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HSC Module B

Lesson 4: Hamlet III

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Introduction

Last week, we covered the foundations of Hamlet – an overview of textual integrity,

contextual influences, and main themes and issues. This week, we’ll be

deconstructing these areas of analysis even further by looking into the first two acts

of the play. This is where all your in-depth textual analysis will come in to play in

your essays, as you’ll be drawing on quotes and textual evidence to support your

claims about the issues we talked about last week.

Textual Form and Structure

Before we begin close textual analysis of each scene, we’ll be looking into some of

the stock elements of the revenge tragedy genre, how they fit into Hamlet, as well as

how Shakespeare implements the five-act structure.

Genre

‘Genre is a constant process of negotiation and change’

- David Buckingham

Students will often ask the question: Why is genre important? And Why should I

include it in my critical response? Indeed, some understanding of what the term

‘genre’ means is necessary to appreciate the way in which popular genres such as

revenge tragedy have evolved over the centuries and gained influence.

David Crystals (a renowned British academic, linguist and author) defines genre as:

“established categories of composition, characterized by distinctive language or subject

matter” (such as plot or setting).

The reason this categorization is important, is because conceptual uniformity can be

a useful tool not only during the composition of a text, but also in your analysis – it


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allows loose categorization into literary groupings such as tragedy or comedy that

share stylistic elements and conventions. This creates a sort of textual code that is

tacitly understood by audiences, rather being explicitly taught or learnt, and these

perceptions are shaped by prevailing cultural attitudes and values.

Since new forms and genres continually evolve throughout time, they are

historically relative; shaped by and reflective of their social context. Text and

context (or the zeitgeist) thus remain strongly inter-related, and this is the essence

of what you have you demonstrate understanding in Module B.

Revenge Tragedy

‘Let the man who seeks revenge remember to dig two graves’

- Chinese proverb

The genre of revenge tragedy is one that you should think about when approaching

questions relating to the enduring relevance of Hamlet throughout time – what is it

about the play that strikes audiences time and time again? Is it something intrinsic

to the revenge tragedy genre? What is it about revenge that strikes the core of the

human condition?

Retribution is an instinctive human response to what is perceived as an unwarranted

injury or offence – it’s triggered by a violent passion for returning evil to evil (in the

loose words of Aristotle). Once personal vengeance is unleashed, tragic

consequences typically follow, and we can regard the longevity of the revenge

tragedy genre as partly being explained by its exploration of the moral complexity

and emotional interplay that lies at its core.


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Typical Conventions

Corrupt social milieu

• Social milieu is typically represented as being inherently corrupt and

immoral

• Traditional and accepted standards of morality are perverted or subverted by

a tyrannical political leadership

• Hierarchal instability is reflected in disordered and flawed societies whose

ruling class is shown to be of questionable virtue

• Social values, faith and relationships have become tainted

• Social and moral corruption also infects the legal and judicial system,

eroding justice and embedding the power wielded by those in control

Injustice – source of corruption

• The predicament of a wronged hero is highlighted

• A revenger is forced to respond to circumstances beyond his control

• The legal system has failed to adequately punish the wrongdoers so that

the avenger must resort to plotting personal vengeance

• The storyline usually starts mid-action, disorienting the audience but

effectively engaging their attention

• Traditionally, the victim was often initially unassailable due to social status

The avenger

• The traditional revenge protagonist was typically heroic (but in a

contemporary context, the genre has evolved and the avenger is no longer

necessarily a person of noble or eminent social standing like Hamlet was)

• Highly flawed individuals, characterization can be stereotyped


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• Dramatic tension is developed by protagonist hesitating and being

initially reluctant to react

• Complex plotting results from avenger doubting how retribution can be

best achieved

• Madness, either feigned or real, becomes a typical motif associated with the

avenger

• Duplicity and deception become key strategies, but whilst effective in

gaining vengeance, they further the avenger’s isolation

John D. Rea, Hamlet and the Ghost Again

Revenge and retribution

• A clash of great forces and powerful motivations such as greed, lust,

vendetta, justice and truth is depicted

• Suffering is extensive

• Complex plotlines integrate different revenge threads (see last week’s

course material on the theme of revenge) that can show several plotters working

simultaneously for their own ends


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Violence

• Retribution is shown to have destructive and violent ramifications

• Blood, spectacle and death feature heavily in the plot

• Levels of emotional passion intensify as the story unfolds and vengeance is

finally attained

-

Richard Brucher, Fantasies of Violence: Hamlet and the Revenger’s Tragedy

Moral decline

• Injustice predominates in immoral social contexts foregrounding issues of

social values and attitudes

• Avenger morally degenerates as a result of his actions

• Avenger’s integrity is ironically compromised by his personal attack on

injustice

Hamlet as a Revenge Tragedy

Of course, because the nuances of the revenge tragedy genre have evolved through

time, Hamlet is not going to reflect each and every single element or convention

that revenge tragedies today perhaps may explore. However, Hamlet is one the finest

