Poetry Sounds

The sounds in "To an Athlete Dying Young" reflect the melancholy mood of the poem and the progression of the athlete's life from happy and glorious to sad and peaceful. Words in the first two stanzas, such as "cheering" and "high" sound somewhat grand and positive, and therefore depict the athlete's life However, words in the following stanzas, such as "whithers," and "fade," have more melancholy, yet peaceful sounds and relfect the sadness and sense of helplessness towards the athlete's death. In "Ozymandias", the sounds are, generally, very delicate, such as in words like "antique," "wrinkled," and "sculptor." However, the sounds change when the author quotes King Ozymandias. They change into stronger and demanding sounds. The sounds that words such as, "king," "look," and "mighty" make reflect King Ozymandias' strength and power, but the rest of the poem's delicate sounds reveal how fragile the king's empire and statue really were compared to time. Both poems have a majority of softer sounds, but there are tonal shifts, in which the sounds of the words also change.

Theme/Symbols

Themes are present in both Pride and Prejudice and Hamlet, but more so in Pride and Prejudice. However, symbols are not used very much in either story. In Hamlet, the poison is a reoccuring symbol and represents death, since it was used to kill Hamlet's father, Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, and Hamlet. In Pride and Prejudice, the only real symbol is Pemberley, which represents everything that Elizabeth could have and claims not to want, meaning that she could have all of the wealth, but she would also have Mr. Darcy.
The main themes in Hamlet include death and indecisiveness. Hamlet constantly deals with these themes throughout the play. In terms of death, not only does he have to face his father's death, but he also has to face his father's ghost along with the deaths of Polonius, Ophelia, Gertrude and himself. Because of his indecisiveness, Hamlet suffers consequences, such as being killed himself. He tries the entire play to make up his mind about what to do about Claudius and while he tries to do that, the other characters get killed. Had he killed Claudius sooner, it would have at least spared the lives of Polonius, Gertrude, and Laertes. Hamlet's indecisiveness, however, is what keeps the play going and teaches the moral of the story which is that you should make up your mind sooner rather than later. In Pride and Prejudice, the themes include marriage, love, and social class. During the entire novel, Mrs. Bennet is obsessed with marrying her daughters and entire novel is in fact based on marriage: will Jane marry Bingley? Will Bingley marry Ms. Darcy? Will Elizabeth marry Mr. Collins? Will Charlotte marry Mr. Collins? Will Elizabeth marry Mr. Darcy? Will Mr. Darcy marry his cousin? Will Mr. Wickham and Lydia get married? etc. From the theme of marriage comes the theme of love, which revolves mainly around Elizabeth who, unlike the other characters, except maybe Jane, wants to marry for love. She struggles between marriage, which helps her family and love, which helps herself, because it seems that she cannot have both, like when Mr. Collins proposes. The other theme is social class which plays a very prominent role in who will marry who. The Bennets are below Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, mainly because of Mrs. Bennet, and that fact is exploited by Mr. Bingley's sisters, who represent the worst of the judgemental society. Despite their social inferiority, however, both Elizabeth and Jane manage to marry for love and get wealth at the same time.

Setting

The differences in setting between a play and a novel are obviously that, in a play, there is a limited number of settings that have to be physically seen on a stage and can only be described in dialogue, whereas in a novel, multiple settings can be described by the narrator. In Hamlet, the setting of a castle is very sinister and presumably dark, which reflects the tone of the entire play. In Pride and Prejudice, however, the tones of the story change along with the settings. The tone changes from hopeful and happy, to gloomy, to panic, to uncertainty, to resolved. The setting expands over England and multiple buildings and allows for a wider range than a play would.

Characters

The characters in Pride and Prejudice and Hamlet are very different. Hamlet tends to have flatter characters: Claudius is the villain, Polonius is his advisor/accomplice Ophelia is the damsel in distress, Horatio is the voice of reason. Gertrude and Hamlet are the most complex or round characters in the play. Hamlet, the protagonist, is more round because he is struggling with an internal battle over whether to kill Claudius or not. Gertrude is also somewhat round because the reader is hardly ever clear of her motives for siding with Claudius and not Hamlet. In Pride and Prejudice, most of the characters are more complex, partially because the novel uses narration as opposed to just dialogue; the narration allows the reader to learn things about a character that no one says out loud. The flat characters in Pride and Prejudice includes Mrs. Bennet, Lydia, and Caroline Bingley, but the majority of the characters are more round than in Hamlet. The roundest character in Pride and Prejudice is definitely Elizabeth, the protagonist, who changes dramatically when she realizes that her judgements are not always accurate. What the two stories have in common in terms of characters is that both of the protagonists are the most developed characters, but Elizabeth is more developed than Hamlet.

Plot

Both stories follow the conventional narrative illustrated in the text. The exposition in Hamlet would include the ghost telling us how he died and Claudius' speech, which introduces us to the current state of events. In Pride and Prejudice, it would be Austin's introduction of the main characters and basically everything leading up to the first ball where we meet Mr. Darcy. The rising action takes up most of both stories and leads to the climaxes. The climax in Hamlet is when he finally kills Claudius and the falling action is when everyone dies. The climax in Pride and Prejudice is when Elizabeth reads Mr. Darcy's letter and realizes that her perception of him has been wrong; the falling action is Elizabeth's internal struggle about if she loves Mr. Darcy or not and whether she wants to act upon it. The resolution in Hamlet is that Fortinbras will rule Denmark and, in Pride and Prejudice, it is that Jane marries Mr. Bingley and Elizabeth marries Mr. Darcy. Hamlet is much more violent than Pride and Prejudice, and has a much more depressing ending. They do, however, share the same structure when it comes to their plot.

Hamlet Essay Review

I need to work on small things like italisizing, commas, and page headers. I also need to work more on discussing and analyzing the language patterns

Coy Mistress and To the Virgins

Both of these poems focus on time and the idea of taking advantage of the present. Both authors emphasize living in the moment and not waiting until time passes, because it might be too late by then. The two poems are different because in His Coy Mistress, Marvell uses tonal shifts to change from persuasive to more hostile. But in To the Virgins, Herrick uses much more concise and straightforward with his language. He gets more to the point, but still manages to use metaphors, personification, and other literary devises.

Ozymandias vs. Ponder these busted statues

These two poems share the central theme of time and the idea that time destroys what was once great. In Ozymandias, time has destroyed the magnificent statue and the great civilization that it represents. In Ponder, time has destroyed the aqueducts, which represent the great civilization of Rome. Both of the poems remind us that time is undefeatable, even for the mightiest empires and kings.

Hamlet Performance Choice

My partner and I chose to perform the scene from Act II, Scene I, Lines 72-118 (pg 749-750) where Ophelia and Polonius are talking about Hamlet's inappropriate behavior towards her. As Ophelia, I've been thinking about portraying Ophelia as flustered, submissive, and apologetic because her words are very obediant and not strong willed.