Hamlet

The plot of Hamlet:

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is visited by a mysterious ghost resembling his recently deceased father, the King of Denmark. The ghost tells Hamlet that his father was murdered by Claudius, the King’s brother, who then took the throne and married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. The ghost encourages Hamlet to avenge his father’s death by killing Claudius.

Characters:

Hamelt                                                                    Ophelia
King Claudius                                                          Polonius
Laertes                                                                   Gertrude
Horatio                                                                   Fortinbras
Ghost of Hamlet's father                                          Yorick
Rosencrantz                                                            Bernardo
Voltimand                                                               Guildenstern
Marcellus                                                                Francisco
Osric                                                                      Reynaldo
Cornelius

A brief description of Hamlet:

The title character of the play, Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, who was thought to be aged between 17 - 22. He goes through many troubles and problems throughout the play, especially the discovery that his father was murdered by his uncle. Hamlet often thinks too much, and is not quick to make a decision. He does not like this quality in himself, and would like to be impulsive like Fortinbras. Hamlet is cynical, yet intelligent, and he is often difficult to tell if he is truly crazy or if he is just pretending to get revenge for his father's murder.

The Monologue:

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 heartache, 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: ay, 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,
Th' 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 th' 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 enterprise 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.

My view:

Although I do enjoy this monologue, I do think that I would be able to play more and expand on the monologue from the Tempest because it has more of a comedic feel to it. Also the language used in this piece is harder to understand than the other. Not only do I find Trinculo's monologue easier to understand, but I also prefer Trinculo's piece.

The Tempest - Trinculo

The Tempest plot:

This drama is one of the great comedy plays by William Shakespeare. The themes illustrated in the play are freedom, friendship , repentance and forgiveness and feature different temperaments illustrating temperance and intemperance. The plot starts when King Alonso of Naples and his entourage sail home for Italy after attending his daughter's wedding in Tunis, Africa. They encounter a violent storm, or Tempest. Everyone jumps overboard and are washed ashore on a strange island inhabited by the magician Prospero who has deliberately conjured up the storm. Prospero and Miranda live in a cave on the island which is also inhabited by Ariel, a sprite who carries out the bidding of Prospero, and the ugly, half human Caliban. Various plots against the main characters fail thanks to the magic of Prospero. The play ends with all the plotters repenting the Tempest is calmed.

Characters:

         

            Miranda                                                               Prospero
            Iris                                                                       Juno
            Sycorax                                                               Trinculo
            Sebastian                                                             Stephano
            Gonzalo                                                               Antonio
            Ariel                                                                    Adrian
            King Alonso                                                        Ferdinand
            Francisco                                                            Caliban
            Ceres

A brief description of Trinculo:

A consistently drunken jester, who is a servant of Alonso's, and brought ashore in the shipwreck. He is a dull fool mostly, not capable of any real action, and providing a good deal of comic relief. When Caliban meets him, he immediately dislikes him and his inebriated insults; but, Trinculo does become a part of Caliban's plan to murder Prospero and take over the island, though Trinculo proves completely ineffective in this.

The monologue: 

TRINCULO: Here's neither bush nor shrub, to bear off any weather at all, and another storm brewing; I hear it sing i' the wind: yond same black cloud, yond huge one, looks like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor. If it should thunder as it did before, I know not where to hide my head: yond same cloud cannot choose but fall by pailfuls. What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or alive? A fish: he smells like a fish; a very ancient and fish-like smell; a kind of not of the newest Poor-John. A strange fish! Were I in England now, as once I was, and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver: there would this monster make a man; any strange beast there makes a man: when they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian. Legged like a man and his fins like arms! Warm o' my troth! I do now let loose my opinion; hold it no longer: this is no fish, but an islander, that hath lately suffered by a thunderbolt. 

[Thunder] 

Alas, the storm is come again! my best way is to creep under his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabouts: misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows. I will here shroud till the dregs of the storm be past.

My view:

I really like Trinculo as a character because he is the fool of the whole play, if this was performed back when Shakespeare was alive Trinculo wold be the character that the so called 'peasants' would most relate to. Furthermore I like the fact that he is a funny and quirky character because I consider myself quite quirky, and so I believe I could play this role quite well. Luckily I also like the monologue, although there are some words that i didn't understand, for example 'pailfuls' which I now know means, in it's simplest form, bucket-fulls. 

what this is all about

This blog is about the choices I have when choosing my monologues for my level 3 BTEC course in Performing Arts.

All the information on this blog is a write up of all the written work that i have built up over the past month or so.

My choices

For my Monologues I have to perform one Shakespeare piece and one contemporary piece. The choices I have are endless, but i do have to find pieces that suit me as an actor e.g. playing range (age) or if i genuinely like the script.

The Shakespeare pieces I am stuck between are:

• The Tempest - Trinculo
• Hamlet - Hamlet

The contemporary pieces i am considering are:

• Bottleneck - Tony
• P'tang Yang Kipperbang - Alan
• Private Peaceful - Tommo
• The Gods Weep - Jimmy

Although these are all monologues I am considering, I have read through a lot of different monologues and have managed to narrow it down to just two Shakespeare pieces and four contemporary pieces.