Renaissance examples of the genre, offering Elizabethan audiences a humanist

exploration of personality as well as a tale of justifiable vengeance in response to a

usurper’s act of regicide.


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Read the following points in conjunction with the themes and issues discussed last

week – this is step one in linking together different aspects of textual analysis:

textual integrity.

Corrupt social milieu

• Elsinore is a deceptive and corrupt world, full of political intrigue (Denmark

would have been perceived by Elizabethan audiences as a foreign and

physically isolated place)

• Grief-stricken Hamlet is overwhelmed by despair and melancholy, appalled

by those ‘noble’ courtiers who have ‘freely gone with this affair along’ –

integrity has been compromised by tacit acquiescence to a hasty and

questionable accession and incestuous marriage

• For Hamlet, ‘Denmark’s a prison’, and his emotional alienation amidst such

corruption is reinforced by the ‘inky cloak’ and ‘solemn black’ of his apparel

(keep an eye out for our future discussion of the motif of clothing and

appearances!) – he’s distrustful and prefers solitude, using his soliloquys to

reveal his innermost thoughts

• Compare his innate nobility to the evil infested environment he perceives:

‘this world… ‘tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed’

• Danish court represented as a venal world, where corruption prevails and

nothing can be trusted

Supernatural apparitions

• Supernatural forces play a role in Hamlet, with the ghost of King Hamlet

demanding his son avenge Claudius’ ‘foul and unnatural’ deed – the grave

injunction for vengeance from this ‘majestical phantom’ ensnares Hamlet in a


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tragic situation where moral and intellectual inclinations contest with the

demands of filial duty

• This ghostly thing that is described as a ‘dreaded sight’, ‘illusion’, ‘spirit of

health of goblin damn’d’ is spectre of awe – his/its stately walk and measured

words leave witnesses awestruck and bewildered

• The ghost’s first appearance is not motivated by a desire for justice rather

than compassion: ‘pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing / to what I shall

unfold’ – his ‘horrible form’ attests to the horrible purgatory he has been

forced to endure because he died unshriven and his suffering can only be

alleviated by his son’s retribution against ‘murder most foul….strange and

unnatural’

• The ghost’s second appearance is more condemnatory in tone, encouraging

Hamlet to action by stinging his conscience with the many reasons that exist

for vengeance to be enacted (‘he that hath killed my kind, and whored my

mother…’ see Act V Scene II)

- John D. Rea, Hamlet and the Ghost Again


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Villains

• The usurper King Claudius is clearly a villain through the acts of regicide,

fratricide and biblical incest that he commits – such crimes have universal

resonance, offering the moral and legal codes of justice as the Ghost reveals

the truth to his son (‘Thus was I, sleeping by a brother’s hand / Of life, of crown,

of queen, at once dispatched’)

• Hamlet describes Claudius in the opening as an undeniable rogue who

characterizes the corrupt underbelly of Denmark: ‘O villain, villain, smiling

damned villain!’ and ‘Let not the royal bed of Denmark be / A couch for luxury

and damned incest’, yet Claudius is also a competent statesman; articulate,

perceptive and cunning (see last week’s material on appearances v reality and

the facades that Claudius puts on)

• Remember though, that in your analysis you need to look beyond what

is most evident, go beneath the surface and present an interesting

insight! Claudius is not the only villain in the play – Gertrude can also be

perceived as a villain (though more guilty of being weak and inconstant than

evil) – she is a ‘most pernicious woman’ who disgusts her son by her ‘o’er hasty

marriage’ and disloyalty to her former spouse

• Think of the revenge tragedy genre’s typical depiction of lust and debauchery

– this is clearly evident in Gertrude’s actions which cause her son to declare

her frailty (‘frailty, thy name is woman!’)


