After many read throughs and speculations here is my thoughts on what the poem is about and how T.S. Eliot uses structure to emulate his argument.

A Chaos In Man Within A Systematic World

Before reading the poem, MJ gave us two aspects of modernism: The socio/political- embodying uniformity and order- and art/philosophy- which embodied disorder/chaos/anarchy. Within this poem, we see these two separations interwoven throughout the piece. Michelangelo is mentioned, who is a signifier or maybe more appropriately a symbol of the Renaissance Man, the man of high and broad knowledge, the one who has constructed art and buildings, statues, sculptures by reason and order of the mind and intellect. And we see this contrasted with, "The yellow fog that rubs it back upon the window-panes,/ The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window panes," like a stray dog. We are as well given the depiction of this dog like pollution, "[Lingering] upon the pools that stand in drains," and, "the soot that falls from chimneys," which in my understanding shows society as stagnate and actually polluting itself, creating a beast that lingers. T.S Eliot seems to appeal to the idea that society is not all that it seems to be. As women go about in a room talking about Michelangelo, so modern society builds itself on the idea of thought and reason, but really by this thought and intelligence they build plants that puff yellow smoke that lays itself down upon their town, a place of stagnate ironically, rather than progression.

Structure That Helps To Support Such A View of Society

In the first stanza we see that T.S. Eli0t has some structure to his writing as he rhymes this first stanza of lines in a AA, B, CC, DD, EE, F, and GG scheme. It is almost as if he is presenting society in these lines as it would appear: with structure. He then breaks up two stanzas with the lines alluding to Michelangelo, the near archetype of the Renaissance Man, and contrasts the first stanza with one that does not have as much structure, portraying the yellow fog and further on in the next stanza, with less structure, talks about the standing pools over water. T.S. Eliot I believe uses less structure to show the inconsistencies in society in his poem.

A Sensible Ranting of Crazy Ophelia

"Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!"
-Ophelia Act 4.5 Lines 43-44

In essence, I think what Ophelia is saying is that we know who we are at the present moment, but what is too come that might shape and make us into different people, or at least our views or perceptions being tweaked, will be a mystery until the future comes about. The loss of her father was unexpected for. It's debatable that she didn't even know the true nature of her father; a spying, coniving, and controling old man. She did not see his death coming, but because of who he was, death found him and he was revealed in his true nature.

Play vs. the Movie

Gee.....I really don't know. I think the movie does capture a lot of the emotion of the play. Mel does an amazing job playing Hamlet, in my opinion. I do dislike the fact, though, that the movie takes some creative liberties to express the play. Whenever there is a movie about a book, or in this case a play, I dislike the fact that it is different from the book. The overall tone of conflict and upheaval in the play is displayed well in the movie, but I like the written play because it goes the extra mile in portraying these different moods and tones, such as Hamlets soiled pants, etc. I'll have to go with the book. I think it captures the essence of the play.