Professor
Dr. Imad Ibrahim
Hamlet,
Price of Denmark for 3rd Year
Hamlet is an Elizabethan play; that is,
written in the Elizabethan period, the reign of Elizabeth I of England (16th
century). The play resembles the play you studied last year under the title Dr.
Faustus in several aspects. Both Hamlet and Dr. Faustus are
tragedies with some comic incidents. Both are written in verse, a fact which
makes both plays difficult to understand. Both plays have typical dialogue
which is not found in the One-Act plays you studied last year too. Finally both
plays have a good list of characters to carry out the action of the stories, in
addition to a clear view of the setting and action and its details
Hamlet
is about an educated young man like you, who finds himself all of a sudden
pitched against a task which he has never thought to deal with before; it is
the task of revenge for his father’s murder. Hamlet's father, the king of
Denmark, is recently killed by his own brother, Claudius, with the help of his
wife( King Hamlet's wife, Gertrude). In the Elizabethan culture this murder is
classified as “ regicide”. Regicide or
killing a king is an unforgivable taboo as kings were believed to be chosen by
God himself to rule and guide people. Therefore, the play does not only
introduce a mere murder of a man but it deals with a cultural moral issue in
the life of the English people of the time. Hamlet, the son, does not know the
true killer of his father but he has doubts about his mother. She marries Claudius
after a very short time following the death of her husband, the late King
Hamlet!
In the
Elizabethan time, there was the belief that if a person was murdered and no
revenge was carried out, his ghost will keep roaming the neighborhood during
the night; the appearance of the ghost of a dead person serves as a message
that the person’s soul is restless in its grave. Unless revenge is carried out
against the killer, the ghost of the dead person will keep visiting the family
and urge them for revenge. Therefore, if the former king is murdered, Hamlet
needs a ghost of that king to make sure that he does not die naturally but
through murder.
When the play
opens, there are soldiers( Bernardo and Francisco) watching at the borders of Denmark
in case of a surprising invasion by Fortinbras, Prince of Norway. They have
seen a ghost of King Hamlet the night before. They are not sure of what they
have seen to be a true scene or just night-watch hallucinations. Therefore,
they decide to tell their commanding officer ( Horatio) about it. Horatio is
the only and most honest friend to Hamlet whom he trusts so much. When Horatio
sees the ghost “ full armed from top to toe”, he tries to speak to it but the
ghost keeps silent; Horatio is not a member of the royal family and this may be
the reason why the ghost prefers not to talk to him about royal business!
Horatio tells
Hamlet and the first encounter between Hamlet and the ghost takes place in (
Scene iv, Act I, Pp., 177- 189). Shakespeare is very
clever in managing this unbelievable meeting between the two; one belongs to
the world of living men and the other belong to the unknown world of the dead. Again
the ghost refrains from speaking to
Hamlet in front of other soldiers and officers at the borders; these are not
part of his family. It calls Hamlet to be a walk far from them to tell him (P.
180) “ I am thy father’s spirit ,/ Doomed for a certain term to walk the night/ And for the day confin’d to fast
in fires”. The ghost tells Hamlet about his grave torture for the bad deeds and
crimes done when he was a king. He also tells him how horrible life after death
is for the sinners. He says if he tells more about that horror, any listener
will lose reason and become insane.
The ghost,
after making sure that Hamlet will revenge for his Father’s murder, tells
Hamlet the whole story about how he was killed. He tells Hamlet that his uncle,
now King Claudius, like a snake, has deceived his mother, now Queen Gertrude,
and they both collaborate in the murder. Claudius had poured poison into King
Hamlet’s ear while he was asleep in his orchard.( P.182):
“ Ay, that
incestuous…
… …
…
Sleeping within
my orchard…
… …
…
Adieu, adieu,
adieu! Remember me.”
Not only this, but Claudius contrives to marry the dead
king’s own queen, Gertrude, whom the ghost forgives and asks Hamlet never to
hurt at all. She is Hamlet’s mother
after all.
This first
encounter between the ghost and Hamlet leaves the latter totally broken down
and overwhelmed by fragments of ideas of what to do next. This is the most
difficult moment of decision-making in Hamlet’s life. The ghost will keep
coming to Hamlet to remind him of his promise for revenge which Hamlet is
unable to carry out till the end of the play. As I have said above, Hamlet’s
predicament is that of an educated young man faced with the option of killing
and bloodshed under the term of family revenge.