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Richard D. Altick, Hamlet and the Odor of Mortality

Malcontents

NB: The Malcontent is a character type often used in Shakespeare’s plays – this type of

character is discontent with the events and other characters in the play, and is often an

observer who comments on the action or may even show awareness that they are in the

play. Their role is usually both political and dramatic; with the malcontent voicing

dissatisfaction with the usually Machiavellian political atmosphere and often using

asides to build up a kind of self-consciousness and awareness of the text itself which

other characters in the play will lack to the same extent.

• The play has three different individuals feeling compelled to avenge wrongs

committed against their fathers (see last week’s content on Revenge) –

Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras

• Hamlet believes that ‘time is out of joint’ and is tortured by inner conflicts (‘O

cursed spite’ that I was born to ‘set it right’) – and is largely unable to act while

the other sons are, by contrast, assertive and clear of purpose (foil

characters).

• (From A History of Hamlet Criticism 1601-1821 by Paul S. Conklin): “Hamlet

was seen, first of all, most decidedly as a malcontent; and at times as ‘mad’,


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either as a lover or as possessed with a madness that is quite primitive and

realistic, with comic overtones. The Elizabethans must have looked upon the

malady of malcontentism as containing aspects that were close to real

madness… there are a number of echoes of a malcontent Hamlet who seems

far from unbalanced. He is a Hamlet whom we know today if we rid our

perceptions of any sentimental coloring, and try to be imaginatively

sympathetic with this earlier period. This Hamlet is masculine and primitive.

He is melancholy, but his emotion is not of the graveyard type so common in

the next century; nor is it similar to that century’s ‘social tear’. This

malcontentism is often bitterly sarcastic, cynical, cruel and obscene.”

Madness

• Another typical convention of Renaissance revenge tragedy is the unstable

mental states commonly found in the key characters – it is often a ruse used

to facilitate deception and manipulation and the extent of Hamlet’s madness

has long been a contentious issue amongst critics

• Hamlet’s manner alternates between periods of composure and paroxysms of

fury – this ‘antic disposition’ he adopts only exhibiting outward show of

madness that obscures his actions

• See Polonius’s remark in Act II: ‘Though this be madness, yet there is method

in’t’

Intrigue and Deception

• Many characters adopt false masks to hide behind – verisimilitude pervades

the plays of this era, developing dramatic tension through our confusion

about what is real and what is false – this is fostered in the very opening

scenes of the play


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• Sympathy for Hamlet is aroused by his finding himself increasingly isolated

in a world awash with deception and intrigue

• The conspiratorial core of Elsinore – Polonius, whose devious stratagems and

lies even extend to spying on both his children for his own political ends (see

last week’s material re deception)

• See Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who admit they ‘were sent for’, arousing a

sense of foreboding

• No one can be taken at face value, so that the atmosphere becomes charged

with paranoia and suspicion

Physical horrors/violence

• The genre’s love of spectacle resounds in the numerous descriptions of

rancor, violence and the eight deaths through poisoning and duels – just how

many ‘carnal, bloody and unnatural acts’ are represented?

• Graphic detail describes ‘my prison house’ and ‘eternal blazon’ when the

ghostly king’s revelation of his hellish fate is revealed at the outset of the

play

• Wilson Knight (a 20th century literary critic and academic) described Hamlet

as having a “death infected” imagination which dwells on the futility, aridity

and pointlessness of life

• Look at symbols of corruption, death and disease – a place contaminated by a

‘foul and pestilent congregation of vapours’ where life has been tainted by ‘the

hidden abscess’ of vice and pervesion that surrounds Hamlet

• Atypically however, the violence does not take the life of Horatio, the

avenger’s accomplice – Hamlet’s friend yearns for self-destruction: ‘I am

more an antique Roman than a Dane. Here’s some liquor left’ – but he is coerced

to remain alive through the prince’s explicit request that he give an honest

report of the story


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These are just some elements of a revenge tragedy in Hamlet to get your thinking

started – have a look at the characterization of Hamlet in your own time, and try

and ascertain how he lives up to the typical conventions of an avenger within the

genre.

The Five-Act Structure

Act One:

Orientation – this act introduces the setting, the basic plot, the major themes and

issues and the characters (as well as character relationships) that will feature in the

play.

Act Two:

Problems arise: one or more major issues in the play will begin to unfold, as the

events entangle relevant characters into the conflict.

Act Three:

Complications: Problems detailed in previous acts become more obvious – there is

more detail and importance placed on these issues, as the challenges that the

characters face become trickier and more dangerous.

