Hamlet's Mirror

In Hamlet as life, we see the need for others to be our conscious to help show us when we have foundered and made severe moral errors. I believe when Hamlet visits his mother in her closet, he is acting as her conscious to show her the error of her ways. As Nirome stated in the introduction to this tread. "... the Queen recognizes that her son has not com to her chamber to be disciplined, but instead intends to show her how distorted her perception has become." Gertrude like all parents is not ready for her son not to be her little boy anymore. Hamlet has reached an age and started down a new road, in which he believe he is no longer able to be punished by his mother. This is because it is Gertrude, the mother, and not Hamlet, the son, who has strayed from what is morally right. Gertrude is not will or able to accept this fact at first and even goes as far as to sate, " Nay, then I'll set those to you that can speak. " (3.4.19) She wants Hamlet to take her side and admit that he is wrong, she goes as far as to threaten to go get someone more important that he will listen to. To me this seems a little ironic as the only person above Gertrude that Hamlet could listen to is Claudius, whom Hamlet has not respect for. The whole reason why Hamlet is coming to scold his mother is because of her relationship with his uncle, which Hamlet finds to be perverse and disrespectful to his father.
In Act II Scene IV lines 53-89, Hamlet list all the grievances he has against his mother, particularly the way she reacted to his father's death by marrying her husband's brother. I agree with Redzippelin when he states

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Originally Posted by Redzeppelin

...It is Hamlet's words - not the mirror - that prompt Gertrude to protest "Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul." In Hamlet, it is language that reveals the truth - not mirrors.

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But I also believe that the mirror Hamlet "uses" can be a symbol of the truth he reveals to Gertrude. Hamlet not only shows Gertrude her sins in marrying her husband's brother but he also revels that his father was murdered by her now husband. (3.4.29-30) Can it be that this is to show that as members of the human race we are to be mirrors to each other, showing the inner selves of those around us??

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Originally Posted by Wallflower01

But I also believe that the mirror Hamlet "uses" can be a symbol of the truth he reveals to Gertrude. Hamlet not only shows Gertrude her sins in marrying her husband's borther but he also revelas that his fatehr was murdered by her now husband. (3.4.29-30) Can it be that this is to show that as members of the human race we are to be mirrors to each other, showing the inner selves of those around us??

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Yes - I agree fully with what you've said. In Shakespeare I believe this to always be true.

See post 36 oops. . .

In my on-going theories about Ophelia's death an interesting revelation was presented before me by my AP English instructor, Mr. Romine. As I have written before, I believe, because of my teacher, that Ophelia saw something in the stream she looked down upon before she supposedly fell/threw herself into it. My teacher believes that she saw something that made her want to mesh with the water. It could possibly be that she saw her father, Polonius, and this caused her to want to be with him. Since he was taken from her rather abruptly I would say that this is feasible. Or perhaps it was Hamlet she saw, her one true love that she could never truly have. This is one theory that I support, but it is not my own.
My own theory is that she saw something that made this life seem obsolete to death. As Hamlet says in the famous “to be or not to be” speech, death doesn't seem all too bad. If there is nothing such as a life after death then why do we keep on with our lives? It is then just simply sleep. A long sleep. Perhaps this is what Ophelia envisioned. She saw death played out before her and she liked the thought of it over life. Can we blame her if she saw what happens after life and it wasn't what we all thought it was? If she saw that we are wasting time living? If there is no punishment for suicide and she saw this played out before her then I do not blame her. I commend her bravery for taking the plunge. She is either much smarter then the rest of us or she is a lot more delusional than the normal person.
As the Queen says, “There is a willow grown askant the brook that shows this hoar leaves in the glassy stream,”(4.7. 69-70). This glassy stream is like a mirror. Yet another point in the play where they use something that can reflect the human soul. Something that shows us the truth.

Upon hearing the term mirror, most people think of “a polished or smooth substance that forms images by the reflection of light,” as the dictionary states. I believe Shakespeare's mentioning of a mirror in Hamlet, however, evokes more of a representational and theoretical meaning. Or, that the aforementioned mirror serves as a true embodiment of the essential being of such characters as Queen Gertrude and Ophelia, and essentially in the end, human beings.
When Hamlet tells Gertrude “Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge.
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.”
(3.4.18-21)
he is saying that he will show her a mirror so that she may see her immoral ways. He is trying to get her to notice her negligence, and to change as a result of this realization. To some, Hamlet's threatening to place a mirror in front of his mother may not initially make sense, because mirrors are usually associated with superficiality. Upon further examination, conversely, readers may realize that mirrors can serve as the only tangible objects that actually show us humans our true selves, and not just the selves we show to the world. This is because when we must see ourselves face to face, we can no longer conceal our previous misdoings, faults, regrets or sins.
Additionally, I think that it is of great interest to wonder what Ophelia may have seen after possibly seeing her reflection before her tragic death, as Nirome has previously asked in a thread. I found Hyatt07's interpretation on the subject thought-provoking when he said this about what Ophelia could have seen: “Perhaps it was something so terrible that it made her fear life, or maybe it was something more beautiful than we could imagine that made this life seem pointless.” I had never thought of what she viewed deep within herself from such a positive viewpoint, I must admit. I had always just pictured that the final images and thoughts consuming her mind were depressing, because I think she was driven to madness by feeling betrayed by the men in her life and by never really being able to think for herself. Maybe she saw this inner quality as she peered over the water while contemplating her death and felt that drowning herself would be the only decision she would truly ever be able to make.
Perhaps it is these instances of the unknown, and those that must be left up to interpretation, that make Hamlet and other Shakespearean works so intriguing and debatable. Nonetheless, I do still believe that the mentioning of the mirror in Hamlet is quite profound, because sometimes it takes something or someone else to help us to see ourselves for who we truly are, whether we want to know this for sure or not.