Act
II:
At the end of Act I, Hamlet swears to
the ghost to take revenge for his father's murder and he asks Horatio and the
other officers to swear not to tell anybody of what they have seen at that
night. Hamlet devises two procedures for himself to discover the truthfulness
of the ghost and its story. First, he is to pretend mad, which Polonius and
Gertrude and other characters may take as a sign for his romantic love for
Ophelia. Second, he is to hire some skillful players to enact a play for which
Claudius himslef is invited. The play is entitled " The Murder of
Gonzago".
Also in Act I, Polonius' son,
Leartes, is leaving to France for study. As a father, Polonius delivers a long
sermon to his son to advise him about how to behave in that foreign place: part
of what he tells his son are the following:
1- Do not talk too much and keep your thoughts to
yourself.
2- Do not be hasty in your thinking.
3- Choose the best sincere friends for you.
4- Do not be vulgar or cheap for everybody who wants to
become a friend to you.
5- Never fight. But when a fight is imposed on you ,
never run away.
6- Wear good and expensive clothes because people respect
mostly appearances in France.
7- Do not lend nor borrow money because this leads to
losing money and friends alike.
As a matter of fact Polonius' role in
the play Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, is to provide comic relief. A
comic relief is a character(s) or a situation(s) that are comic in
nature. The playwright brings these characters or/and situations into the heart
of the tragedy whenever the tragic events become much pressing on the audience.
A comic relief is a dramatic technique needed by the playwright to lessen the
strength of the tragedy on the audience. After each comic relief, the audience
becomes readier to receive more and stronger tragic events. A comic relief , as
such, is a temporary shift from the main tragedy.
The setting of Act II is at the royal
palace where the coronation of the new king( Claudius) is to take place. The
new king, the queen, ambassadors, and other attendance are all there to witness
the coronation. What is important here in this royal gathering is how Hamlet
behaves: he behaves not in a gentle manner towards the attendants, especially
towards his mother and king; this is the first side of Hamlet's plan to
discover the truth. The king becomes suspicious of Hamlet as he discovers that
Hamlet is not mad for his love of Ophelia but is pretending madness. The king
doubts that Hamlet may have discovered his murder, therefore he plans spy on him through his two friends ( not true ones), Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern. Later, the king will even use these two friends to get rid of
Hamlet by taking him on a trip to England where he is to be killed by the
English king there. However this will not happen.
The players whom Hamlet hires, as the
second side of his plan, have come to him and he listens to the skillful way in
which they perform their plays around Denmark. Hamlet blames himself so much
when he sees one of the players so impressed by his role that he( the player)
cries as if he was crying for a real reason! The player cries just because the
role in the play needs crying. Hamlet blames himself for not taking action
against his father's killer right then without any need for further proof of
the murder. When he listens to that player, he calls himself
"coward", "ass" and a " whore" for spending his
time only with words, words, words without an action. This speech by Hamlet, on
P. 226, is called a soliloquy which can be defined as a lengthy speech
by one character who is a lone on the stage. Soliloquies provide us with a loophole into the character's mind and
dearly guarded thoughts. In a soliloquy, the character is thinking aloud so
that he may share with the audience the dear ideas which he never shares with
any other characters. In Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, Hamlet releases most of his important ideas through soliloquies:
O,
what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is
it not monstrous that this player here,
But
in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could
force his soul so to his own conceit
…
… …
Tears
in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
…
… …
Had
he the motive and the cue for passion
That
I have? He would drown the stage with tears.
…
… …
Why,
what an ass I am!
Must
like a whore, unpack my heart with words.
At
this moment, Hamlet asks the players to enact " The Murder of
Gonzago" which will clarify for
sure whether Claudius is the real killer of his father or not, and whether the
ghost's story is true or not.
Act
III :Part One
Is a lengthy and important Act as it
lies near the climax of the play. It is built up upon a breathtaking suspense.
Therefore, and for the sake of full coverage, I am going to divide it into two
parts and maybe even three if I find it necessary. King Claudius, in this Act,
is to decide whether Hamlet is really mad for his love for Ophelia or not;
whether Hamlet’s madness is real after all or it is just a thing that he
pretends for a purpose. Claudius meets his two spies Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern and asks them if they have collected any information why Hamlet
seems strange these days. They tell the king that he has appeared very normal
and that he has received as very well as he did in their old days. Now what
remains for Claudius is Ophelia whom he uses as a bait for hamlet.
