Hamlet's Ghost

The Ghosts in Hamlet can either be good or bad. Signs are pointed to the Ghost of Hamlet (Sr.) to be evil. From research of the time period’s belief on ghosts, ghosts who roam the night, can’t be seen during the day, visit people who have melancholic minds, and cringe at the name of God or anything holy are demonic. The Ghost of Hamlet (Sr.) only appeared at midnight every night and leaves at the sound of a cock crowing. It also disappears at the word “heaven”. Also appearing to Hamlet, who is clearly depressed, doesn’t make the Ghost seem holy especially since the Ghost is feeding Hamlet what he wants to hear.
Hamlet’s anger towards his mother and his uncle is greater than his sadness for his father’s death. He questions more about the marriage than about the death. Hamlet wonders what were the motives behind his mother’s marriage to his uncle. Was it for sex? Hamlet became extremely focused on this fact. His mind is consumed with this thought and it seems like when Hamlet’s Ghost appeared, the Ghost only talked about this fact. He keeps egging it on and on and makes Hamlet believe that his ideas HAVE to be true. If a Ghost tells you that your uncle was after your mother for a long time and your mother is kind of a whore, you are going to believe it.
Hamlet’s mind isn’t in the right state to actually think things through. He’s very depressed, his mind is set, and he doesn’t think of the consequences of his action. He is very quick to judge. He dismisses all women from his knowledge of one. Hamlet’s mind is constantly thinking negative and constantly questioning people’s motives. He doesn’t see the good in life anymore. Having a Ghost tell him more negatives and give Hamlet more reasons why to hate his mother and uncle just adds more to this negativity in Hamlet’s life.

Monstrous Births

In class, we started to talk about monstrous births. I was surprised to see that most of these incidents, it wasn’t blamed on the sins of the parents. It was God’s message to inform the town that they all have been sinning or it’s the mother’s thoughts that transforms the child. The mother could be so interested in fashion that the baby will have a body that takes on the fashion such as a baby having a neck that looks like ruffs.
I find all this interesting because I just finished a book Philippa Gregory called The Other Boleyn Girl. This book is a fictional history on Anne and Mary Boleyn. Anne was married to King Henry VIII but Mary Boleyn, her younger sister, was actually one of King Henry’s mistresses and bore him two children in the book. Anne married King Henry a couple of years later but could not bear him a child. Bearing a son was one of the duties of a queen. Anne had many miscarriages and it was rumored that Anne couldn’t bear a child because she was sinning with her brother George and a couple of the other loyalist. One of these miscarriages actually was a monstrous birth and it was hinted that George and Anne actually had an incestuous affair. This baby had a flared back, hunched, just a horrid looking baby and the midwife knew immediately that Anne sinned as no good person would give birth to a monster.
This contradicts everything we talked about in class. Everyone knew that the mother sinned and that it was a message from God saying that Anne sinned but not a message to warn all of England that they are ALL sinning. It was blamed on the mother that this child was born this way and not because Anne thought about anything. It could be because Anne wanted to have a child so bad that this happened but that wouldn’t make too much sense. Why would you think about giving birth to a monstrous baby? The only explanation was that Anne ultimately sinned with her brother that created this monstrous baby.

Magical Help?

I find it funny how things turned out in Canto 11 of The Faerie Queen. Redcrosse and Una finally finds the dragon that is holding Una’s parents captive. Redcrosee is the underdog in this fight. The dragon is extremely strong and breathes out fire. Well Redcrosse gets hurt and magically, an unnoticed well with healing powers was around and Redcrose happens to discover it before he was about to get finished. Redcrosse gets healed and comes back stronger. Redcrosee strength surprises the dragon and it seems like the dragon would lose but then he gains the upper hand again. Well magically once again a healing tree appears and heals Redcrosse. What are the odds, seriously? And to make it even funnier, both times, he fell and there at the bottom were these amazing things to heal his wounds and make him stronger.
It’s just hilarious how these things turn out. Even though the hero really has no chance to win on his own, the author sets it up where the hero wins and the bad guy has no chance because there aren’t any magical things helping him out. I think it was in The Once and Future King by T.H. White where Arthur breaks his sword but he gets a new one right afterwards. Throughout the story, Arthur, aka Wart, gets magical help. It seems as if Arthur can’t be a good king without this magical help. In The Faerie Queen it seems just the same thing. Redcrosse cannot win without this help. It’s just the way the writer creates these worlds and events so there’s no way for the hero to lose. In reality, though, this will never happen. I guess that’s why they call this fiction or a fairy tale instead of the real world.

These Fairies aren't my fairies

I found it interesting how this was not the same fairy stories I remembered. I was expecting cuteness and tiny creatures. The Faerie Queen isn't this cuteness story I know of. It's a little gruesome and the fairies are not tiny sized. Instead, they are human sized (or from what I am understanding).
In class it was said that this was an epic romance. I think you can throw comedy in it. As I read the story out loud, I have these very comical pictures in my head. I can see Archimago with a huge mustache and as he is scheming rubbing his mustache. I can imagine that he has this very menacing laugh. Sansloy to me is just a character who wants to constantly fights and even though he might be the underdog, he believes he can win. I kind of see him as a Chihuahua who constantly barks. He does seem like a worth foe but for some strange reason this is the image I get in my head. The trees remind me of The Wizard of Oz with the talking trees except these trees are depressed and bleed.
Though I think it's very comical, I really do see the romance in it. It's just funny how things turn out with Redcrosse thinking that Una slept with another man which wasn't really Una but someone disguise as Una. Una thinks that she found Redcrosse but in fact it was Archimago disguise as Redcrosse. Redcrosse found someone else to defend, Fidessa who was in fact Duessa who turned the Fradubio and Fraelissa into the talking trees. There are a lot of disguises in this epic. And it just amuses me to see if the main characters will figure out these disguises and how they will do it.