Act Four:

Turn-around of fortunes: Often the play’s balance (perhaps between happiness

and sadness, or good and evil) changes for the last and most significant time.

Act Five:

Resolution: The event that the play has been building up to finally occurs – for

example, the tragic hero meets his doom – order is usually restored (but is it really,

in Hamlet?) and the surviving characters, usually the minor ones, are forced to deal

with the aftermath of the events.


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Paul A. Cantor:

Close Reading of ACT I

What happens in Act I?

Scene one:

Characters present: Francisco (soldier), Bernardo (officer), Marcellus (officer), Horatio

(Hamlet’s friend and Wittenberg schoolmate), ghost (spirit of Hamlet’s murdered father)

It’s the middle of the night in winter and we’re outside Elsinore castle, with Franciso

standing guard until he’s relieved by Bernardo. Marcellus and Horatio soon join

them, and they all discuss whether or not they think the castle is haunted by a


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ghost. Suddenly, the ghost of King Hamlet appears and just as quickly vanishes.

Horatio speculates about the meaning of the ghost’s appearance in terms of

Denmark’s fate, when it reappears and disappears again. The men decide to inform

Prince Hamlet of their strange encounter as the morning dawns.

Scene two:

Characters present: Claudius (Hamlet’s uncle and current King), Cornelius and

Voltemand (courtiers), Gertrude (Queen of Denmark and Hamlet’s mother), Hamlet

(Prince of Denmark), Polonius (Lord Chamberlain), Laertes (Polonius’ son)

The morning after the sighting of the ghost, King Claudius attends to domestic

affairs, first of all informing his courtiers of his recent marriage to Gertrude (whilst

mourning the death of King Hamlet), and also giving Laertes his blessing and

permission to leave for France, yet persuading Hamlet to remain in Elsinore. Hamlet

broods over his mother’s second marriage and curses his fate, when he is

interrupted by Horatio and the officers who inform him of their encounter with the

ghost that resembled Hamlet’s deceased father. Hamlet resolves to see the ghost for

himself, telling the men that he will join them at the platform outside the castle

later that night.

Scene three:

Characters present: (same as above), plus Ophelia (sister of Laertes and daughter of

Polonius, as well as Hamlet’s love interest)

Laertes is preparing to leave for France, and warns Ophelia before he learns, to be

wary of Hamlet’s romantic advances and not to fall in love with him because his

birth status is too far above her own. Ophelia accepts his words, but also retorts that


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he ought not to preach virtue that he does not follow himself. Polonius bids his son

farewell and echoes Laertes’ advice. Ophelia pledges to obey.

Scene four:

Hamlet joins Horatio and Marcellus on the castle platform at midnight, when he

hears the trumpets from within the castle that signify the start of Claudius’

celebrations. Hamlet is disgusted, and criticizes this Danish tradition when the

ghost appears and calls for Hamlet, beckoning him to follow. Hamlet’s companions

dissuade him from following, but Hamlet follows the apparition into the darkness.

Scene five:

In the darkness, after having followed the ghost to a remote part of the castle

platform, the ghost informs Hamlet of the deeds that Claudius had committed

against him, and exhorts Hamlet to take revenge on Claudius (but spare Gertrude).

Horatio and Marcellus finally find Hamlet, but Hamlet refuses to share what the

ghost told him, coercing both men into secrecy.

What are the main issues introduced?

“Orientation – this act introduces the setting, the basic plot, the major themes and

issues and the characters (as well as character relationships) that will feature in the

play.”

Act I has introduced us to the major characters in Hamlet, given us an insight into

what type of person they are, as well as portraying the setting of the play in the

corrupt court of Elsinore in Denmark. We’re introduced to the deeds committed by


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Claudius, as Hamlet’s revelation sets the tone for the scenes to follow – the play has

been framed around this one act of regicide that Hamlet is to avenge.

Contextual issues:

• Look at the reign of Queen Elizabeth and the questions surrounding

succession of the throne – who would take over after her death? How does

Act I immediately deal with concerns about transferal of power from one

monarch to the next?

• Hierarchal instability and uncertainty, as well as upheavals and betrayal and

accompany these shifts in power – Prince Hamlet does not inherit the throne

as one would expect to be the ‘right’ or ‘natural’ move – there’s an aura of

fear and suspicion

• Relevance of the Great Chain of Being – how do religious allusions fit in? The

internal hierarchy of the court of Elsinore?

