Hamlet In a Nutshell
This is a witty metaphor for Hamlet’s
entrapment within the “foul and
pestilent” Denmark
What we know of Hamlet’s language:
- Hamlet has the sensitivities of a poet
(He perceives the world with all its beauties
and flaws, and looks beneath the surface
while other characters seem unable to
recognize all the corruption and superficiality
in the world.)
- He uses puns to turn the words of others
inside out
Hamlet Vs. Polonius
• Hamlet’s language is eloquent, poetic, incisive,
expressive, and beautiful.
• Polonius is verbose, self-serving, dithering,
even obtuse to the point of comic relief
Language is everything in Shakespeare. Elevated
style and language demonstrates intellect.
What we know of Hamlet’s moral
sensibilities:
- Disgusted at his uncle’s drunkenness
- Loathes his mother’s sensuality (calls it incest)
- astonished by his mother’s apparent
shallowness
- contempt for everything false and pretentious
- indifference to the merely external (seems)
- appalled by neglect of duty towards his father
Signs of Hamlet’s genius:
- in conversation, the wit and humor
- quickness of perception and retort
- great mental agility and shifting of mental
attitude
- easily sees through others and masters them
verbally
- depth of imagination (poetic ponderings)
- he questions what others take for granted
Hamlet Sees Through the Exterior:
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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Ophelia
Polonius
King and Queen
Hamlet’s Wit
“A little more than kin and less than
kind.”(1.2.65)
“It shall to the barber’s with your beard!”
(2.2.245)
“the funeral bak’d meats
did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.”
(1.2.180-181)
Hamlet’s Melancholy (Samples)
“th’exterior nor the inward man resembles what
it was”(2.2.7)
“Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other”
(2.1.81)
“He waxes desperate with imagination” (1.4.87)
and he speaks in “wild and whirling words”
(1.5.131)
Hamlet’s Melancholy
“I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth,
forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so
heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
earth, seems to me a most sterile promontory; this most
excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging
firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire:
why it appeareth to me nothing but a foul and pestilent
congregation of vapors…Man delights not me; nor woman
neither.”
(2.2.273-280)
“How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
seem to me all the uses of this world!”
(1.2.133-134)
Mystery and Manners
• Hamlet – Mystery and Manners
Franzen reference (It’s been a while!)
He quotes Flannery O’Connor, saying that all
things in literature come down to the mystery
and the manners.
• Hamlet is no different
Mystery – Death and the afterlife
- He attempts to come to terms with the grief
of his father’s death
- He also must attempt to understand his duty
to take revenge
Traditionally, this would be well within his
rights, but thinking about it, is this fair to
Hamlet?
Mystery – Contd.
- Hamlet mentions the possibility of suicide
- In “To be or not to be,” he worries about the
dreams that happen after death, afraid that
the afterlife will not end the suffering he
endures here on earth.
- Fate: Is there something out there that
guides our destiny?
“I cursed spite, that ever I was born to set this
right” (1.3.5)
Hamlet’s Behavior Towards Ophelia
Explanations:
- She obeys her father’s instruction to deny
Hamlet her company
- Hamlet’s fury with his mother has tainted
him against all women (“Frailty!...” 1.2.146)
- His mother’s relationship with Claudius
renders all sensuality gross and hideous
“Get thee to a nunnery”
- She submits to King/Queen/Polonius spying
on Hamlet. She is a mere pawn for them.
The Arts
• Hamlet escapes the “grossness” of his world by
embracing the players. He is revived by theater
• Similarly, the audience come to the theater to
escape their own mundane existence…to be
transported elsewhere.
• The sign that the arts have declined in Denmark is
another sign of the rank and gross nature of
Claudius’ Denmark.
How does Hamlet feel about
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Queen?
King?
Polonius?
Ophelia?
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?
Himself?
Maybe this begins to explain his melancholy.
What/So What
• What: Hamlet fumes at Ophelia, “Get thee to
a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a breeder of
sinners?” (3.1.118)
• So-What?: