Christopher Marlowe.

Christopher Marlowe was a poet and playwright born in Canterbury in 1564 and died on the 30th of May 1593. He went to The Kings School in Canterbury, and then went on to Corpus Christi College in  Cambridge to do a BA degree in 1584 and later MA. It is said that while at Corpus Christi he may have been influenced religiously by the beliefs of Francis Kett, who was burned in 1589 after being accused of heresy.

While doing his Masters degree Marlowe would frequently not attend, and was absent so much that it went against the rules of the university which put his degree in jeopardy. Marlowe got his degree thanks to the Privy Council (Queen's council) who allowed him his degree because of 'good service' to the Queen which then fuelled speculation that Marlowe was a spy for Sir Francis Walsingham (part of a spy service for the Queen). According to www.marlowe-society.org/ Marlowe was recruited by Walsingham as a 'part-time secret service agent'.
    Marlowe was arrested in 1592 for the counterfeiting of coins, but was not charged, even after being sent to the Lord Treasurer, which fits with the spy idea in the sense that at that time you were likely to be executed for that sort of crime, but he was let off.

Marlowe was arrested on 20th of May 1593 on a charge of atheism, and therefore heresy. He was granted bail despite the seriousness of the crime, and had to report daily to an officer of the court. On the 30th May Marlowe was spending the day in Deptford with Robert Poley (an experienced government agent), Ingram Frizer (the personal servant and business agent of Thomas Walsingham, the cousin of Sir Francis Walsingham), and Nicholas Skeres (often assisted Poley, and was often associated with Walsingham). Marlowe, Skeres, Poley and Frizer are all linked by Sir Francis Walsingham, a spy.
 It is said that after the four spending the day together, there was an argument between Frizer and Marlowe over a bill, which led to Marlowe wounding Frizer with Frizer's dagger, and the fight culminating in Frizer stabbing Marlowe just above the right eye, killing him. Marlowe was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of St Nicholas Deptford.

There are claims that Marlowe's death was faked and that he is in fact William Shakespeare, who was born around two months after Marlowe. A.D Wraight analysed Shakespeare's sonnets and found links between him and Marlowe. More about this can be found on http://www.marlowe-society.org/marlowe/life/exile1.html.

The Creation of Gothic Atmosphere in Nosferatu

I think that being alone is a key part to the creation of Gothic atmosphere in Nosferatu, because through being alone the characters are vulnerable which therefore makes them more likely prey for Nosferatu. Also, the reason for it being a key part in Nosferatu is because there seems to be a lot of it; Nina is without Jonathon, and therefore alone because there is no-one to protect her (waawaa); Jonathon is alone when he has to go and stay with the Count; the ship is the only ship you see on the sea, therefore alone; the Captain of the ship is left alone with Nosferatu when the first mate jumps off the side of the boat, etc etc. This loneliness puts the audience on edge, because of the vulnerability of the character, and also because, especially when the captain of the ship is left 'alone', they are not alone. There is always some sort of threat, in the case of this film Nosferatu is the threat, and being alone makes you an easy target because it is harder to defend yourself. 

There are elements of the supernatural, just like the Gothic pictures we looked at; Nosferatu can turn himself invisible. This adds to the Gothic atmosphere because if he can turn himself invisible, you never know where he is going to be, or when he is going to pop up, which builds up tension.
  Something that would also be seen as supernatural is the psychic connections between people in the film. Nina and Jonathon appear to have a psychic connection, 'He is coming, I must go to meet him', and Renfield and the Count also appear to have a psychic connection, 'Master is dead.'

Rats help to add to the Gothic atmosphere because they are considered vermin and make people uncomfortable, and from the Gothic pictures we looked at I get the impression that they like to pick out what people fear, e.g. dark, ghosts, and so rats would have most likely caused fear because they carry disease and people just generally fear them as they aren't usually seen to be a good thing.

What makes a setting Gothic?

I think that darkness and shadow plays a key part in making a setting Gothic, because it adds a sense of the unknown. To use an example, your own room; in the daytime it's lovely and it's your room and there's nothing sinister about it, but then you turn the lights off, add in it taking more time than usual to fall asleep and it suddenly becomes a Gothic setting, where the sound of your own breathing becomes something that makes you jump a mile and start thinking about how you really should stop putting clothes on top of things because it looks spookily like a ghostly figure sitting in the chair. Then you turn the light back on and everything seems totally fine.

Another thing that makes a Gothic setting is the vulnerability of the people that are in the setting. For example, someone with a broken leg, dragging themselves to the nearest escape while the walls are slowly caving in would be seen as more vulnerable than someone fully capable of running through and being totally fine at the other end, and therefore more Gothic because there is an element that makes the reader uncomfortable; there is less chance of the guy with the broken leg getting out and so reading about his struggle to escape puts the reader more on edge and therefore makes the Gothic setting successful.

Adding children, or innocence. For example, in Insidious it is the child who is trying to be possessed by the demons etc not the father, even though the father has the same abilities as the child (I'm not taking the end into account because it was at the end and not the bulk of the film) which then plays on the feelings of the audience because children are seen as innocent, and what is trying to possess the child is the complete opposite, and so it has the attempted corruption of innocence, paired with the grey setting and dark-ish house which makes it Gothic.

