Ray Eston Smith
02-03-2009, 12:03 PM
Hamlet tells the players to hold the mirror up to nature.
He sets up a glass where his mother may see the inmost part of herself.
Hamlet, "nature crescent" is metaphorically the moon. His father, like "Hyperion," is metaphorically the sun. Hamlet the moon with "borrowed sheen" reflects his father the sun.
Hamlet by the image of his cause saw the portraiture of Laertes.
To know a man well, were to know himself, but Hamlet confesses to the vice of knowing Osric, who is not quite a reflection but rather a shadow of Laertes, "his semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace him, his umbrage nothing more."
Hamlet’s bad dreams are ambition, which is merely the shadow of a dream which itself is but a shadow, and monarchs are beggar’s shadows.
Claudius tells Hamlet to "be as ourself in Denmark".
Hamlet and Fortinbras are mirror images of each other. Each named after his father, each has "some rights of memory" to Denmark." Hamlet takes Fortinbras as an example gross as earth to exhort him.
Horatio is an image of Hamlet’s true soul. "Horatio, or I do forget myself."
Polonius "boards" Hamlet and his "amber-purging eyes" are dishonestly writ down in the book of Hamlet’s mind, along with his father and his uncle.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, "so neighbour'd to his youth and havior," take Hamlet’s place on the English chopping block.
Ophelia calls Hamlet the glass of fashion. Hamlet tells her to remember all his sins in her orisons. She lets Laertes keep the key to her memory.and later dies by falling into the glassy stream that is metaphorically reflecting her father’s image.
Polonius tells Reynaldo, "Observe his [Laertes’] inclination in yourself."
Polonius compares himself to Hamlet, "in my youth I suffered much extremity for love."
The Mousetrap is the image of a murder. Gonzago is the image of Claudius, Baptista the image of Gertrude, the Player-King the image of Hamlet’s father.
He sets up a glass where his mother may see the inmost part of herself.
Hamlet, "nature crescent" is metaphorically the moon. His father, like "Hyperion," is metaphorically the sun. Hamlet the moon with "borrowed sheen" reflects his father the sun.
Hamlet by the image of his cause saw the portraiture of Laertes.
To know a man well, were to know himself, but Hamlet confesses to the vice of knowing Osric, who is not quite a reflection but rather a shadow of Laertes, "his semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace him, his umbrage nothing more."
Hamlet’s bad dreams are ambition, which is merely the shadow of a dream which itself is but a shadow, and monarchs are beggar’s shadows.
Claudius tells Hamlet to "be as ourself in Denmark".
Hamlet and Fortinbras are mirror images of each other. Each named after his father, each has "some rights of memory" to Denmark." Hamlet takes Fortinbras as an example gross as earth to exhort him.
Horatio is an image of Hamlet’s true soul. "Horatio, or I do forget myself."
Polonius "boards" Hamlet and his "amber-purging eyes" are dishonestly writ down in the book of Hamlet’s mind, along with his father and his uncle.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, "so neighbour'd to his youth and havior," take Hamlet’s place on the English chopping block.
Ophelia calls Hamlet the glass of fashion. Hamlet tells her to remember all his sins in her orisons. She lets Laertes keep the key to her memory.and later dies by falling into the glassy stream that is metaphorically reflecting her father’s image.
Polonius tells Reynaldo, "Observe his [Laertes’] inclination in yourself."
Polonius compares himself to Hamlet, "in my youth I suffered much extremity for love."
The Mousetrap is the image of a murder. Gonzago is the image of Claudius, Baptista the image of Gertrude, the Player-King the image of Hamlet’s father.