Hamlet

First performed between the years 1600-01, first printed in 1603.

Throughout Shakespeare's plays, the maintenance of identity is a very common conflict, as it was shown in Macbeth and now in Hamlet. In this play Shakespeare has portrayed young Hamlet to convey the two sides to him; one side shows his insane behaviour towards his family, the other side determines his thoughts of either doing right or wrong according to what he has seen. The play trembles with conflicts: one being identity, which shows all the characters in different disputes of their own. We also see the problems of lack of self-confidence, misjudgement, and betrayal.--Submitted by imran.

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The Cause of his Melancholy - Ophelia & the Tragedy of Hamlet

Hamlet . . . . I have of late- but wherefore I know not- lost all my mirth . . . .Man delights not me- no, nor woman neither . . . . Yet, within the last two months, since his return from Wittenberg, Hamlet has had “private time” with Ophelia and apparently she delighted him then. Polonius 'Tis told me he hath very oft of late Given private time to you . . . . Ophelia. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders Of his affection to me. Of late, of late, of late. What had changed between the “of late” of the “private time” and the “of late” when Hamlet lost his mirth and his delight in woman? Not his father's death. That occurred before the private time. When Hamlet was a scholar in Wittenberg, he had apparently been courting Ophelia via letters. When he returned from Wittenberg, he courted her in person in their “private time.” Hamlet wanted to go back to Wittenberg – perhaps to resume his long-distance courtship, or perhaps he hoped to take Ophelia with him, as the bride of a Wittenberg scholar. But then something changed. Claudius . . . .for let the world take note You are the most immediate to our throne, . . . . For your intent In going back to school in Wittenberg, It is most retrograde to our desire; And we beseech you, bend you to remain Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye, Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son. Gertrude. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet. I pray thee stay with us, go not to Wittenberg. Hamlet. I shall in all my best obey you, madam. Claudius. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply. Be as ourself in Denmark. . . . Bound by duty to his mother (and later by duty to his dead father), Hamlet is confined in the prison of Denmark, doomed to be as Claudius in Denmark, to inherit the throne. He is no longer the Wittenberg scholar, now he is the Prince of Denmark, heir to the throne. Now as Laertes had warned, . . . Perhaps he loves you now, . . . but you must fear, His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own; For he himself is subject to his birth. He may not, as unvalued persons do, Carve for himself, . . . . . . .Then if he says he loves you, It fits your wisdom so far to believe it As he in his particular act and place May give his saying deed; which is no further Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal. Laertes had feared that the daughter of the Steward would be considered an unsuitable match for the heir to the throne (but the Stewart line of kings had began when Walter Stewart, Sixth High Steward of Scotland, married Marjorie, daughter of King Bruce). However, Prince Hamlet could have married Ophelia – his mother was hoping for it: Gertrude. Sweets to the sweet! Farewell. I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife; I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, But suddenly Prince Hamlet no longer wanted to make Ophelia his bride. Now that Hamlet was confined to the “prison” of Denmark, if he married Ophelia she would become not a scholar's wife but rather, like his mother, the “imperial jointress to this warlike state.” She would be a “breeder of sinners” - warlike princes and kings like Fortinbras, Claudius, and his own father, “the question of these wars.” Hamlet loved Ophelia too much to do that to her. So in one stroke Hamlet had lost both his scholarly career and the love of his life. That was the cause of his melancholy and the tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

Posted By Ray Eston Smith at Fri 19 Jun 2009, 2:12 AM in Hamlet || 3 Replies

What was Shakespeare's religion? Does it matter?

I think above all else Shakespeare was tolerant. Listen to Shylock's "do we not bleed" speech and compare to the way Marlowe abused Jews in "The Jew of Malta." Look for anything in Shakespeare that compares with Marlowe's treatment of the Pope in "Doctor Faustus." Shakespeare ridiculed Malvolio, but I think that was aimed at a particular type of personality rather than a religion. The conflict between Catholics and Protestants triggered mass murders of whole villages on the Continent in Shakespeare's time. I think Shakespeare feared a similar fate for England. The English government was murdering Catholic priests. A few years before Shakespeare was born, Bloody Mary and Cardinal Pole were murdering Protestant martyrs. In 1593, Shakespeare was considered the second best playwright in England. The best was Christopher Marlowe, former spy on the Catholics at Rheims, who was perhaps murdered as part of the secret war between Catholic spies and Protestant spies. Shakespeare himself may have been raised as a radical Catholic. But I think Shakespeare wanted to escape from all that, and he wanted to help his audiences escape, at least for an afternoon. And perhaps he tried to prevent some real world tragedies by holding up a mirror to nature and helping people see themselves in each other, "For, by the image of my cause, I see / The portraiture of his." If the Ghost in Hamlet was an allegory for the Ghost of the Catholic Church, the moral of the story was "don't kill each other over religion." We do it wrong, being so majestical, To offer it the show of violence; For it is, as the air, invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Posted By Ray Eston Smith at Fri 22 May 2009, 6:09 PM in Hamlet || 1 Reply

