Three Aspects of Hamlet

The Senior English teacher at a local high school invited me to lecture on Hamlet. I am no expert, and I have no credentials in the area other than my admiration for the play and the time and thought applied to it. The notes for that lecture follow.

Please note that the references to lines of the play will vary according to the edition you use.

Three Aspects of Hamlet
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[Lecture, Nov. 9, 2006]

Introduction:

We will examine the concept of self, integrity and duplicity, and Shakespeare's use of language in the play. Notice Hamlet's remark in I.ii.76, "Seems madam! nay it is: I know not 'seems.' " We will use this passage to illustrate these three aspects of the play.

I. The Concept of Self in Hamlet

The play contains many dramatic elements, such as murder, treachery, incest, royal succession, etc., but is the play really about any of these? Prince Hamlet himself is the heart of the play. Who is he? What will he become? Norrie Epstein [The Friendly Shakespeare] claims that this is " a play about writing a play" (p. 328). That is, it allows us to watch Hamlet the prince write out the course of his own life.

When Hamlet considers himself, what is this "self" that he is? The first line of the play is a tense, "Who's there?" We will be asking and answering that question for the rest of the play.

A. Hamlet's concept of self is dominated by the mind, the inner man.
1. Notice Hamlet's contrast between outward "seeming" and inward reality in I.ii.76-86, where he contrasts his outer clothes and actions with "that within which passeth show."
2. Also, in II.ii.255-257 and 260-261, Hamlet comments to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that the inner attitude shapes one's experience or evaluation of the outside world. While all of us experience this to some degree, Hamlet's wording is very strong.

B. Hamlet seeks truth and honesty in his relations with other selves. See II.ii.174-179, where Hamlet wishes that Polonius were at least as honest as a fishmonger.

C. Yet the self is essentially cut off from others.
1. Hamlet's distrust of those around him has led him to claim [II.ii.316-324] that "man delights not me." Two factors undermine the reliability of this claim: (1) He may not trust Ros. and Guil. enough to be completely honest with them; and (2) he may not be accurately assessing himself here. He is, after all, somewhat confused.
2. Still, as the play progresses, Hamlet cuts himself off from almost everyone except Horatio in his search for truth and his own role, and Horation is not the help that Hamlet needs.

D. The self, thus cut off, tends toward despair.
1. Hamlet is already melancholy and depressed at the beginning of the play because of the unseemly haste with which his mother has remarried after the death of Hamlet, Sr., and because of her astonishing (incestuous?) choice of Hamlet's uncle Claudius as her second husband. See, for example, I.II.129 ff.
2. Through the second act, and with no one to trust, Hamlet's depression deepens amid the court intrigue. See II.ii.219-221.

E. A New Kind of Hero?
1. Norrie Epstein comments (pp. 328 ff.), 'Hamlet is a play about writing a play, Hamlet's inner drama, in which he struggles to become a new kind of hero. ... [He] is torn between the furious medieval avenger, who "out-Herods Herod," and the thougtful modern hero, who doesn't go around killing stepfathers upon the advice of a ghost, who may or may not be trusted.'
2. We see the tension in his struggle clearly in II.ii.575-634. Hamlet is paralyzed for the moment, although the following scenes show him in a flurry of activity. He wants to do right, but he doesn't know what that is.

II. Integrity and Duplicity in Hamlet

A. Again, in I.ii.76-86, Hamlet portrays himself as honest, “I know not ‘seems.’” He dismisses “actions that a man might play” as insignificant compared to “that within which passeth show,” but it is not long before “play” instead of honesty characterizes Hamlet’s actions.

B. A play is a “seeming,” and Hamlet uses a play-within-a-play as a tool to arrive at truth. The actors who arrive at the castle will put on an old play that they know well, The Murder of Gonzago, and Hamlet will add some lines to make it fit recent events in Denmark. He hopes that the King’s outward reaction will display guilt or innocence of Hamlet, Sr.’s, murder.

C. Hamlet’s own life becomes another play-within-a-play. He wants to be the “new kind of hero” described above, acting on truth, but he uses duplicity to arrive there. He also fakes insanity, but sporadically. Which actions are from his sanity, which from his faked insanity? Is the faked insanity becoming the real thing? It’s hard to tell.

D. Almost everyone else in the play is playing a “seeming” part. Ophelia and Horatio are probably exceptions. Polonius advises Reynaldo on how to use deception to spy on Laertes.
Is Gertrude deceiving or self-deceived? That is, was she part of the plot, or is she just trying to insure her survival and Hamlet’s by ignoring inconvenient realities? Claudius is in a completely dishonest position, having stolen his brother’s life, throne, and wife. He sends Hamlet to England under the guise of diplomacy, but with the intent of having him killed there. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – how honest are they?

III. Shakespeare’s Use of Language
Shakespeare skill with language shows up in several different ways.

A. In I.ii.68-75, Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, advises him to stop mourning for his father. The time for mourning is over, and death is common. Why does this death “seem so particular with” Hamlet? Like many other adolescents, Hamlet focuses on the otherwise negligible word, “seems,” and makes a major fuss over this minor word, thus diverting the conversation from “why do you wear black” to the hurt he has inside.

But look at this conversation from Shakespeare’s point of view instead of Hamlet and Gertrude’s. It is as if Shakespeare were a master woodworker making an elaborate and ornate chest of drawers from fine wood, with ornate carving and complex design. He picks up an inconsequential splinter from the floor, and from that splinter he carves a perfect, complete miniature of the whole chest of drawers. This is what he has done with language. He has picked up an otherwise inconsequential word from Gertrude’s motherly question, and he turns it into a miniature version of the whole play. What is the difference between what “seems” in the play, and what is real? The prince spends the remainder of the play trying to find an answer to that question.

B. Building an image of words, then blasting it. In II.ii.316-324 Hamlet gives a beautifully worded description of what it means to be human, then says that he just isn’t interested in it.

C. Sudden, odd pictures. In II.ii.397 Hamlet describes his occasional insanity by saying, “I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.” His madness is as changeable as the wind, but why bring up the hawk and the handsaw, besides the alliteration?

D. In II.ii.471, ff., the extended description of the fall of Troy plays on words that could have two different meanings (e.g., “arms” as part of your body or as weapons) and combines them. He combines the idea of a warrior and his coat of arms by saying that Pyrrhus becomes coated in his own heraldry, changing from “sable” (i.e., black from the ash of burning Troy) to “gules” (i.e., red from the blood of his victims). The clarity of the picture, the overlay of different senses of language, and the choice of power words give Shakespeare’s language its power.

E. Comparison of Shakespeare to a distillery. The result is more potent and more pure. Shakespeare makes every word bear its own weight and support the intent of the whole composition.

F. Pages 228 ff. in The Friendly Shakespeare give examples of phrases that were first written by Shakespeare that have passed into everyday speech in English.
i. Brevity is the soul of wit.
ii. Neither rhyme nor reason.
iii. The primrose path
iv. Eaten me out of house and home
v. Till the crack of doom
vi. Dead as a doornail
vii. An eye-sore
viii. Wear my heart on my sleeve
ix. Budge an inch
x. Knock, knock! Who’s there.