The most reputed words from Shakespeare’s Hamlet is probably “To be or not to be, that is the question” when Hamlet was pretending to be mad and talking to himself while Ophelia and other hidden observers were present (697). At that time he already knew it was the current Denmark King, his uncle who had killed his father. He was struggling whether he should take revenge or not. Deep in his heart, he thought that all human are beautiful, graceful, rational and kind-hearted as what he was educated. Therefore, his mother’s remarriage for wealth and rank while his uncle killed his father for power and interest astonished him and made him felt disappointed towards mankind. To remain “nobler in mind”, he had to decide whether he should forgive and continue to suffer from “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”, or he should take revenge and get through all this “sea of troubles”.

Through his soliloquy (697-698), he pondered over a man’s harsh life from receiving “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”. He started to realize that everyone have to “bear the whips and scorns of time” and nobody can simply just end all this “with a bare bodkin”. He also figured out that it was the fear of the unknown, miserable nation of death who blocked a man’s path to strive for success. As he concluded that if “the native hue of resolution is sickled o’er with the pale cast of thought and enterprises of great pitch and moment “, such person would have “their current turn awry and lose the name of action”. By saying this to himself as well as to Ophelia, he made his decision to take revenge and he warned Ophelia to keep away from him.

(Here is a nice photo for restoring the grand, classic scene of Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be”. Instead of acting this inside a castle room as portrayed, this photo aimed at showing Denmark’s famous Kronborg Castle which the story of Hamlet was imagined to be happened.)

This speech presented by Hamlet seemed to be unconscious to Ophelia, the King and Polonius who were inside the puzzles, but it was glorious with a board and rich connotation of thoughts of life to the readers who know the whole story. It may took a reader at least several times to understand thoroughly from all these beautifully and wonderfully engraved words, but the enrichment of our spirits through reading worth the time. Although it was a tragedy for Hamlet to go against the calm wave settled for him by his environment, he had foreseen the failure and death before and he still made his decision. He never felt regretful but in fact he was proud of himself. A tragedy ending was not the main theme Shakespeare wished to tell the world, but rather to encourage people not to let too much negative thinking hindered the path to our dreams. “To be, or not to be”, let us all think about it now!

Beowulf – The Three Evil and Powerful Monsters

The Epic of Beowulf is probably the most important epic in the World of the old English Literature. As a person who has limited skills of modern English and completely ignorant of the old English language, I found this epic not rhythmical enough for me to read and follow. Below is a video showing the written language and the audio of the original old English version, which sounds totally like a different language from English to me. I hope we can have more discussion about this in class. However, I love the language and word choices in Heaney’s translation of Beowulf very much, particularly in those parts he was introducing the three monsters – Grendel, Grendel’s mother and the Dragon, which I will discuss in detail below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYsD4DPg4ls

Video from YouTube: The Epic of Beowulf – Original Text and Audio

As we start reading the Epic of Beowulf, a glorious world of Danes dated back to more than a thousand years ago is revealed to us. Such flourishing nation deserve her people to have parties and celebrations all the time, however, a monster named Grendel disrupted everything. Here comes the portray of Grendel – a prefect use of metaphors to compare between the people of Danes singing and celebrating happily as angels in paradise and Grendel coming as a “grim demon, haunting the marches, marauding round the heath and the desolate fens”, as well as the metaphor of the unforgiveable Cain from Genesis (114). This metaphor and comparison is very lively to help put the people of Danes and Beowulf in the camp of righteousness and effectively increased Beowulf’s heroic image later on.

The second monster is Grendel’s mother. She was a “monstrous hell-bride, brooded on her wrongs” (142). Here in this part, the epic also mentioned Cain to echo with the description of Grendel above. Both Grendel and his mother came from hell – they are evils. Grendel’s mother is also a more powerful monster than Grendel, as Beowulf’s sword can defeat Grendel but not Grendel’s mother. Eventually, the sword Beowulf used to defeat the female monster “wilt into gory icicles to slather and thaw” (149) – the huge and evil power of the monster’s blood was not described directly, instead it is revealed in this way.

The last one is the dragon. It is the ultimate monster which caused Beowulf’s death. First of all the dragon is also described as evil as a “convention” in this epic to contrast Beowulf’s justice. The dragon’s power is described in several ways: first, the dragon is able to blow out fire to destroy everything; second, Beowulf’s fellows fleeted during the war with the dragon; third, the kind’s most powerful sword is broken during the battle. Throughout all these battles Beowulf is effectively contrasted as the genuine hero who is equipped with wisdom, power and braveness, standing at the front line of justice until he dies.