North-Northwest

Was Hamlet mad? What about his statement: I am mad but north-northwest. When the wind is southerly, I can tell a hawk from an handsaw.? The imagery is striking to the modern ear. A hawk is a bird. A handsaw is a carpenter's tool... But "handsaw" could be a corruption of "hernser" or "hernshaw," meaning "heron," another type of bird. To complicate matters, a "hawk" is a plasterer's tool, a small hand-held board that plasterers use to carry mortar/plaster that they apply using a hand trowel. So the image becomes less striking, essentially that Hamlet can tell one tool from another, as opposed to discerning the difference between a bird and a tool... Or the image could work on the basis of Hamlet's being able to discern the difference between types of birds... In any case, it clearly means that Hamlet is not really crazy, except when the wind is blowing in a certain direction.;)

Posted By Nick Capozzoli at Thu 21 May 2009, 9:34 PM in Hamlet || 4 Replies

Why Hamlet Didn’t Want to be a Big Wheel

As the Globe spins out The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, a wheel motif reveals an important aspect of Hamlet’s character and motivation: Hamlet tries to isolate himself to avoid becoming, like most kings, the nave of Fortune’s wheel, fated to cause the deaths of friends and countrymen. Although Hamlet causes the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Polonius, he believes they sealed their own fates by willingly insinuating themselves into the king’s inner circle, metaphorically imitating naves of wheels. The wheel motif can be traced by careful attention to the words whirling, nave/knave, wheel, spoke, round, circumstance, and revolution. Hamlet. Why, e'en so, and now my Lady Worm's, chopless, and knock'd about the with a sexton's spade. Here's fine revolution, and we had the trick to see't.(V.i 88-91) Within its immediate context this is a rather shallow pun about the turning of the fine dirt (the revolution of the earth) in a grave, which is also the final revolution of Fortune’s wheel. But it becomes more exciting when we take it as a challenge to unearth the subtle motif of wheel puns spun throughout the play. Rosencrantz. . . . The cess of majesty Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw What's near it with it. Or it is a massy wheel Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount, To whose spokes ten thousand lesser things Are mortic'd and adjoin'd, which when it falls, Each small annexment, petty consequence, Attends the boist'rous . Never alone Did the King sigh, but a general groan. (III.iii 15-23) First Player Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods, In general synod, take away her power! Brake all the spokes and from her wheel, And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven, As low as to the fiends! (II.ii 493-497) Two separate characters, out of earshot of each other, ask us to picture spoked wheels rolling down to doom. To dismiss this parallelism as mere coincidence would be to brand Shakespeare as an incompetent writer. Instead, we must rise above the world of the characters to hear the author speaking to his audience through the mouths of his characters, sometimes making those characters unknowingly reveal their inner souls through metaphors they themselves don't fully understand. As the world turns, this global perspective is “the trick to see't.” One wheel metaphor is about kings, the other about fortune. The two metaphors merge naturally when we realize that kings all too often determine the fortune (or doom) of their subjects. Thus, when Hamlet wants to strip the spokes from Fortune’s wheel, we can infer that he wants to spare his friends and countrymen from his own impending doom as heir to the throne. Hamlet's concern for his countrymen is never better illustrated than in the contrast between Hamlet and Laertes when they confront the king. Laertes challenges the king with a mob at his back (IV.v 100-109); Hamlet naked and alone (IV.vii 44-53). Kings extort obedience from their subjects, forcing them to be spokes to the king’s nave. Even after death, the late King Hamlet, “that...is the question of these wars” (I.i 110-111), “would be spoke to” (I.i 44). However, Polonius and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern willingly insinuate themselves into the king’s inner circle, almost becoming naves themselves. Polonius began his metaphorical metamorphosis when he “went round to work” (II.ii 139). Eagerly embracing his role as the king’s spy, he says, If circumstances lead me, I will find Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed Within the centre. (II.ii 156-158) The “circumstances” are the turning of Fortune’s great wheel. The “centre” is the nave or knave, who is hid behind the arras where Hamlet expected to find a king (Polonius’ “better”). Hamlet I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune;(III.iv 32) Polonius “was in life a foolish prating knave” (III.iv 215) or nave, imitating the king who is the nave of Fortune’s wheel as