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The crash course video introduced the concept of ambiguity. This changed the view of the play because it predicts or foreshadows what Hamlet talked about with King Hamlet. The play goes down a somewhat different path than what the story is actually trying to get across. Shakespeare lived through a time that heavily influenced his views on society, this influenced how he made Hamlet and other plays. This play can be viewed as a social commentary depicting the time period he lived in and influencing he decisions throughout the play with vengeance and spying. This leads to almost every character dying except for one, the best friend Horatio. This changed our views on the play because we now understand Shakespeare's inspiration for Hamlet. This adds to the merit of the play.

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This video raised the idea that Hamlet was a narcissist (Taylor should write a song about him...). Throughout the entire play, everyone's attention was directed toward Hamlet including himself. Although it has been made obvious that Claudius was motivated by selfish ambition, Hamlet was too. Everything that Hamlet strived for throughout this play was what he wanted, but he never thought about how his actions would affect everyone else. This affects our view of the play because it makes Hamlet look less innocent. In fact, it kind of makes Hamlet look like the bad guy. Hamlet's intense love for Ophelia and vengeance for Claudius was the root of everyone's death by the end of the play. This play in fact does center around Hamlet, yet he is very unaware of it. He has no sense of perception as he is so focused on himself and what he wants. Without Hamlet, this play would have no depth.

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Shakespeare had a tendency to develop a sense of ambiguity throughout his plays and tragedies, which introduces a latent, secondary depth in the meanings as there could be multiple interpretations of certain scenes, characters, or symbols; this presence of ambiguity and questions doesn't really change my perception of the play, but rather I find it to be more enhancing in this sense, as aspects can be applied elsewhere, rather than just Shakespeare, or Shakespearian allusions.

Elsinore (and Denmark as a whole) is also developed as a "surveillance society," and includes multiple elements of watching and spying on characters. In Hamlet, as the main cast are all watching each other, or recruiting others to watch for them, a multi-layered web of relationships is created, and ultimately leads to the downfall of many; this aspect of Hamlet is also very in tune to most other Shakespearian works and allusions, as the motif of watching and spying transcends contemporary literature. Like many pieces of literature, this aspect of Hamlet is a piece of commentary on Elizabethan England, the home of Shakespeare in a time notorious for spying; with part of Hamlet's meaning being true commentary, it's role as an influential work is reinforced and adds to the play's merit.

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The video brought up the topic of mirroring. He describes mirroring as the character looking into the mirror and not seeing who you actually are. Several characters are seen to have two sides. King Claudius has one side who murdered his brother to become king and to get his wife, and on the other side, he is a kind king to his new wife. Hamlet has two sides as he does not want to kill King Claudius because it is not the right thing to do. He also wants to kill Claudius to avenge his fathers death. This play is a good representation of characters two-sidedness.

This changes my view of the play because you can focus on the different sides each "mirrored" character has to offer and you as the reader can decide which one best fits the character. Looking through the different sides of the characters will display a different meaning to the story.

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- Shakespeare is open to the idea of "ambiguity", which means there can be multiple interpretations within the storyline. This is interesting to learn because different readers might interpret things different ways, almost adding more dimension to the play.

- Shakespeare liked to write his plays long to potentially generate profit -- this mean it kept the viewers in the theatre longer, ultimately influencing them to buy "mutton pies" at the concession stands.

- Hamlet is made up of three different versions, all containing the same plot line.

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Something I didn't previously consider was how Shakespeare had based the setting of Hamlet on his own world experience and the state of England. It also raised an interesting point about how Hamlet could be seen as either being very decisive or very indecisive, which I hadn't considered before.
This does change how I view the play, as I now see it as a look into the world at the time of it being written, and a dive into Humanity's indecision. I had never thought of it as either of those things, instead just viewing it for its surface level tragedy and not seeing the deeper parts and influences.
As another interesting thing, the lecture talked about how it was influenced by a Scandinavian tale, then compared it to a modern story (the Lion King). This is interesting to me because it really shows how literature is constantly being recycled. Authors are always going to be inspired by other authors, retelling older stories in a new way, and drawing from past tales to make something new.

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Hamlet was influenced by the real life secret treason that was going on in the era that Shakespeare lived. It does change my view on Hamlet, because now I understand why so much watching/spying was going on. This play is a social commentary on how everyone was being watched in real life, and thus bringing more applicable and real life definition to it.

I also didn't know that this play was based after a medieval Scandinavian tale where many similar things happen. This helped me to understand how every literature piece, even the most famous ones, are based after other pieces or events. Some sort of commentary is always going on, which helps me have a deeper understanding of Hamlet.

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In the Crash Course lecture, I learned that Shakespeare introduced ambiguity and we did not previously consider this before reading hamlet. We think this changed the view of the play because it foreshadows when Hamlet talks to his father and learns the truth of his passing. In the video, it mentions that there is three versions of Hamlet. We though this was interesting because it shows the trial and error aspect of Shakespeare’s plays, especially since his intentions were to make them as long as possible. We found it interesting how it was mentioned that the characters looked for enemies within their own castle instead of outside enemies. All their enemies were people close to them that they spent time with not people from different countries far away who were planning on taking the land back (Fortinbras).

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The play is slightly different than what the original story is about.

We did not consider the cycle of vengeance that leads to people dying until no more characters can.

The play has points of justice. Should such justice be delivered by mortals or divine beings?