Reflection

What I really enjoyed learning about this first semester is how to analyze the film interpretations of Hamlet and how they go about to communicate themes and symbols. I like the fact that we were studying the play through a different medium so that we were able to analyze it in different perspectives. We were able to look at the light settings, the camera focus on faces or objects, a clearer understanding of hushed speech, and what the camera excluded from its focus to understand the film director's interpretation of the play. What I also enjoyed this semester is reading T.S. Eliot's poem The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. Even though I wasn't in class to learn about the poem, I was able to understand that the poem talks about the complexity of the modern man and the obsession with time. I haven't fully understood the poem yet, but it reminds me of similar works of literature like Yeats' Second Coming or Vonnegut's and Orwell's works that have a gloomy, but curious focus on the complexity of man in the early 20th century. And yes, I do like to read about early 20th century works that have that kind of perception on the complexity and grandeur of man.

Performance Choices

Though I was not there for the performances of Hamlet, I really like Ashkan's approach in playing Hamlet. Compared to other portrayals of Hamlet, he acted with a much more casual, yet cautious tone, as if he was aware of the king as his adversary, and he intended to hide his true emotions(though I do not know if that was Ashkan's intention). But, if I had the chance to act in this scene(Act I Scene II), I would play Hamlet with a much more sinister tone, similar to the language of Branagh's or Doran's Hamlet. I would use the sinister, lively tone and subtly witty language, along with a physical and emotional detachment from the king and queen, that would perfectly lead Hamlet to emotionally release and reveal to the audience his emotional volatility and fragmented thoughts in his soliloquy.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Some of the literary features that make this poem an extraordinary reading are the complexity and fragmentation that frequently occur throughout the poem. In this poem focused on time, the speaker narrates with a stream of consciousness, suggesting that he presents his thoughts and emotions without clarity nor organization.Though the reader must be knowledgeable of all the literary references Eliot includes in his poem, Eliot presents these literary allusions in anachronistic order to demonstrate the complexity and fragmentation the literary mind throughout time(though not the only reason).
In the third stanza, the narrator personifies the lingering yellow fog as a stray animal comfortably living in the lower city levels of industrial society. As yellow fog appears synonymous with poisonous gas(mustard gas, to be precise;possibly a reminder of the tragic WWI) and, hence, alludes to approaching death, the contradiction between the yellow gas and the connotation of its actions as warm and comfortable add to the complexity of the modern man. To further complicate the modern man and add to the fragmentation of the poem, in the fourth stanza, the speaker mentions the seemingly irrelevant pairs of words "toast and tea", "yellow smoke", and "murder and create". Though the combination of these words in one stanza communicates to the reader the elements and possibility of time, the words,nonetheless, form a fragmented mirror that distorts and complicates the view of the chaotic, modern world.