Claudius arranges a meeting between Hamlet and
Ophelia. He and Polonius (Ophelia’s father), hide behind the curtains and
listen to the conversation between the two. Hamlet’s conversation with Ophelia
does not sound normal as he speaks to her as if she was a stranger. Instead of
confirming his love to Ophelia, Hamlet denies that love and despises Ophelia
for seeking the love of a prince. He also insults her deeply when he tells her
that it is better for her-- if she is ‘ fair”
and “honest”-- to go to a monastery ( a nunnery) and become a
nun. This means that he is backing out on his promises of love and marriage to
Ophelia, an idea which later on pushes her to commit suicide.
Claudius and Polonius listen to all
this conversation. Because he is fool and superficial in his analysis of how
things go on, Polonius believes that Hamlet is sick or mad for love, no more
than that. However, this does never convince a foxy man like Claudius who
insists that Hamlet is neither mad nor
mad for love in particular. He is sure now that Hamlet is hiding something
dangerous in his soul : ( P.236)
Love! His
affections do not that way tend;
Nor what he
spake, though it lack’d form a little,
Was not like
madness. There’s something in his soul
O’er which his
melancholy sits on brood.
And I do doubt
the hatch and the disclose
Will be some
danger.
… … …
Thus set it
down: he shall with speed to England
Claudius’ speech above clarifies that
he does not take Hamlet for a mad
person. It is true that Hamlet’s words appear formless and disarranged and his
ideas shattered like a mad man, yet he is not. He is sad because his soul is
hiding something very dangerous against
Claudius. Therefore and as a quick solution to this problem, Claudius decides
to send Hamlet to England to be assassinated there.
In Act III, P. 232,
Hamlets releases his most memorable and most quoted speech: it is the “ to be
or not to be” speech. When Hamlet comes to meet Ophelia while Claudius and
Polonius are hiding, he thinks of his father, the revenge and his very critical
situation. Hamlet’s speech here is one of the most famous soliloquies. You
should remember that in a soliloquy, a character is alone on the stage thinking
aloud so that we can understand what exactly goes on into his mind and what the
nature of his thoughts is. This is the very speech which Claudius listens to
while in hiding above!
To be or not to be—that
is the question.
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows
of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against
a sea of troubles.
… … To die, to sleep—
No more; and by sleep
we say to end.
Hamlet says that it is time to decide
whether to be/ stay living or not to be/ to die. He thinks that sometimes
people praise a man for his patience and tolerance of the hardships and insults
he faces in life. Patience is a noble and an excellent value for people. Other
times the same people would praise a man for refusing hardships and insults of
life! They praise him when he acts like a hero and fight against such hardships
and insults! Patience and courage are two contradictory values that can never
be found in a single human being as Hamlet thinks. After all only death is the
solution. Death is like a long sleep and it is a good end for man’s suffering
in this life.
For who would bear the
whips and scorns of time,
Th oppressor’s wrong,
the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despris’d
love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office….
Here Hamlet gives us examples of
pains, insults or hardships ( whips and scorns) that a man may face in
his time. Pains like those one may receive from a dictator, a proud man,
unrequited love, corruption of government judges and of an arrogant official
are unbearable. These should either be confronted and ended or be neglected and
also ended. Man’s decision swinging
between courage and patience and each one of them has its own cost.
But that dread of
something after death—
The undiscover’d
country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns….
Hamlet says that even if a man decides
to kill himself, there is still a bigger problem; it is the problem of what is
there after death? This is a very existential question that most human cultures
share. Life after death is puzzling and undecipherable for all humans. Hamlet
views the world of death as a land which no man has yet discovered. No dead man
comes back to tell us what happens to him after death ( No traveller returns).
Hamlet, at the end of this speech meets a deadlock or an impasse. This also
tells us about how much hesitant to act Hamlet is. He speaks much than he does;
a man of words not actions as we are going to see much of that.
