The Hamlet complex. Or maybe it's just Shakespeare who is complex.

Today I read three scenes of the play Hamlet which was written by Shakespeare, so obviously there are going to be a lot of angry and confused people. I only am partially in this category because I like the story lines and ideas that Shakespeare writes about, I just have a hard time understanding what he really was trying to get at. One of the main things that frustrates me, is I always end up paying more attention to the rhyme scheme instead of what the characters are actually saying. I get caught up in it, and end up reading it to a tune, which causes the words to never register because I pay so much attention to the tune I just created and I have no idea what I just read. Another frustrating thing is that Shakespeare never writes just one thing, and so when I interpret it one way and move on to the next part, I interpret that one differently, so my interpretations don't usually line up and I can't piece them together. Sometimes I may get two similar things, but when I do try to follow the story and put them together, I have to jump between them to make my interpretations match up and them get too many assumptions. However, I have noticed that I can understand Shakespeare's writing better when I have other people to discuss it with, or if we read it out loud. Plays are meant to be acted out and not just read on a blank page, so the extra dimension and excitement catch my attention, cause me to listen, and then I tend to pick up more on the things I usually miss when I just read the play by myself. The discussions help with extra interpretations as well, and help me get a better and fuller picture of what is going on and what Shakespeare may have meant. I really try my hardest with plays and poems by Shakespeare, but the dimension and dialect of it, along with the distractions and singularity of homework for it create a complex whirlwind of confusion that frustrates me even further. However, when the story is laid out in front of me in more simpler means, I get inspired and enthusiastic about the idea of them.