The Complete Pelican Shakespeare: Hamlet - Book Report/Review Example

Hamlet The issue of insanity has often been uncomfortable, for the average human being as well as for the writer. The idea of losing your mind without knowing it holds a dreadful fascination and haunts us at a deep, internal level – one that we most often choose to ignore. However, it can also provide a fascinating subject for drama, as has been shown by one of history’s greatest playwrights, William Shakespeare. Insanity plays a key role in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. In this play, the young prince of Denmark is informed by the ghost of his father that his Uncle Claudius, now married to Hamlet’s mother, murdered his father with poison. Hamlet feigns insanity to discover the truth, but might as easily be insane by the mere fact of seeing and talking with ghosts. However, the true nature of Hamlet is perhaps best demonstrated through Ophelia’s understanding of him, particularly as she illustrates his state of madness. Likewise, the Queen’s description of Ophelia’s drowning reveals more about Ophelia’s true beauty than much of the more obviously stated passages regarding her. A comparison of these two speeches in terms of their content, narrator’s understanding and purpose reveals many similarities despite the more readily understood differences. The innocent and trusting eyes of Ophelia are used to highlight the effect that Hamlet’s actions are having upon those around him even though the audience is given plenty of hints that this mental condition may only be feigned. In her speech in Act II, scene 1, she provides her father Polonius with a description of Hamlet’s current mental state as it appeared to her when he came in to her at her sewing. This event takes place just after Hamlet swears to the ghost that he will seek revenge for the foul murder that has befallen his father as well as his decision to use madness as a cover to try to discover whether the ghost or his uncle is false. The scene also occurs after Ophelia has received her father’s advice to have nothing to do with Hamlet and to refuse all of his attentions, which she has dutifully done. As she comes in to her father, Ophelia describes how Hamlet came in to her sewing room looking as if he’d seen a ghost. With a long stare at her, “As ‘a would draw it” (II, i, 91), he walked slowly outside without ever looking away from her face. This observant description is perhaps more accurate in describing Hamlet’s true mental state than many that have been proposed in the centuries since the play was written. Ophelia is an innocent girl who has had reason to believe she would someday find herself married to Hamlet. He is the prince of Denmark, her father is in direct service to the king and Hamlet has shown interest in her. Whether or not she returned this interest is kept carefully ambiguous. While she indicates that Hamlet has been tender toward her, she confesses to her father that she’s not quite sure what to think and readily acquiesces to both her brother and her father’s injunctions to stay away from Hamlet. Having done this, she is taken by surprise when Hamlet seeks her out in her room. As an innocent, she doesn’t know quite what to make of Hamlet’s dramatic actions toward her which is reflected in her answer to Polonius’ question if Hamlet seemed crazy for her: “My lord, I do not know, / But truly I do fear it” (II, i, 84-85). This innocence regarding the meanings behind the actions of others means Ophelia can report them free of her own interpretations and is therefore the only individual within the castle capable of presenting a non-judgmental, openly honest and objective view of how Hamlet might be seen by those around him. Frightened because of the haunted look she saw upon him as well as his confusing actions, she goes running to her father for council and reveals all that she has seen. In this revelation, she further reveals that she has indeed seen closer to the truth than anyone else might realize. Although the audience knows that Hamlet has already talked to the ghost and decided to feign madness in order to discover the truth, this fact is not known to anyone else in the castle who’s talking. In describing Hamlet as “Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking against each other, / And with a look so piteous in purport / As if he had been loosed out of hell / To speak of horrors” (II, i, 79-83), Ophelia unknowingly hits upon the truth as Hamlet has indeed just returned from speaking with the undead with unspeakable horrors weighing heavily on his mind. Likewise, her description of his study of her indicates a final decision and leave-taking being made. These heavy thoughts that have come upon Hamlet make him realize he can no longer pursue the pleasurable adolescent aspirations he must have previously harbored toward Ophelia and he commits himself to his task. “At last, a little shaking of mine arm / And thrice his head thus waving up and down, / He raised a sigh so piteous and profound / As it did seem to shatter all his bulk / And end his being” (II, i, 92-96). Thus committing himself (the head shaking up and down), Hamlet takes his first step toward the sacrificing of his own dreams, thereby ending the path he had hoped to follow, his individual being in favor of taking up his familial responsibilities. Thus, Ophelia’s description of Hamlet’s madness actually functions to reveal to the audience the true nature of his being. Like Ophelia’s speech that signals