Textual issues:

• Appearance of the ghost at night – motif of darkness and uncertainty, what

does this say about the future of Denmark? Look at the ghost’s role as an

internal foreshadowing of the later tragedies to come in the play

• The function of Horatio’s character – he’s established as a good-humoured,

well educated and intelligent man who is skeptical of supernatural events –

first he is reluctant to give credence to the existence of ghosts, yet is then

overwhelmed with terror upon seeing it (without denying its presence) –

characterizes him as trustworthy

• Audience’s suspension of disbelief re the ghost – Horatio represents

audience’s perspective in this scene to allow them to mirror his overcoming

of disbelief with the ghost’s existence


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• How is Claudius introduced and characterized? Do we know more about him

than the characters in the play do?

(Translation sourced from No Fear Shakespeare)

Original Text

Enter BARNARDO and FRANCISCO,

two sentinels

Modern Text

BARNARDO and FRANCIS

CO, two watchmen, enter.

BARNARDO

Who’s there?

BARNARDO

Who’s there?

FRANCISCO

Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold

yourself.

FRANCISCO

No, who are you? Stop and

identify yourself.

BARNARDO

Long live the king!

BARNARDO

Long live the king!

FRANCISCO

Barnardo?

FRANCISCO

Is that Barnardo?

BARNARDO

He.

BARNARDO

Yes, it’s me.

- Act I, Scene I

Looking at the lines above, the dialogue in the opening of the play (whilst revealing

little substantial material), sets the tone for the entire play. The opening line of

“who’s there”, though spoken by a relatively minor character, establishes an

inquisitive or interrogative mode that reflects the play’s ontological and existential

focus on questions (see last week’s material on uncertainty).


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Throughout the play, Hamlet attempts to discover “who’s there”, in terms of the

ghost, Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia and himself – the issues of identity and

appearances plague him, and the motifs of clothing and masks inform the entire

play’s focus on acting.

Secondly, this question also functions to highlight the setting of the scene – in the

darkness of midnight, in the middle of winter. Not only is the audience in the dark

about what’s currently happening, but there’s also this sense of uncertainty that is

about to follow in terms of the characters being in the dark about each others’

intentions.

Enter GHOST

MARCELLUS

Peace, break thee off. Look where it

comes again!

The GHOST enters

MARCELLUS

Quiet, shut up! It’s come again.

BARNARDO

In the same figure like the king

that’s dead.

BARNARDO

Looking just like the dead king.

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MARCELLUS

(to HORATIO) Thou art a scholar.

Speak to it, Horatio.

MARCELLUS

(to HORATIO) You’re well-educated,

Horatio. Say something to it.

BARNARDO

Looks it not like the king? Mark it,

Horatio.

BARNARDO

Doesn’t he look like the king,

Horatio?

HORATIO HORATIO


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Most like. It harrows me with fear

and wonder.

Very much so. It’s terrifying.

BARNARDO

It would be spoke to.

BARNARDO

It wants us to speak to it.

MARCELLUS

Question it, Horatio.

MARCELLUS

Ask it something, Horatio.

45

HORATIO

What art thou that usurp’st this

time of night

Together with that fair and warlike

form

In which the majesty of buried

Denmark

Did sometimes march? By heaven, I

charge thee, speak.

HORATIO

What are you, that you walk out so

late at night, looking like the dead

king of Denmark when he dressed for

battle? By God, I order you to speak.

! Act I, Scene I

There’s a blurring of lines between statehood and supernatural – these incongruous

associations that result in impertinent digressions as, according to Tillyard (see E.

M. W Tillyard, British classical and literary scholar), “the appearance of the ghost

means a breaking down of the walls of the world and chaos supervenes as the ghost

creates doubt, uncertainty and bewilderment”.


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Alan Ackerman Jr., Visualising Hamlet’s Ghost

CLAUDIUS

Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s

death

The memory be green, and that it us befitted

To bear our hearts in grief and our whole

kingdom

To be contracted in one brow of woe,

Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature

That we with wisest sorrow think on him

Together with remembrance of ourselves.

Therefore our sometime sister, now our

queen,

Th' imperial jointress to this warlike state,

Have we—as ’twere with a defeated joy,

With an auspicious and a dropping eye,

With mirth in funeral and with dirge in

marriage,

In equal scale weighing delight and dole—

Taken to wife. Nor have we herein barred

Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone

CLAUDIUS

Although I still have fresh

memories of my brother the

elder Hamlet’s death, and

though it was proper to

mourn him throughout our

kingdom, life still goes on—I

think it’s wise to mourn him

while also thinking about my

own well being. Therefore,

I’ve married my former

sister-in-law, the queen, with

mixed feelings of happiness

and sadness. I know that in

marrying Gertrude I’m only

doing what all of you have

wisely advised all along—for

which I thank you. Now,

down to business. You all

know what’s happening.


