DEBATE: MILLERS DEFFINITION

On Thursday December 11, 2008, in room 204 a debate was held as to determine whether Miller’s definition of a modern tragedy is or is not appropriate to the modern age. The affirmative team was Dawson, Justin and Ben. They were against a team made of Stephanie B, Stephanie M and Rebecca. The judges for this debate were Seth, Colton and Logan.

The affirmative side started their debate by stating what you must have for a novel to be a tragedy. The negative side started their debate with research based on Aristotle’s definition of a tragic character. Stephanie brought up how Millar’s definition of tragedy applied more to Shakespearean times than anything else.

Both rebuttals seemed very week as no real information was presented as both teams seemed only interested in attacking on another.

The second round of arguments seemed fairly week as well. There was a lack research done by both teams and it seemed to be that the work load was left up to Sweeny and Stephanie B. Stephanie B kept carrying her team and Justin seemed only interested in attacking the other team based on the fact that they are all blond women.

The free for all was one to remember. It was a non stop bashing of women’s rights by the negative side, and the repercussions of this can and will probably be seen some time in May at prom. Because of this, Boucher had enough and it seemed to be an all out war between her and Sweeny.

But luckily for Stephanie and her team they won in favor of their opponents. In a debate that had much promise to be as much intellectual as educational lead to be an all out battle of the sex’s.

DEBATE: WAS HAMLET CRAZZY

It was Friday December 12, 2008, in Room 204 where a debate was held to find out whether or not Hamlet was crazy. Judges Nick, Yan, and Jennifer Ross overlooked the debate to ensure total chaos would not ensue. Arguing that Hamlet was in fact mentally insane were Ilayda, Mary and Michaela. Those people that were responsible for arguing that Hamlet was not crazy were Kelsey, Melissa and Jess.

The affirmative side opened up with Mary rambling on about why Hamlet was insane and listed all the different circumstances that would cause his change in mental state. The Negative side opened up saying that all the circumstances that they are describing are taken out of context of the story, thus saying Mary has no idea what she’s talking about and miss-understood the books meaning.

The rebuttals from both teams were very well done and you can tell it would be a very close debate as both teams researched plenty of information. Both teams brought up very good counter arguments.

The free for all lived up to its reputation. As one member of the crowed got into one of the Affirmatives faces, she got a little angry and said some things that may or may not be appropriate, so she will go unnamed…Mary. It was obvious that the crowd was in favor of the Negative side.

This crowd advantage and what seemed to be a much more thorough research lead to the Affirmatives downfall as the judges scored the victory in favor of the Negative side.

1.2

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet there are two main families in which the play Revolves around. These are the families of Polonius and Hamlet. Now these are not your stereotypical families, which you can expect giving that this is a play written by Shakespeare. Your regular, normal everyday family is what would be called a Nuclear family.

What would seem to be your average family of royalty, the house of Hamlet was far from it. After Hamlets father passed away to what seemed to be an “unfortunate death” turned out to be a murder by Hamlets own uncle. After the death Hamlets uncle married Hamlets mother making Claudius the new King of Demark. This angers Hamlet because now he loses his place on the thrown. Not only does he show hate towards his “new father” but he does the same to his mother. So in order to fix things Hamlet comes up with a plan to kill Claudius.

The next major family is the family of Polonius, although it does not say much about his parents or his wife, his two children play huge roles in the play. This family is what you would expect to find in your Nuclear Family as the father is the person in charge and the children respect him enough to obey his wishes. They obey him so much Ophelia even started to ignore the person she loved because her father told her to do so. But when hamlet murders Polonius this Nuclear family gets destroyed and Laertes plots to kill Hamlet and Ophelia kills herself.

1.4

Thesis – Was the love shared between Ophelia and hamlet real? ( Yes it is )


Reason – They both make claims that they love each other several times in the play.

Example – In Act III, Scene I, Hamlet says, 'I did love you once.'

Example – He sent her many letters before he went “crazy” telling her he loved her.

