English

Analysis of Act 1 and Act 2 of Hamlet

I will center this analysis on the main character Hamlet and according to psychoanalytical theory which states that human attitudes, experience and thought is largely influenced by irrational drives, tries to bring these drives into awareness meet to psychological resistance in form of defense mechanisms and finally but not less important that conflicts can materialize in the form of mental or emotional disturbances.

Hamlet first evidence of the psychoanalytical theory is in Act 1 scene 2 when Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and new king of Denmark, makes an speech in the court celebrating his coronation as new king with Laertes, Polonius, Gertrude (Hamlet’s mother and queen of Denmark) and of course, Hamlet.  When Hamlet is left alone, he expresses his desire to die, to suicide but it would be a sin(evidence of the importance of traditions and religion). He can’t tolerate and is completely devastated because of the rapid marriage of his mother with uncle Claudius, considering this act as a betrayal to his death father. Quote:” Within a month, Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears(…) But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.” This quote shows us that Hamlet mentally is a very weak person, without the capability to something in memory of his death father and expresses his disappointment against his mother for marrying so fast Claudius.

In scenes 4 and 5 of the first act, we can notice an evolution on the mentally of our protagonist Hamlet. In both scenes, Hamlet finds and talks to the ghost of his death father Old Hamlet and he tells Hamlet that it was all a murder planned by Claudius in order to get the crown and all the power.  The ghost demands Hamlet to vengeance the death of Old Hamlet. This changes totally the mentally of the protagonist, remembering that in Act 1 he want to kill himself, now he knows all the truth and knows what to fight for: to revenge his father. Quote:” Ghost: Revenge his soul and most unnatural murder(…) Hamlet:  O my prophetic soul! My uncle!” The quote of act 1 scene 5 clearly explains how the ghost talks to Hamlet to revenge his father and causes that false madness on Hamlet in order to confuse everyone, to guess the reason of that mad behavior.  

In act 2, Hamlet begins to act totally strange. People think he has become mad because of the death of his father, but what they don’t know is that all this “madness” is just fake, is not real. One example of Hamlet’s madness is the way he treats Ophelia, a beautiful young woman who Hamlet is in love with, but Claudius is suspicious about how things are going towards the protagonist attitude so he sends two childhood friends to get some information for him, but of course without revealing his true plan. The behavior Hamlet shows has a high relationship with the psychoanalytical theory as because the attitude he has towards people around him is influenced by irrational drives. 

Reading Journal: "Things Fall Apart" Chapter 1

In this first chapter, the narrator presents the possible main character of the story, Okonkwo, a man of a nigerian village that became famous after defeating Amalinze the Cat who was a great wrestler. We can notice that some traditions of the nigerian culture have been describe but most importantly, the narrator shows some complementary information about Okonkwo such as the mistakes of his father in order to us, the readers, to understand the behavoir of our main caharcter. Still there is no evidence of an antagonist in the story.

Things Fall Apart: Questions

During this chapters, the narrator keeps describing and showing us the characteristics of our principal character Okonkwo. He shows his more aggressive part with his own family, to their wives particularly, by hitting them. This shows how the gender roles affect the development of the society in the community of Okonkwo. One example of this idea happens during the “Weak of Peace”, when Okonkwo realizes that his youngest wife went to another place without making dinner so he decides to beat her even though he couldn’t do that, not during that week. In other words, I think the narrator is showing us that violence during that period of time was forbidden, but after it violence could be another time used in order to show power to someone, in this case Okonkwo to his youngest wife. “And when she returned he beat her very heavily. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace.”

In chapter 5 there is another case where Okonkwo beats his second wife, Ekwefi, after using some wood to paint her children skin and her skin. This shows that Okonkwo  not only doesn’t know how to control its own actions but also that their wives have to tolerate all the abused caused to them and with no one to protect them. I think this is a kind of machism as Okonkwo has a total control of his family and his wives have none.  The result of this social order or behavior in the Nigerian communities is that the only expectations of women are to take care of the kids and stay home while men have to do the hard work and bring the necessary to home.

Chinua Achebe tries to show the pre-colonial Nigeria by describing the characteristics of a Nigerian community: manners, way of living, attitudes, beliefs, etc using the main character Okonkwo. For example, the author uses proverbs in other to show a way of expressing in the communities. “Eneke the bird says that since the men have learnt to shoot without missing, he has learnt to fly without perching” p.17. “You can tell a ripe corn by its look” p.17

Also in chapter 3 a belief is mentioned: an Oracle. Okonkwo starts to remember when his father Unoka went to the Oracle and was told that he failed because of being lazy and died shamefully. Is truly important because Okonkwo tries and works hard in order to erase the memory of his father, change his image that his father felt him and becoming a real man by his own. “You, Unoka, are known in all the clan for the weakness of your matchet and your hoe”. 

Reading Journal: Things Fall Apart (Until Part 2)

On the first chapters, the author began by showing us Okonkwo, the main character, who becomes famous after defeating Amalinze the Cat, in all his aspects. It can be inferred that his attitudes and actions are based on trying not to follow his father example so the narrator and tries to justify Okonkwo’s  actions of violence based on this ideal.

