Hamlet Review

[Act 1 Scene 1]

Without any explanations and advance information, the play starts. It’s one of the dramatic features. They play out on stage. We can catch more easily what’s going on and who they really are. When we read the playscript, it’s rather unkind to readers unlike the novels.

  Horatio has the special role as the “scholar”, who interprets the phenomenon and gives the way of correcting the disorder. The young Hamlet isn’t yet appearing, and moreover their names follow the alliteration(starting with an H). It means that they’re like the half apples. I want to say, their identity is androgynous.

  In the movie Call Me By Your Name, love between men is pictured as the ideal as if the gay relationship doesn’t matter like the ancient Greek culture. The Renaissance had the similar understanding so people believed that they can be completed by the aesthetic, intelligent, and erotic beauty.

  In this Scene, the ghost visits and disturbs the whole night('s ignorance). It makes sentries fearful and threatens the security of the state. As the story has developed, we realise that the dead king was “valiant” and sincere unlike the young Fortinbras and Polonius. It vanished because of the guilty feeling about haunting at dawn.

[Act 1 Scene 2]

Hamlet and Laertes are both studying abroad. At that time, sons in the noble family went aborad to expand their horizon. It’s called the Grand Tour as the passage of becoming the true man.

  They temporarily returned to their own country to attend the coronation. After the ceremony, Laertes got permission to go back to France. But Polonius put Hamlet under his eyes to spy on him and prevent the possible revolt. The new king also avoids doubt and hatred from the people.

  In the 16th century, the Elizabeth Ⅰ was a faerie queen without a husband and children. She enjoyed showing off the absolute power in front of the crowd, but people concerned about the next heir. In the patriarchy, the family line must be purified. That’s why the unpolluted history is much more crucial.

  We get to know why Hamlet is troubled by depression and resentment. He was heartbroken by his father’s death, and soon his mother is sharing the bed with his uncle. Once he lost his father, he was deprived of his throne and mother at once. I think he revealed his emotions against his uncle, but the new king suppressed and ignored them by his logos.

  As a result, he turned into a misogynist and bursted into the rage toward his mother(exactly her womb). Women were treated by men as objects and property in those days.

[Act 1 Scene 3]

William Shakespeare largely contributed to Modern English. His plays used blank verses with no rhymes. Its style was originated from the dramatist Christopher Marlow. Their relationship you can see in the movie Shakespeare in Love.

  He put plays on stage in the Elizabethan reign and at that time “Euphuism” by John Lily was so popular. It had many ornaments to flatter the female listeners. Since the Authorized Version of the Bible was made by James Ⅰ, the simple style has been spread.

  We notice the close relationship between language and power. Having a right to say means owning the real power in the hierarchy.

  In this scene, one of the aristocratic family appears. The young daughter belongs to her father and brother. Men told her again and again as if she is a sexual, reproductive body. Such cases are defined as ‘Mansplain’ these days because they said without any hesitation, “I’ll tell you.” or “I’ll teach you.” In front of them, she becomes an ignorant green girl and ‘baby.’

  They gave lessons to Ophelia one after another. Laertes as the elder brother interrupts her love affair. He compares her body to Hamlet’s. Her maiden presence is symbolized by the flower, which easily blooms and then withers. He claims that she is nothing if she loses her virginity. In contrast, Hamlet’s Body國體 isn’t a natural, private thing.

  Her father also treats her in the same way and advises her not to open her legs to Hamlet’s seduction. According to him, Hamlet(’s unholy request) is the same as the pious bawd. Her families warn that Hamlet’s affection is neither permanent nor lasting. If Hamlet leaves her, she is fated to be the family shame. They repeatedly said, “Don’t believe in his vows. Just listen to us.”

  Polonius gives each children precepts, but he gives his son a speech with no comment behaving as the sexual body. For an example, the word ‘prodigal(헤픈)’ is used differently.

  Ophelia is an obedient daughter and sister, but she retorted men’s orders politely. Nevertheless, I think it’s not enough.

