Watching the film Death of a Salesman before reading the play was a unique way of beginning our study of the play. At first, I didn't understand what was happening and I didn't understand why we would watch the movie first. But when reading the play, I realized that watching the movie first helped me understand the tone and the structure of the play. It made reading the play easy especially with the flashbacks since there is no clear way to tell what it a memory and what is in the present. This also helped with my close reading. I also used The American Dream as a comparison to what we studied with Death of a Salesman with both plays focusing on the American Dream it was easy to find similarities and differences between the two. Both plays focus on the change in the American Dream, for the worse. However, each play goes about proving this point differently.
We also began our study of Hamlet. Normally, I don't like reading Shakespeare plays, but I have found this one particularly interesting. This time while reading I have been annotating as we have been going along. This makes it easier for me to comprehend what we are reading and finding the underlying meaning of the play. Finding the connections between characters helps me understand why things happen and the motives of the actions of the characters.
Gabriella, I also found it kind of strange how we watched the movie before reading the Death of a Salesman book. I actually thought it was a great idea though because when reading the play I realized how confusing the flashbacks could have been if I hadn't seen the movie first! It also made annotating a lot easier for me. Also watching how intense the scenes in the movie were it made the play more interesing when I was reading it. I also saw a lot of similarities between Death of a Salesman and The American Dream and i'm glad we read these back to back. I agree with you when you said that you don't usually like shakespeare plays but disagree with you on Hamlet. The play is way too long and I don't even find it to be all that interesting! Annotating has also been a pain in the neck since Shakespeare can be so confusing! I am excited to be done with it!
ReplyDeleteDid the movie’s cuts and scene changes bother you when you read it after watching the movie, since not everything was exactly the same? How do you think watching the movie first changed your own vision of the play? One thing I would like to see is a little more detail though, especially about Hamlet. You say you’ve made connections between characters, but not what those connections were and which characters they are.
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