http://grainofsandtheatre.com/hamletreframed

I choice this title because Hamlet tells Horatio and Marcellus to keep the image of his father’s ghost a secret and that he was going to play a madman. Even though he playing a madman he can in fact start to actually become one. The first person he goes to after seeing his father’s ghost is Ophelia. He beings his madness by expressing distraught and pain but he doesn’t speak a word to her. We know this through Ophelia description from her conversation with her father. This can be a part of his plan to play insanity but in part some real distress. She has recently cut all ties with him, the loss of his father, then to come in contact with his father’s spirit, and finds out that his uncle killed him. To top it off his mother’s marriage to his uncle. Any normal human can claim actual insanity.

But as the play continues on, the question comes is he really acting or is the news of his father’s death and the marriage of his mother, unbearable to the point of insanity. Hamlet begins to question if he actual saw his father ghost and what he said had any truth to it. There were many times he could have avenge his father’s death, but the question kept lingering.  He sets up a play to reenact his father’s murder and his mother’s marriage and his secret plan to avenge his father’s death. This he said will be the only way to know for sure if the ghost is in fact the true image of his father or a demon ghost. This show’s that he is contemplating his own sanity and this will be the only way to clear all questions.

“There is a play tonight before the king.

One scene of it comes near the circumstance

Which I have told thee of my father’s death.

I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,

Even with the very comment of thy soul

Observe mine uncle. If his occulted guilt

Do not itself unkennel in one speech,

It is a damnèd ghost that we have seen,

And my imaginations are as foul”

As the death of his father is being reenacted he sees his uncle’s reaction to the play that gives him a clear idea that the ghost was his father’s spirit. His approach to being a mad man completely changes he become more sarcastic and a jokester. We see that it not a matter of him actually becoming mad but actual playing the madman. At the beginning there was a lot of question to him acting or actually becoming mad, but now everything is becoming more clear not only thru the play but thru his uncle own testimony when speaking to himself. But who’s to say that just because it becoming more clearer that he won’t still become actually mad having to except this truth. Well I guess I will only find out once I’m done reading.

The classic of poetry contains 305 poems and consists of three parts the “Airs of the Domains”, the “Odes/ elegances” and the “Hymns. Confucius thought highly of the classic of Poetry. He advised his own son to study the Classic of Poetry to enhance his ability to express his opinions. “The Classic of poetry can provide you with stimulation and with observation, with a capacity for communion, and with vehicle of grief (pg1320-1321). Confucius High opinion of the Classic of Poetry led to it inclusion in the canon of the “Confucian Classics.” Confucius strongly believed that the political order depended on the ability of individuals in society to cultivate their moral virtue and thus contribute to social order.

These poems are unique in using repetition with variation; they consist of three rhyming stanzas of four or six lines with four syllables each. They use evocative Image which means stimulus or excitement for comparison/simile of a person or a situation. For example in Boat of Cypress (pg1325 XXVI) the protagonist is expressing his feeling and sorrow throughout the poem, comparing his heart to objects such as a mirror, stone and Mat. These poems were a means of communication, expression and away to give the people a voice helping them keep bad rulers in check and allowing rules to install virtuous behavior. The Classic of poetry plays a great part in shaping the literacy cultures of East Asia and the modern era.

It is still remain unclear of when exactly the Chinese Scripture began to be developed but it appears to have a fully functional writing system during the late period of Shang Dynasty, where there writing was part of ritual practice that guided political decision making and harmonized the relation between human beings and the world of unpredictable spiritual forces in the cosmos (pg1313). It wasn’t until the rise and decline of the Eastern Zhou arose the age of china Philosophical Masters. Confucius and the philosophical maters join together and formulated vision on how to govern and live in a corrupt world. Chinese called this period “a hundred schools of thought bloomed.” Chines maters traveled between states in search for employment and patronage.

Throughout the Chinese Long history, its territories, ruling classes, capitals, religions, and customs kept changing with the rise and fall or ruling dynasties. Following the decline of the eastern Zhou came the foundation of imperial China: the Qin and the Han. With Qin unification china was finally an empire but it was a short lived dynasty with a reputation of ruthlessness and untrustworthy. Han Dynasty was when Chinese dynasty was able to adapt set patterns. During this period china was able to expand their boundaries to central Asia, modern Korea, and Vietnam. It was not until Emperor Wu was the privilege Confucian scholars established, founding a state academy for the education of government officials and setting up positions for professors to teach the so called five classics, which included the classic of poetry.