[Act 1 Scene 4]

The spirit of the late king has emerged three times. The young Hamlet goes to the very place to speak to it. Unlike his dark and gloomy heart, there is the royal feast hold by the new king. Hamlet worries about the safety of the state. Drinking and dancing at night make soldiers reckless and insane. Its country has the watery, womanized image. It’s fatal to keep it strong and solid.

  Now, we realized that Hamlet is depressed and hurt by father’s death and serial loss. His follow students persuade him not to follow the ghost because he is in danger of breaking down and suicidal madness. In such cases, even the roaring wave can tempt him to drown. We can’t avoid the 9th wave(the strongest one) in life, Romain Gary said. The sea has the ambivalent symbols; life/death, womb/tomb, and Eros/Thanatos.

  In this scene, Hamlet talks about tragic flaws. It means that the great man downfalls because of the character’s defect such as too much envy, hesitation, and pride. I think it has an effect on justifying himself in the future.

  I found that the ghost(’s appearance) is mentioned by the term ‘walk’, instead of haunting or wandering. I wonder if it is caused by the limit of Modern English or dramatist’s intention.

  Let’s take notice of Hamlet’s change of use of language in the scene 5.

[Act 1 Scene 5]

Hamlet is heartbroken and on the verge of collapse because his father is now in Purgatory. He died from the poison during the sleep and couldn’t confess his sins before God. Hamlet and his father are both in pain hovering between life and death.

  The ghost said that his love for Gertrude was true, but his brother merely lusts her as an “incestuous and adulterate beast.” The fact that his uncle “stole” the crown makes Hamlet feel shocked and get older suddenly. His father as the last word asks him to revenge.

  Hamlet no longer writes down the impressive quotations and thoughts. There is no room for enjoying anything but the promise(vows) with his father. He turns away from all the romantic possibilities of the youth. The business and desire left for him is the only love for his father as a filial duty. He has to remember his death as long as he is alive.

  Poor Hamlet was born to set history right so that he will put on an acting of madness to know the truth. From now on, his being and motto are set for the revenge. Love or study is not allowed. If so, to him, knowledge is power, or else ignorance is bliss?

[Act 2 Scene 1]

Though Hamlet is tied in Denmark like a prisoner, Laertes returned to France to enjoy his “youth and liberty.” Polonius wants to know if his son is behaving well so that he sends Reynald to spy on him. He feels out his character and habit by inquiring his acquaintances how good he is.

  In Henry Ⅴ, the prince lives in the poor town for some time and broadens his knowledge. To be ideal leaders, they have to go through the hard tests.

  This time Polonius concerns about his sexual scandal and prevents him from dishonoring. His attitude toward his son informs us of the obsession with the purified family line and reputation. The words like “sullies”, “taint”, and “soiled” are used repeatedly in the Shakespeare’s tragedies.

  Polonius places emphasis on the roundabout ways of finding out the true nature. He said that your bait of falsehood could take this carp of truth.

 In Act 2, we see Polonius’s character closely. As soon as he heard of Hamlet’s strange acts, he judged him “mad” for love and ran to Claudius with the news. To him, the relationship with the king is much more important than his daughter’s private feelings. He will report to Polonius promptly what he got from people.

[Act 2 Scene 2]

King and queen ask their old son’s friends to “gather” information about why Hamlet changed too much.

  Polonius acts like the King’s Fool. Queen complains about his too much talk. “More matter with less art.” He doesn’t seem straightforward and honest. Anyway, he thinks he found the very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy. He regards his judgement right and never doubts it. Accordingly he risks his life and job.

  In those days, young men wrote poetry and love letters as the gentlemen’s education. Polonius gives that kind of letter as a proof. In the letter, Hamlet promised his love for Ophelia as long as the body is his. But after he vowed the revenge with his father, he can’t keep it anymore. He has to drop it helplessly. (The German playwright Heiner Muller wrote Hamlet Machine got an idea from this letter.)

