Shakespeares Greatest Tragedy Hamlet - Assignment Example

We analyze the passages from Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy “Hamlet” as follows: Passage 1: Be not too tame …….form and pressure (Hamlet Act III Scene II) This is the directional speech given by the character of Hamlet to his fellow actors on the stage. If we carefully go through the wordings of the same we can understand that the Shakespeare wanted to establish a distinct style of theatre and performing on the stage. Conventional and stylized manner heavily dominated the portrayal of English art. The naturalism trend liberated the art and drama from the clutches of conventional portrayal. This particular piece of speech is given to Hamlet by Shakespeare. It depicts the early modern acting practices. It also provides as a guideline to Shakespearean drama. It gives a straightforward opinion about the playing of a character by an actor. Interestingly it also gives an insight to the director’s instructions as well. There are two connecting monologues given to Hamlet in this scene. The first one says about the use of voice and hands and pronunciation of the words on the stage and the second one talk about the fine line of overacting and emoting. Interestingly according to Shakespeare the portraying of the character should be a mirror image. For an actor on the stage, he plays the life of the other person, while keeping aside his own and tries to strike a perfect balance between the two. The actor has to feel the emotions of the character to portray it effectively. However in the process the emoting or sentimentality should be well within the bound of the character. The portrayal should not be loud, should not cross the boundaries of the stage, the body language should not be offensive to the character’s nature. It is very difficult indeed to put across the strength of the character effectively to the audience and it should also be well complimented by the co-actors. Shakespeare beautifully puts across these expectations and guidelines which prove to be a historical documentation of his style. Passage 2: Seems madam! I know ….. suits of woe (Hamlet Act I scene II) The first act opens with Hamlet’s father’s ghost appearing and telling young Hamlet the cause of his death. Hamlets’ uncle Claudius has murdered the king by pouring poison in his ear. The ghost compels the young prince to avenge his death. Hamlet is extremely disturbed by the series of events happening in his life. He is not able to come to terms with his father’s death and his mother’s hasty remarriage to his uncle. His peace of mind is completely shattered with the events that are happening too fast for hi to comprehend. He has appeared in the court in black. Black off course being the color of mourning depicts his true feelings towards the situation he has gotten into. Here we see the clash of an intellectual mind with the circumstances. He is pursuing education in Wittenberg University in England. So far he has been leading a very secure, protected and a peaceful life which possibly would not know about the sorrows a man cannot comprehend. Suddenly he is thrown into the whirlwind of circumstances and that too unfortunate ones the state of shock is aggravated when he meets his father’s ghost. The burden of sense of duty is too much for him to bear. Not that he is fragile to break under it or he is timid. But he is not the one to believe until he himself finds enough truth to substantiate the matter. Upon his visit to the King and the Queen, the queen reasons very well that why he should stay back and enjoy his newly found status. But the King altogether takes a different stand on the situation. He insists that Hamlet’s display of sorrow is unmanly and he should accept and come to terms with his father’s death as soon as possible. The audience sympathizes immediately with young Hamlet as they are aware of the hypocrisy of the king. Passage 3: O, 'tis too true... O heavy burthen! (Claudius Act III Scene II) This passage is the beauty of Shakespeare’s writing. No character he has portrayed is perfect; rather no human being can be perfect and completely imbalance to side of white or black. We all as human beings posses the grey shades. The king has killed Hamlet’s father the previous king to acquire the throne. However in his peace time or even otherwise he is not at peace at all. The irony is, he ignored his conscious while he killed the king but is filled with guilt when he thinks about the murder later. He becomes vicious when he plans to kill his nephew again by sending him to England under some or the other pretext and still he manages to offer his prayers to the Lord for forgiveness. All happens in this one scene. Irrespective of the portrayal of his guilt the audience while watching this scene remains uncertain about their loyalty towards Claudius. By now Hamlet is sure about the murder of this father and wants to avenge his death. His pretense of madness has certainly not fooled Claudius. He wants to get to the root of this assumed madness and wants to get rid of the prince. He is extremely suspicious and weary about people around him and understandably so because he is the murderer. He cannot trust people because he doesn’t trust his own self anymore. The guilt does come to surface from time to time but the lust for power is more overwhelming than the conscious. He seeks his penance through prayers that he offers to the lord in the passage. The peace he is seeking so gravely eludes him even in his prayers. Perhaps that is the fate he has to face till the end of his life and which becomes the burden he is unable to shed. Passage 4: Since my dear soul … stop she please (Hamlet Act III Scene II) This excellently presents the duel of a very philosophical mind