|
Hamlet
 Hamlet is the most famous play of William
Shakespeare. It was first performed in 1603 and has been regarded as one of
the greatest of Shakespeare’s tragedies since. Hamlet has remained
the subject of critical commentary since the Elizabethan Age.
At a dark night, a ghost walks to Ellsinore Castle in
Denmark. He is the ghost of dead King Hamlet, and his brother Claudius now
is the king and married to his wife Gertrude. The ghost told the truth to
his son Hamlet and ordered him to seek revenge upon his brother Claudius.
Young Hamlet wants to take a revenge for his father’s death.
But he is by nature thoughtful, so that he enters into sadness and even
madness sometimes. Claudius and Gertrude try to discover why Hamlet acts in
this way. So they send Hamlet’s friends to find it out. However, the Lord
Chamberlain Polonius suggests that Hamlet loves his daughter, and that it is
the reason why he is so mad. But Hamlet doesn’t love her.
Hamlet orders a group of actors to perform a play, very much
like the murder his uncle committed. He desires to see whether his uncle is
guilty. His uncle leaves the room when the play reaches the murder part.
Hamlet doesn’t kill his uncle because he is in prayer. He thinks it is not
enough, so that he waits. His uncle Claudius is frightened by Hamlet, and
then he sends Hamlet to England.
Hamlet goes to his mother and kills Polonius by accident because Polonius
hides behind a tapestry. For this crime, he was sent to England with
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. But Claudius plans to kill Hamlet not just a
punishment.
To the death of father, Ophelia goes mad with grief and
commit suicide. Polonius’s son, Laertes, comes back to Denmark from France.
At the same time, Hamlet goes back to Denmark too for his ship is attacked
by pirates. Claudius plans to use Laertes to kill Hamlet. Claudius puts the
poison on the blade of Laertes and prepares a poisoned drink to make sure
that Hamlet must die. Then a fencing match is between Hamlet and Laertes.
In the fighting, Laertes is first wounded by Hamlet, but
Hamlet refuses to take the drink from the king. His mother Gertrude drinks
it and then dies of the poison. Laertes also hurts Hamlet, but Hamlet
doesn’t die at once. Laertes is wounded by his own sword with the poisoned
blade. So he dies. Hamlet stabs Claudius and forces him to finish the rest
of the poisoned drink. Claudius is dead and Hamlet is dead later.
A Norwegian prince named Fortinbras comes to Denmark and sees
all the things. He moves to take power of the kingdom. Hamlet's tragic story
is told to him. Therefore, Fortinbras orders that Hamlet should be carried
away in a manner of a fallen soldier.
There are three major themes in this play.
Certainty is one of the themes. Hamlet is from time to
time stopped by a certain question in the way of taking revenge. Is there a
ghost? If so, is it so trustful? Questions like these keep Hamlet from
taking actions. It shows how many uncertainties are in our lives, and how
many unknown quantities are taken for granted when people act or when they
judge one another's actions.
Action is closely related to the theme certainty, in
Hamlet other characters think much less about ‘action’ and its
consequence, but Hamlet himself does. What is appropriate for a man to do is
the key question before he makes his move. Claudius has the queen and the
crown by action, but he suffers a lot because of his action. His conscience
tortures him. Laertes wants nothing but revenge, so that his action is a
service of Claudius’s plan of killing Hamlet.
Death is another theme. Hamlet thinks about death a lot. He
even considers that death may eventually answer all his unsolved deepest
questions. Idea of death is tied to themes of spirituality, truth, and
uncertainty. Death is the cause and the result of revenge, so that Hamlet
thinks about the theme of revenge and justice. It could be equally wrong if
he killed Claudius like Claudius kills his father. Hamlet tried to commit
suicide but he fears death himself. He thinks no one would put up with the
pain of life if one does not fear what may come after death. It is also fear
of death that causes the complex moral thinking about the action. The famous
soliloquy “To be, not to be” effectively betrays Hamlet’s contradictory
psychology, thus accounting for his hesitation in a way.
Hamlet: 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,
And by opposing end them?—To die,—to sleep,—
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to,—'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die,—to sleep;—
To sleep! perchance to dream:—ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,—
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns,—puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.—Soft you now! 95
The fair Ophelia!—Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd. (Act III, Scene I)
|
