The act starts with Gertrude confronting the King, Claudius, about Polonius’ death and that it was Hamlet the drew blood and has gone insane. Claudius is pleased that he finally has a justifiable reason to exile Hamlet. However, without the body there is no proof so Claudius demands from Hamlet the location of Polonius’ rotting corpse. Hamlet merely toys with the King. It is then revealed that Claudius intends to execute Hamlet for his own pleasure. After Hamlet witnessed the on coming army of Fortinbras, he explores the idea of how these soldiers are willing to lay down their lives but he cannot conjure up courage for his father or mother. Laertes arrives at Claudius’ doorstep seeking revenge for his father, unaware the negative mental state of Ophelia. However, Claudius convinces Laertes that it was not him but restrains from blaming Hamlet when Gertrude is around. In a search for Hamlet it was discovered that he was captured by pirates who intend to bring him back in exchange for some ‘favors’. Claudius finally sees an opportunity to shift the blame of Laertes’ father’s death on Hamlet when he returns to Denmark. He proposes a duel between Hamlet and Laertes with Laertes’ sword being sharped and drenched with poison so a single cut can down Hamlet, in addition, Claudius means to poison Hamlet’s drink as well. Gertrude interrupts the two with information that Ophelia had drowned, while she was around the willow tree she well into the lake.

Prince of Thorns has a sort of Game of Thrones setting, not with the dragons and white walkers, it is a fantasy world where lands are ruled by Kings and Queens. A lot of armies go around slaughtering, threaten and taking from little villages, even in the beginning of the novel we are introduced to a setting where an entire village has just been slaughtered and everyone is scavenging for their prizes. This book does not have a dystopian setting but it is still a dark place that can easily bring out the worst out of someone, a story with a lot of mature themes you would not thing that the story focuses on s single teenager. Jorg Ancarth is a boy who lost his mother and wonders the land with his band of misfits hoping to distance himself from the responsibilities and duties of a future king. Jorg would not mind to be King because it would make his life much easier. Jorg is a young man with no conscience, no moral compass he is a man that would gladly put anything at the ‘pointy end’ of his sword, no one is fully confident to stand in his way because the last spark of light that helped Jorg keep his humanity was his mother and you now no what happened to her. You would thing ; why would a man with no heart or humanity be an anti-hero if he is portrayed to be an antagonistic character. Like I said, it is a dark world that brings the worst out of everybody. I see Jorg as a young man trying to cope in this world by becoming this monster, he has been subjected to years of torment and he feels like that the only way he can avenge his mother is that he does not let the world take him so easily.

If you go online to search for Martin Lawrence’s opinion on his own character, he would know to to describe him. Jorg’s personality and lifestyle files him under the categories of a hero, villan and an antihero. This makes Jorg such a great and interesting character because it tests your own personality and morality, how do you see this character: someone who is brave and loyal, someone who his evil and psychopathic or someone who is bad with his actions but is good at heart. It is all about how who see the character that makes him who he is. I see him as some who makes it easier for himself by giving in to the dark world but hopes that there will be a day where can rest knowing he can wake up and say good morning.

Portal 24 by Meredith Stroud

In the Queen’s chambers, Gertrude and Polonius discuss how they will handle Hamlet with Polonius suggesting for her to go hard on him. Hamlets interrupts by entering and Polonius hides behind the tapestry. Gertrude scolds Hamlet for his action saying that he has offended his father with Hamlet responding saying that she is the one that offended Old Hamlet. Gertrude becomes concerned about Hamlets frustration and soon thinks that he will kill her. She cries out and then Polonius shouts for help as well, without any knowledge, Hamlet draws his sword and thrusts it through the tapestry believing it to be Claudius. He removes the tapestry and reveals that he has murdered Polonius. Gertrude gets emotional and begs Hamlet to stop the insanity but Hamlet says that he cannot stop and then they are interrupted again this time by the ghost. The ghost tells Hamlet to focus on killing Claudius but during the conversation, Gertrude thinks Hamlet has gone insane again as she cannot see the ghost. Hamlet calms her down and tells her to go pray. She calms down and decides to keep Hamlet’s secret of actually being sane and Hamlet leaves with Polonius’ corpse in tow.

Claudius grows concerned about the possible danger Hamlet may pose and requests that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern prepare to leave for England as soon as possible. They are afraid that the country would fall into chaos if the King was to die. Polonius later arrives with news that Hamlet is on his way to Gertrude’s room, Polonius decided to hide behind some sort of tapestry. Back with Claudius he finds himself alone and he shows his frustration over what Hamlet has done. He wants to pray but realises that cannot be forgiven for what he has done to Old Hamlet but he prays anyway. Hamlet soon bursts into the room drawing his sword to Claudius seeking revenged but it occurs to him that if he kills Claudius as he prays he will go to heaven and to him that is not revenge. He came to this as when Claudius murdered his father before he could pray he was sentenced to an afterlife of torment in purgatory. Hamlet decides to wait until Claudius is sinning to kill him.