Act
III : Part Two
As a continuation to his hesitation
and procrastination, and instead of killing Claudius to appease his father’s
soul, Hamlet prefers to invite the king for a play. This is called a play within the play. Hamlet is sure
that “ the play is the thing” which will clarify whether Claudius is the
murderer of his father or not. He will sit where the audience is so that nobody
doubts his absence. But who watches Claudius’ reactions at the scene of murder
which the play within the play
will present before all? For this sensitive task, Hamlet choses Horatio, his
true and honest friend. The conversation between Hamlet and Horatio is very
intimate and heartfelt. Hamlet praises Horatio for his honesty. He also tells
him that his praise is not to be taken for flattery for Hamlet is a prince and
Horatio is just an officer in his kingdom; it is the officer who should flatter
the prince, not vice versa.( P.241)
…
do not think I flatter;
For
what advancement may I hope from thee…?
Hamlet tells Horatio the reasons why
he chooses him for this sensitive task for (P. 242). He needs a true and honest
man to guide his doubts for confirmation or for denial. Horatio is
distinguished as a good man; he suffers with patience without any complaint
which means that he has a good soul to bear heavy tasks like this one( watching
and judging the king’s reaction truly). Horatio is a reasonable man who
controls his passions very well and cannot make a wrong or a biased misleading
opinion. He always keeps those passions in balance.
Since
my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And
could of men distinguish her election,
Sh’hath
seal’d thee for herself; for thou hast been
As
one, in suff’ring all, that suffers nothing;
……
and blest are those
Whose
blood and judgment are so well comeddled.
Hamlet explains the task clearly for
Horatio in this speech on P. 242:
Observe
my uncle. If his occulted guilt
Do
not itself unkennel in one speech,
It
is a damned ghost that we have seen,
…
… …
For
mine eyes will rivet to his face;
And
after, we will both our judgment join
Hamlet as such wants Horatio to watch the king
when the players perform the play. If, at that show, the king stays quiet and
makes no doubtful reaction, this means that the ghost is lying and it is a
damned one. Hamlet will also watch the king from where he sits and after the
play both will discuss what they have seen to make a final judgment.
When the play within the play opens, King Claudius feels restless as he sees
a scene that is very similar to the way he kills King Hamlet ( his brother). He
asks Hamlet about the title of the play and Hamlet answers him in an ironic
way: it is called “ a Mouse Trap”, Hamlet says as if he was referring to
Claudius as a mouse to be caught in that
trap! Feeling not at ease, the king rises with horror and leaves the show with
shouts of “ give me some light. Away”; Polonius repeats the king’s shout “
Lights, lights, lights” ( P. 252”. It is important here to notice that the
king’s shout for light can also be taken as an unconscious comment on the
darkness inside him for killing his own brother. When a person commits such a
grave murder, he/she will live in an internal darkness; darkness of the soul
and heart.
On P.262, Shakespeare lets us view
that internal darkness within Claudius. After the play within the play,
Claudius feels that his guilt is still haunting him; it is not forgotten yet;
he starts praying alone on the stage( a soliloquy):
O,
my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It
hath the primal eldest curse upon’t—
A
brother’s murder! Pray can I not,
Claudius here is confessing his
guilt secretly to God. But God knows already. Hence Claudius is confessing to
us. He says that his guilt is very big and unforgiveable because it repeats the
first murder on this planet: Adam’s sons’ guilt. It is the murder of his own
brother that prevents him from praying to God for forgiveness.
Though
inclination be as sharp as will.
My
stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
Claudius
has the will as well as the intent to confess his guilt to God and ask for
forgiveness. However, he feels inside that his sin is not a small one; the
graveness and ugliness of his sin is therefore defeating him from praying
however hard he tries.
…
what if this cursed hand
Were
thicker than itself with brother’s blood,
Is
there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To
wash it white as snow?
…
… …
O
wretched state! O bosom black as death!
He looks at his hands and imagines
them to be covered dreadfully with his brother’s blood. Therefore he implores
God to wash them with mercy and forgiveness which he describes as rain from
heavens. He arrives at one idea that his guilt is greater than to be erased or
forgiven and that is why he feels immediately that his life is a wretched one
and that his heart is as dark as death itself. The light of God deserted his
heart since he had killed his own brother. Claudius concludes his prayer
saying: “ My words fly up, my thoughts remain below/ Words without thoughts
never to heaven go”. His prayer is mere words without honesty because if he
asks for forgiveness, he has to disown his false crown, rule and his queen as
well. These, he is not willing to lose. He is quite sure that his prayer is not
true and that it is not more than just hollow words of an untrue dishonest man.