Example - "He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders of his affection to me."



Reason – The reason why the two were not both falling head over heels for each other was due to the fact that there parents messed things up.

Example – The only reason why she was forced to betray him was because it was due to the wishes of her father not because that’s what she felt was right.

Example – He was just betrayed by his mother, a person whom he thought would of loved him the most so for him to put all his love into one girl again would crush him
should she betray him, making him skeptical about the relationship.



Reason – The only reason why it is not 100% obvious is because of the hardships he is facing with everything going on around him.

Example – You only see Hamlet say he is not in love with her when he is angry with his uncle or when he’s going “crazy”.

Example – Because of what Ophelia’s father told her to do, she was forced to reject Hamlet and because of this and previous built up emotions Hamlet used her as a target for his fustrations.



Conclusion – The times where Hamlet shows his love for Ophelia cast a shadow over the times where he criticized her, and the same goes for Ophelia.

1.3

What Hamlet does in his own reality during the play is that he forgets all the things around him and essentially puts blinders on as the only thing he worries about is trying to kill Claudius. He loses touch with the people around him as they all begin to think he is crazy and in the end seals his fate as his own selfishness gave him the role of the “tragic hero” which in turn lead to his death.

Gertrude is another character with blinders on. She has herself living in this reality where everything seems to be going great. When in fact, shit has hit the fan. She doesn’t seem to mourn for the loss of her husband and doesn’t seem to be too worried about her son’s emotional state until she feels that her life is on the line.

Claudius spends his time in a reality where he can trust no one. This is very apparent through out the course of the play. He spends his time constantly looking over his shoulder. Especially when he learns of Hamlets plan to kill him, because this forces him to come up with a plan of his own, which later back fires as he ends up killing his wife in the process.

The family unit as shown in this play, plays a huge role in society. In the beginning things were going well for Hamlet and his family. But with the death of his father and his mother’s hasty marriage, this caused a huge divide in the family and things started to get a little messed up. As the family began to fall apart everyone started to rely on himself or herself as they had no one to go to, so they all became selfish in there own ways. So without a strong support from a family society falls apart.

1.5

Maslows Hierarchy is a theory in psychology that basically breaks up any given persons needs on five basic levels. These levels become less of a primary need and more of a psychological need the higher you go on the pyramid. The five levels are physiological needs, Security needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs and finally the need for self-actualization. In this activity I will describe Hamlets reality based on Maslows Hierarchy and show how his murder of Claudius satisfied the needs of this hierarchy.

The Murder Of Claudius

In the play, Claudius kills King Hamlet and by doing so wrecks the balance in young Hamlets life. This affects Hamlet on three levels on the Hierarchy; Security needs, Love and Belonging and Self Actualization. His security needs are endangered because a family member was just murdered so in order to fulfill his security needs he feels like the death of his uncle is the only way to go. The needs for his Love and Belonging were endangered because Hamlet felt that the relationship he had with his mother was threatened because of the marriage that just occurred. For Self Actualization he felt that there was a problem with the marriage of his uncle and mother because if they were to marry and have kids there was no need for him anymore because he would no longer be inline for the thrown. So in order to solve this problem he killed Claudius.

1.6

1.6/7 ???

Hamlets actions during the course of the play can best be described as a person who has just lost their father and doesn’t exactly know how to cope with his loss. Which explains a lot of Hamlets mood swings and erratic behavior. All he seems to be able to focus on is how to get his revenge for the death of his father and a lot of his comments are directed towards his mother and Claudius. He is constantly going off on long speeches about his task at hand and so to those people around him he seems to be a little bit off his rocker.

To the people around him his actions are not taken to well. As most of the people in his immediate family are scared of him: ie. His mother after he kills Polonius, Claudius once he learns of Hamlets plan to kill him and even the woman he loved is so put off by his most recent actions she has to go and off herself. His constant rants and erratic behavior leads most people to believe he has gone mad. So mad in fact that his own mother is worried and tells the King of what has happened.