Thursday, September 07, 2006

Hamlet- movie review

link

the complete play


This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night
the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

It's hard to follow the genius of the master playwright himself with a fair review. I've chosen a few favorite quotes above, but the best review would be to follow the link and read the play yourself. Full of food for thought enough to chew over for a great while.

What is madness? What causes it? Who determines who the sane ones are? Are we all crazy, and perceive those few sane ones to be mad?

Is it crazy, like Hamlet, to see the spirits of those dead? Is it crazy to grieve like Ophelia and take your own life? Is it crazy to murder your brother for his crown and his wife? Is it crazy to seek revenge for a loved one's death? Is there an cure for madness?

Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively
Voltaire

'But I don’t want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.'Oh, you can’t help that,' said the Cat. 'We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.''How do you know I’m mad?' said Alice.'You must be,” said the Cat. 'or you wouldn’t have come here.'
Lewis Carroll

It is only too true that a lot of artists are mentally ill- it's a life which, to put it mildly, makes one an outsider. I'm all right when I completely immerse myself in work, but I'll always remain half crazy.
Vincent van Gogh

There is no genius free from some tincture of madness
Seneca

Idiosyncratic belief systems which are shared by only a few adherents are likely to be regarded as delusional. Belief systems which may be just as irrational but which are shared by millions are called world religions.i.e. When a man suffers from delusions he is described as mad but when a million do so they belong to a world religion.
Anthony Storr


See if thinking about it doesn't drive you crazy.

R. Connors

2 comments:

Field Notes said...

Ah, yes, Hamlet doth inspire the human mind to ponder such questions. I recall writing my college entrance essay exam on Hamlet. No surprise I went on to major in psychology. I certainly don't have the answers to those questions any more now than I did then, but now I have a whole ton more - which is exactly what college should do! I notice you are really into dreams. Have you ever read Freud's Interpretation of Dreams? If so, what'd you think of it?

Beth Young said...

I never have read Freud. Maybe I should...? I do think that dreams are a gateway to the subconscious and I really like trying to remember mine immediately upon waking.