Sunday, November 1, 2015

I want to to do these two lines from Shakespeare because they are some of the most well known lines, but I feel like I have never really taken the chance to read them and analyse them. I also think that these lines could have a lot to do with my paper. I am focusing on a Mormon reading, and so it is easy to see how Hamlets thoughts on "to be or not to be" could tie in with the Mormon doctrine of the plan of salvation and the meaning of life. I might take my paper in a less doctrinal and more cultural take from a Mormon perspective, and so Romeo's long speech about Juliet's loveliness could easily play into that. I'm reminded of a line in the Disney movie, Mulan. "How bout' a girl that's got a brain, and always speaks her mind?" The men: "Nahhhhhhh!!!" There is definitely something to be said about the unfortunate importance of the way you look at BYU. 
Romeo and Juliet
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
JULIET appears above at a window
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
That I might touch that cheek!
Hamlet

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes Calamity of so long life:
For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time,
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,
When he himself might his Quietus make
With a bare Bodkin? Who would Fardels bear, 
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered Country, from whose bourn
No Traveller returns, Puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of.
Thus Conscience does make Cowards of us all,
And thus the Native hue of Resolution
Is sicklied o'er, with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment, 
With this regard their Currents turn awry,
And lose the name of Action. Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia? Nymph, in thy Orisons
Be all my sins remembered.


P.S. Quick question. This adds up to about 60 lines. Any suggestions about where to cut from?

2 comments:

  1. Sorry that half of this is hyperlink...ed. I keep trying to take it off but it comes right back when I paste it on.

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  2. You are covering the classics! I am glad, I'm sure you will have ample opportunity in the future to use these, they are quoted soooo often!

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