roman myths, lots said about ears/hearing, death, the "rank" garden allusions, (aka Adam and Eve in the garden, then sin came and ruined the garden), the supernatural vs. free will.

Symbolism: Yorick's skull (the physical consequences of death).  The ghost, (the spiritual consequences of death).  Ophelia's flowers, representing more than just a flower (rue for abortion, daisies for innocence, etc).

3 quotes:
1) Hamlet. " To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?—To die,—to sleep,—
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to,—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d."
In his famous "To be or not to be" Hamlet here is considering what he is going to do next.  Does he kill the king or ignore the ghost?  Or end it all by killing himself?  And when he does die, what will happen to him?  In this way this little part of the speech and the entire soliloquy sum up much of the big ideas this play has.

2) Marcellus. "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."
Another famous line, said at the beginning of the play, sets up the audience for the rest of the play.  It also draws upon the allusion of the (now corrupted) Garden of Eden Shakespeare constantly uses to describe Elsinore.

3) Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. "Do you think I am easier to be played on that a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me."
Here Hamlet is calling out his so-called friends on their disloyalty, and for using him as they would an instrument.  This goes along with the secrecy, lies, and corruption that is throughout the work.

Theme:  The theme of revenge is present throughout the entire play.

Elements that support this theme:
Setting: The corrupt, dark, rotten state of Denmark.
Plot: Hamlet's response to revenge, (hesitant) vs. Fortinbras and Laertes (immediate).  The entire play is a revenge tragedy, but Hamlet isn't totally sure about it.
Tone: There's a dark, desperate tone throughout the work.  The audience knows someone is going to die, and that this is a very "sick" situation.
Symbolism: The ghost, a skull, flowers with double meanings = not a very happy time.

Second Semester! Response to Course Material

Second semester!  Woohoo!

In preparation for the final, Amanda and I had to look over Hamlet and figure out what scene we wanted to act out.  We needed a scene with two characters, and one that could be interpreted in different ways.  In the end we chose Hamlet and the Ghost, the first time they met.  ("I am your father's spirit..." etc.)  There were many ways we could have gone about just this one scene:  Was the ghost real?  How did the ghost act?  How did Hamlet respond?  Once we had settled on our scene, the hardest part was sticking to one main theme, because there are so many variables that we could have thrown in and drastically changed the overall idea behind it!  And yet it was even harder for me to think of how we might be able to pull it off.  Acting is not quite as easy as it looks, apparently. 

Even just our little final presentation gave me a better idea of the work behind the movie productions.   I can't imagine how hard that really must be!  The directors must be able to really have a solid view of what they want.  I tend to be wishy-washy with this kind of thing, thinking "oh well this interpretation is good, but the other one makes sense too," and my interpretation of the play would probably be awful and make no sense at all if I had to direct it.  All of the films we watched in class seemed to have a very clear focus to them, which I now see as very impressive.  (And before I stop talking about the movies, I'd like to give a shout out to the second one we watched -- thank you, film maker of that version I don't know the name of, for a rendition that was both entertaining and made sense.  The setting and time period was perfect.)

Looking back at my previous course material, I have learned so much about this play it's not even funny.  (Also, I've learned that I must be slightly psychic, since I predicted Ophelia's death.)  It hasn't been the smoothest of rides (Shakespearean language not making sense in the read-through, frustration with characters, a few angry sticky notes about how I hated Shakespeare, Hamlet, the entire play, and annotating) and I'm not claiming to be an expert by any means, but it's grown on me.  Darn you, Hamlet.