Most likely everyone has seen their own reflection once before. We see something, and everyone else sees something, but do we see the same thing? Probably not. Some view themselves as what they want to see, but not the truth. The play really revolves around different characters seeing themselves as who they truly are (or have become).
It is hard to see an image when it is distorted. Doesn't one wonder if the characters see themselves as distorted images, dealing with their own struggles and ideas? I think that they do.
When Hamlet shows the mirror to his mother she does not want to accept it at first. This is shown in (3.4.(1-221))
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
HAMLET
Mother, you have my father much offended.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
HAMLET
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Why, how now, Hamlet!
HAMLET
What's the matter now?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Have you forgot me?
HAMLET
No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.
HAMLET
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.

They exchange more cutting words and then the queen states...

“O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct.”(3.4.(90-93))

So afterwards, her reflection becomes crystal clear. :lol:

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Originally Posted by Redzeppelin

It is Hamlet's words - not the mirror - that prompt Gertrude to protest "Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul." In Hamlet, it is language that reveals the truth - not mirrors. Kenneth Branaugh emphasized this idea nicely in his version of Hamlet by utilizing a throne-room full of mirrors for the "To Be" soliloquy.

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I agree and also believe that this is the case of Hamlet’s words showing his mother what she has become and the mirror acting as a symbol as said before.

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Originally Posted by Nirome

I wonder what Ophelia saw as she leaned out over the water shortly before her suicidal swim. What reflection swam into her vision before the "envious sliver broke" and cast her into the "weeping brook" (4.7.175-178)? Perhaps her impulse to merge with whatever image she beheld was impossible to resist.

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I like Nirome’s idea of Ophelia and what she sees when looking at her reflection in the water. I bet the ripples were not the only things that added distortion to her image. It is a constant struggle for us today and the characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet to see ourselves truly instead of what we would like to see.
I find it interesting to see how the two different times reflect so much about humanity.
Shakespeare is amazing:)

Obviously, Ophelia went mad. In doing so, she takes her life by jumping into a river and drowning herself. This brings to question, what did she see that made her take her life? Was it out of pure insanity? Or did she still have a resemblance of her former self, a small shred of sanity... and did the river show what was left of her former self that which she was...a mad, love-sick woman? Then again she could have been completly insane and she saw things that weren't there. Perhaps she caught a glimpse of heaven or a paradise of some sort and in doing so, decided it was a far greater place than where she was at that point in time. However, killing yourself isn't the way to get there in most cases, being insane she wouldn't know this. Maybe she saw herself with Hamlet, most likely the biggest cause of her insanity, the way things once were. But knowing she couldn't be with him in life, she chose that which she saw in the reflection...regardless of knowing it as death. Then again, she could have been so grief stricken that she saw a world without him altogether and saw this as a far greater alternate existence to that in which she currently resided.
Ophelia's case isn't the only time a "mirror" of some sort is brought into play. Hamlet visits his mother, Gertrude, in her chambers at one point in the play. During this scene, the use of a mirror is brought up. Hamlet uses this, in my opinion, to show his mother the error of her ways. The fact that she tries, yet again in my opinion, to be oblivious to the goings on around her-the death of Hamlet's father for instance. He uses it to show her what she has become, showing her the monster that she truly is, forsaking her former love and herself, which is seen as despicable in Hamlet's eyes. How she could so easily dismiss the death of the king, to make things worse, marry his brother?
His plan is successful, he shows her what he sees, what she has done to herself and more importantly to Hamlet. This quote drives that fact home.
“O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct.”(3.4.(90-93))
This is how I've interpretted Hamlet, as far off base as it may be. The fact that "mirrors" are used to show everyone what they are, be it wicked or grief-stricken, is an awesome concept in itself. Maybe it was a subtle or not so subtle way of Shakespeare taking a jab at society as a whole...then again we may never know the truth of the matter.