HPAVC/HPAVC CD-ROM.iso/HOMEWORK.ZIP/SMADDK.TXT

Text File | 1998-07-25 | 13KB | 268 lines

Date sent:        Fri, 5 Apr 1996 03:30:59 -0500 (EST)
Subject:          mailto:[e-mail]

This is a great essay on hamlet for my college english class. I recived an A (>95%)
I was 21 when i wrote this essay. The title is The madness of prince Hamlet.
country USA




In Hamlet, Prince of Denmark the protagonist exhibits a puzzling
duplicitous nature. Hamlet contradicts himself throughout out the play. He
endorses both of the virtues of acting a role and being true to oneis self. He
further supports both of these conflicting endorsements with his actions. This
ambiguity is demonstrated by his alleged madness, for he does behave madly, only
to become perfectly calm and rational an instant later. These inconsistencies
are related with the internal dilemmas he faces. He struggles with the issue of
revenging his fatheris death, vowing to kill Claudius and then backing out,
several times. Upon this point Hamlet teeters through the play. The reason for
this teetering is directly related to his inability to form a solid opinion
about role playing. This difficulty is not present, however, at the start of the
play.


In the first act Hamlet appears to be very straightforward in his
actions and inner state. When questioned by Gertrude about his melancholy
appearance Hamlet says, ╩Seems, madam? Nay it is. I know not ╚seemsi╦ (1.2.76).
This is to say ╩I am what I appear to be.╦ Later he makes a clear statement
about his state when he commits himself to revenge. In this statement the play
makes an easy to follow shift. This shift consists of Hamlet giving up the role
of a student and mourning son. Hamlet says,


Iill wipe away all trivial fond records,

All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,

That youth and observation copied there,

And thy commandment all alone shall live

Within the book and volume of my brain

(1.5.99-103)
Hamlet is declaring that he will be committed to nothing else but the revenge of
his fathers death. There is no confusion about Hamletis character. He has said
earlier that he is what he appears to be, and there is no reason to doubt it. In
the next act, however, Hamletis status and intentions suddenly and with out
demonstrated reason becomes mired in confusion.


When Hamlet appears again in act two, it seems that he has lost the
conviction that was present earlier. He has yet to take up the part assigned to
him by the ghost. He spends the act walking around, reading, talking with
Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the players. It is not until the very
end of the act that he even mentions vengeance. If he had any of the conviction
shown earlier he would be presently working on his vengeance. So instead of
playing the part of vengeful son, or dropping the issue entirely, he hangs out
in the middle, pretending to be mad. This is shown when he says to Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern ╩I know not-lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise╦
(2.2.298-299). Later he tells them that he is just feigning madness when he
says, ╩I am but mad north-north-west, when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk
from a handsaw╦ (2.2.380-381). Admitting so blatantly that he is only feigning
madness would imply that he is comfortable with it. He also seems to be
generally comfortable with acting This is evidenced when he says, ╩there is
nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so╦ (2.2.251-252). Hamlet is
saying that behavior shapes reality. It is puzzling that Hamlet is comfortable
with playing at this point but not with the role that he said he would play
earlier. If he is to play a role why not the one that his father gave him? When
the players come in a short wile later his attitude changes.


Hamlet is prompted to vengeance, again, by the moving speech that is
given by one of the players. About this speech he says,


Whatis Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,

That he should weep for her? What would he do

Had he motive and cue for passion

That I have?  (2.2.561-564)
In this praise of this players ability to act, Hamlet is saying that if he were
such an actor he would have killed Claudius by now. This link between vengeance
and acting that is present here is what Hamlet struggles with until very near
the end. He is then moved to swear that he should kill Claudius when he says,

I should ╚ai fatted all the region kites

With this slaveis offal. Bloody, bawdy villain!

O, vengeance!

Why, what an ass am I? (2.2.581-585)
He makes this big buildup of what he should have done and how he will be
revenged and he shoots it down in the next line. This passage is the model of
Hamletis cognitive dissonance.  After all of this swearing and support of the
value of acting and words, he backs out of it again. He canit decide whether to
play the role or not. Words are further condemned when he says, ╩Must, like a
whore, unpack my hart with words╦ (2.2.587). So he is now condemning role
playing. Being caught in the middle he decides that he needs more proof of the
Kings guilt when he says, ╩The playis the thing / Wherein Iill catch the
conscience of the King╦ (2.2.606-607).


Before the mouse trap is to be played, Hamlet runs into Ophelia and
makes some telling statements. Upon the issue of Opheliais beauty Hamlet says,
╩That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your
beauty╦ (3.1.109-110). He is saying that Ophelia can be honest and fair, but
that, honesty being an inward trait, and fairness being an outward trait, cannot
be linked.  He goes on further to say that

  Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner
  transform honesty from what it is to a bawd that the
  force of honesty can translate beauty into his
  likeness. (3.1.13-15)
So not only can the inner and outer self not be linked, but acting, or the show
or exterior, will transform oneis inner self to match the exterior show. He says
this just after denying that words and acting are important. By what he says
here, if he would only act the part he wouldnit have a problem taking action.
Then he contradicts himself yet again when he says ╩God hath given you one face,
and you go make yourselves another╦(3.1.146-147). He just said that appearance
is all and now chastises women for changing it. He is bouncing back and forth
between supporting acting and denouncing it. Whenever he is in support of acting
he is also ready for vengeance. When he swings back to support acting again he
says,


It hath made me

mad. I say we will have no more marriages. Those

that are married already-all but one-shall live.
(3.1.149-151)
The ╩one╦ Hamlet is referring to must be the King. So it returns to vengeance
and acting going together. In the next scene the conflicting action is similar,
but less obvious.