it rolls down to damnation. Ophelia’s mad words only slightly jumble the method of the metaphor: You must sing, “A-down, a-down,', and you call him a-down-a. O how the wheel becomes it! (IV.v 171-173) The nave is still spinning (head over heels), even in his grave: At his head a grass-green turf, At his heels a stone. (IV.v 31-32) Polonius may have turf at his head, but his face has gone mysteriously bare: “they bore him barefac’d on the bier” (IV.v 165). The mystery of the missing beard is solved by returning to the First Player’s wheel speech: First Player Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods, In general synod, take away her power! Brake all the spokes and from her wheel, And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven, As low as to the fiends! LORD POLONIUS This is too long. HAMLET It shall to the barber's, with your beard.(II.ii 493-499) Hamlet requests a speech which expresses Hamlet’s desire to isolate kings from innocent bystanders. Polonius wants to cut it short. By his subsequent meddling, Polonius puts himself in the place of the nave Claudius and thereby causes Hamlet to unknowingly cut Polonius. Hence the intent of the speech is cut short, and so is the would-be-nave Polonius, and so is Polonius’ beard. Hamlet liked Polonius and is sorry that he’s killed him: “For this same lord, / I do repent” (III.iv 172-173). But he has no sympathy for his false friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: Why, man, they did make love to this employment, They are not near my conscience. Their defeat Does by their own insinuation grow. (V.ii 57-59) The First Player refers to “strumpet Fortune” and her wheel(II.ii 493). Rosencrantz and Guildenstern admit to living "in the middle of favors," as Hamlet says, ”in the secret parts of Fortune . . . . she is a strumpet" (II.ii 232-236). Hamlet’s ribald pun equates “middle” to the secret parts in the middle of strumpet Fortune’s body, but those words also apply to the nave of Fortune’s wheel – the middle is the nave which is a part of her wheel. Thus, like Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern metamorphose into naves. They insinuated themselves into the king’s business and ended up delivering their own death warrant, which originally had been intended for Hamlet (V.ii 17-47). And so we see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern meet the same fate as Polonius. Polonius is killed in place of the nave Claudius – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are killed in place of the nave Hamlet. Hamlet’s true friend is Horatio, the “election” of his soul (III.ii 63-65). Right after confirming his navish birth by writing his father’s commandment to live all alone in his brain (I.v 98-103), Hamlet tries to break off the Horatio-spoke from his nave: Hamlet. There's never a villain dwelling in all Denmark But he's an arrant knave. Horatio. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave To tell us this. Hamlet. Why, right, you are in the right, And so, without more circumstance at all, I hold it fit that we shake hands and part, You as your business and desires shall point you, For every man hath business and desire, Such as it is - and for my own poor part, I will go pray. Horatio These are but wild and whirling words, my lord. (I.v 123-132) In addition to the usual meaning of "bad guy," "villain" means a person of low birth, as in "I am no villain; I am the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys" (As You Like It I.i 56). A villain would not live in a palace – he would typically dwell in a village or hamlet. Thus a "villain dwelling" is a hamlet. So young Hamlet and old Hamlet (both villain dwellings) are knaves – or naves. Putting all this together, we see Hamlet cryptically likening himself (as a prince and potential king) to the nave of a wheel. His friends are his spokes, which are perpendicular ("in the right") to the nave (radii cross a circle at right angles to the circle). Before Fortune’s wheel turns anymore ("without more circumstance"), he wants to "break all the spokes…from her wheel" so that they won’t be carried "down the hill of heaven" with him. (In the original staging, it is likely that Hamlet spun around as he shook hands with Horatio and flung him outward.) He wants to sigh alone Hamlet was born to be the nave of Fortune’s wheel, but he would rather be the nave of a church – “for my own poor part, I will go pray.” Maybe solitary prayer is Hamlet’s way to sigh alone. We've seen evidence that Hamlet wants to avoid becoming a king who would drag his subjects down to their dooms. However, as yet we haven't seen the primary modus operandi of killer-kings - war. Kings make war because they value dirt over people – as in a graveyard. Thus to understand warlike kings we must return to the gravedigger, turning his fine dirt. But that will have to be the subject of another essay. Works Cited As You Like It. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. 370. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. 1135-1197.