 As the story develops, the author begins to show some cultural aspects of African traditions and also the structured social roles of men and women, in order to reflect the most important aspects of his culture before the British colonization during 1890’s. One example of a Nigerian tradition or celebration is the “Week of Peace” and also the constant utilization of Igbo language, an African language, which in a way expresses ideas but with a different style in order to show typical African characteristics to the story and these words can be understood in context.  Also the use of proverbs such as “You can tell a ripe corn by its look” which is another form of showing the African culture.

 But one of the most important things that are shown about the culture is how men are treated differently from women during all the story, and we can infer that the social structure is very marked in comparison to other societies because in “Things Fall Apart” the woman is shown as the one who has to stay at home and look out for the kids while the man is the one that has to do the hard work to sustain his family.

In part 1 on every important event that occurs is when Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna, even thought he didn’t wanted to do it but in order to follow the traditions he takes her to a forest to kill her, this is quite similar to a sacrifice but in the story is not reflected as that, just like another African tradition. “…this feeling, when his father walked in, that night after killing Ikemefuna”. Pg.45

As the story continues, in the last chapters of part 1, the narrator presents us the true feelings of Okonkwo, even thought him views feelings as a kind of weakness and a sign of feminism (social structure and evidence of machismo in the story) and I think the intention is for us the readers to look Okonkwo in another way, from another point of view.

Questions of Part 2: Things Fall Apart

How is Okonkwo affected by his exile?

Okonkwo takes his family into the exile for seven years and he takes them to Mbanta, it’s natal village. At the beginning, he doesn’t feel well of his exile and because of his bad luck he had lost all his power and influence, and especially this exile represents like a new beginning for him because has to rebuilt his farm and become a successful and powerful man, instead he feels powerless as his father was. “Work no longer had for him pleasure it used to have, …” This quote explains the lack of hope and enthusiasm to get back the life he had before the exile. “His life had been ruled by a great passion – to become one of the lords of the clan… Then everything had broken”. In this quote, the narrator tries to show us that Okonkwo doesn’t the inspiration to rebuilt his life because he lost everything by an act of misfortune. Also he doesn’t feel comfortable to be in a place full of women, because he considered them inferior than men, which is another example of the drastic social structure in African culture.

How is Nwoye affected ?

He becomes to change when the white men or the missioners arrive to their village to predict the Christian religion (as product of the African colonization) but these people began to predict this new religion for Nigerian people in a pacific way, without violence.  This is what attracts Nwoye to become a Christian believer and also because the church allow twins to live and was answered many things about his beliefs.

How does their relationship change?

After the missioners arrive to Mbanta and Nwoye turns into Christianity, his relationship with his father changes drastically. Okonkwo was never in favor of Christianity , he rejected it because he considered a threat for Igbo culture and because it  made the powerful men powerless.  This situation gets to its drastic and most violent point when one of Okonkwo’s cousins tell him that Nwoye is with the Christians so Okonkwo grabs his sons from the neck but Uchendu orders him to let Nwoye, and finally he decides to leave the clan. “Nwoye struggled to free himself from the choking grip… But he left hold of Nwoye, who walked away and never returned”. This quote explains the huge wrath that Okonkwo felt about his son’s decision and it explains how important was for African people the conservation and respect of their religion among other ones.

Prediction for the end of the book

I think that because of the colonization of white people, the clan of Okonkwo and the tribes of Nigeria are going to disappear, well almost all of them, and that maybe Okonkwo is going to be killed because he during part 2 presents a very violent attitude against Christian people so I think that white people are going to get rid of him and his family.

Impressions of First Visit:

In comparison to what I read and I saw in the first visit was very different. I didn't imagine Umuofia so primitive, I thought it was more civilized, but I was wrong: it's like a typical non-civilized village. But I was correct about how the traditions or the things they do in Umuofia. I really liked the visit, it showed a completely different perspective of what  I thought how Umuofia was and I really want to come back to see another places of Umuofia.





First Visit to Umuofia:

Obierika is the best friend of Okonkwo and very respected in Umuofia. He always advices Okonkwo but his friend never listens to him. For him is very important to be a good man in general, working hard for the benefit of his family and Umuofia. He has more moral than Okonkwo in many aspects. I think I can relate Obierika with Nwoye because both criticize the traditions and social structure of the community. Obierika sees white men, when they arrive at the village, in a different way, not as a threat, even he looks them in a sympathetic way; instead of Okonkwo who wanted to  expel them form Umuofia. Obierika reacts in a positive way  when the colonizers arrive but when Okonkwo dies he expressed all his sadness because he was a very close friend. 


Second Visit to Umuofia:

Every time I enter to the village, I get new experiences of the rest of the characters and makes me change my point of view on many aspects of the story such as what happens, how it happens and why it happens. Also, thanks to the debates about the story in Umuofia, I identify more with my character Obierika and I try to express what he feels in the context of the story. I am willing to come back to interact more with the other characters!




Reflection:

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was a very enjoying book to read, but especially because it made me reflect about diverse aspects of the society. First of all, thanks to the type of book it is(an autobiography) it showed a very detailed point of view of a person who suffered all the consequences of a segregated society, full of racism, discrimination and violence.  It made me reflect on how can we change our society for good, what can us(the new generation) do for the benefit of it, for the acts that happened before we were born not to happen again because the only thing racism and discrimination of gender or any type just causes the society to be more disunited. In general, the book caused a huge impact personally as I didn’t know in make detail what black people suffered during the last century.