Introduction to Hamlet - Essay Example

?Introduction In Hamlet, a Danish prince is mourning the death of his father, also d Hamlet. His mother has married Claudius, and she married this man less than one month after Hamlet Sr.’s death. Moreover, young Hamlet was informed by the ghost of his father that Claudius killed him. This is enough to make anybody in this situation feel the same way that Hamlet does – depressed, angry, and ineffectual. The sililoquies in the play show that this is how Hamlet is feeling. What the sililoquies do not show, however, is that Hamlet is mad. For instance, in some sililoquies, Hamlet is shown plotting devious plots. In others, he is simply tilting at windmills, so to speak, unable to really do anything effective to avenge his father. However, in his sililoquies, which demonstrate his interior thoughts, there is not an indication of any kind of irrational thought or any other evidence of insanity. Therefore, the sililoquies show that Hamlet was depressed, angry, had low self-esteem, and devious, but not insane. Discussion The first sililoquy which will be examined will be Act 2, Scene 2. The action surrounding this sililoquy is that Hamlet is preparing for the play which is to reveal the king’s guilt. Everything about this speech shows a rational sense of cunning. At the same time, it also shows a desperate sense of pathos. Both of these themes are ever present throughout the play, as Hamlet berates himself for not being able to act, and, at the same time, creates devious thoughts and plots in his mind which will expose the king. That is, when he is not actively plotting the death of the king. Therefore, this speech combines two of the major motifs in the play – that Hamlet is indecisive and weak, and beats himself up about this; and that Hamlet has some ingenious ideas on how to properly dispatch the king. The first line of the sililoquy is “Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I” (Line 527). This is the first indication in this sililoquy that Hamlet has a depressed state of mind, and is feeling down on himself. He is essentially calling himself a low life. He then goes on to talk about the actors in the play which he will be staging, and how the actor is projecting make believe feelings and that, if the actor actually had the cause for grief that Hamlet has, the actor would be so powerful on stage that he would “drown the stage with tears and cleave the general ear with horrid speech, make mad the guilty and appall the free, confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed the very faculties of eyes and ears” (Lines 535-540). Again, this shows Hamlet’s state of mind, which is that he is overwhelmed with grief, such that it is overpowering for him. It also tells the audience that Hamlet would like to project his grief to an audience, perhaps as a way of expiating it or purging it from him. Thus far, this sililoquy shows that Hamlet is depressed and is overwhelmed with grieving for his father. Hamlet’s depression is shown still further in the next part of the sililoquy, which states that he is a “a dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, and can say nothing” (Lines 542-544). As before, this is Hamlet beating himself up for his inaction. Whereas before he was calling himself a rogue, now he is referring to himself as a rascal and a dreamer. He feels impotent in that he is not even able to confront the king with his suspicions of murder, nor tell his mother how he feels about her relationship with the king. He cannot stand up for his own father to his mother and the king, and this is tearing him up. He goes on to call himself “pigeon livered” and state that he lacks gall (Line 554). This is also his way of berating himself for not being able to avenge the king. This sentiment is carried through when he talks about himself as being an “ass”, and lamenting that, even though heaven and hell has urged him onto revenge, he has thus far been unable to do anything but curse like a whore in the streets. So, in this sililoquy, up until this point, the audience gets a general sense of Hamlet’s view about himself – that he is cowardly and worthless. This shows his general sense of depression and low self-esteem, and his state of mind is such that he feels impotent and ineffectual. However, the rest of the sililoquy shows a bit of a change in his state of mind, as he turns from kicking himself to making a plan. He starts by stating that he had heard that guilty people might be driven to confess their crime when they have seen it portrayed on stage – “I have heard that guilty creatues sitting at a play have, by the very cunning of the scene, been struck so to the soul that presently they have proclaimed their malefactions” (Lines 566-570). The rest of the sililoquy suggests to the audience that Hamlet is yet unsure that the king really killed his father, and that he would stage a play where the king is murdered in the same manner as his father, to see the reaction of Claudius. If Claudius turns pale or flinches, then Hamlet would know his guilt. Therefore, during this sililoquy Hamlet turns from berating himself about his inaction to becoming a man of action. All of this suggests that, although Hamlet was depressed and feeling low about himself, he is not crazy, as he was able to formulate a sane plan to uncover Claudius’ guilt. While the above sililoquy presents for the audience the state of mind of Hamlet, which is that he spends much of the play not being able to do anything to avenge the murder of his father, and beats himself up for it, there is another theme which concerns Hamlet’s state of mind, and that is his anger with his mother. Hamlet’s anger stems from the fact that his mother married Claudius so soon after his father’s death, and that Claudius was the brother of the king, therefore Hamlet considers the marriage to be incest. The sililoquy which presents these themes perfectly is in Act 1, Scene 2. This sililoquy begins with the familiar lament from Hamlet about how depressed he is. This is the major theme in the sililoquy mentioned above as well. He states that, if there was not a God’s law against suicide, that this is the route that he would take – “Or that the Everlasting had not fixed his canon against self-slaughter” (Lines 131-133) – he is wishing that there was not such a law so that he could have that option. He goes on to state that his life is like a garden which has not been attended to, and that his life seems “weary, stale, flat and unprofitable” (Lines 132-136). Once again, these lines show his severe depression – he wants to commit suicide, and his life is tired and stale. Then, as in the other sililoquy, the mood shifts slightly, as Hamlet focuses not upon himself and his own inadequacies and depression, but upon his mother. He laments that his mother seemed to be so in love with his father, as he states that his mother would hang on to his father’s every word and wanted to be with his father all the time – “why, she would hang on im as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on” (Lines 143-144). Then, Hamlet laments that his mother took up with Claudius within a month of his father’s death, even before her shoes that she wore to Hamlet Sr.’s funeral were broken in “a little month, or ere those shoes were old with which she followed my poor father’s body” (Lines 148-149). Hamlet proclaims that an animal would have a longer mourning period did his mother – “a beast that wants discoure of reason would have mourned longer!” (Lines 149-150). His mother further showed that she was not mourning Hamlet Sr. because she married Claudius less than a month after Hamlet Sr. had died. Further, Hamlet considers this union to be incest – “with such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” (Line 157). Then, the other theme, that Hamlet feels impotent and unable to act, comes in, as Hamlet laments that “It is not nor it cannot come to good, but break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue” (Lines 158-160). His state of mind in this sililoquy thus is anger, hurt and an overall inability to act, which is emblematic of how Hamlet was portrayed all through the play. That said, there is nothing in this sililoquy which would tell the audience that Hamlet was mad. His thoughts are not irrational – he is simply a grieving young man, and the thoughts that he thinks are those which most rational people would think. His mother did marry too soon after Hamlet Sr. died. Hamlet is mourning for his father, and this is also a rational emotion. Further, Hamlet feels that he can’t say anything to Gertrude about his feelings. This is also rational and the way that a rational person would act. Thus, in this sililoquy, as in the other mentioed above, there is no indication that Hamlet is insane – only that he is depressed, grieving, and angry. Conclusion These sililoquies show that Hamlet was depressed, angry and was very down on himself. This was his state of mind throughout the play, so these sililoquies show this perfectly. However, what they did not show was that Hamlet was insane. In fact, nothing in the play shows that Hamlet was insane – his feelings were perfectly rational and normal for what he was going through. Read More