notwhatwemaybe - Tumblr blog

[notwhatwemaybe]

no traveller returns, puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of?

[notwhatwemaybe]

losing my mind at this gem i found on reddit

[notwhatwemaybe]

“romeo and juliet were just dumb horny kids; they didn’t REALLY love each other” L + ratio + their first conversation forms a sonnet + they are both traumatized and seeking gentleness wherever they can get it + teenagers can have deep and important emotions too + your high school english teacher is not gonna resign because you didn’t like the play

[notwhatwemaybe]

Me: Shakespeare is meant to be performed and watched, not simply read! 

Also me: Every Shakespeare performance I’ve seen is slightly wrong because it doesn’t match the version in my head that is secretly the best and most correct version that Shakespeare intended.  

[notwhatwemaybe]

There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.

[notwhatwemaybe]

always thinking about the production of hamlet i saw at the pop up globe a couple of years ago where everyone was costumed in typical shakespearean dress and the set was fairly minimal BUT! they gave polonius an iphone. it was like a running gag that his ringtone kept going off when hamlet or claudius were trying to speak and they would get more and more impatient with him every time. the cast had perfect comedic timing and it was such a perfect modernisation of typical shakespeare humour

but oh my God. the nervous laughter that rippled through the audience when his phone went off behind the tapestry. the heavy silence that followed, interrupted only by the incessant chime of polonius' ringtone and a muffled "shit, shit!" while he tried to decline the call. it keeps ringing even after hamlet has already put his sword through him. hamlet picks it up in his bloody hands and ends the call, puts it back in polonius' grasp before turning back to face gertrude.

hands down the best set up and pay-off of any addition to a shakespeare play i have ever witnessed

[notwhatwemaybe]

look. i’m just saying that we have no proof gertrude couldn’t see king hamlet’s ghost in 3.4. i’m just saying that horatio, bernardo, AND marcellus were all able to see the ghost, so it doesn’t make any sense that gertrude wouldn’t be able to. i’m just SAYING that denial is gertrude’s entire story in this play - she ignores her husband’s suspicious death, ignores custom (+ possibly public opinion) to marry his brother, ignored her son’s obvious grief and mental health issues, watched the situation in the danish court spiral out of control, possibly even watched ophelia die (depending on how you want to interpret that story), and finally died because she drank wine that was OBVIOUSLY suspicious, like, claudius was NOT subtle. isn’t it so much more compelling to view 3.4 not as “hamlet’s the only one who can see the ghost” but as “gertrude can see the ghost, she just doesn’t want to”

[notwhatwemaybe]

happy tdov to rosalindganymede asyoulikeit & violacesario twelfthnight

[notwhatwemaybe]

thinking many thoughts about transmasc hamlet. thinking about hamlet as "who's there". thinking about how one of the first insults claudius decides to throw at hamlet in his monologue to try and manipulate him is "showing this much emotion makes you look like less of a man". thinking about how gertrude, who's parented hamlet for much longer than claudius, doesn't mirror the language that claudius uses towards hamlet, but still agrees with his decisions in an effort to keep the peace. "I understand that this is how you feel, honey, but do you have to wear those clothes while your father is around? do you have to act like this while we're in public?" thinking about how claudius and gertrude's take on hamlet's pretty reasonable period of mourning (it's barely been a month!) is "she must be acting out, because of anger or malice or madness. she's trying to hurt us with this." thinking about how hamlet's response to his parents' frustration with him is "I'm not acting. this is just who I am." thinking about how laertes doesn't tell ophelia to break up with hamlet or to completely distrust him, but instead cautions her specifically and repeatedly against having sex with him. because according to laertes, if they did, it would only serve to strip ophelia of her honor, since hamlet would never be allowed to marry ophelia - he'd need to marry someone else in order to fulfill his duties to the kingdom, in order to continue the royal bloodline. "hamlet may love you, but he can't help the way that he was born." thinking about how concerns over hamlet and ophelia's relationship (sometimes raised by ophelia herself) often run along the lines of "this is dishonest, this is not allowed, letting this courtship continue only serves to exacerbate hamlet's madness." thinking about how the queen tries to affect and analyze hamlet's behavior through rosencrantz and guildenstern, hamlet's childhood friends, and hopes that the memories of the time they spent together as children will make hamlet act more like his old self. "but you never showed any signs when you were younger! you were always such a happy little girl." thinking about how all the members of the royal court treat hamlet like he's unstable and malicious from the beginning, and how this dismissal encourages hamlet to play the part that they expect from him: the improper, insubordinate child, mad with love or grief or just plain mad. thinking about how hamlet doesn't seem to care that he's throwing away his reputation for intelligence, or his relationship with ophelia, or even his own life, because he's come to the conclusion that the people around him care more about figuring out how to change his behavior than acknowledging or respecting his feelings. thinking about some small moment where rosencrantz and guildenstern ask horatio "do you know where the princess is?" and horatio, who has only ever known hamlet as himself, away from the influence of the royal family, might awkwardly reply "um, I think he went that way." thinking about how hamlet's own logic and feelings and beliefs have been so thoroughly undermined by both his family and his own constant doubt that he has to repeatedly turn to horatio as a neutral arbiter while he's trying to determine whether claudius is guilty or if he's only imagining it. thinking about how intensely hamlet idolized his father, to the point of becoming him. naming himself after him in an attempt to emulate him. dueling to settle disputes like him. dying like him. thinking about how hamlet entrusts horatio, his friend, a young man who never knew him as a child, with telling the story of his life after he dies. hamlet will not be buried in his family's plot, underneath a headstone bearing a name that isn't his. he'll be put to rest like his father. like a soldier. like a man.

[notwhatwemaybe]

i love when tragedies are like “the love was there. it didnt change anything. it didnt save anyone. there were just too many forces against it. but it still matters that the love was there”

[notwhatwemaybe]

[notwhatwemaybe]

do you think that rosencrantz and guildenstern ever explored each other's b- (my thought is silenced by the unstoppable flow of the tragic narrative)

[notwhatwemaybe]

just want to call out the perfect shitty-stepdad psychology of the way Claudius calls Hamlet “our son” until he becomes a problem … at which point he’s “YOUR son” 

Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

He hath found / The head and source of all your son’s distemper.

There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves: / You must translate: ‘tis fit we understand them. / Where is your son?

 First, her father slain: / Next, your son gone

Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.

And I swear, I SWEAR he tips his hand during the swordfight when he turns to Gertrude and says, “Our son shall win.” Because Gertrude knows that’s not how Claudius thinks of Hamlet. So she starts thinking - that means he must be playing a part, manipulating her, something’s going on, something’s fishy. And immediately after… she drinks the poisoned wine. 

[notwhatwemaybe]

genuinely wild that there's people on this planet who haven't had their lives utterly consumed by william shakespeare's hamlet at some point. what are they doing. are they normal

[notwhatwemaybe]

grrrrrrrr bark bark grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRR (is rereading hamlet again)

[notwhatwemaybe]

[notwhatwemaybe]

the most insane double casting i’ve heard of is ophelia and horatio being played by the same actress. the implications of that drive me crazy