This was a great collection of three royal tragedies. I am happy to have read all of them and experienced a taste of each characters tragic woes and untimely demises. This review contains 3 sub reviews.
Hamlet:
** spoiler alert ** It was fantastic! What a plot! Hamlet was the chill guy that we could relate to best because he was in our age range, typically speaking. He was actually in his thirties during the play, but it is made out to be like he's a teen. His wit and humor in the play contrast the dark scenarios and the foul sexual tendencies of his mother. Sexual innuendo is seen throughout, nearly to a point where lit looks as though Hamlet might rape his mother.
Claudius, the brute king who killed his brother to get the throne and his brother's wife, Hamlet's father.The ghost was an intriguing character, talking about how he was killed in great detail. Calling his brother and "Adulterous, incestuous beast" shows how much hatred the brothers must have had in life, for one to continue to despise with such severity, in death.
Ophelia, Hamlet's love interest, was a stupid girl, as her father Polonius put it, "Oh pooh, you are a green girl." She did not understand anything but was very awkward. She drove herself mad after her father's murder, and drowned, whether it be by suicide or just an accident, one will never really know since Shakespeare had become one with his characters...dead.
Polonius himself is the most annoying fail in what I've read of Shakespeare. Despite giving good advice to his king and son, he is a big suck up. He hides like a child and spies on conversations trying to dig up some dirt on Hamlet, so that he can be banished from the kingdom and away from Ophelia. He finally and most satisfyingly gets his just desserts when Hamlet hears him from behind a drape and runs him through with his sword. "Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!" (III, IV, 31)
Act 3 Scene 4 is my favorite scene for two reasons: It has second most action in the play, and it is the scene I dramatized in my Grade 12 English Class from which we read the play. My teacher said it was the best student production she had ever seen. I filmed it, and someday hope to get it online. It is 15 minutes and 17 seconds!
Macbeth:
** spoiler alert ** I enjoyed this play a lot. I read it in grade 11 and had a blast interpreting and understanding what was going on and when. My favorite part is when Duncan is murdered, because once he is dead, there is no way out, and Macbeth suffers eternally after. Lady Macbeth is weird and I did not like her. It was such a shame, that Macbeth killed Banquo and tried to kill his son, but fulfilling the prophecy as the witches had predicted. The slaughter of Macduff's family was brutal, but very thrilling. It kept me on the edge of my seat. Then when all is set right and the evil-doers are dead, the remaining characters rejoice and life goes on anew.
King Lear:
Sure, another Shakespeare play in the "read section". This was the first play I read of Shakespeare without any English Teacher to give me in depth coverings of what the plot contains or what the characters are all about. I did not get to experience the clarity of symbolism or term meaning in a large sense of everything that was going on.
It was just me and the book and a few days of time. I spent most of my time reading this late at night when I could not get to sleep. I was up til 3am for the last two nights so I could finish it.
I did understand the plot and who was who (although it took a bit of effort and time). I didn't get why characters were behaving in certain ways and what they intended to do.
The plot was intriguing and I was interested to see how the final act and scene would play out.
Since King Lear is a Shakespearean tragedy I predicted death and a lot of it. I knew that most or all of the main character would die including the title character, King Lear himself.
It was sweet though, to see that he did in fact love the daughter that he disowned in the first act and first scene.
It was said that King Lear is the most tragic of the Shakespearean tragedies, but I find Hamlet to be more tragic and a better story, but that is because I was taught about it in Grade 12 High school English.
King Lear I read all on my own, yes, I read Shakespeare in my spare time. Do not judge me.