All this long soliloquy is heard by
Hamlet who comes by chance and hears Claudius praying and confessing his guilt.
The question now is: should Hamlet need more proof to revenge his father’s
death? Shakespeare seems to have brought Hamlet at this very critical moment
only to prove to us that Hamlet is not at all able to kill, even if it was for
meting out justice itself. That Hamlet is a man of words rather than actions is
now very clear at this situation. In comparison to Claudius’ confessional
speech, Hamlet makes his own speech too on P. 264:
And
now I’ll do’t—and so ‘goes to heaven,
……
…
Up,
sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.
When
he is drunk asleep, or in rage;
Or
in th’ incestuous pleasure of his bed;
At
game, a-swearing ….
As you see, Hamlet does not act. He
thinks and thinks instead. When he sees the king there alone and unarmed, he
thinks of killing him, but soon he abstains from doing so. He says that the
king then is praying; he is in the presence of God and if he kills him he will
go to heaven rather than to hell! He prefers to wait for another chance when
the king is drunk, in anger, gambling, or cursing as these are sins a man may
commit. Only in these situations, Hamlet thinks, he can kill Claudius and send
his soul to Hell not heaven. Hamlet should have remembered that Opportunity
Comes but Once, as the English proverb says.
In his speech, Hamlet refers to
something very important concerning the relationship between his mother and
Claudius, who is now her husband. According to Hamlet what connects the two
together is not the legal bond of marriage, but incest. He believes that
because Claudius has killed his own brother and married his wife, the bond
between them is not to be looked at as legal marriage; their bond is a taboo because incest is a grave
guilt. Hence Hamlet says that one of the best situations to kill his uncle may
be when the latter is sleeping in his “ incestuous bed”; Hamlet does not say ‘
Marital bed”.
Act III : Part Three
We have seen, in the second part of
this Act, that on his way to see his mother, Hamlet happens to pass by his
uncle who is praying then. He thinks of killing him for a while but he
unfortunately refrains from doing so; Hamlet is afraid that his uncle may go to
heaven and not to hell as he is doing his prayer in the presence of God, the
Almighty.
In the Queen’s chamber where Hamlet
is supposed to see his mother, Polonius has already been there complaining to
her about the play-within-the-play and how shamelessly Hamlet offends
his uncle in front of all. When Hamlet comes, Polonius hides behind the
curtains. Soon, Hamlet’s anger with his mother escalated. She feels scared of
her son’s way of speaking and thinks he will kill her. She shouts for “help”
and Polonius shouts for “ help” too from behind the curtains. Hamlet thinks
that the man behind the curtain is his uncle because no one dares to be in the
Queen’s chamber except her husband Claudius. Hamlet, in rage, draws his sword
and stabs through the curtain and kills Polonius immediately.
This stab should have been applied
earlier by Hamlet to his uncle and not to Polonius. Now this is a new
complicated situation in which Hamlet’s procrastination and hesitation kills an
innocent person by mistake. This mistake will later in the play drive Ophelia to
suicide and summon Laertes back home to revenge his father’s murder. Hence,
instead of being a hunter, Hamlet has become a hunted-down man for another
revenger ( Laertes). The killing of Polonius makes Claudius sure that this
would have meant him if he had been there at that moment. This means that
Hamlet has become a real danger in the palace and he must be sent to England
with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to be killed there.
The encounter between Hamlet and his
mother is very important as he shows her the truth of her character and plays
the role of a mirror to uncover her lies and insincerity (P. 268):
Look
here upon this picture and upon this,
The
counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See
what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion’s
curls……
An
eye like….
A
station like…..
….. …..
……
This
was your husband.
In
this speech, Hamlet shows his mother the two pictures of his father and that of
his uncle and asks her to examine them carefully. He tells her that his father
is full of dignity, grace and honour. He describes not as a mere human being
but as a god. No doubt he describes his father in such a way because he loves
him so much. Then, Hamlet shows his mother the picture of his uncle (P.270):
Look
you now what follows:
Here’s
your husband, like a mildew’d ear
…
Have you eyes?
