Blog Post #15: Act 2: Revenge/Espionage and Movie Connection

HAMLET BLOG ASSIGNMENT #2: REVENGE & ESPIONAGE
TAG LINES, MOVIES & THEMATIC CONNECTIONS

1. In your post, embed a video of the youtube trailer for the movie, or the introduction to the movie. For directions on how to do this, go here: http://support.google.com/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=80767

2. Lead into your blog post with the tag line, or another memorable line, to the movie, TV show, or video game.

3. Describe briefly how the theme of espionage or revenge unfolds in the movie that you've selected.

4. Have your character (Claudius) draw connections, based on Shakespeare's text, to something that is happening to them in Act 2. As with the prior blog post, use textual evidence at least five times. Include MLA citations.

5. Compare and contrast direct lines from the text with direct lines from the movie.

In the movie "The Good Shepherd" directed by Robert De Niro, the protagonist, Edward Wilson, is invited to a secret society at Yale. Through this secret society, Edward is recruited to work for the CIA during 1939 and the onset of World War II. Throughout the movie, Edward goes out on various espionage missions including investigating his former English professor who is believed to be a Nazi sympathizer (Niro). His job as a spy has interfered with his personal life in many ways and is ultimately forced to pick between upholding the secrecy of his job and protecting his family.

Blog Post: "Everybody has secrets to tell" (Niro). Including Hamlet. I am convinced that Hamlet has recently been affected by something "more than his father's death" (2.2.8). When I have tried to confront him about it, he goes off like a mad man and has behaving in such an abnormal manner. I have given two of my well respected servants, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, with the job of spying on Hamlet and seeing what truly "afflicts him" (2.2.17). Since these two men have been "brought up with him", they should be able to convince Hamlet to reveal more about the problems that are afflicting him (2.2.11).

I am hoping that these two will be honest and truthful but "no matter what anybody tells you, there will be nobody you can really trust" (Niro). I cannot rely entirely on these servants so I will need to do some of the spying myself and finding the root of his "transformation" (2.2.5). I feel as though he knows more than he is supposed to as he recently found out that I had sent Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on him saying, "I know the good king and queen have sent for you" (2.2.261).

Like the movie, I do feel like all this secretive business is ruining my private life. But I don't know what else to do! In the interests of my safety and sanity, I must find out what is going through Hamlet's mind and make sure that he does not know my deepest and darkest secret.