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With this affair along. For all, our thanks.

Now follows that you know. Young

Fortinbras,

Holding a weak supposal of our worth

Or thinking by our late dear brother’s death

Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,

Colleaguèd with the dream of his advantage,

He hath not failed to pester us with message

Importing the surrender of those lands

Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,

To our most valiant brother. So much for

him.

Young Fortinbras,

underestimating my strength

or imagining that the death

of the king has thrown my

country into turmoil, dreams

of getting the better of me,

and never stops pestering me

with demands that I

surrender the territory his

father lost to the elder

Hamlet, my dead brother-in-

law. So much for Fortinbras.

- Act I, Scene II

In our first encounter with Claudius in the play, we are immediately given the

impression that he is the quintessential statesman – noble, rational and diplomatic

– as he talks of ‘Hamlet, our dear brother’s death’ – look at the bolded words in the

first portion of his speech – how does he use collective pronouns and words to foster

a sense of unity and ‘togetherness’? Do you think this inclusion of his audience

aims to deflect his own guilt?

Indeed, in true Machiavellian style, Claudius utilizes rhythm, alliteration,

assonance, and syntactical balance to smooth over any inconsistencies or

objections within his speech. His tone is authoritative yet compassionate, this sense

of calm that his character fosters almost juxtaposes the darkness and uncertainty of

the first scene, giving a sense of order and stability.


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What else does this speech reveal about Claudius? His carefully balanced

appearances cover up the paradoxes and contrasts bound within his speech that

his audience is unaware of. We’re alerted to this duplicity through the line ‘with one

auspicious and one dropping eye’ – indicating that he’s looking happily to the future

with one eye, and casting down the other with grief – the genesis of his

contradictory facial expressions. This paradox is repeated immediately in the

proceeding lines: ‘with mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage’, and then ‘with

delight and dole’, yet are smoothed out by his syntactical balance (look at his

eloquent rhetoric and smooth, regular stresses, as well as the feminine endings of

several lines).

This complex phonetic equation is presented by Claudius as natural and decorous,

despite their associated moral quandary and he uses such language devices to

disguise the inconsistencies within what he’s saying (see last week’s thematic

discussion on facades, and appearance v reality). He strategically presents us with

information in ‘equal scale’ and even his incidental diction is of joining: ‘jointerous’,

‘disjoint’ – indeed, this is reinforced through the excessive enjambment within his

speech, which provides cohesion and fluidity to present an articulate and calculated

character.

HAMLET

(aside) A little more than kin and less

than kind.

HAMLET

(speaking so no one else can

hear) Too many family ties

there for me.

CLAUDIUS

How is it that the clouds still hang on

you?

CLAUDIUS

Why are you still so gloomy,

with a cloud hanging over you?

HAMLET HAMLET


24

Not so, my lord. I am too much i' the

sun.

It’s not true, sir. Your son is

out in the sun.

! Act I, Scene II

Immediately after Claudius’s speech to the court, Hamlet addresses the audience

through an aside remark – ‘A little more than kin and less than kind’, a sarcastic

remark that reinforces the malcontent’s removal from other characters. This play

on words is repeated in his next line when responding to Claudius: ‘I am too much I’

the sun’ (meaning he feels uncomfortable with his position as Claudius’ now-son),

thereby establishing for the audience the antagonistic relationship between

Claudius and Hamlet.

His aside to the audience (indeed, the first character to give an aside) also fosters a

connection with the audience, allowing him to become an agent on the stage to

foster a trustful bond.

In the later lines of this scene, we also begin to see the early traits of Hamlet as

avenger – he starts to forge his exclusion and alienation amongst the people around

him and acts against all who stand in his way. His most visible action at this stage is

his repeated undermining of Claudius – most notably through his refusal to engage

with his uncle-father in conversation. Hamlet is insistent with holding his pride and

feelings from the interrogation of his ‘parents’, a performance that insists on the

opposition of private-public and is an open affront to Claudius.


25

Richard D. Altick, Hamlet and the Odor of Mortality

-

Teresa Hooper,

Dangerous Doubles: Puns and Language in Shakespeare’s Hamlet


26

HAMLET

Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would

melt,

Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,

Or that the Everlasting had not fixed

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God,

God!

