A perspective on the Character of Hamlet
Hamlet is a deep and thoughtful comic figure who exists and develops within a
tragic milieu [situation]
1. Hamlet initially appears as a rebellious step-son and
nephew with a taste for black humour. He expresses his
dark dissent in sultry puns. The word ‘sun’ is a sarcastic
metaphor for the King’s self-important grandeur and is
combined with a caustic reference to Hamlet’s new
status as step-son instead of nephew. There is a hard
edge of humour within his depression.
1. Hamlet [Aside] A little more than kin and less
than kind.
King How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
Hamlet Not so, my lord; I
am too
much i' the sun…
2. In the graveyard scene we learn of the formative
influence of the court jester Yorick on his life. Yorick was
probably a father figure who instilled in Hamlet a love of
drama and comic detachment.
2. Hamlet Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio:
a fellow of infinite jest… Here hung those lips that I
have kissed I know I not how oft. Where be your
gibes now? … your flashes of merriment
3. In his first conversation with his school-friendsturned-spies, Hamlet tells Rosencranz and Guildenstern
that he has mysteriously lost his ebullient or funny
nature. He is depressed.
3. Hamlet I have of late--but
wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth… And yet,
to me,
what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
me: no, nor woman neither
4. In the exposition scene, Act 1 sc 2, Hamlet’s comic
self is so stressed that he is suicidal, all due to the
reverses he has experienced within his family. Hamlet
turns his eyes on Denmark, and sees it as corrupt and
uncontrolled. He deeply resents the rotten and
unsophisticated king.
4. Hamlet O, that this too too solid flesh would
melt thaw and resolve itself into a dew! …
'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
possess it merely
5. Hamlet jokes darkly to the audience that Claudius is
devoted to physical accomplishments rather than
intellectual pursuits. Hamlet is more a jester than man of
physical strength.
5. Hamlet My father's
but no more like my father
Hercules
6. Hamlet switches between the extremes of depression
and merriment. He sarcastically laments the festive
atmosphere that has dominated court lifestyle since
Claudius’ coronation. Both his father’s death and his time
in the reformation university of Wittenberg have altered
him and made him into a serious moral barometer for his
times, no longer detached.
6. Hamlet [greeting Horatio] We'll teach you to
drink deep ere you depart… Thrift, thrift, Horatio!
the funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the
marriage tables…
7. Hamlet suspects that Claudius has committed evil to
gain the throne. He doesn’t yet use his comic side to
escape from his reality. He begins to realise he will have
to be the reforming influence.
7. Hamlet foul deeds will rise, though all the earth
o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes…
It is not nor it cannot come to good…
…But I have that within
which
passeth show; these but the trappings and the suits of
woe.
brother,
than I to
The time is out of joint!
8. Hamlet is so disillusioned that at times he loses
interest in his own life—though he retains his sense of
humour.
8. Hamlet I do not set my life at a pin's fee
9. Hamlet soon finds himself appointed as an instrument
of the supernatural and of fate. He impulsively accepts
the ghost’s command to kill the usurper. He is assigned a
duty which makes him hold back his funny nature. Fate,
revenge, thinking and love lead him to shed his comic
detachment from life.
9. Hamlet…My fate cries out…
Ghost Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder
Hamlet with wings as swift as
meditation or the thoughts of love may sweep to my
revenge
10. Hamlet’s response to living in a corrupt milieu is to
don a comic mask; ‘wild and whirling words’ & an ‘antic
disposition’. He instantly mocks the ghost. His first
response to a crisis is darkly comic—but with a heavy
heart.
10.
Hamlet art thou there,
truepenny? Come on--you hear this fellow in the
cellarage… Well said, old mole! canst work i' the
earth so fast?
11. Events force him to tackle his world from a moral
perspective. Hamlet’s situation is grim and grave. He is
marked out for a tragic destiny as an avenger in a
politically insecure world.
11.
Hamlet The time is out of joint: O cursed
spite, that ever I was born to set it right!
12. Hamlet reveals his mischievous wit. He jokes that as
R & G live neither on the cap of Fortune [fate] nor at her
toes, they live in her private parts. This type of smutty
banter shows Hamlet the joker. But he lacks the light
hearted nature he once had. In his disillusionment, he
develops the lewd image by calling Fortune a prostitute—
suggesting that fate is unpredictable.