Gothic Settings

 In both The Castle of Otranto (TCO) and Vathek there are mentions of vast amounts of space, in TCO the word 'cavern' is often used to describe the space, whereas 'spacious and lofty' was used in Vathek. In TCO the fact that there is a lot of space could be used to highlight the difficulty of her escape; there is so much space but that actually hinders her escape because it means there are only more places to look to get out and a higher potential of getting lost and therefore more trapped.

There are limited amounts of light mentioned in both extracts, 'an imperfect ray of clouded moonshine', 'illuminated by torches and braziers', 'labyrinth of darkness' - all of these words back up that darkness is seen as a scary thing, by that you don't know what is in the shadows, and so it adds to the sense of uncertainty and fear.

The vault that leads to the church in TCO is described as 'dark and dismal', so even the way to safety is not actually comforting to the character. The fact that the description of the way to the church is so negative fits with the idea that the Gothic genre goes against religion; the place of worship that is supposed to be a safe place is only safer than the castle the character is currently in because it doesn't have Manfred in it.

Recreative Piece Ideas

Ophelia

Set just after the end of Act 5 scene 1, just before scene 2, everyone has left and then Hamlet re-enters because he hears a noise.

Appearing to Hamlet as a ghost, Ophelia tells him of her pregnancy, 'why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?'. This could show how the ghost of his father isn’t real, like by reinforcing the idea that Hamlet sees what he wants to see and the guilt of him telling Ophelia to ‘get thee to a nunnery’ and shunning her has forced him to imagine her ghost telling him that she did love him etc, and about their child. However, it could also be used to back up that the ghost of Hamlet’s father is real, like if there is more than one ghost it could show that Hamlet is not simply just hearing what he wants to hear and what he suspects, because he wouldn’t want to hear that the baby died when Ophelia did.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Arguing amongst themselves in an empty room, in-between the end of act 2 and Act 3 scene 1.

Rosencrantz arguing that it is wrong to betray Hamlet by working with Claudius, because they both know that Hamlet doesn’t trust him and just because Claudius is King it doesn’t mean that it should get in the way of their friendship, and then Guildenstern arguing that if they ever want to get anywhere in life they are going to have to help the King because he is the one with the power. Used to try and show that although Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are never seen apart and are often seen as one character, they are both the two sides to a character that one actor would have to portray.

Polonius

Inner monologue from the point where he hides behind the curtain in Act 3 scene 4. It shows his reactions to Hamlet, and his realisation that the King killed his brother, ‘here is your husband like a mildewed ear, blasting his wholesome brother’ – as it says in the book, ear could be a reference to the actual killing of Hamlet’s father, and so Claudius comes to a half conclusion that Claudius may have been the one to kill Hamlet. It helps to fill out Polonius’ character as more than an old fool, and that when he is thinking he is actually quite sharp and he realises what is going on just before he dies, which adds a bit of extra frustration and intrigue for the audience because it’s like Hamlet came close to having someone who believes him and then he kills him.

Gertrude Talks Back

Well, this freaked me out. It's weird reading something to do with Hamlet that isn't in Shakespeare's English, but I did think it was good though. It shed new light on Gertrude and I feel that it gave the character of Gertrude a chance to be explored in a different way, rather than just the girly 'oooooo Hamlet stop saying bad words!!' sort of character that it seems like she is portrayed as in Hamlet.

I don't agree with the 'It was me' part at the end, but I think that it makes it a good monologue, like it adds drama and it just seems right for the play, like I sort of want it to be true. I think that it could be true for this version of Gertrude, but I think the actual Gertrude would never be able to do that. I LOVE the part where she is talking about Ophelia, 'Borderline. Any little shock could push her right over the edge.', it shows that she does actually notice what's going on. I sort of feel like if she could notice Ophelia, why didn't she notice that Hamlet's hatred for Claudius was more than 'You married my mother but you're my uncle' sort of thing.

Presenting Hamlet

By the end of Act Two, Hamlet is a  confusing character in regards to 'tragic hero' - he is the protagonist of a tragedy, therefore he should be the tragic hero? Hmmm.

Well, to me, although he doesn't have the excessive pride that is associated with the tragic hero, he still does things to excess, like thinks to excess, which I believe is his downfall. I might be wrong and just trying to fit things, but it sort of works. For example, if the ghost is not real, and is a figure of Hamlet's imagination, then he has imagined that up to try and justify and make right all of the things that he has been thinking, which is some MAJOR overthinking and just going way too far into his own head!! I really hope you understand what I mean because otherwise all of that just makes no sense.

Although I've just made that point about how Hamlet does have something that leads to his downfall, I don't really believe that he is a tragic hero at this point. A tragic hero would have started to plan to actually DO something about what  they are thinking, like if Hamlet was a tragic hero, he would have probably gone ahead  and attempted to kill the King by now, but because he's Hamlet, he's decided to put on a play to try and see whether the King is guilty or not. Tragic heroes seem to follow their gut instinct straight away, whereas Hamlet doubts himself, (which could be to do with the overthinking thing) and it feels like he's making excuses not to act on his instincts. It's like he doesn't trust his own judgement.

I think that the way David Tennant plays Hamlet - sort of sensitive, like he's sad but that he could also flip to complete insanity and rage at any moment- is the best way of performing the character. I also think that because David Tennant is not some massive beefy muscly guy, it gives Hamlet the femininity that should show through,like the whole 'women words men action' sort of thing, and Hamlet is a very wordy guy.