Intro Paragraph:

Claudius and Gertrude would not exactly be the best exemplars of an “ideal couple.”  Claudius murdered his own brother and Gertrude’s former husband, the previous king, in order to acquire the throne for himself.  On the other hand, Gertrude ignores her son Hamlet’s wishes to stay a widower and hastily marries her former brother-in-law.  Claudius and Gertrude prominently exhibit their emotions through their respective speech patterns.  Claudius has a certain sense of arrogance in both his actual diction and the delivery of his lines, while Gertrude speaks without a firm sense of authority, even though she is in one of the ultimate positions of such.  Both characters are actually portrayed as villains, obviously Claudius more so than Gertrude.  King Claudius’ attempts to make up for his inadequacy by acting in a manner that he sees fit for a king, which includes speaking in a complex, yet empty manner and having the ability to make quick, decisive decisions.  Gertrude also believes she is inadequate because instead of finding a proper king for the people of Denmark, she ultimately chose the first man she saw in Claudius. Gertrude and Claudius' speech patterns readily reflect each other's attitudes and emotions because both are incapable of expressing how they truly feel about the death of the former king of Denmark, Hamlet Sr.

Working Thesis:

Gertrude and Claudius' speech patterns readily reflect each other's attitudes and emotions because both are incapable of expressing how they truly feel about the death of the former king of Denmark, Hamlet Sr.

In the paper, I will focus on the role of men and women in the epoch of Shakespeare and how that effects the speech patterns of Gertrude and Claudius.  Also, I will focus on how both feel as if they are unfit for their current positions in life.  Claudius tries to make up for being a new king and murdering the old one by talking in a sophisticated, yet empty manner (like Polonius), while Gertrude is imprisoned as all women back then were completely subservient to men and she feels that she married Claudius too hastily, and thus drove Hamlet "mad" by her insensitive actions.

I think I will write about the speech patterns of Queen Gertrude and King Claudius.  I am choosing these two characters because there is an interesting dynamic at play, since Claudius is Gertrude's former brother in law.   Claudius exerts his authority by speaking highly of himself.  On the other hand, Gertrude speaks with less authority and passion because woman in Shakespearian times were not even remotely considered equals to men.  Also, Claudius is living two different lives, one being the leader of Denmark, and the other being that he murdered his own blood, his brother for the throne of Denmark.   It just so happens that the former king's son Macbeth is suspicious about his seemingly kind and noble uncle, and yet he lectures Macbeth on what is right and wrong.

Speech patterns in Hamlet:

Shakespeare intentionally utilizes speech pattern to reflect the thoughts and actions of all the characters in his plays, especially this one.  Claudius speaks with firm authority.  This authority figure-like speech reflects how he makes quick decisions such as potentially beheading Macbeth on a ship sailing toward England.  Ophelia, in disbelief that her now former lover has gone "mad" has a certain desperate tone, as she constantly looks to her father, Polonius for help.  Speaking of Polonius, he in fact speaks WAY too much.  His words take up an entire page, when they really should only take up a line or two at most.  Queen Gertrude has a distant and subservient tone and manner.  She seems a little distant (probably because her husband just passed) and does whatever Claudius says.  Finally, Macbeth, acting mad, has an extremely bitter, sorrowful, and angry tone.  He is angry for his mother for hastily marrying his uncle, because he is not allowed to see Ophelia anymore, and that his father was potentially murdered.

10/17 blog post:  

I think that Shakespeare is indirectly mocking gossip, and how something so false such as Macbeth feigning that he has lost his mind, can travel so quickly.  Macbeth takes advantage of the "gossip chain" and convinces Ophelia that he is mad.  Once Ophelia tells her father, the right hand man to King Claudius, he goes ahead and tells the King himself.  Claudius then goes ahead and hires two men to watch every move of Macbeth and show him a good time, in order to hear the truth.  Shakespeare make a mockery of how something so false spreads so quickly.  Sadly, the "gossip chain" has grown considerably since the times of Shakespeare.

10/15 blog post:

After encountering his father's ghost and learning that he (Hamlet Sr.) did not die by the bite of the serpent, but rather by the hand of his own brother.  He most likely was killed because his brother was tired of playing second fiddle and saw murder as the only way to clear the path for himself.  Hamlet knew from the start that something was off about his uncle and stepfather from the moment when Claudius said that he could call him "dad".  Hamlet's father's obsession with the term incest and incestuous stems from the fact that his former wife is now "in love" with his brother and that every smile in which Claudius sports is artificial and should not be taken seriously.

10/14 blog post:

Hamlet is living in a world that is moving much too fast for his tastes.  His beloved father just passed away (of what will be revealed as murder), but even worse, his mother without wasting a month, marries a new man.  Hamlet feels as if his mother just discarded her old husband for a new one.  Because Hamlet feels like he is one of the few people who are actually grieving for his father, when he hears of news from Horatio that his father's ghost is lurking around the castle at midnight, he becomes so obsessed with the possibility that he could have an opportunity to communicate with his father.  He even threatens to kill anyone who acts as an impediment toward him following the ghost into the forest.  Hamlet is certainly determined to honor the legacy of his father, instead of not even recognizing his former presence as his mother and father-in-law/uncle are.

Once again, media defines this country and thus shapes how people around the world perceive sports.  Playing sports has always been a more of a masculine thing and thus, the commercials that are played during official television timeouts, regular timeouts, and during halftime are more geared toward men.  The Keystone Light Beer example, although about as cheesy as it gets, is one of many examples in which a commercial deems a man "unmanly" if he does not use their product. Real life examples of this are Old Spice, Axe, and other beer commercials.  On Monday Night Football or Hockey Night in America, or Sunday Night Baseball, all televised nationally, there are few to no commercials that would appeal to women.  This is simply because women make up a minority of the millions of people that watch these programs.  In order to appease the viewers (although who actually like commercials!) the station has to provide commercials that would be up their viewers' alleys.  While there is nothing really wrong with this, in order to attract all the male consumers, these commercials depict women as "prizes."    These make women seem like material things and not human beings with feelings, emotions, but most importantly, talent.  Women are the majority of the time the background actors who receive attention only on their looks, while athletes like Peyton Manning, Victor Cruz, LeBron James, and Mike Trout are recognized instantly as pure gods.

The interview on The Tom Leykis Show certainly could be one of the reasons why the show does not exist today.  Unfortunately the viewer named Brad and the host of the show, Tom Leykis, are actually right about something, yet say it in the most vulgar and disrespectful way.  Brad's comment about 90 to 95 of televised sports being performed by males is absolutely correct, along with Leykis' comment about attendance (examples on pp.107) and Brad's comment about how even the sports leagues that the woman have are barely a blip on the radar screen compared to say men's gold or the NBA.  "There's no woman basketball player like a Shaquille O'Neal... And there's no Tiger Woods in the women's gold league (107).  However, even though the men's leagues are more popular and fun to watch, this does not mean that they should be disrespected.  They work just as hard and get less exposure, coverage, and recognition.

Corporate America would obviously want to have a more attractive athlete, or rather woman to be the figurehead of its respective campaign because consumers respond to this.  However, this is not to take anything away from the less attractive, but more talented athletes.  They are better than the more attractive women who get endorsement because they worked harder and would stop at nothing to achieve near perfection in their game.  But sadly, in terms of endorsements, talent is not the only factor. While Messner is right, he seems to degrade women that choose to pose provocatively for calendars, magazines, or television commercials.  If the world were based on talent, the less attractive and more talented female athletes would get the endorsements, but because the world revolves around media, beauty and image matters.