  Hamlet pretends to be mad in front of Polonius. When Polonius asks him what book Hamlet is reading, he answers “words, words, words.” We know it means remembering his father. “Adieu, adieu, remember me” was only left in Hamlet’s brain and (note)book. Hamlet’s words are not completely nonsense, empty and vague. As Polonius mentioned, “Though this be madness, yet there is method條理 in it.” They seem to prick the heart like thorns.

  Hamlet knows that the two friends are sent for to find out why he behaves strangely. Denmark is a prison to him because spies are everywhere. Elsinore looks like a panopticon defined by Michel Foucault.

  He told them about his depression. Everything around him is nothing and life is meaningless. He thinks we human beings come from the fog, and then disappear into it. It’s kind of vanitus.

  After he heard of the news that his favorite company劇團 is coming, he heartily feels happy. Owing to closing theaters, travelling actors can visit at Elsinore.

  Hamlet prefers plays with “an honest method” to the cunning, fine, and crafty ones. He mentions Dido and Aeneas’s love story in Marlow’s play and starts remembering the lines. It’s about the king’s death and his loved wife. It is sure to touch Hamlet’s heart.

  Hamlet is going to put the play on stage tomorrow. He arranges to put more lines in the original version and use it for a trap to catch the uncle’s “consciousness.” He compares himself with actors. If they had the motive and the cue for passion that he has, they would drown the stage with tears and cut the public ear with horrible truth.

  He blames himself as “a dull rogue” and “coward” with lacking courage and delaying decision. He envies the actor’s abilities to awaken the ignorant and amaze the eyes and ears. That’s why he plans a play within a play. He maintains that the play is the mirror up to nature. As a result, the guilty people sitting at a play would be struck and show the truth. The last thing Hamlet will do is to observe and probe his uncle.

  We can see Hamlet acts politely to old friends and players, but speaks rudely to Polonius like an “old Jephthah.” Jephthah was a character who lost his daughter for political reason. It foretells Ophelia’s death.

[Act 3 Scene 1]

The king appears to suspect Hamlet’s antic disposition. Polonius plots the encounter between Hamlet and Ophelia in the “seeing unseen” scene. He believes that his madness is caused by the neglected love. We call it a theory of lovesickness.

  The most famous line appears: “To be, or not to be, that is the question(3.1.56).” Hamlet has death instinct, that’s Thanatos. To die is to sleep. By sleeping he can end the pain, turn away from the chaos of life, and stop thinking. Death is the unknown territory so it allures him to “sleep.”

  We guess that he is bearing the whips and scorns of time with all his might, but it’s so painful and suffering terribly. After all, too much thoughts make him lose action and resolution. His dilemma represents a modern (doubting) man unlike the middle age.

   As soon as Ophelia returns his tokens to him according to his father’s instruction, he rejects to receive them. He denies loving her. She said to the noble mind rich gifts grew poor when givers changed his mind.

  But Hamlet keeps attacking her, “Are you honest and fair(beauty)?” In such case, both words mean chastity. He is pouring cursing and insults to her inhumanely. As his state of mind is unstable, he becomes more and more a misogynist. He spreads to her his rage and loathing toward his mother.

  Even he claims that it was much better his mother had not born him. He shouts out, “Go to a nunnery.” No more marriage and sinners! We are all totally cheating people so we mustnot trust. Hamlet bites Ophelia’s heart out by cruel words like a poisonous serpent.

  Hamlet is too cruel. He regards paintings(makeup) dishonest because it looks like a whore with two faces. Ophelia is shocked by his changed mind and harsh words. She declares herself the most poor and wretched woman in the world, saying “O woe is me(슬프도다).” She is broken down and actually mad.

  Finally, the new king notices something more than madness in Hamlet. He will decide to expel or confine him after seeing the play. He never wants the riot against him.

  Obstinately, Polonius plans the second eavesdropping.