and the reluctant acceptance of the truth. By nature Hamlet is not likely to believe the ghost of his dead father. He would require his own collection of proofs. Till the time he gets a substantial proof he would keep procrastinating and delaying the action he needs to take urgently. Upon this interesting dilemma he finds a solution very close to his nature. He presents the same situation in the form of drama to the King and the Queen in the court. He even asserts his friend to watch the king’s reaction when the murder is being presented. The reaction of the King is going to prove whether the king is guilty of the murder or not. This falls so typically with the era the play was presented in. everything around demanded proof and logic. Although there were convincing circumstances around, the situation still required a solid proof to take an action for or against it. In his psyche Hamlet is absolutely sure about the murder committed by his uncle. However his mind or brain demands more. This is a very typical clash of the intellectual mind. The cover of madness is something all of us resort o some or the other time in life to discover the truth. The madness also stems from the obsession of the idea. We can see in this particular scene that Hamlet is obsessed with finding the truth regarding his father’s death. He assumes insanity and the presents and guides the play are two paradoxical situations. However his madness can be translated as his obsession to find the truth in which he succeeds. He confirms to his best friend that he is now ready to believe his father’s ghost, which has prolonged him from taking any further action. Passage 5: Not where he eats…….. that's the end (Hamlet Act IV Scene III) The passage shows Hamlet’s wilder side again, but this time it is a cold and dreadful side which comes forward of his otherwise peaceful nature. This scene also goes ahead and reveals the strong storyline of the play. All the scenes are very well connected with each other. In the earlier act Polonius volunteers to spy on the conversation that is happening between the Queen and her son. He is unintentionally killed by Hamlet who is not sorry about the murder. He unleashes his anger by calling Polonius feed of worms. He then further extends the metaphor to the king himself. By this time he is convinced of his father’s murder and has not doubt about the fate that is awaiting him after he is unceremoniously packed off to England. This scene also gives way to the other form of madness. In this entire play there are many different forms of madness one can observe. Initially Hamlet is mad with grief of his lost father and his mother’s betrayal. Later he feigns madness to find the truth. Next he is mad with rage to avenge the death of his father, and also the mad rage of taking the challenges and problems upfront. When the situation becomes extremely clear in front of him he doesn’t want to waste his time with false consolations. This scene also reveals that he doesn’t trust anybody around him. He treasures his intentions close to his heart and shares with nobody. Could that also be because he is aware that the plan he is going to carry out will not be successful if he seeks help? Scene by scene one is mesmerized by the complications that are portrayed in the character of Hamlet. It is not a surprise, when you read the play that till date Hamlet is the most challenging and demanding character to act or portray in theatre and art. Passage 6: Why, look you now……. play upon me. (Hamlet Act III Scene II) This scene ends the role of madman for Hamlet. He has achieved his purpose of finding the truth of his father’s murder. The very fat that Claudius left the court in hurry while the murder scene was going on in the play is a proof enough to establish the facts. The reader of the play clearly is left with no doubt that the prince of Denmark was not insane but assumed insanity. There is however also another side to it. In the study of psychology, this perfect guise of madness gets torn apart. The prince assumes madness only in company of the people whom he hates passionately or is absolutely scared about. The cunning mind of Claudius is able to see through the layer of madness because like Hamlet even he trusts his own judgment and mind. Both are alike when it comes to trusting people. Claudius is suspicious because of his own guilt and Hamlet cannot trust because of the dangerous ploy he is going to carry about. The initial stage of madness comes through grief, which sooner is replaced by the assumed identity and then suddenly sanity comes to surface when he escapes from England and returns to Denmark. The obsession and extremity shows from every character that is portrayed in this play. The King is obsessed with power, the queen goes to extreme length while proving to be unfaithful, the advisors and the courtiers are obsessed with the loyalty towards the king. The only madness that seems real is that of Ophelia’s which comes from the rejection of her love at the hands of Hamlet. Her death affects the audience the most while for other characters death seems to be the only way for salvation. In the passage mentioned above Hamlet refuses to accede to the demands of the courtiers. With the revelation of truth he refuses to believe anybody and is sane enough to not let anybody take any advantage of him. The vanishing of the madness is left for the audience to notice to take the story forward. Hamlet till today remains the greatest tragedy written by Shakespeare and the toughest drama to enact. The character of Hamlet is not insane not in the sense of being mentally disturbed by situation and circumstances but is insane due grief, obsession and the incongruence of a trained logical mind and extreme emotional heart. Read More