Could
you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And
batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You
cannot…
…
… …
Eyes
without feeling, feeling without sight,
Hamlet tells his mother that his uncle
looks like a sick plant and a moorland while his father looks like a green
land. He asks her how could she leave the green land (his father) and choose
the moorland( his uncle) instead? Sure she does not have real eyes to see what
is good and what is bad. Above all, he tells her that she has no excuse to
marry his uncle. Even if she says she loves him, she is lying as she is now old
enough not to be cheated by the romantic stories of youth. She is old now. He
tells her that she has no feelings for her former husband whom she conspires to
kill without any remorse or regret.
When his mother hears this reproach,
she begs him to stop as his words are very strong and true. She says “ O Hamlet
speak no more/ thou turn’st my eyes into my very soul; And there I see such
black and grained spots” (P.270). She is confessing that Hamlet’s words prove
like a mirror to her soul and she now sees for the first time how really dark
her heart is and how grave her sin is. It is very interesting that at this
moment, the ghost appears and Hamlet loses himself in a warm talk with it. His
mother does not see the ghost and she considers Hamlet as insane since he is
talking to no one ( P.272). anyways, at the end he tells her that his uncle will
send him to England to be killed there.
Act IV
In Act IV ( four) the
queen tells Claudius how in a fit of real madness Hamlet kills poor Polonius
who has hidden himself behind the curtain. The king is so wily and foxy that he
takes the death of Polonius to be his own, had he been there in that specific
place and time. He comments on the queen's news (P.278):
O
heavy deed!
It
had been so with us had we been there.
His
liberty is full of threats to all.
One may ask why the king does not execute Hamlet or send him
to prison for his murder. The king answers this question plainly that Hamlet is
so much loved by the ignorant people or the mob (distracted multitude)
who do not love him according to their rational judgment but according to their
emotions ( eyes) (P.282):
Yet
must not we put the strong law on him
He's
loved of the distracted multitude,
who
like not in their judgment but in their eyes.
Another reason why he does not punish Hamlet
is the one which he later uncovers to Laertes; Hamlet is the love of his
mother, the queen, and the king cannot make her sad by punishing her only son.
In this Act, Hamlet appears to all as
a mad-philosopher character. The king asks him where the body of Polonius is,
he says " at supper". When the king asks for more clarifications, we
are all put face to face with a philosopher and not a mere mad man; Hamlet
explains (P.282):
Not
where he eats, but where 'a is eaten;… we fat all creatures else to fat us, and
we fat ourselves for maggots; your fat king and your lean beggar is but
variable service—two dishes, but to one table. That's the end.
Above,
Hamlet summarizes the whole journey of Man, be him a king or just a beggar. He
says that we spend a considerable portion of our life in eating and eating just
to make ourselves fatter and healthier, but for what? He says it is just for
worms ( maggots) that will eat us after death. A king and a beggar, Hamlet
says, are but two different meals, yet for the same eater, the worms. He
further explains this strongly-connected destiny between man and worms in the
following lines (P.282):
A
man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king and eat of the fish that
hath fed of that worm.
In
these lines, Hamlet says that a poor fisher man may use a worm to catch a fish
with a snare. That worm may have once fed itself on the body of a dead king.
The fisher man will eat the fish, which ate the worm, which ate the king!! In
this long and indirect food chain, the fisher man is, kind of, eating the king
himself. This view of human life is very philosophic and sad. Hamlet makes the
king feel that he is nothing more than a piece of food for worms one day even
if he behaves arrogantly like all kings and rulers do. Upon hearing this,
Claudius makes his final decision to send Hamlet away to England. He tells him
it is just a safety measure, yet Hamlet knows for sure it is just to get rid of
him in England.
In Act IV also, Hamlet
is reminded again of his just cause( revenge) and the need to act faster
against the killer of his father. The reminder this time is not the ghost but
prince Fortinbras of Norway. This prince has an old treaty between his father
and the king of Denmark to let him and his army pass through the Danish
territories to fight for a small land in Poland. That land is worthless, but
taking it is a matter of honor and dignity as Fortinbras explains through his
messenger to Denmark. Hamlet meets that messenger, listens to his message
attentively and comments (P.288):
How all occasions do inform against me,
… … …
Witness this army, of such mass and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
… … …
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare,
Even for an egg-shell….
When honor's at stake. How stand I, then
That have a father killed, a mother stain'd
….