[ACT 3 SCENE 2]

According to Hamlet’s theory of acting, the purpose of playing is to hold the mirror up to nature(사실을 비추는 거울). Players have to imitate a human’s life so modestly. They must not go too far.

  The excessive gestures and ad-lips like clowns are not allowed in the good playing. Such overdoing and violent acting were common in the medieval drama. Players gave religious messages and lessons to illiterate audiences in the Miracle or Morality plays by provoking the passionate reactions.

  We guessed Horatio might be the real companion to Hamlet. Hamlet explains exactly how Horatio is great and helpful. Horatio is the person who suffers nothing in suffering all. He takes with equal thanks Fortune’s blows and rewards. He is so balanced that he can’t be a pipe for Fortune’s fingers. Hamlet envies him not as a “passion’s slave.”

  Hamlet already told Horatio about his father’s death and asks him to observe his uncle in one speech. It’s obvious that Horatio is a soul mate to confide in and share with.

  Hamlet speaks rudely to both Claudius and Polonius. He uses many puns on purpose.

  We had an argument about why Hamlet treats Ophelia so badly. He reduces her to the sexual object like the private part or womb. He told her as if women exist only for men’s sexual pleasure. He regards women as “nothing” or a hole/whore. It’s very problematic that Hamlet has not only a biological penis but also sociological power called Phallus by the post-structuralists.

  Hamlet can’t understand why his mother forgot her (marriage) vows so easily. That’s why he decided not to love Ophelia anymore. “Woman’s love” is too short. In those days women got married early and died young in the middle of delivering babies. Hamlet leaves alone men but hates women’s second marriage.

  The item, the rocking horse is mentioned as Bing Bong in the movie Inside Out, we forget the (imagery) childhood toy as we grow up, to make real friends.

  In the play within a play, Player King said “Purpose[Decision] is the slave to memory / Of violent birth but poor validity... The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.” He leaves a big question to think of. Our loves should change with our fortunes. If so, love leads fortune or fortune love? I agree to Hamlet’s definition on the oblivion of death, but he tends to apply it only to women with a narrow mind.

  Friendship also changes under certain circumstances. To conclude, “our wills and fates do so contrary run... Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.”

  Watching the play, the new king has been noticing something hazardous going on. Hamlet put a trap to catch a killer so he changed the name of the play into The Mousetrap. The Murder of the Gonzago has the same story with the old king’s death and his wife’s second marriage. The new king finally cried out “Lights, lights, lights.” He was frightened by the truth revealing itself in the darkness. He rejects to confront his crime.

  In particular, in The Mousetrap, Horatio and Hamlet seem like co-producers. However, Hamlet thinks of the old friends as enemies. He is angry at them, saying “even you can’t make the pipe speak, you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?” He warned they can’t play upon him, EVER!

  Guildenstern and Rosencrantz turn away from Hamlet because he didn’t give anything they wanted from him. Accordingly, they obey the new king and choose to betray Hamlet.

  Before meeting his mother alone in her chamber, Hamlet controls his mind not to lose his temper. He will speak daggers to her, but use none. We predict he will use violent language and sexual pejorative again.      

[ACT 3 SCENE 3]

The old friends actually betray Hamlet, but they justify themselves by emphasizing the security of nation; the king’s sigh is everyone’s groan. The new king fears Hamlet’s free feet so he wants to put them on fetters.

  In this scene, Claudius reveals his thoughts to the audience. Then Hamlet gets proof on his father’s death that his uncle is evidently a murder.

  Claudius is in dilemma whether he is praying or not. He feels like washing his blood-stained hand, but for it he has to give up his crown and queen. He couldn’t fall to his knees and soften the heart so he failed to admit the sin.

  Hamlet judges him to go to heaven if he kills him in praying. Now his father is suffering in the Purgatory. Hamlet doesn’t want to give him a chance to be pardoned and dead in peace. He delays his revenge until there will be no salvation in it.