Hamlet is still not happy with the performance of the players and he lectures them on avoiding overacting, suiting action to word and word to action, he then goes on to tell Horatio his actual plan of reenacting the death of Old Hamlet through the description of his ghost hoping that Claudius would look guilty. As everyone enters to watch the plan Hamlet begins to act insane on purpose offending everyone in a different way.  The play begins and it drags on for a while until the scene comes around. As the plot becomes clearer, Hamlet notices Gertrude and Claudius becoming somewhat concerned. When the villain in the play pours poison into the king’s ear, Claudius jumps from his seat and rushes from the room leaving Hamlet pleased with his triumph. He tells Horatio that the Ghost was telling the truth, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern appear and say that his mother wants to see him and Hamlet agrees to go. Polonius enters to find Hamlet and walks with him, Hamlet continues to act like an idiot but Polonius plays along.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern a sill puzzled by Hamlet‘s behavior but they’ve inform Claudius and Gertrude about excited he was of the arrival of the players. The King and Queen believed that Hamlet was gaining his sanity again and agreed to watch the play. Claudius and Polonius began to set up the meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia in which Polonius tells Ophelia to walk across the courtyard and reading a book. They hear Hamlet coming and hide, and so begins Hamlet’s infamous ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy where Hamlet questions his life and whether or no he should take it. He was soon interrupted by Ophelia who intends to return the gifts he gave her which was followed by him denying giving her any gift. Hamlet then goes on to question their love for each other and later sends her away. Hamlet leaves angry and Ophelia heartbroken From afar, Claudius thought Hamlet neither loves Ophelia or mad but he was focused on something else entirely. He decides to send Hamlet to England in hope he could regain his sanity there.

It starts with Claudius, Gertrude, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were discussing Hamlet’s melancholy. Polonius enters and says that he has figured out the cause of Hamlet’s lunacy to which the others believe it is related to his father’s death later be believed to be his lovesickness when Polonius reads out some love letters. Polonius and the ambassadors arrive to talk to Claudius about allowing Fortinbras’ go through Denmark to attack the Poles without attacking the Danes to which he agrees to. Polonius proposes that they stage a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia and spy on it to test his theory. Hamlet arrives and the King and Queen leave Polonius alone to talk with him only for him to change topics between pregnancy, death, and also referred to Denmark, Ophelia and Polonius. Polonius later leaves and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive. He begins a long speech about the beauty of the world and nobility of man. Hamlet wonders why they came only to think that they were sent by the King and Queen which they agreed to.

Hamlet cheers up a slightly when Rosencrantz informs him of the troupe of players/actors that have arrived to put on a show. Hamlet mocks Polonius as he enters with the players, but welcomes the players that follow. He asks the First player to act a speech about the Trojan queen Hecuba’s grief at the death of her husband Priam and the Player does, to a remarkable extent. Hamlet later asks the First Player to perform a certain scene, The Murder of Gonzago, on the following night, with a script he ‘adjusted’ himself. Hamlet is with Player and is somewhat upset that that the player cannot perform to the standard he desires. It is later revealed that Hamlet intends to reenact the scene to look similar to how Claudius murdered his father.

The scene introduces Reynaldo, a servant to Polonius. Polonius ordered Reynaldo to go to Paris to locate and spy on Laertes, by doing doing so Polonius allowed Reynaldo to lie to people and leave false information for Laertes in order to trap him. Ophelia enters as Reynaldo leaves. She confronts Apollonius about her recent confrontation with Hamlet who looked like he was a low class citizen, he looked ‘piteous’. Polonium states the Hamlet has surccumbed to his madness and he decides to report this to the King.

Scene 2

family loyalties are tested when Hamlet discovers that his father’s brother, King Claudius, intends to marry his mother Gertrude. Hamlet is not pleased with the idea but his uncle intends to follow through. Hamlet shows that he is still in grief over his father’s death and he wishes to mourn more but is interrupted by his uncle’s insestious description of him and hamlets mother. Hamlet is then left alone to question his life only to be interrupted again by the arrival of Horatio, Bernardo and Marcellus who confront him about his father’s ghost.

scene 3

A lot is revealed in this scene. Laertes confronts his sister Ophelia and warns her about not falling for Hamlit for he would only use her to keep his sanity in check. Ophelia understands his concerns but she responded with him taking his own advice. Polonius enters and scolds alerted about how he is not sociable but he should not be ‘vulgar’. He also gives sound advice about not to borrow or lend money as it can question friendships and other relationships. Polonius finishes up by asking what you he two were talking about only to discover that the topic was Hsmlet. He explains to Orpheus that Hamlet is merely using her to sleep well at night and forbids her to see him again to which she complies.

scene 4

in the cold bitter night Hamlet, Horatio and Marcelus stand outside awaiting for the ghost’s arrival with full confidence it will. The silence keeps getting inturupted with the sound of canon fire from Hamlet’s drunk uncle. It is later on that night that supernatural entity began to animate before them. Hamlet is left in disbelief and shows somewhat of a frighten nature. The ghost beckons forHamlet to come closer to tell him something which he does eventually. The ghost the requests hamlet to follow it to which he agrees but Horatio and Marcellus show concern of how it can be a trap set by a demon. In an attempt to stop Hamlet he breaks and follows his father’s phantom withe the guard and scholar in pursuit.