Revision of a Paragraph in our "Short Works Essay"

For this blog post, we are asked to revise a paragraph from our "Short Works Essay". My whole essay is posted on my blog a few posts down.

My original paragraph(directly from the essay):
                  As the story progresses, the symbols come to symbolize progress, specifically how progress is halted when all people care about is absolute equality that is created by the handicaps. While the couple is watching TV “George [is] toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn't be handicapped” (Vonnegut 1).   However, as soon as he tried to make progress, or evolve, his thoughts the mental handicap sounded. Consequently, the notion “[doesn't] get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts” (Vonnegut 1).  George’s mental handicap limits his ability to form advanced thoughts that could and most likely will lead to progress, and his ear radio will always ruin and diffuse his potentially intelligent comment. Most people are masked by these handicaps, making them unaware of the side effects, especially no progress, which leaves them bewildered and perplexed when the handicaps disrupt relationships. Yet, some people will also recognize those side effects and take action to break free of these handicaps, in the form of relationships to mock the fact that handicaps, the sound in George’s ear and the ballerina’s weights, can break down relationships. Before people could understand what will happen when there is no progress, it starts to disrupt relationships.

My Revised Paragraph:                  
                 As the story progresses, the symbols come to represent the halting of progress, particularly when all people care about is absolute equality that is created by the handicaps. While the couple is watching TV “George [is] toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn't be handicapped” (Vonnegut 1).   However, as soon as he tries to make progress, or evolve, his thoughts the mental handicap sounded. Consequently, the notion “[doesn't] get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts” (Vonnegut 1). Most people are masked by these handicaps, making them unaware of the side effects. The most obvious side effect of the handicaps is progress halting.  Yet, some people will also recognize those side effects and take action to break free of these handicaps. Vonnegut makes Harrison one of the people who notice the burden of equality and how it can halt progress. To Vonnegut, the only way to break free of equality is to ultimately break down relationships. 

The Many Portrayals of Ophelia in Act 1 Scene 3

I was assigned to watch this video and notice how the actor portrays Ophelia and if I agree with her portrayal. Then compare the first acting to another actor portraying Ophelia in the same scene. (Act 1 Scene 3)
First video:  

The second video: 

In the first video, Ophelia is portrayed as a bubbly, loving sister. Well, at least around her brother. She is willing to take her brothers advice, but by her smile while Laertes tells her the dangers of loving Hamlet, we know that she will definitely go with her gut. This actor also plays Ophelia as a playful soul, especially when she pulls out some of Laertes' stuff. I think that this actor portrayed Ophelia quite well. I imagine Ophelia as a smart girl who will has her own opinions and will stick by them. When Polonius warns Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet, she says, "I will obey my lord" sarcastically, but submissively. However, we all know that she just wanted her dad to go away and know that she obviously has her own plans of continuing to see Hamlet.

The second video portrays Ophelia as a less prominent character, however, if she is in a Shakespeare play, she is definitely important. I am confident to make the statement that Shakespeare has a reason for every little thing in his plays.  That is what makes reading Shakespeare so much fun, even better than going to Disneyland! *sarcasm*  I feel like in the second portrayal she is able to get bossed around by her brother quite easily, but slyly knows her own boundaries and can retort if she wants to. I see this especially in 0:48 seconds of the scene where she smirks a little bit only to herself. 

The two scenes have portrayed Ophelia differently. In the first scene she is shown to have more power and control over her opinions, while in the second she can be influenced easily.  I think the first portrayal captures Shakespeare's vision of Ophelia, more, since she is shown to be more of a sisterly figure by being playful, happy, and caring. However, no one can be too sure of what exactly Shakespeare wanted in his plays. Again the excitement!
My challenge to you, reader, is to portray Ophelia in your own way, possibly different than the two scenes above or maybe the same....

First Impression of Hamlet

As I start to read Hamlet by none other than Shakespeare himself, I read about the depressing character, Hamlet.

Hamlet seems as if he hates the world. When Hamlet first appears in Act 1 Scene 2, he is wearing the "nighted color" (1.2.70) and is told by his mother to "let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark"(1.2.71). The nighted color referred is black and his mother wants Hamlet to be friendly to the King. 

He is described by Shakespeare wearing all black, to emphasize his depression over the fact that he is still stuck over mourning his father's death. Hamlet's father has been dead about two months and Hamlet is still terribly mourning over the loss that it has consumed him to wear all black. I guess you can say Hamlet is childish because he can't move on from the death of a loved one, while adult or mature figures can move on with their lives. Of course, grieving and mourning is part of the recovery process when someone dies, but that part of the process typically lasts two weeks, definitely not two months.  I am not at all saying that you should remember the loved one for only two weeks and then forget them all together and completely move on. No, you should always keep them in your thoughts but it should not consume you like it does to Hamlet.