[ACT 3 SCENE 4]

Hamlet used the real sword to kill Polonius and similarly he entered in his mother’s ears with violent language. He scolds his mother’s behavior for he thinks she must not accept his love and break her marriage vows as a chaste lady and queen. He resents her going to the incestuous bed so he asks her not to do it again. He believes that the mature woman can’t burn and melt herself by her compulsive ardor. Finally, he turns her eyes to see her very soul with black spots as he wished.

 Hamlet compares his father with the new king. He thinks the former as ‘this fair mountain’ and the latter ‘this moor.’ In those days people used to treat the black skin badly so it’s kind of a racial pejorative. The queen doesn’t know that her old king was killed by Claudius so the scene Hamlet is talking in the air must be horrifying and frightening her.

  In this part, the ghost reappears to warn that Hamlet shouldn’t make her shocked by attacking harshly. Before the ghost, Hamlet reproaches his own dull revenge. Now, we can notice his true nature against the bloody deed. He is not simply indecisive but confronted with the inner voices. Anyway, he appears to believe that the murder of Polonius was ordained by Providence(designed by God’s plan).

  This time Hamlet tells her he is acting mad, therefore she can’t cover her sin by his madness. He demands to have chastity, but I have a question whether he has a right to interrupt her marriage or not. In my opinion, he has to put an emphasis on his uncle’s immoral act, not her.

  Hamlet decides not to be played by the old friends. He already knew their plotting. He alludes to his hidden ‘bomb.’ He defines Polonius ‘a foolish talkative knave,’ but he is put to the same place, the murderer like Claudius.

  At least, Hamlet is pouring his thoughts to his mother(family) and Horatio(friend). Unlike him Ophelia has no one around her in hard times.

[ACT 4 SCENE 1]

After Gertrude talked with her son, she reports it to the king. She tells him mad Hamlet killed Polonius as an unseen listener. Claudius feels threat to his life and security so he commands his servants to find Hamlet and Polonius’ body.

[ACT 4 SCENE 2]

Hamlet uses vague words to the old friends, but they have hidden meanings in it. Following a pipe, he uses the trope ‘a sponge.’ He thinks they are sponges squeezed by the king’s hand. When they are dry, they’re useless to him. Hamlet never gives them whatever they want to know.

[ACT 4 SCENE 3]

The king concerns about the mass rebellion. People like Hamlet, but they don’t trust the new king yet. He worries about the rumor of how he took the crown and queen. After all, everyone can't avoid death once born, we are all mortal beings. That means we will become food for maggots someday.

  Hamlet ignores the king’s comment on purpose. By letters, the king bids England to kill Hamlet immediately.

[ACT 4 SCENE 4]

Hamlet encounters the young Fortinbras’ captain on the way abroad. He seems that everything informs against him his tardy revenge. He has cause to kill the uncle, but he couldn’t. He doubts if it’s a bestial oblivion or hesitation to act. As he sees the army marching and taking their life just for the national honor, he regards himself a coward. “A thought which, (divided into) quartered, has but one part wisdom / And ever three parts coward.”

  He realized that to be great is not from the big argument, but to find quarrel in a trivial thing when honor is at the stake. At last, he makes a decision to be bloody.

[ACT 4 SCENE 5]

Ophelia is mad because his father is dead and her lover gone at once. She loses the normal speech and sings. The unspeakable pain makes her mad. If we translate our pain exactly into words, we can avoid being mad.

  To Claudius, this also appears dangerous. He buried Polonius in a hurry without the proper ceremony. It’s enough to buy people’s doubts and blame, “Laertes shall be king!” He is aware of the effect of the strong speeches on the dead body in Julius Caesar.

  This time we see the queen’s neutral attitude. After Hamlet’s rebuke, between her son and husband she seems wiser than we expected. She kept the promise not to tell about madness ‘in craft’ and then tries her best to be good wife, holding Laertes back.

  Laertes reacts very differently from Hamlet. He declares the revenge for his father and family dishonor in a blind fury. Here, we expect Claudius willingly to make false news about Polonius’s death.

