HAMLET: Reforming the Role

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HAMLET Reforming the Role

• Or breaking free from the ties that bind

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Tragedy

• Concerns itself with the degree to which our
  lives are not in our control
• Oedipus flees Corinth to prevent the oracles
  prophecy from coming true yet only succeeds in
  fulfilling it
• Macbeths fate is so intertwined with the weird
  sisters his decisions seem to run counter to his
  will

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Consider Hamlet

• The Player King states
• Our wills and fates do so contrary run/ that our
  devices still are overthrown /Our thoughts are
  ours, their ends none of our own(III.ii.217-219)
• Perhaps these are the lines Hamlet inserts?

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The play is concerned with the limits imposed on
the mortal will

• Consider this theme and look to the text for
  evidencelanguage of being bound or tethered,
  plot events that deal with imposing restrictions
  on freedom, even references to playing, drama as
  a form of restriction

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Hamlet is bound by many forces.

• He is, as Laertes and Polonious, bound by his
  birth, his duty as prince and future king. His
  noble birth restricts his choice, his will is
  not his own.

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• Claudius and Gertrude ask/restrict him to Denmark
  upon Hamlets request to return to Wittenberg
  (compare to Laertes freedom)
• Both Laertes and Polonious, in speaking to
  Ophelia, Hamlets choice for love interest, speak
  of his lack of freedom - He is tethered and may
  not walk as freely as others

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• The ghost scene immediately follows in which
  Hamlet is bound to revenge his fathers murder.
  The ghost even follows Hamlet through the forest,
  crying Swear effectively sealing Hamlet to the
  act of revenge.
• Hamlet can not even take his own life as he is
  bound by Christian law and the threat of the
  afterlife, to which he is privy through the ghost
  of his father, restricts his actions

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• Hamlet cannot shuffle off his mortal coil OR
  the spirit and his dread command.

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Here is one central conflict of the play

• Hamlet is, throughout the text, obsessed with
  freedom
• He wants to control his own fate
• Control his self
• He wants not to be passions slave or a pipe
  on Fortunes finger
• Is he an existentialist???

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This theme of controlling ones fate is played
out in the conflict between Hamlet and Claudius

• Claudius attempts to control Hamlet through
  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
• Hamlet attempts to control Claudius through the
  play
• WHO SUCCEEDS?

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Note the scene directly following the play

• Kings reaction (passionate.out of control)
• The pipe scene with R and G
• The cloud game with Polonious

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Hamlet contemptuously plays those around him in
response to their feeble attempts to play him
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Hamlet, in keeping with his compulsion to be
free, to determine his own fate, hates and is
cruel to those who are controlled by others
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Ophelia

• get thee to a nunnery his response to her
  changes once he realizes her betrayal - where is
  your father
• His cruelty to her during the performance

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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are pawns of the
king and therefore invoke Hamlets ire

• I will delve one yard below and blow them to the
  moon
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sent to their deaths
  by Hamlet

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Polonious brings upon himself Hamlets cruel
treatment because of his attempts to control
others and his fawning to Claudius

• His various verbal traps for Polonious - grow old
  like a crab, Jeptha, the cloud is like a weasel
• How can you work Hamlets murder of Polonious
  into this claim

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Hamlet is cruel to his mother as he sees her as
being manipulated by Claudius and passion

• Frailty thy name is woman
• Let him not tempt you to bed with a pair of
  retchy kisses

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SoHamlet is bound by many forces in the play he
also scorns others whom he sees as pawns or
slaves to others. Taken together it is apparent
that Hamlet values freedom, seeks it for himself,
and is horribly frustrated by his own lack of
freedom.
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Hamlet is aware that he too is a pawn, a slave

• Bound to revenge by the ghost
• Bound as an actor to the classic revenge hero
• Bound by the play itself

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He shows his awareness of his confinement and
attempts to fight against it to break free.
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His delay in revenging his fathers murder

• Textual evidence

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Hamlet discovers that his life is a poor play
(revenge tragedy)and he is confined to play a
part that offends his self worth
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He struggles with how to play his revenge

• He disdains the stereotypical revenge hero with
  his passionate rants and his predictable
  behavior. HE does not want to play any role, but
  this role is degrading and vulgar which makes the
  constraint that much worse.

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Consider how Laertes functions as a foil for
Hamlet in terms of the revenge hero.

• Find textual evidence for this claim..

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His attempts to direct this play

• Textual evidence

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• Hamlet desires to be free, to act according to
  his own choice and desires. However, he is
  tethered by many forces and people in the play.

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What is Hamlets final statement with regard to
free willwhat does the play ultimately say about
free will