Junior Varsity English (Prep for AP, Humanities, and Big Time University)

This a blog for Mr. James Cook's eleventh grade honors English class at Gloucester (MA) High School. Remember what Northrup Frye writes in _Fearful Symmetry_, "No one can begin to think straight unless [she or] he has a passionate desire to think and an intense joy in thinking."

Friday, April 13, 2007

sleep and dreams

sleep and dreams: 1.5.42 & 66 & 81, 1.5.188, 2.2.275-279, 2.2.525-526
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3 comments:

Olivia Peloquin said...

Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." 1.5.188

Guildenstern: "Which dreams, indeed, are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream."
Hamlet: :A dream itself is but a shadow." 2.2.275-279

In Shakespeare's Hamlet the motif of sleep and dreams appears multiple times, perhaps because of Hamlet's haunted mind, and his dreams of revenging his father's murderer. In both cases of the quotations the thought of ambition and another world is brought up.
Hamlet tests Horatio's thinking when he says "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Hamlet means that Horatio's thinking is not everything on earth. When Horatio does not believe in King Hamlet's ghost, his philosophy is challenged, which Hamlet supports. Where Hamlet see's Horatio's dreams as much too ambitious, his own thoughts are like shadows.
Guildenstern tries to tell Hamlet that his dreams are not too ambitious but Hamlet replies back with, "A dream itself is but a shadow." This quotation describes Hamlet's attitude towards ambition, and may be the reason he shot down Horatio so quickly. In Shakespeares Hamlet, the motif of sleep and dreams is reoccuring because of all the ambitious behavior everyone, including Hamlet, is going through.

April 24, 2007 at 10:47 AM
Jessica Pascucci said...

Ghost: Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched, cut off, even in the blossoms of my sin, unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled, no reck’ning made, but sent to my account with all my imperfections on my head.
1.5.81-86

In this quote the Ghost is talking to Hamlet about his perverse murder and how he lost his whole life to his brother, Claudius. When King Hamlet was murdered he was sleeping peacefully until his brother poured a deadly poison into his ear killing him. After murdering his own brother, Claudius then married his sister-in-law and became king. In this quote sleeping comes off as something innocent and peaceful that is interrupted by death. This relates to Shakespeare’s motif by how sleeping and dreaming are peaceful but in a way could also be deadly.

Guildenstern: which dreams, indeed, are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
2.2.276-278

In this quote Guildenstern is talking to Rosencrantz and Hamlet about Denmark being a dungeon to Hamlet. In their conversation they get on the subject of how dreams are ambition and ambitious is the shadow of a dream. In this quote sleeping and dreaming is thought of as something that shows your inner ambitions until Rosencrantz says he does not trust his dreams and to him they are just shadows of shadows of his ambitions. This relates to Shakespeare’s motif by how throughout Hamlet people have dreams but should they believe the dreams are true or just shadows of shadows of what they want.

Do you believe that dreams are shadows of our ambitions or just something to be thought of as not important? In Hamlet is sleeping ever thought of something other then sleeping?

April 24, 2007 at 4:14 PM
Andrew Fulford said...

Ghost:'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father's life Now wears his crown. 1.5.42-48

In this quote the Ghost of King Hamlet is telling Hamlet about how he was killed. The serpent in this quote is not a snake, but it is King Claudius. And when the ghost states that the whole ear of Denmark is a process of his death he is telling Hamlet that he died because Claudius put poison in his ear. The Ghost is telling Hamlet all this information because he wants Hamlet to know who killed him and he wants his son to avenge his death and go after King Claudius, who is not only Hamlet's uncle, but is now his step-father.

Guildenstern:Which dreams, indeed, are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
Hamlet:A dream itself is but a shadow. 2.2.275-279

This quote between Guildenstern and Hamlet is talking about the ambition that they both have during the tragedy. Hamlet is motivated by his drive to avenge his father's death while everyone thinks he is going crazy. When Hamlet tells Guildenstern "A dream itself is but a shadow" he is saying that his dreams are always in the back of his mind and he does not forget them, just like his ambition to pursue Ophelia. No matter what anyone says to Hamlet he is driven to win her love over and while doing so he makes everyone around him think he is even more crazy. Hamlet's mind has become so consumed with his father's death and Ophelia that that is all he thinks and dreams of and everyone notices it and makes a point to ask Hamlet about those things every chance they get.

April 24, 2007 at 11:59 PM

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