When Hamlet is advising the player on how his lines should be read he
says, ╩Suit the action to the word, the word to the action╦ (3.2.17-18). If
Hamlet would follow his own advice he would not have a conflict. This shows that
he is not consistent within himself. Hamlet is saying one should not distinguish
between word and actions, but he does maintain this separation. Yet when Hamlet
speaks with Horatio he praises him for being objective, levelheaded, and for
having a consistent character. He is praising Horatio for being true to himself,
not being an actor. Hamlet says,


Give me that man

That is not passionis slave, and I will wear him

In my heartis core, ay, in my heart of heart,

As I do thee. (3.2.69-72)
Hamlet is saying this because he wants Horatio to watch the King at the play. He
is unsure of his uncleis guilt, and he wants proof. He wants it from someone who
he thinks is honest throughout. It comes back to acting and vengeance or in this
case he has failed in his vengeance and needs Horatio to agree with him. Hamlet
says to Horatio,


Observe mine uncle. If his occulted guilt

Do not itself unkernnel in one speech,

It is a dammed ghost we have seen, (3.2.77-80)
Proof, however, does not have any thing to do with the role Hamlet is supposed
to play, but there is more to it than that. The interesting thing is that his
uncle will be judged by how he acts during the play. If the King is a good
actor, and does not show his guilt, he will most likely not be killed. However,
the King is not a good actor and when he rises Hamlet responds with, ╩What,
frighted with false fire?╦(3.2.254). Itis as if Hamlet is saying itis only a
play, itis not real. He does say something to this effect a few lines before.
╩Your majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not╦(3.2.229-230).
This new proof drives Hamlet to use more words. He is again to talk of killing,
and he says, ╩Now I could drink hot blood╦ (3.2.379). He again associates this
with a role, that of Nero. ╩The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom╦ (3.2.383).
Later Hamlet again talks himself out of character and does not kill the King. He
puts it off until later and says,


When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,

At gaming, swearing, or about some act

That has no relish of salvation init,

Then trip him that his heels may kick at heaven,

And that his soul may be dammed and black

(3.3.89-94)
He is waiting until Claudius fits the part of a villain. His action is paralyzed
whenever something does not fit the part. He needs his revenge to be dramatic so
that he may get into it and finally play it out, and it takes him the next scene
and an act to finally do this.


After Hamlet backs out of killing Claudius, Hamlet says to his mother,
╩O shame, where is thy blush?╦(3.4.72). He is voicing his distaste for Gertrude
not only for marrying his uncle but for not being true to herself, she should
show some shame for her sins but does not. Hamlet is contradicting himself in
this. He has been duplicitous and untrue for two thirds of the play. At this
point he is still not sure as how he is to proceed. Hamlet is caught in the
middle of acting and objectivity.


Hamlet finally gets his act together, and decides to act the part his
father had given him, after he sees the soldiers going off to war to die.


The imminent death of twenty thousand men

That, for fantasy and a trick of fame,

Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot

Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,

Which is not tomb enough and continent

To hide the slain. O, from this time forth

My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth!
(4.4.51-57)
Those soldiers fight and die for an insignificant plot of land, and they do it
because they are soldiers, no other reason. Hamlet realizes that he should do
what his role dictates strictly because it is his role. He does not falter in
his conviction after he returns and fully embraces the act. Upon confronting
Laertes he says ╩This is I, Hamlet the Dane╦ (5.1.53-54). The ╩Dane╦, meaning
the King. He is claiming his right to the throne. This is the appropriate action
for someone as wronged as he, albeit late. In reaction to Opheliais death he is
again behaving as he should have. She was his love interest and as such he
should have loved her more than her brother. This is shown when Hamlet says ╩I
loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers /Could not, with their quantity of love,/
Make up my sum╦ (5.1.256-258). Hamlet should have loved her, but he did not. Had
he loved her he would not have not treated her so poorly earlier. He is now
committed to acting, and loving Ophelia fits the role.


In the rest of the play Hamlet does not mess around. He barely has time
to tell his story of escape to Horatio before he is challenged. He does not
refuse the challenge because as nobility, which he is finally claiming to be, he
cannot refuse and keep his honor. Hamlet goes to the match and because he has
now accepted the role he does not hesitate to kill the King when prompted to.


It would seem that being a good actor is paramount to survival in this
play. Polonius could not stick to the role of adviser and was trying to convince
the King that Hamlet was in love with his daughter. This leads him to spy on
Hamlet, and because he could not do that right either, is killed. Ophelia could
not handle the role of mourning for her father, goes mad and dies as a result.
The King could not cover up his guilt, so Hamlet has the proof he needs to spur
him on. Finally Hamlet, who if he would have acted as the ghost instructed him
to in the first place, instead of flip flopping, would have killed Claudius
outright. Had Hamlet been truly comfortable with acting, Claudius would have
been the only causality.


email [e-mail]
let me know if this file transferd ok as i had to past it into lynx.
Brian