12.
Hamlet In the secret parts of fortune? O,
most true; she is a strumpet.
13. With a touch of black humour, Hamlet states that
universal honesty is a sign of the end of the world. He
comments ironically on his milieu.
13. Rosencranz the world's grown honest.
Hamlet Then is doomsday near…
14. The reality of Hamlet’s situation depresses him. He
claims to have a mind that could overcome any physical
limitation, but reality depresses him. It is obvious that
Hamlet hates the destiny that put him at odds with his
surroundings. At heart he is a witty philosopher, an
intellectual. But his mission to avenge his father’s
murder utterly changes his place in his world. His own
vision is comic, but he has to perform actions that have
inevitable tragic consequences.
14.
Hamlet I could be
a nut shell and count myself
infinite space, were it not
bad dreams
bounded in
a king of
that I have
15. Hamlet makes it clear that he has no ambition for
power in Denmark. He is focused on his own mind, not
his society. He regards ambition as worldly but he is
more of a philosopher. It is his mission of revenge in a
corrupted world that transforms him.
15.
Hamlet I hold ambition of so airy and light
a quality that it is but a shadow's shadow
16. The influence of the hired court performer Yorick on
the child Hamlet is evident in adult Hamlet’s highly
developed taste for subtle stage drama.
16.
Hamlet …set down with as much
modesty as cunning…
17. Hamlet mocks Polonius’ failure to appreciate the
Player’s recital—more evidence of Yorick’s influence on
Hamlet
17.
Polonius This is too long
Hamlet
…he's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps:
18. Hamlet’s ploy to force an admission of guilt from
Claudius by theatrical re-enactment of his crime further
proves that Hamlet is essentially a comedian. He wishes
to live by the use of his wit.
19. Hamlet’s comic sense of life has been so jolted that
he hates his former self. He becomes suicidal again.
18.
Hamlet the play 's the thing wherein I'll
catch the conscience of the king
20. Hamlet’s way of showing his emotional hurt towards
Ophelia is through cruel black humour, typical of a man
who has lost his mirth. He mocks the ‘frailty’ of female
sexuality. Bitter over his ‘seeming virtuous’ mother’s
betrayal of her marriage to his father, Hamlet taunts
Ophelia by saying she will never control her lust or keep
her ‘chaste’ reputation. His cruel sarcasm shows that his
natural mirth has been twisted by the circumstances of
his life.
20.
Hamlet …why wouldst thou be a
breeder of sinners?
21. Hamlet’s natural comic inclination causes him to use
cruel puns to humiliate Ophelia.
21. Hamlet Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
… Do you think I meant country matters?
22. Pol ‘tis like a camel indee
d. Hamlet Methinks it is like a
weasel
Pol It is backed like a weasel.
23.
Hamlet a king may go a
progress through the guts of a beggar
22. He likewise uses humour as a weapon against
Polonius. He gets Polonius to contradict himself on the
shape of a cloud.
23. He even uses black humour as a veiled way of
threatening Claudius.
24. Hamlet is forced to radically change who he is. He
has to give up ‘antics’ and being a thinker and become
more like Hercules—a man of action he ridicules twice in
the play. He begins to realise that thought is a ‘cast’ or
mask that infects or sickens the healthy complexion of
action. Hamlet knows he thinks too much.
19.
Hamlet O, what a rogue and peasant slave
am I! …
To be, or not to be: that is the question
…God has given you one face, and you make
yourselves another…
To a nunnery, go.
24. Hamlet the native
hue
of resolution is sicklie d o'er
with the pale cast of thought
Hamlet some craven
scruple of thinking too precisely on the event
25. The corruption of the state of Denmark forced Hamlet
to take responsibility and focus on political concerns. He
left his flippant and philosophical sides behind and
realised he had to place is responsibility to the throne
above his love of drama and philosophy.
25. Hamlet How stand I then, that have a
father kill'd, a mother stain'd, excitements of
my reason and my blood, and let all sleep?
…This is I Hamlet the Dane.
26. Hamlet’s transformation is complete when he
nominates Fortinbras to the throne and ensures the
future stability of the Danish state. To prevent
uncertainty and future strife he cleverly turns Denmark’s
main rival into its monarch.
26. Hamlet the election lights
on Fortinbras: he has my dying
voice