By Nives Dzebic
The collage of Hamlet's mind that I created focuses on the different issues and situations that he is dealing with. The words "to be or not to be" are in the centre of the collage and they stand out because this is one of the biggest issues that he faces. His contemplation of suicide is a topic that would be at the front of his mind. The collage also has a few topics that focus on the opposite of each side. For example, there is a picture of an angle and clouds which represent heaven, and then there is also a picture of flames which represent hell. These two deal with the reason why Hamlet spends such long time contemplating both suicide and murder. He is afraid of what he will find after his death and does not want to do anything which would send him to hell. There is also a cross on the collage to represent that he is religious and thus far to afraid of what waits for him after death to take action quickly. Two other opposite pictures on the collage are the words "sanity" and "insanity". This is on the collage because throughout the play, there is a lot of question whether Hamlet is mad or not. He himself admits at the end of the play that he was mad and that was why he committed the actions he did, but throughout the play he must have been questioning his own sanity. Also, if he was only acting insane, these words could represent him keeping the two states separated so he could act mad in front of the people he was fooling. There is a skull on the collage which represents Hamlet's understanding of the inevitable and also the deaths he deals with. Some of these being Yorik's, old king Hamlet, Ophelia, Polonius, his own mother closer to the end, and eventually his own. There is a blurry image of his father's ghost in the background of the collage because every situation Hamlet is in is due to his quest to avenge his father. Thus, his father's request of him is always on his mind. There is also a crown over the image of his father to represent the past king. There is a dying rose on the collage to represent the false love that Hamlet showed to Ophelia. At the begging of the play it was seen that Hamlet was in love deeply with Ophelia, but later on he admits that he does not love her nor anyone else. There is a question mark because Hamlet always has many questions running through his mind, and he always takes time to question everything before he takes any kind of action. Both a bottle of poison and a goblet to represent both the suicidal thoughts going through Hamlet's mind and also the death of the people around him. The last big image on the collage is of a clock. This represents the long time Hamlet takes to make his decisions and the procrastination he goes though.
Word Count- 519