Cadernos de apoio

- Engagement:

 

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- Ladies and gentlemen…:

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- Of course you have already heard of William Shakespeare. What do you know about him?

- What do you think is taken into consideration to entitle a writer “the best of all times”?

 

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. His life has coincided with the Renaissance; however, it is very difficult to put all his characteristics under the sign of a single period or style. He wrote 154 sonnets, 2 narrative poems and 38 theater plays, including comedies, tragedies and historical. All his works show a deep and brilliant analysis of human soul and behavior, evidencing that he was certainly ahead of his time. Shakespeare is a sort of a part of everyone´s life in the East world.

 

- Hamlet is a tragedy. Usually, in a tragedy, the protagonist dies at the end. But knowing the end is not enough to understand a plot – in the case of Hamlet, it is necessary to point out, at least, madness, ghosts, betrayals and passion. What role do you think they play?

- In which context was the famous sentence “To be or not to be…” said?

 

- Read it!:

 

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Act III, Scene I, “A room in the castle”

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Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN

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KING CLAUDIUS And can you, by no drift of circumstance, Get from him why he puts on this confusion, Grating so harshly all his days of quiet With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

ROSENCRANTZ He does confess he feels himself distracted; But from what cause he will by no means speak.

GUILDENSTERN Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof, When we would bring him on to some confession Of his true state.

QUEEN GERTRUDE Did he receive you well?

ROSENCRANTZ Most like a gentleman.

GUILDENSTERN But with much forcing of his disposition.

ROSENCRANTZ Niggard of question; but, of our demands, Most free in his reply. QUEEN GERTRUDE Did you assay him? To any pastime?

ROSENCRANTZ Madam, it so fell out, that certain players We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him; And there did seem in him a kind of joy To hear of it: they are about the court, And, as I think, they have already order This night to play before him.

LORD POLONIUS 'Tis most true: And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties To hear and see the matter.

KING CLAUDIUS With all my heart; and it doth much content me To hear him so inclined. Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, And drive his purpose on to these delights.

ROSENCRANTZ We shall, my lord.

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Exit ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN

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KING CLAUDIUS Sweet Gertrude, leave us too; For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, That he, as 'twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia: Her father and myself, lawful espials, Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen, We may of their encounter frankly judge, And gather by him, as he is behaved, If 't be the affliction of his love or no That thus he suffers for.

QUEEN GERTRUDE I shall obey you. And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope your virtues Will bring him to his wonted way again, To both your honours.

OPHELIA Madam, I wish it may.

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Exits QUEEN GERTRUDE

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LORD POLONIUS Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you, We will bestow ourselves. To OPHELIA Read on this book; That show of such an exercise may colour Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,- 'Tis too much proved - that with devotion's visage And pious action we do sugar o'er The devil himself.

KING CLAUDIUS Aside O, 'tis too true! How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience! The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art, Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it Than is my deed to my most painted word: O heavy burthen!

LORD POLONIUS I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord.

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Exit KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS

Enters HAMLET

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 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 heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action - Soft you now! The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember'd. (SHAKESPEARE, 1992, p. 61-63).

 

- Pay attention to…:

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- Do you think it is possible to write and read poetry in a theater play?

- What is metalanguage?

 

“Any language or symbolic system used to discuss, describe or analyze another language or symbolic system” (wordrference.com/definition/metalanguage).

 

Knowing this, how can a theatrical text be considered metalinguistic?

 

- What relationship can be estabilished between Hamlet´s speech and his father’s appearance in the beginning of the play?

- A madman represents certain things in literature nowadays. Is this the same thing it represented in the renaissance? What other functions may Hamlet´s madness have in the historical context of the writing?

 

- …As well:

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- How do you think the play ends? Remember it is considered a tragedy.

- After your teacher tells you the end, answer: was it fair? Would you write it in a different way?

- Does this play have a moral?

- Which aspects of human behavior are outstanding in the play plot?

 

- What about today?:

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- What if Hamlet lived in the currentness? What would his reaction be?

- Do you think the plot brings contemporary issues? If so, are these problems timeless?

 

- Text-web (Read, watch and listen):

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Frailty, thy name is woman, Act I, Scene II (Fragilidade, teu nome é mulher);

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Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, Act I, Scene IV (Há algo de podre no reino da Dinamarca);

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There are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, Act I, Scene IV (Há mais coisas no céu e na terra do que pode sonhar sua vã filosofia);

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Though this be madness, yet there is method in it, Act II Scene III (Embora seja loucura, ainda há aí método);

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There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so, Act II, Scene II (Nada é bom ou mau em si; depende do julgamento que fizermos).

 

- Movies:

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Homem mau dorme bem (Akira Kurosawa, Japão, 1960);

O Rei Leão (Rob Minkoff, Roger Allers, Estados Unidos, 1994);

A morte se veste de negro (Stacy Title, Estados Unidos, 1999);

Inimigos do Império (Feng Xiaogang, China, 2006).

 

- Song To be (VILLA; RIBALTA, 2001)

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To be like a lamb, hast innocent eyes

Or be like a wolf
Bark at the moon my remorse

To be a barbarian with nothing but strenght

Be a wise man
Who hath diplomacy as a friend

Or remain sober in this insane world

To be a madman,
Speak crazy sharped words

To be or not to be, that's the question

This like being something

Without knowing tomorrow

And what is tomorrow
But a page never turned

Where shall we go
When we stop to be something

What will remain without the human flesh?

Shouldst I be an angel and forgive or

Shouldst I be death and take away the souls?

To be or not to be, that's my only question

What do I think I am,
But something that thinks?
I search deeply
In my existence
For a reason to be or not to be

Even knowing what we might not be
May come along with what me might...
That's the question! To be or not to be...