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on ’t, ah fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden

That grows to seed. Things rank and gross

in nature

Possess it merely. That it should come to

this.

But two months dead—nay, not so much,

not two.

So excellent a king, that was to this

Hyperion to a satyr. So loving to my

mother

HAMLET

Ah, I wish my dirty flesh

could melt away into a

vapor, or that God had

not made a law against

suicide. Oh God, God!

How tired, stale, and

pointless life is to me.

Damn it! It’s like a garden

that no one’s taking care

of, and that’s growing

wild. Only nasty weeds

grow in it now. I can’t

believe it’s come to this.

My father’s only been

dead for two months—no,

not even two. Such an

excellent king, as superior

to my uncle as a god is to

a beast, and so loving

toward my mother that he

kept the wind from

blowing too hard on her

face.

That he might not beteem the winds of

heaven

Visit her face too roughly.—Heaven and

earth,

Oh God, do I have to

remember that? She would

hang on to him, and the more

she was with him the more


27

Must I remember? Why, she would hang

on him

As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on, and yet, within a

month—

Let me not think on ’t. Frailty, thy name is

woman!—

A little month, or ere those shoes were

old

With which she followed my poor father’s

body,

Like Niobe, all tears. Why she, even she—

O God, a beast that wants discourse of

reason

Would have mourned longer!—married

with my uncle,

My father’s brother, but no more like my

father

Than I to Hercules. Within a month,

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears

Had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes,

She married. O most wicked speed, to post

With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!

It is not nor it cannot come to good,

But break, my heart, for I must hold my

tongue.

she wanted to be with him;

she couldn’t get enough of

him. Yet even so, within a

month of my father’s death (I

don’t even want to think

about it. Oh women! You are

so weak!), even before she had

broken in the shoes she wore

to his funeral, crying like

crazy—even an animal would

have mourned its mate longer

than she did!—there she was

marrying my uncle, my

father’s brother, who’s about

as much like my father as I’m

like Hercules. Less than a

month after my father’s

death, even before the tears

on her cheeks had dried, she

remarried. Oh, so quick to

jump into a bed of incest!

That’s not good, and no good

can come of it either. But my

heart must break in silence,

since I can’t mention my

feelings aloud.

- Act I, Scene II


28

Hamlet’s passionate first soliloquy in Scene II of Act I provides a markedly striking

contrast to the controlled and artificial dialogue in his exchanges with Claudius and

the court in previous lines. Indeed, the main function of his soliloquys is to reveal

intimidate details about his inner psyche to the audience – in this case, his profound

melancholia and the reasons behind his despair.

The tonal shifts within the confines of Hamlet’s soliloquy ademonstrate the

complexities of his character and the effects of his inner turmoil. Shakespeare uses

juxtaposition and contrast to enhance Hamlet’s contempt and disgust. As soon as

Claudius leaves the stage, Hamlet explicitly contrasts the two kings – each the

antithesis to the other, a ‘hyperion to a satyr’. Hyperion was the god of the sun in

human form (representing honour, virtue and regality), and a satyr is a creature half

man half beast (representing laviciousness and overindulgence), so this early image

immediately reinforces our perception of the dual nature of man upon which

Hamlet will repeatedly reflect.

Hamlet also reflects on his existential crisis – how everything in his world is either

futile of contemptible and his speech is saturated with his disjointed outpouring of

emotions: disgust, anger, sorrow and grief. There are suggestions of rot and

corruption: ‘rank’, ‘gross’, as well as the metaphor of the world as being an

‘unweeded garden’ – a biblical reference to the prelapsarian garden of Eden.

We’re exposed to the nature of his grief stemming from the marriage of Gertrude

and Claudius, immediately following the death of his rightful father and King, and

he is tormented by the images of Gertrude’s tender affections toward King Hamlet,

believing that her insincere displays of love were only a pretense to satisfy her own

greed.


29

Finally, another important remark by Hamlet in this soliloquy is his self-deprecating

comment ‘but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules’ – a foreshadow to his

developing lack of self-worth that is to become the focus of his next soliloquy, and

indeed will inform his later existential crises.

POLONIUS

Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for

shame!

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail

And you are stayed for. There, my blessing

with thee.

And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no

tongue,

Nor any unproportioned thought his act.

Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar.

