#school troubles

a) 'hamlet isn't crazy because there REALLY IS A GHOST WE SAW IT but ophelia is crazy because we don't see her see a ghost' is an incredibly unimaginative and uncurious take and i'm sick of it.

b) 'ophelia is crazy for mourning her father in a way that is precisely how hamlet who is NOT CRAZY BECAUSE HE TOLD US mourns his father' is ableism plain and simple. ableism before anything else. it's the same patterns for the two of them but we do not have the privilege of interiority with ophelia. if you only care to comprehend a 'mad' person's perspective or humanity when they can explain it to you in way you can understand, you're being ableist.

c) 'hamlet isn't crazy' is a read that should always be challenged with 'why not?' in my opinion. why isn't he? what does he do that's not crazy? what accounts for his sanity apart from his eloquence? is it the fact he has friends? or a social standing? some capacity with live blades? how would the play change if he weren't sane?

d) no for real, read c) again. is his behaviour only acceptable if he's sane? do we only root for him if he's sane?

e) likewise, audiences should probably be questioning 'ophelia goes mad' as an unshakable truth. especially if she's only doing what sane people do in this play when confronted by the brutal death of their father at the hands of someone in the Danish royal family. Just saying!

f) read 'disability as masquerade' by tobin siebers. READ IT RIGHT NOW. THIS IS A LINK TO THE FUCKING ESSAY. don't talk to me about hamlet unless you've read 'disability as masquerade' by tobin siebers in its entirety.

g) once you have read 'disability as masquerade' by tobin siebers in its entirety, please apply the following quotes to hamlet (tbh he does this for you):

To pass or not to pass-that is often the question. But do these two narratives about disability illustrate the conventional understanding of keeping secrets about identity?- how are ophelia and hamlet able or unable to manage the stigma of their 'madness'? how is this ability or inability informed by education, gender, and class?

Some people keep secrets; other people are secrets. Some people hide in the closet, but others are locked in the closet. There is a long history, of course, of locking away people with disabilities in attics, basements, and backrooms-not to mention the many institutions created to keep secret the existence of disabled family members.- how are ophelia and hamlet kept away from others when their behaviour is deemed unacceptable by family members and others? For instance, can either of them go to school? Can either of them date who they like or correspond freely? How do methods of control differ for ophelia and hamlet?

'The masquerade may contravene an existing system of oppression. Reasons for the masquerade can be as simple as preserving energy and as complicated as making a joke or protest at the expense of the able-bodied.' how do ophelia and hamlet's masquerades hamper and confound those around them?

'voluntary slips and disclosures always involve self-presentation, and when not an act of private communication between people with disabilities, they may serve a variety of purposes.' - How does Hamlet's calculated exaggeration of mental instability for the court mirror Siebers' and Zola's experiences at the airport, or the ADAPT protests at Capitol Hill? Even if he is consciously feigning mad behaviour in a prescribed moment, does this actually preclude Hamlet from being mad?

'The punch line describes the young artist's happiness, despite his supposedly diminished capacity to be happy, with the fact that people love his art, suggesting some kind of breakthrough produced by his artistic abilities: "To what extent Jonathan knows the hit he has made is not clear. 'Jonathan's capacity to understand is not that great/ Mrs. Lerman said. 'I said, "People really love your art," and he was happy.'"'- in her reporting of Ophelia's death, Gertrude presents the subject as 'incapable of her own distress.' to what degree do the able-bodied construct narratives around the inner lives of the disabled, and how often do we believe them without a thought to the obvious contradictions?

'Imagine if health were really the hallmark of one's humanity, if it were in fact possible to go through life without ever being sick.'- This is just a good quote from this essay that people should think more seriously about. In life as well as hamlet. but hey, are ophelia and hamlet less human because they might be sick?