[ACT 4 SCENE 6]

Horatio receives a letter from Hamlet and follows the seamen who brought it to him.

[ACT 4 SCENE 7]

The king pretends not to be guilty from Polonius’s death in front of Laertes. Laertes asks him why he didn’t punish Hamlet about the murder he had done. The two reasons for it lie in the queen and the public.

  The king got a letter from Hamlet so it makes him baffled but begins persuading Laertes to revenge now. The king plans for the fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet. Claudius told him that love is begun by timing and over time it will weaken. In a word, it’s time to show the love for his father ‘in deed.’

  According to their plot, the sharp sword and the poisonous wine are ready. By the time they’re plotting the revenge against Hamlet, the news of the Ophelia’s death is breaking. The queen describes how she fell into the brook. Ophelia looks as if she returned to the womb (or nature) where she was born peacefully. Her death is pictured as the feminine one with watery images.

  As you saw the painting on the page 126(John Everett Millais, 1851), it has the lyrical beauty. It’s famous for the Pre-Raphaelite. Someone feels beauty in the dying/sleeping Ophelia in the pond like her bed. She is a virgin so it’s like a bud in the coming perfection. She won’t be polluted and aging forever under the male artist’s eye and imagination.

[ACT 5 SCENE 1]

We know that the Ophelia’s death and burial is very controversial. It’s unclear that she drowned herself or it was accidental. Horatio and Hamlet meet at the graveyard in secret. We guess that Hamlet is very close to the death and he continues thinking of death.

 A gravedigger is making jokes and singing to forget the toil while working. Skulls are common in the graveyard. It shows us vantius人生無常; we will die one day; a man’s life is no more than to say ‘one.’ Hamlet said that skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once. While he is looking at the Yorick’s skull, he concludes that “death is the great leveller” however great they were. No exceptions.

  They see the Ophelia’s funeral procession by chance. Laertes is angry at the informal proceedings without ceremony. He leaps into the open grave in the greatest woe. Hamlet feels uncomfortable at the scene, it seems like a rape. Hamlet claims that he loved Ophelia more than forty thousand brother’s love. He wants to be buried with her. It means that she belongs to him.

  I wonder why Hamlet thinks such things as fencing and burial so important. Do they prove his masculinity? He is only thinking of revenge and death, why are they so meaningful to him suddenly? I guess that it is the matter of his honor at stake.

[ACT 5 SCENE 2]

Hamlet said profoundly “there’s a divinity that shapes our ends.” It’s a fatalism. He was shaken by the old friends’ betrayal and royal knavery. He rewrote the king’s letter and followed the code of Hammurabi; an eye for an eye. We notice he rarely concerns about killing others against him. He only focuses on his life and his father’s death, isn’t it too egotistical and self-indulgent?

  In the heavy and dark circumstances, Osric is put on the stage and gives some laughs. Hamlet and Horatio can’t trust such men and their flatteries. That’s why Horatio said “His purse is empty already, all’s golden words are spent.” Maybe they criticize the Elizabethan flowery style in such ways. They don’t need to use too much speech anymore as Modern men. Some people think that Ophelia and Osric have a lot in common.

  Hamlet has a premonition of dying, but dismisses it as the womanly sensitiveness. He defines death as the divine territory; we don’t know precisely how our ending is, it must be special providence. “It it be now, it is not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come... Let be.”

  Ironically, Hamlet is playing frankly in the foul play. The queen drinks the poisonous wine because she may detect something going on surrounding his son. She protects him with her whole body this time, but is killed by Claudius.

  Laertes tells the truth about the poison and then blames the king for all the tragedies. Upon Seneca’s plot, there is so much death in the end. Horatio is left behind as a true reporter and the young Fortinbras will be a new king. In the history, who has the pen decides on wrapping up the past. Hamlet chooses and appoints the next monarch and historian. Finally, he dies after purifying the polluted kingdom and family line. ■

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