Transcript HAMLET: Reforming the Role

HAMLET: Reforming the
Role
• Or breaking free from the ties that
bind…
Tragedy…
• Concerns itself with the degree to which
our lives are not in our control
• Oedipus flees Corinth to prevent the oracle’s
prophecy from coming true yet only succeeds
in fulfilling it
• Macbeth’s fate is so intertwined with the
weird sisters his decisions seem to run
counter to his will
Consider Hamlet…
• The Player King states:
• “Our wills and fates do so contrary run/
that our devices still are overthrown;
/Our thoughts are ours, their ends none
of our own(III.ii.217-219)
• Perhaps these are the lines Hamlet
inserts?
The play is concerned with the
limits imposed on the mortal
will…
Consider this theme and look to the
text for evidence…language of being
bound or tethered, plot events that
deal with imposing restrictions on
freedom, even references to
playing, drama as a form of
restriction
Hamlet is bound by many
forces.
He is, as Laertes and Polonious,
bound by his birth, his duty as
prince and future king. His noble
birth restricts his choice, “his
will is not his own.”
• Claudius and Gertrude ask/restrict
him to Denmark upon Hamlet’s
request to return to Wittenberg
(compare to Laertes’ freedom)
• Both Laertes and Polonious, in
speaking to Ophelia, Hamlet’s
choice for love interest, speak of his
lack of freedom - He is “tethered”
and may not walk as freely as others
• The ghost scene immediately follows in
which Hamlet is “bound” to revenge his
father’s murder. The ghost even follows
Hamlet through the forest, crying
“Swear” effectively sealing Hamlet to
the act of revenge.
• Hamlet can not even take his own life as
he is bound by Christian law and the
threat of the afterlife, to which he is
privy through the ghost of his father,
restricts his actions
• Hamlet cannot “shuffle” off his
mortal coil OR the spirit and his
“dread command”.
Here is one central conflict
of the play…
• Hamlet is, throughout the text,
obsessed with freedom
• He wants to control his own fate
• Control his self
• He wants not to be “passion’s slave” or a
“pipe on Fortune’s finger”
• Is he an existentialist???
This theme of controlling one’s fate is
played out in the conflict between Hamlet
and Claudius
• Claudius attempts to control
Hamlet through Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern
• Hamlet attempts to control
Claudius through the play
• WHO SUCCEEDS?
Note the scene directly
following the play…
• King’s reaction (passionate….out of
control)
• The pipe scene with R and G
• The cloud game with Polonious
Hamlet contemptuously plays
those around him in response to
their feeble attempts to play him
Hamlet, in keeping with his
compulsion to be free, to
determine his own fate, hates
and is cruel to those who are
controlled by others
Ophelia
• “get thee to a nunnery” his
response to her changes once he
realizes her betrayal - “where is
your father”
• His cruelty to her during the
performance
Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are pawns of
the king and therefore
invoke Hamlet’s ire…
“I will delve one yard below and
blow them to the moon…”
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
sent to their deaths by Hamlet
Polonious brings upon himself
Hamlet’s cruel treatment
because of his attempts to
control others and his fawning to
Claudius
His various verbal traps for Polonious grow old like a crab, Jeptha, the cloud
is like a weasel
How can you work Hamlet’s murder of
Polonious into this claim
Hamlet is cruel to his
mother as he sees her as
being manipulated by
Claudius and passion
• Frailty thy name is woman
• Let him not tempt you to bed with
a pair of retchy kisses…
So…Hamlet is bound by many forces in
the play; he also scorns others whom
he sees as pawns or slaves to others.
Taken together it is apparent that
Hamlet values freedom, seeks it for
himself, and is horribly frustrated by
his own lack of freedom.
Hamlet is aware that he
too is a pawn, a slave
• Bound to revenge by the ghost
• Bound as an actor to the classic
revenge hero
• Bound by the play itself
He shows his awareness of
his confinement and
attempts to fight against it
to break free.
His delay in revenging his
father’s murder…
• Textual evidence:
Hamlet discovers that his
life is a poor play (revenge
tragedy)and he is confined
to play a part that offends
his self worth
He struggles with how to
play his revenge
• He disdains the stereotypical
revenge hero with his passionate
rants and his predictable behavior.
HE does not want to play any role,
but this role is degrading and vulgar
which makes the constraint that
much worse.
Consider how Laertes
functions as a “foil” for
Hamlet in terms of the
revenge hero.
• Find textual evidence for this claim..
His attempts to direct this
play
• Textual evidence
• Hamlet desires to be free, to act
according to his own choice and
desires. However, he is “tethered”
by many forces and people in the
play.
What is Hamlet’s final
statement with regard to
free will…what does the
play ultimately say about
free will…