Hamlet

Ben Dillard
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a classical tragedy that has many deep and compelling themes, and “deeper meanings.” The play is a story about how Hamlet discovers that his father (the former king of Denmark) was murdered by his brother (now the current king of Denmark) and his father’s ghost comes to tell him to seek revenge. After learning this news Hamlet begins to act strange, and seems to have gone mad because of his father’s death, but his only aim is to seek his revenge. Throughout the book Hamlet puts on various acts and schemes to fool almost everyone in the kingdom, but he also come closer to his goal. At first I was intimidated about reading a novel by Shakespeare because of the strange vocabulary, but as I started to read the book I was surprised that I was able to read and understand what was being said and what was happening. I ended up liking the way the book was written and how interesting the vocabulary was, so I ended up greatly enjoying the novel.
My Interview:
Me: Why did you even suggest this book to me?
Alex: Hahaha! Well I remember having to read Hamlet in high school and I thought it was an interesting book. I also had you read it because as you know I am working on my game ( Alex is currently in the proses of designing and building a PC game) and I wanted you to read some kind of play or screenplay so you could help me out with the story line and dialogue, and that was the only one that came to mind.
Me: Well thanks (I smiled) I was actually scared when you told me that I should read Hamlet, mostly because of the way Shakespeare writes and all the strange vocabulary that would be in it.
Alex: And how did you handle it?
Me: Well after a few pages it was fine, like I understood almost everything. It actually kind of scared me that I was able to understand what he was saying. But I did enjoy reading the book a lot, and I like how he would describe the actions the characters would be making every now and then, and how they would enter or exit the scene. I just thought it was very interesting, and a little funny.
Alex: Really? I remember being so lost when I first read the book in high school! But at least you did pay attention to all those little details. Do you think you could help write a screenplay and dialogue now that you have read some kind of an example?
Me: Yeah, I feel that I could but I would defiantly need a lot of help. But over all I feel that I can.
We continued to talk but we ended up getting into a lot of details about the game that he is designing, and he showed me all his sketches and the story line, characters, weapons, skills, everything. I didn’t end up helping out with the game very much this summer, but we still got a long ways to go, so I am sure I’ll be able to help out more later on. I also had a good time reading this book, it showed me that I shouldn’t be afraid of Shakespeare and that you can pick up a few skills but just reading a book.