Monday, May 6, 2013

Hamlet

              "A little more than kin, and less than kind!" (I.1.37)
             Score one for Hamlet! This young man is a witty one. This line reveals his innate dislike for Claudius, even before he learns the truth behind his father's death. First of all, Claudius has attempted to replace the late King with himself, and to erase the memory of him from all of his servants, even the King's wife. So Hamlet's attitude toward him continues and is justified.

             "Nay, do not think I flatter....No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, and crook the pregnant hinges of the knee where thrift may follow fawning."(III.2.56)
               More than anywhere else in the story, Hamlet here opens up the door of his heart and expresses his noble opinion of his loyal friend Horatio. He begins these series of complements with the preliminary being that he truly means everyone of them because otherwise, there would not be any reason for giving them. Hamlet is Horatio's lord and profits nothing from flattery. Here, Hamlet is the most honest he has been in the whole play, and like he said earlier, an honest man is one out of a thousand.

             "As woman's love."(III.2.48)
               I do not think that this insult towards women is as directed to Ophelia as it is to his own mother. Hamlet has just seen his mother fall in love with her husband's brother two months after his death, and he is broken over it. The easiness with which his mother falls in love again deeply disappoints Hamlet and he loses hope in women altogether. That is why he treats Ophelia so cold-heartedly and tells her to never marry, probably secretly thinking that she'll let down her husband just like Hamlet's mother let him down.

             "'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be play'd on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me."(III.2.88)
               So Hamlet knows who are his friends and his enemies. But more importantly, Hamlet breaks character here. He pauses in his act of madness to rebuke the falseness of his past friends. And what a clever blast he uses to call them out. Although he confesses that he is vulnerable to their annoyance and burdernsome company, he is ultimatley not fooled by them.

               "I lov'd Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not (with all their quantity of love)
make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?"(V.1.75)
                 Is this real or part of his "the reason I am mad is because I loved Opheila" act?
I believe that this outburst is true and heartfelt. Though he had rejected and insulted her, now that she is gone he realizes what he had in her and how he lost it. So with this scene he declares that he loved her, implying that he never stopped loving her.

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