All right, so I have realized that I am overflowing with thoughts and ideas about literature and writings, something I think was sparked by my professor in my Shakespeare class here at Purdue. Due to the fact that none of my work is going to published, I am going to start posting my thoughts here. I welcome, in fact, request, comments on my work. Please read, and enjoy. To start this off, I am going to post a little something I wrote about Hamlet for my class.
In Hamlet, the audience actually gets to see what goes on in Hamlet’s mind through the use of soliloquies throughout the play. These give us an insight into the tortured mind of the lead character, showing Shakespeare’s brilliance in creating a complex character. One of the most famous soliloquies in the English language occurs in the first scene of Act 3 of this play. The scene gives the audience further knowledge of Hamlet’s situation, through his conversation with Ophelia. While not a soliloquy, the conversation is an extremely vital portion of the plot.
“To be, or not to be, that is the question.” These simple words convey a great deal of meaning. Earlier in the play, Hamlet said “Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!”(1.2.131-132). Hamlet is contemplating suicide in 1.2, for his world is crumbling around him. He is stating, however, that he cannot do it because God would condemn him. Here, though, he is again contemplating suicide, but now he is speaking of it in an almost longing way. This is evident in lines 62 and 63, when he says “tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.” He is bowing to the stress of the situation he is in; he is being driven mad by living inDenmark
At the end of the soliloquy, Hamlet notices Ophelia in the scene. He then says “Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins rememb’red.” (3.1.88-89). He was once in love with Ophelia, he states later in the scene, and here, he calls her a nymph. The whole play is riddled with references to mythology, usually used by Hamlet, but the use of this particular one is interesting here. Nymph generally means a very beautiful woman, and here he uses it about a woman he claims to no longer love. It could be inferred here that he does indeed still love her, at least somewhat. Then, later in the scene, Hamlet makes some very revealing statements about why he has fallen out of love. It seems through his mother’s actions with his uncle, he has begun to mistrust women on the whole. It also seems that he has begun not to trust all people, for his other reasoning for her to get to a nunnery is that all men are arrant knaves.
Quite possibly the most important line of this conversation is “Those that are married already (all but one) shall live,” (3.1.147-148). I believe that here we have Hamlet plainly stating that he is planning to kill Claudius. In Act 2, Hamlet decided to have the play essentially call out Claudius for his actions, but here it seems that Hamlet’s mind is already made up to seek his revenge simply on the word of the ghost, who he himself has admitted might be a demon. At this point, it can be said that the tragedy of Hamlet has occurred, for he is obviously consumed by the desire to avenge his father’s death, based almost solely on the word of the spirit.
Hamlet is such a dense play that there is scarcely a line in it that does not hold within a great significance for the argument of the play. This particular scene, though, holds some very particular points in the play, for it shows how Hamlet is being tortured by his own mind into the acts which constitute the tragedy.
In Hamlet, the audience actually gets to see what goes on in Hamlet’s mind through the use of soliloquies throughout the play. These give us an insight into the tortured mind of the lead character, showing Shakespeare’s brilliance in creating a complex character. One of the most famous soliloquies in the English language occurs in the first scene of Act 3 of this play. The scene gives the audience further knowledge of Hamlet’s situation, through his conversation with Ophelia. While not a soliloquy, the conversation is an extremely vital portion of the plot.
“To be, or not to be, that is the question.” These simple words convey a great deal of meaning. Earlier in the play, Hamlet said “Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!”(1.2.131-132). Hamlet is contemplating suicide in 1.2, for his world is crumbling around him. He is stating, however, that he cannot do it because God would condemn him. Here, though, he is again contemplating suicide, but now he is speaking of it in an almost longing way. This is evident in lines 62 and 63, when he says “tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.” He is bowing to the stress of the situation he is in; he is being driven mad by living in
At the end of the soliloquy, Hamlet notices Ophelia in the scene. He then says “Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins rememb’red.” (3.1.88-89). He was once in love with Ophelia, he states later in the scene, and here, he calls her a nymph. The whole play is riddled with references to mythology, usually used by Hamlet, but the use of this particular one is interesting here. Nymph generally means a very beautiful woman, and here he uses it about a woman he claims to no longer love. It could be inferred here that he does indeed still love her, at least somewhat. Then, later in the scene, Hamlet makes some very revealing statements about why he has fallen out of love. It seems through his mother’s actions with his uncle, he has begun to mistrust women on the whole. It also seems that he has begun not to trust all people, for his other reasoning for her to get to a nunnery is that all men are arrant knaves.
Quite possibly the most important line of this conversation is “Those that are married already (all but one) shall live,” (3.1.147-148). I believe that here we have Hamlet plainly stating that he is planning to kill Claudius. In Act 2, Hamlet decided to have the play essentially call out Claudius for his actions, but here it seems that Hamlet’s mind is already made up to seek his revenge simply on the word of the ghost, who he himself has admitted might be a demon. At this point, it can be said that the tragedy of Hamlet has occurred, for he is obviously consumed by the desire to avenge his father’s death, based almost solely on the word of the spirit.
Hamlet is such a dense play that there is scarcely a line in it that does not hold within a great significance for the argument of the play. This particular scene, though, holds some very particular points in the play, for it shows how Hamlet is being tortured by his own mind into the acts which constitute the tragedy.
