When Making a Ham Omelet . . .
poison, incest, dust,
and other ingredients
Ghosts
• Have you ever seen a ghost?
• What does the ghost first tell Hamlet? (pg674, line 10)
– I can’t tell you about the afterlife, but I got murdered.
• What does the ghost tell Hamlet to do? (pg675, line 80)
– Don’t let the monarchy be incestuous and opulent (?), but don’t
punish your mother. Remember me!
• What happens if Hamlet ignores the ghost? Can Hamlet ignore the
ghost?
– The ghost is “cut off in the blossoms of his sin, unaneled” (line 77),
he is doomed to walk til his crimes are purged away (line 11).
– Claudius wins, but everyone survives?
– Hamlet inherits the throne after Claudius death?
– The ghost torments Hamlet?
• Do others see the ghost?
– Yes (Horatio), No (Gertrude—or does she?)
Ingredient 1: Poison
• Hamlet sr. dies by poison in the ear. Did you
notice any other poisons in the ear
throughout the play?
• Horatio says (pg 673, line 70)
– The noise of the ocean might make you crazy!
• The ghost says (pg 674, line 35)
– The lie of my death abuses the ears of Denmark
Ingredient 1: Poison
• What is Shakespeare saying about words,
according to the previous slides?
Ingredient 2: Incest
• What is incest? All or nothing, or does it have
degrees?
– “Communities such as the Dhond and the Bhittani of
Pakistan clearly prefer marriages between cousins as
believe they ensure purity of the descent line, provide
intimate knowledge of the spouses, and ensure that
patrimony will not pass into the hands of ‘outsiders.’ ”
– South Korea prohibits even third cousins from
marrying.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incest#Prevalence_and_st
atistics
Ingredient 2: Incest
• Are Claudius and Gertrude related?
• So what’s the big deal?
• What would you call this kind of relationship,
since they are not related by blood?
– Affinity
• Does this kind of relationship happen in our
culture?
Ingredient 3: Dust
• Read pg. 739 (line 180)
– What’s the meaning?
– What will your dust be doing in a thousand years?
• I’ll be part of a genetically resurrected Wooly
Mammoth, in the US of China Zoo.
– We discussed how this worldview is similar to that
of Ecclesiastes. How does it compare to that of the
Bhagavad Gita?
Salt, Pepper, and Other Spices
• Pg 749 (line 293)
– Are there multiple possible meanings for this
phrase?
• It could be meta—discussed the climax of the play,
which Hamlet distressed finds to be poison, just as
everything turned out to be poison.
• But hurt (line 296)
• Finally, Hamlet asks Horatio to tell his story
(remember the Ghost?). How does Horatio tell
the story, do you think?