O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.
Here Hamlet is blaming himself for
his laziness in applying his revenge. He says all situations reminds him of his
postponed mission. This army ( Fortinbras' army), for example, is fully armed
for war and is led by a young delicate prince like him. Fortinbras is exposing
his life and the lives of his soldiers to inevitable death and dangers just for
a small piece of land. Fortinbras' passions for honor are very strong; he
thinks the land is his own but it is taken by Poland. What is this act in
comparison to Hamlet's cause?! Hamlet has lost a father and a mother whose fame
is stained by her marriage to his uncle. Yet he is still not acting against his
uncle. Therefore, under the stress of this situation, Hamlet decides that his
thoughts must become bloody from now on until he takes revenge.
Even though Hamlet decides to change
his way of dealing with his mission, yet we feel disappointed again. Look at
the last line. Hamlet says his "thoughts"-- NOT HIS ACTS-- must
become bloody in the future. This tells you for sure that Hamlet is not a man
of actions but a man of only words and thoughts. And this is his main flaw
which will bring about his downfall later.
Act IV tells us that
Hamlet is back from England after he is taken a prisoner by a pirates ship. He
sends a letter to Horatio to meet him for a very serious matter and sends
another letter to the king informing him of his return.
Apart from Hamlet, Act IV tells us
that Ophelia becomes mad for her father who is killed by her own lover. Her
deep disappointment and feelings of betrayal push her to madness and final
suicide in a lake. Laertes is back from France to take revenge for his father's
murder. At the beginning he accuses Claudius of the murder but Claudius tells
him who the real murderer of his father is. He works on exploiting and inciting
him against Hamlet by telling him lies. He tells him that Hamlet kills his
father because he is jealous of him and of his skills. Laertes, in return,
promises to invite Hamlet for a duel in which he will use a poisonous sword to
kill him at once.
Act
V
Act V,
Scene i is distinguished by its theme of
death. It can be taken as a long philosophic comment on the vanity of human
wishes and the meaninglessness of life. Hamlet is at a churchyard waiting for
Ophelia’s body to be buried. With the grave diggers there, Hamlet holds several
conversations about the remains of dead bodies he sees at the site. He beholds
a skull and comments that it might have been for a king or a cheat. Another
time, he comments on a skull of a clown whom he knew when he ( Hamlet ) was a
child. He touchingly recalls how that
clown sang, made jokes and carried him on the shoulders in his father’s royal
palace. Hamlets comments on death and the sad end all human beings shall meet
are comments on the uselessness and abortion of human wishes and ambitions. His
comments touch again on the question ,for what did his uncle kill his father?
Or for what should the powerful destroy the weak? Just for this sad end in
under the ground?
In Scene ii, Hamlet tells Horatio how
he changes his destiny in changing the content of the letter his uncle entrusts
to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet manages to write another letter, seals
it with his father’s seal and replaces the original one with it. The new letter
reads “ kill the letter bearers” ; the letter bearers are Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern. In this Scene too, the king asks Hamlet to have a duel with
Laertes. The king’s purpose is to get rid of Hamlet this time. He knows that
Laertes’ sword is poisonous which means that a slightest hit by that sword into
Hamlet’s body will cause his immediate death. This is plan A. For plan B, , the
king prepares a cup of wine for Hamlet in case he wins the duel; that wine is
poisonous too. Hence, the king prepares two traps for Hamlet.
In the duel, Hamlet wins several rounds
although he is hit only once by Laertes. His mother, feeling happy for her son,
drinks the poisonous wine unwittingly. When she falls down, Laertes confesses
to Hamlet that he is poisoned too under the king’s knowledge. Just at that
moment Hamlet decides to kill his uncle for poisoning him and his mother as
well. The stage is littered with the dead bodies of the king, the queen and the
prince himself. Horatio decides committing suicide but Hamlet asks him to stay alive
and tell his story to his people. The kingdom of Denmark as a whole turns to
Fortinbras who is already there coming back with his army from his war in
Poland.
الدكتور عماد ابراهيم
كلية التربية للعلوم الانسانية جامعة ذي قار
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق
جميع الردود تعبّرعن رأي كاتبيها فقط. حريّة التعبير عن الرأي والرد متاحة للجميع( بما لا يخل بالنظام العام والادب)