the end of the individual Hamlet, the Queen’s description of Ophelia’s drowning signals the end of the individual Ophelia in a more immediate sense. After Ophelia has appeared before the Queen speaking nonsense and singing folk songs in an obvious display of true insanity, the King orders that she be watched over, yet somehow she still manages to make it to the edge of the brook unobserved and undetected until it is too late to save her. The King has just finished making plans with Laertes to have Hamlet murdered in much the same sort of underhanded way in which the previous king was murdered when the Queen enters the room mourning the loss of Ophelia’s beauty. She relates how Ophelia had been gathering flowers to twine into a garland for herself when she fell into the water. The horror of the scene is accented as the Queen describes how the bulk of Ophelia’s clothing held her floating on the surface of the water for a while as the girl remained unaware of her danger and continued to sing her songs. Finally, though, the weight of the wet clothing dragged her down below the surface of the water and she drowned. The knowledge the Queen has as to the specific nature of Ophelia’s death calls into question her sincerity in her lament. It is noted earlier that the Queen blames Ophelia for Hamlet’s sudden madness and therefore there isn’t much love lost between the two women. The Queen’s resentment is perhaps best illustrated when she attempts to refuse to receive Ophelia in Act IV, scene iv, “I will not speak with her” (1), until after her guard has pleaded with the Queen to assess Ophelia’s altered state for herself. Because of her anger toward the girl, the Queen becomes alarmed at Ophelia’s behavior, but is perhaps more jaded to it than she is to the feigned madness of her own son. She much prefers to leave the matter in the hands of the king and the guards rather than deal with Ophelia herself. Another possible source of resentment emerges here as the King refers to Ophelia as “pretty Ophelia” and laments the loss of her mind as a second tragedy of the court. Within the Queen’s recitation of what happened to Ophelia, the only statement she makes that indicates supposition or assumption rather than direct knowledge is that it could not have been long before “her garments, heavy with their drink, / Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay” (IV, vii, 180-181). On the other hand, the Queen includes many details in her description that indicate first hand knowledge that would have been difficult to know any other way: “Her clothes spread wide, / And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up, / Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds, / As one incapable of her own distress” (IV, vii, 174-177). That the supposition comes at the end of this description suggests an observer who watched as Ophelia fell into the water and then continued to watch as she floated upon the surface for a moment before leaving so as not to fall accused of negligent watchfulness. The purpose of this speech, like the purpose of Ophelia’s, is to reveal a more accurate picture of the characters involved in the play. The Queen’s poetic description of Ophelia’s end serves to indicate the innocence and beauty of the young girl’s soul, dying as she did in complete ignorance of what was happening to her. She didn’t feel fear or demonstrate any knowledge that she was facing what to many seems a most frightening experience. In addition, the Queen indicates Ophelia’s purity of spirit by associating it with the water element, itself a sign of purity. Ophelia’s death, then, is more like a rebirth into her true and intended form rather than the tragic accident it seems. However, this speech also serves to highlight the possibly treacherous aspect of the Queen, indicating that perhaps she isn’t quite the innocent fool she appears to be through Hamlet’s eyes. While she appears to have been helpless in her decision to take her brother-in-law as husband following the death of Hamlet’s father, the speed with which this union took place, however justified, has continued to call question upon her complicity in the murder or her true knowledge of the events. This intimate knowledge of the details of Ophelia’s death further indicates that perhaps the Queen is not helpless or innocent in either tragedy. With these types of hints, her death at the end of the play doesn’t seem as much a tragedy as it does an act of divine justice. Each of the two female characters within the play have an important function to play in providing the necessary internal illumination into the principle characters that is necessary if the audience is to understand these characters true nature in the puzzling dance of intrigue and subterfuge that occurs in and around true insanity. While Ophelia reveals innocence and truth in her observations, the Queen uncovers true insanity, jealousy and a potentially deep streak of treachery. Both speeches pass on essential information regarding the end of a person as he or she has been known, however Ophelia indicates a metaphoric end while the Queen reveals a true end. Finally, Ophelia makes her speech as a means of trying to enlist help to save someone she cares for while the Queen’s speech is intended merely to pass along information after the fact, perhaps even after having made the conscious decision to watch rather than seek to offer aid. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. New York: Viking, 1969, pp. 930-976. Read More