The many interpretations of the world

Have you ever really reflected about how two persons introduced to the same piece of work (seemingly very straightforward) can have totally different interpretations of it. At times even to the extent where their interpretations do not even overlap in any way because of the very different paths they took. This goes for poems, novels and art pieces all of which I am always taken aback when I hear the interpretation given by others (very often I wonder if they are saying random things as their interpretation to make themselves sound more intelligent as my interpretation which is often either one dimensional or two dimensional sounds very inferior).

I enjoyed seeing the different interpretations from the reading especially when I saw myself in the reading. My interpretation of the delays by Hamlet would be as the writer said “If Hamlet were to kill the king immediately upon receiving the ghost’s message, the play would have to be restricted to one act. Hence, it becomes imperative to find delaying tactics” and this is exactly something that would first come to my mind and show my need or attempt to make the challenges around me appear as simple as possible and then upon further reading this critic said the “ hero’s procrastination is due to his irresolution” and there they go making my interpretation seem inferior but who is actually the correct one. Let’s ask Shakespeare.

For years academics have been proposing answers to questions such as what did Shakespeare actually mean and many interpretations guide courses such as literatures in English and literary reviews. Questions are also raised if he actually expected this deep discussion to his novels all of which he could have written to be taken at face value and they were structured as life is just messy and full of turns and twists which is something we are aware of as teachers. I remember a lecturer saying when plan A or plan B doesn’t work (and it will never) your resource basket should go all the way up to Z. I asked so if A and B won’t work then why am I planning for it, let us just start at C, oh how naïve that sounds now.

In every comment we find a teaching moment (back to your interpretation and your experiences). A key line that stood out to me was on the role of criticism in our analysis and the way we approach our work. It said - Those who want to study Hamlet as a psychological problem must abandon criticism. We have tried to show how little guidance it gives the scholar, and how it can occasionally lead investigators astray. This goes for teachers in the classroom who must adjust their lessons and classes to their audience and not the limited proposals by administration. A teacher in his/her classroom has the potential to try many techniques and see which ones help their students and are actually impactful though these techniques may come with a multitude of criticisms. However the reality is that most times it is easier to stick with the one size fits all method and do what is required when the higher heads come to visit and assess us in our classes. The same goes for explaining our lack of diversified teaching at the secondary level especially in schools with limited resources as technology integration poses more difficulties than we would prefer for our planned ‘interactive classes’. But how do you make that break from our limitations, our one way of thinking, sometimes our own laziness and the many voices around us that tell us what to do and shout criticisms at us. Yes criticism can play a role in the classroom as it will tell you what has already been documented and give you key ideas on how to be a better writer/teacher and will allow us to know how to take the worst and make the best from it or know which parts of the criticism we actually listen to and make changes that will make us better at our jobs but this task is not as easy as it sounds as if it was then everyone would be doing it and not proposing another interpretation to Hamlet with the many that already exist.