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption

tried,

Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of

steel,

But do not dull thy palm with

entertainment

POLONIUS

You’re still here? Shame on

you—get on board! The wind is

filling your ship’s sail, and

they’re waiting for you. Here, I

give you my blessing again.

And just try to remember a few

rules of life. Don’t say what

you’re thinking, and don’t be

too quick to act on what you

think. Be friendly to people but

don’t overdo it. Once you’ve

tested out your friends and

found them trustworthy, hold

onto them. But don’t waste

your time shaking hands with

every new guy you meet. Don’t


30

Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade.

Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,

Bear ’t that th' opposèd may beware of

thee.

Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.

Take each man’s censure but reserve thy

judgment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not expressed in fancy—rich, not

gaudy,

For the apparel oft proclaims the man,

And they in France of the best rank and

station

Are of a most select and generous chief in

that.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be,

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Farewell. My blessing season this in thee.

be quick to pick a fight, but

once you’re in one, hold your

own. Listen to many people,

but talk to few. Hear

everyone’s opinion, but

reserve your judgment. Spend

all you can afford on clothes,

but make sure they’re quality,

not flashy, since clothes make

the man—which is doubly true

in France. Don’t borrow money

and don’t lend it, since when

you lend to a friend, you often

lose the friendship as well as

the money, and borrowing

turns a person into a

spendthrift. And, above all, be

true to yourself. Then you

won’t be false to anybody else.

Good-bye, son. I hope my

blessing will help you absorb

what I’ve said.

! Act I, Scene III

Is Polonius just a simple old fool or does he actually hold considerable political

power within Elsinore? From his spiel to Laertes above, we get the impression that

he’s long-winded, self-absorbed and dull. It’s taken him nearly thirty lines to give


31

Laertes his final greeting that could really have been summed up in one (albeit

commonly quoted) line: “this above all, to thine own self be true”.

From a feminist perspective, we could also look at how revered Polonius’ perception

of Laertes is compared to his later treatment of Ophelia. Ophelia’s opening line is

inquisitive and cast with doubt; where all other major characters have pasts

signifying occupations as a royal, student or counselor, Ophelia’s character is

constructed through her relationships as a sister, daughter and sweetheart. Her

occupation is to be a girl in a court dominated by men, where her only refuge is

submission at the mercy of the patriarchal hegemony: this is evident in this scene

where her father chastises her innocence and refers to her interest in Hamlet as

‘springes to catch woodcocks’ (basically implying that these vows of Hamlet are just

traps for stupid birds).

The imagery of traps here doesn’t just apply to Ophelia’s love for Hamlet however,

the notion of entrapment also informs the play’s broader themes of deceit (see

last week’s material on lies, deceit and facades). The metaphor of the springes that

Polonius uses when talking to Ophelia is recreated by Laertes when he dies later on

in the play, as he says “as a woodcock to mine own springe”, referring to how he’s

been caught in his own trap.

We’ll be looking at the motif of traps as they come up in future scenes and acts.

HAMLET

Murder?

HAMLET

Murder?

GHOST

Murder most foul, as in the best it is.

But this most foul, strange and unnatural.

GHOST

His most horrible murder.

Murder’s always horrible,


32

but this one was

especially horrible, weird,

and unnatural.

30

HAMLET

Haste me to know ’t, that I, with wings as

swift

As meditation or the thoughts of love,

May sweep to my revenge.

HAMLET

Hurry and tell me about

it, so I can take revenge

right away, faster than a

person falls in love.

! Act I, Scene V

In Hamlet’s first encounter with the ghost, he pledges himself to filial duty,

unquestioningly accepting the validity of what the ghost has proposed, and

committing himself to take revenge out on Claudius. His haste in promising the

ghost’s vengeance (‘Haste me to know’t, that I… may sweep to my revenge’) however,

wavers throughout the coming Acts, informing his constant rumination.

- Cherrell Guilfyole, Not Two: Denial and Duality in “Hamlet”


33

- Alan Ackerman Jr., Visualising Hamlet’s Ghost

Questions to think about for Homework:

i. How do the events of the first Act inform the (issues in the) rest of the

play?

ii. What is the function of the ghost? How is suspense built up before and in

between its appearance(s)?

iii. What is our initial interpretation of the relationship between Hamlet and

Horatio? How does their relationship dynamic develop or change

throughout the play?

iv. How do you think we, the audience, would portray Claudius, compared to

the characters in the court?

v. What is the significance of Hamlet’s first soliloquy in Act I, Scene II?

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