Posted By Ray Eston Smith at Mon 18 May 2009, 3:47 PM in Hamlet || 6 Replies

Happy Ending in the Grave Scene

I'm feeling more cheerful today and I've thought of a more upbeat interpretation than my "Elegy to a Kissing Carrion." Perhaps while in the grave Hamlet returned his father's ghost to the dust where it belonged, to the "treasure in the womb of earth" for which he had walked the night. And perhaps, while in her grave, Laertes returned the key of her memory to Ophelia's ghost so that she could ascend to heaven with her chaste treasure (which was really her soul rather than her "secret parts") in tact. Then, with his mother close by, Hamlet was re-born from the "womb of earth" with his true self restored. As Gertrude said (while Hamlet was ranting in the grave): This is mere madness: And thus awhile the fit will work on him; Anon, as patient as the female dove, When that her golden couplets are disclosed, His silence will sit drooping. Hamlet's last words: "The rest is silence." He was finally free from the voice of Denmark. (There's still more than a little sexual confusion in this interpretation - Hamlet laying eggs while being reborn from a womb of earth, which was also the bride-bed and final resting place of his bride-not-to-be's chaste treasure, while his mother stood by. And that's a very crowded grave, with Ophelia and Hamlet and Laertes and Hamlet's father's ghost and Polonius' ghost, not to mention Yorick and the lawyer and the "great buyer of land." Its a plot of land not tomb and continent to hide the slain.)

Posted By Ray Eston Smith at Wed 15 Apr 2009, 3:39 PM in Hamlet || 6 Replies

Hamlet

When Hamlet is confronting Ophelia near the mirror, does Hamlet know that Claudius and Polonius are behind the door?

Posted By lulunjue at Thu 2 Apr 2009, 6:36 AM in Hamlet || 6 Replies

Elegy for the Kissing Carrion

I was struck by an idea so bizarre and so sick that I vowed to take it to my grave without ever giving it voice. And yet that hideous thought grew in my diseased brain like a canker, an abscess, a mole of birth, for which I am not guilty. Now I must pour my contagion into the unsuspecting ear of Earth. The Ghost walked the night in search of treasure in the womb of earth. He usurped the sovereignty of reason of his son and namesake until, at last, that dutiful son brought him into the bride-bed and grave of filial fidelity, Ophelia, and her chaste treasure in the womb of earth. For thirty years, the son had spun in dizzying orbit, glowing with the bloody borrowed sheen of his warlike father. He cursed his mother, imperial jointress to this warlike state and breeder of sinners, for ever giving him birth. On the very day his mother had ejected him from her womb into the raw air, his father had vanquished a man into the womb of earth, and won a piece of dirt scarcely big enough for the new gravedigger to bury the dead. To that graveyard, the son fell heir. He was doomed to walk in the air, into his gravid grave. How pregnant his replies were. Let not your daughter walk in the sun. But her father kept her from the son and kept her for the sun-god Hyperion and she, that god-kissing carrion, did breed maggots in the womb of earth. She let her father tell her what to think and let her brother keep the key to her memory. Her father went round and became the wheel, the knave of majestic Fortune's wheel, down, down in the secret parts of strumpet Fortune, Ophelia's chaste treasure in the womb of earth. His mother did think to strew her marriage-bed, and indeed she did, her marriage-bed in the womb of earth. Into that final chamber, she entered a virgin, nevermore to depart, virgin or not. But whose grave and marriage-bed was it? The daughter who had once sucked the honey of the son's music vows? The son and heir who had leaped into his inheritance? Or his pompous father who had been licked by the candied tongue of her father, who had gone down, down with pregnant hinges of the knee into the secret parts of strumpet Fortune, Ophelia's chaste treasure in the womb of earth. - Ray Eston Smith Jr

Posted By Ray Eston Smith at Sun 29 Mar 2009, 1:43 AM in Hamlet || 12 Replies

Wear Your Rue With a Difference

Hi. I never really understood what Ophelia meant by 'wear your rue with a difference'. Rue stood for sorrow, right? But I still don't understand what she meant by 'difference'. Can anyone explain? I'm not too comfortable on the whole scene with her actually. Could someone explain what the whole significance with the flowers and what they stood for was for? I'd really appreciate it. :)

Posted By Homers_child at Mon 9 Mar 2009, 7:21 PM in Hamlet || 2 Replies

Ophelia in Hamlet

I have to talk about how Ophelia wasn't headstrong in the play. but I also want to explore her good attributes such as how she epitomised youth and naivety. does anyone have any good suggestions about her character and whether or not it was headstrong? thanks

Posted By ani* at Mon 9 Mar 2009, 1:37 PM in Hamlet || 9 Replies

Hamlet's Ghost - Uncanny

Hello. I just wondered in what ways the ghost of Hamlet's father can be seen as Uncanny. For example, Freud described uncanniness as the familiar becoming unfamiliar, and obviously a ghost of a loved one is physically familiar, yet strange. Any pointers would be a massive help! Thank you x

Posted By pinkfairy1987 at Thu 5 Mar 2009, 9:05 AM in Hamlet || 0 Replies

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