Ian+Drynan

I'm sorry.

Hamlet Blog Week 4-February 20th Well it's over. Hamlet's tale comes to an end and we are left with the final image of Fortinbras sitting on the throne, looking out over his newly aquired castle, with a few dead bodies lying out before him. OH WAIT, I almost forgot, they never found Polonius' deceased body...so I guess Fortinbras has to take care of that. A flaw to the way we followed Hamlet's story is that we developed absolutely no kind of attachment to the characters. With Frankenstein I at least knew more accurately how he feeled and I pitied and his death along with the monster's death actually meant something. WIth Hamlet though I could care less. King Hamlet, Polonius, Ophelia, Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius and Hamlet all died an unfortunate death. Whoop de do.

So now that we have completed Hamlet, an answer to our essential question is all but required. Hamlet is not insane. I never thought he was in the first place. Throughout the play he acted in an extremely human manner. And when he talked in a seemingly strange manner, it was because he was acting. The only way to truly decipher whether Hamlet was insane or not is to look at those times of serious distress or gravity that Hamlet's real emotions override his efforts to act insane. A particular case is Ophelia's death. Hamlet was distressed and acted in a way that mirrored Laertes, who is determined to be sane. They both lost a loved one, and reacted in a sane manner. He is not insane for seeing the ghost, for others saw King Hamlet's shade also. I'm sure there are other areas where his actions warrant the label of insanity but I cannot think of them off the top of my head. If you care to bring one up in a response go ahead.

It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain. No medicine in the world can do thee good. In thee there is not half an hour of life. The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, Unbated and envenomed. The foul practice Hath turned itself on me. Lo, here I lie, Never to rise again. Thy mother’s poisoned. I can no more. The king, the king’s to blame
 * LAERTES**

Laertes' last words confuse me. He admits to being the one who commited the treachery: "It is here, Hamlet." but in the last line he says the "The king, the king's to blame". Is he blaming the king for the entire debacle or is he only blaming the king for Gertrude's death? I believe Laertes to be a good guy. Hamlet afterwards does not curse Laertes death but instead calls upon the poison to do it's work. Therefore I think Laertes is only blaming the King for Gertrude's death but is taking the blame for killing Hamlet, for Hamlet would completely understand Laertes' motive and at this point Laertes and Hamlet are even, both avenged their fathers' deaths, but neither did any more harm to the other.

Hamlet Blog Week 3-February 12th This week we analyzed several more soliloquies, two of which were not Hamlet's. Claudius' and Gertrude's soliloquies are alarming. Claudius prays to god asking for forgiveness for his fratricide, however he correctly comes to the conclusion that he does not actually mean it when he says that he regrets what he has done because he still wants to keep his crown and his wife. He would rather spend maybe twenty years with the fruits of his murder than repent and live in heaven for eternity. He is stupid, or perhaps indeed, 'insane'. For even if heaven does not exist, if he believes it is than he still gave up that salvation. Gertrude also played a part in this, but she does not even pretend and pray to god for forgiveness. Not to mention Gertrude provided an all too descriptive scene of Ophelia's death, something no doubt many other people will point out, but it cannot be ignored. I'd love it if Gertrude had killed Ophelia, it'd make her and the 'woman' character much more intresting.

Passage: **KING CLAUDIUS** Where is Polonius? **HAMLET** In heaven; send hither to see: if your messengerfind him not there, seek him i' the other placeyourself. But indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up thestairs into the lobby. This entire scene is so wonderfully morbid as if the rantings of a mad-man, but this line is out of place because Hamlet is being ironic and tells Claudius to go to hell. Hamlet's insanity is calm, he doesn't cackle or the sort. Instead he is primarily crazy through his actions, which is why it's a bit ambiguous as to whether Hamlet is insane or not. I define insanity as not just rejecting societal morals-to be anti-social, but in rejecting one's own morals and not being able to recognize this loss. I'd say Hamlet fufills the first half but I'm not sure about the latter half. Hamlet Blog Week 2-February 5th This week we primarily focused on the scene where Hamlet meets his father's ghost and subsequently is told about his father's unnatural death. The ghost is real. We know this because other people had seen the ghost, even before Hamlet did, and because Hamlet learned information he hadn't previously known, something that can only be disclosed by the victim, the murderer or perhaps a witness... Perhaps Hamlet has always been mentally unstable and he had actually witnessed his father's death, and overcome with grief and guilt for not stopping it, he repressed his memories to the point that he completely forgets and fabricates a situation in which he can know the details of his father's death without having been present at the time of the murder. Far-Fetched yes, but something to think about.

Passage: I am thy father’s spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison house, I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
 * GHOST**

In this passage King Hamlet reveals that he is doomed to wander the halls of Elsinore every night for a period of time. I wonder why the ghost didn't reveal himself to Hamlet first or even sooner. I picked this passage because the ghost says that purgatory is his prison house, which is an acceptable, even weak metaphor for purgatory. This compared to Hamlet who calls Denmark a prison makes Hamlet sounds like a whiny bitch who doesn't appreciate what he has, especially since Hamlet contemplates suicide even when faced with a ghost who claims that his tales could "unfold whose lightest word would harrow up they soul, freeze they young blood" Hamlet Blog Week 1-January 29th This week we read scenes 1 and 2 of the first Act. Where the watchmen, Barnardo, Horatio, and Marcellus encounter the ghost on their midnight posts. They attempt to talk to it but it does not respond. They decide to tell Hamlet of his father's ghost. I don't believe in ghosts. Why? Well because they aren't real. Horatio, a seemingly logical person, only believed his friends' testament once he saw the apparition himself. That makes perfect sense. However Hamlet, believes in the watchmens' words and automatically decides to stand guard with them at night, assuming that he will see the ghost. This is different to Horatio who was not expecting to see the ghost. Is Hamlet extremely trusting of his friends? Or is he so depressed that he is gullible to anything of this sort? Or maybe he is just an idiot. Or perhaps he is already quite bonkers. In either case, someone who attests to seeing a ghost is looked upon as a nutcase, and Hamlet fully believes these nutcases. Hamlet is completely willing to believe in the insane to the fullest extent.

Passage

Hamlet: (aside) A little more than kin and less than kind.

I thought this passage was intresting purely because it is an aside. Where the character speaks to the audience and no other character can hear what the character is saying. I wonder if the use of the aside is purely to maintain that no one should hear what Hamlet says here. This is most certainly the case but I thought it strange to use an aside as it isnt prevalent in tragedies. This aside however does speak to the audience and reveals what Hamlet is thinking, which is something only the audience would know after all.

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