Shakespeare also portrays Hamlet as a scornful prince. He does not want to admit that his mother married the current King, Hamlet's dad's brother. Hamlet idolizes his father and hates that his mother moved on so quickly. Hamlet remarks that "She married. O'with wicked speed, to post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!" (1.2. 161-162) He calls the marriage "incestuous", but in fact it is totally legal. Calling a legitimate marriage incest is probably one of the worst charges you could make about a marriage, especially about your own MOTHER! To even emphasize the "wicked speed" of her turn around and marrying the brother of her former husband, Shakespeare writes that "the funeral baked meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables" (1.2.186-187). In other words, the funeral leftovers were still good for the wedding. Woah, Shakespeare is rubbing the death in! Shakespeare is definitely contributing to the depression factor of Hamlet.  

At this point in the play, Hamlet is a downer, and wants nothing to do with his mother or especially the King. By analyzing other Shakepeare plays, most of his characters change, so I am expecting Hamlet to change. I do not know whether it will be a very dramatic positive change or a subtle even more negative change. I guess, I have to read on. 

The Whole Essay!

Refer to the last blog posts for the prompt/outline.
Well, here it is the whole shebang!

Handicaps as Symbols in “Harrison Bergeron”

The symbols, George’s sound in his ear, and the ballerina’s weights, are used by Vonnegut in his short story, “Harrison Bergeron” to create absolute, forced equality in his futuristic community. At the beginning, the symbols show the burden of complete, forced equality and then how progress is halted when all people care about is utter equality. Later, the symbols show how the handicaps, now representing the affliction of absolute equality and the rarity of progress, create problems with relationships.Vonnegut is able to the use symbols, the sound in George’s ear and the ballerina’s weights, to show how complete equality has a negative effect on the progress of thoughts, relationships, can prohibit excellence.

At the start of the story, the physical handicaps, weights on the ballerinas, and the mental handicaps, the sounds in George’s ear,represent the burden of absolute, enforced equality. George and Hazel are watching ballerinas dance beautifully on TV at the beginning of the story. To keep all of the ballerina’s dancing equal they “were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot” (Vonnegut 1).  Not only do they have to bear those weights while they are dancing, it is a burden because of the enforced equality. The physical handicaps that were imposed on the dancers, show the onus the enforced equality.

Moreover, the mental handicap in George’s ear is placed there so “people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (Vonnegut 1).   Vonnegut describes George as having above-average intelligence. However, in this futuristic utopia, above-average is not okay, unless everyone is. Consequently George’s intelligence made him have “a little mental handicap radio in his ear,” (Vonnegut 1) and “would send out some sharp noise” (Vonnegut 1) to prevent un-equality in intelligence and eventually the progression of thoughts. Since the above average intelligence is unable to think about things in depth, only the surface of the topic is brushed and is unable to make connections to create progress. The handicaps enable equality, but disable the ability to form complex comments that will eventually lead to the development of even more elaborate comments, all because of forced, later unwanted, equality.   

As the story progresses, the symbols come to symbolize progress, specifically how progress is halted  when all people care about is absolute equality that is created by the handicaps. While the couple is watching TV when the ballerinas were on “George [is] toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn’t be handicapped” (Vonnegut 1).   However, as soon as he tried to make progress, or evolve,  his thoughts the mental handicap sounded. Consequently, the notion “didn’t get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts” (Vonnegut 1).  George’s mental handicap limits his ability to form advanced thoughts that could and most likely will  lead to progress, and his ear radio will always ruin and diffuse his potentially intelligent comment. Most people are masked by these handicaps, making them unaware of the side effects, especially no progress, which leaves them bewildered and perplexed when the handicaps disrupt relationships . Yet, some people will also recognize those side effects and take action to break free of these handicaps, in the form of relationships to mock the fact that handicaps, the sound in George’s ear and the ballerina’s weights, can break down relationships.

When the end of the story arrives, the symbols finally illustrate the harm to relationships and the rebellion of the handicaps through the creation of other relations. In attempt to rally the rebellion, Harrison picked a ballerina from the crowd and “plucked the mental handicap from her ear, snapped off her physical handicaps with marvelous delicacy” (Vonnegut 5). He removed all of the ballerina’s handicaps and declared her his Empress to rebel against the government and show that absolute equality is useless. By Harrison taking off the ballerina’s weights, he creates a relationship as “Harrison and his Empress” and enables rebellion. 

In another instance after the couple watched the horror of Harrison on TV, a relationship was destroyed; the connection was lost between Harrison and his parents. George goes to get a drink and comes back to Hazel crying and says to “‘forget sad things,’ said George. ‘I always do,’ said Hazel’” (Vonnegut 6) and then promptly heard, “the sound of a riveting gun in his head” (Vonnegut 6). In the first part of the quote, George was telling Hazel to forget Harrison dying on TV. At this point the  relationship and connection between Harrison and his parents is destroyed. When George hears the sound of a gun, it emphasizes the fact that the mental handicap ruins any hope of reconnecting with his son, and even the mourning over the death of Harrison. 

Vonnegut uses this story mock absolute equality. He is trying to tell us that when everybody is equal, it will be horrible,not worth it and that people should focus their energy somewhere else, such as trying to create progress and increase the complexity of their thoughts. Through the symbols, he shows the reader that equality is harmful and that there should be people who are better than the average and even people who are below average. By not limiting what people can accomplish, like removing the handicaps in the story, it will eventually demonstrate to us how excellence can better the prosperity.

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