Prompt Revising #1

1984. Select a line or so of poetry, or a moment or scene in a novel, epic poem, or play that you find especially memorable. Write an essay in which you identify the line or the passage, explain its relationship to the work in which it is found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness.

**I realize now that "Twilight" does not meet the standards of quality "literary merit"; however, I will edit this as if it is.

In this day and age, there are many novels that reflect the ideas of pop culture. One of these novels is simply, "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer. The novel is a classic love story between and guy and a girl in high school; however, Edward is a vampire, and Bella falls in love anyway. The idea of unexpected romance is prominent within the text, and one particular scene proves this the best. During the scene where Bella and Edward are in the meadow there is not much dialogue, but there is plenty of imagery that describes the scene and makes it so memorable. 

During the couple's time spent in the meadow, Bella discovers what Edward's skin looks like in the sun. She describes it as "white despite the faint flush from yesterday's hunting trip, literally sparkled, like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in the surface" (260). This was a climactic moment for there relationship because it shows how they are growing closer and are becoming more deeply involved. The novel as a whole is based around the development of their relationship, and this scene is the perfect example of this. Bella seems to study edward and even compares him to a statue by saying, "A perfect statue, carved in some unknown stone, smooth like marble, glittering like crystal (260)." The way in which Edward is described in this scene brings forth vivid images and ideas that are important to the story.

Stephanie Meyer must have had a good reason to place this scene where it is and the way that it is. For instance, it seems as though she was making the connection between the two characters more prominent, but it, also, seems to make a direct connection with the audience. Personally, the passage made me more engaged in the novel and made me think about the ideas and controversies that could be thought of while reading. For example, Bella's descriptions are almost fantasy-like, and the fact that Edward is a vampire makes that a reasonable point. It is almost a scene in which the love is too good to be true, but because of this controversy, it makes the story more engaging because readers, like myself, put themselves into the scene and fantasize about the situation as if it were them. 

The ideas in this one scene are effective in making the audience think about and fantasize about this even after they put the book down. I find that "Twilight" creates a new romance and a new idea for readers to enjoy, and the meadow scene brings this to life. 

Hamlet 1/21

Characters
Hamlet: 

• play is based around his character
• avenging his father's death
• reoccurring idea of his youth
• insane? is it an act?  
• life is going wrong (Ophelia, Mom, Uncle, kingdom, insanity, personally)

 Ophelia: 

• affair with Hamlet
• portrayed as innocent and pure
• grieves her father's death
• turns crazy
• feels betrayed by her brother for leaving her

Gertrude:

• King dies, marries his Brother
• Incest?
• betrayal to husband and son
• Queen with a reputation to uphold
• cares for her son, wants to help him

Claudius:

• Kills his brother
• assumes the crown by marrying the Queen
• wanting to kill Hamlet
• betrays the family
• strong, sturdy personality 

Themes
Certainty: There are aspects in the play that are always uncertain. Is this character supposed to by acting this way? Is it an act, or is it really? Is there incest? Pregnancy? Suicide? Hamlet is seen to be "crazy" throughout the entirety of the play; it is uncertain if it was an act or if he was actually mentally insane. Ophelia turns crazy after her father passes, but there are some secrets. Some say she was pregnant with Hamlet's child. Some think she just went crazy because she was grieving for her father. 

Insanity: Was Hamlet simply mad? He acts crazy and is supposed to be insane, but maybe he was really. When he sees the ghost and the ghost speaks to him is also a sign of his insanity. Ophelia turns crazy and skips around, sings, and is almost ditzy. However, her insanity is always followed by deeper clues. 

Death: ALMOST everyone dies. It starts with the King, and then Hamlet to avenge his father. He kills Polonius. Ophelia commits suicide. The king tries to poison hamlet, the Queen gets it instead. Laertes gets killed by the sword. Hamlet makes the king drink the poison, and finally Hamlet falls. Death is seen everywhere all throughout the play. 

Motifs
Incest: The Queen displays incest for marrying her husband's brother shortly after death.
Women: Hamlet loses faith in women after his mother betrays their family. Ophelia is told to stop seeing him, and he had loved her. He makes a huge mistrust amongst women in the society.

Quotes
"To be or not to be..." is a very well known quote throughout today's society. It has a misinterpretation of pertaining to a person's well being, goals or achievements. It is in actuality a quote of Hamlet considering suicide. After all the betrayal and insanity going on around him he does not feel the need to live. However, he goes on in order to avenge his father's death.  
 

Course Material 1/13

The majority of what we have been recently working on has been "Hamlet", and it has been one crazy part of this class. First, I was just trying to understand the context of the story because it really was a struggle to just get any comprehension out of it. For those of you who understood Shakespeare with ease, you're lucky! I had to really work with it. However, with the help of DIDLS and my knowledge of literature and resources I was able to work my way through it. I never realized how much DIDLS would actually come up throughout this class. Diction, imagery, details, language, and syntax was quite apparent throughout EVERY work, article, or essay we have studied throughout this class, and it has mostly come in handy throughout our annotations. There are always those times when you are blanking on things to write in your thousands of notes, but then you remember DIDLS and can figure out something to write down. It actually makes the tedious annotations a little bit easier! I like being able to culminate all of the ideas learned throughout the course and putting it towards the recent studies like "Hamlet".