final Hamlet reading

AHAHA Gertrude called her own son fat!!!

Wow a lot just happened. Everyone is dead but Horatio and Fortinbras (a foreigner!) is the king of Denmark. The act opened in the grave yard with grave diggers discussing the death of Ophelia whose grave they are currently digging. I found it ironic that they somehow knew that she had committed suicide. This pretty much confirms our class's suspicion that she did in fact kill herself and for what ever reason Gertrude lied.

When the everyone is bringing in Ophelia's body for her burial Hamlet and Horatio just happen to be wandering into the graveyard and they learn of Ophelia's death. I feel bad for Hamlet. He had to find out by accident at the funeral that his girlfriend died. Although he told Ophelia he did not love her I think he really did. His love for her was pretty much the only thing he had left since he had lost his father to death, and his mother to his uncle. Their relationship was his last piece of sanity. He's mourning once again and yet his family is still just calling him crazy.

Later back at the castle Hamlet is telling Horatio of the events that took place on his way to England including his discovery of Claudius plot to have him killed once he arrived. He basically tells Horatio that he did not feel bad for getting Rosencrantz and Guildenstern killed. His lack of remorse or really any feelings prove that he may be actually going insane just as his family is saying.

There is not much time between Ophelia's burial and the duel. Hamlet has no time to mentally recover or prepare but he chooses to go ahead and do it anyway. When the duel begins Hamlet seems to truly be losing it. Hes talking to Laertes in the third person and saying his "madness" killed Polonius not himself. So apparently Hamlet has a mad alter ego now.

As soon as Gertrude is poisoned the whole plot unravels and Claudius realizes he is in trouble. Even with the king and queen dead and both men dying, Laertes and Hamlet forgive each other. At first I found this sweet because they were settling their differences, however as I think about it more now, it could have just been for selfish reasons. If they forgave each other, they would not have any sins when they died so they could go straight to heaven. Maybe they did just want to forgive one another to be good men, but they were probably just looking out for their souls.

Act IV Scenes 5-7

In Scene 5 we find out that Ophelia has gone insane. I think it’s hilarious because everyone “knows” that she is insane due to her father’s recent death while they couldn’t recognize the same thing in Hamlet. I think that the difference between the two could lie in Shakespeare’s contrast between masculinity and femininity, as men aren’t expected to be so grief stricken, and that leads to Hamlet feeling like a weak girl. What is interesting is that as Gertrude and Claudius question Ophelia, she rambles on about love along with death and life. Could part of her insanity be due to Hamlet’s rejection of her? She also, at the end of the scene, talks of giving flowers to people. What is the significance of this? She gives rosemary, pansies, fennel, columbines, rue, daisy, and violets. What could these different plants mean? Later, Laertes and his mob come to talk to Claudius and rant about Polonius’s death. What struck me the most that somewhat goes unnoticed is that the messenger declares Laertes will be king. Somehow Claudius doesn’t express much concern over this. Why? Is Laertes even vying for the throne or is it just the messenger? I’m a tad confused. At the end of the scene Claudius begins to plant the seeds of revenge in Laertes.

In Scene 6 we start to hear about Hamlet’s adventures with pirates through his letter to Horatio. It seems like he is gaining confidence in himself once again. Horatio is ordered to bring letters to Claudius and the court.

In Scene 7 so much happened that I’m going to take it important thing by important thing. First, Claudius finds out that Hamlet is not dead, and realizes that he must come up with a  new plan. So, he manipulates Laertes into deciding to take revenge against Hamlet. He compliments Laertes, his fencing skills, and his strength, tempting him to duel against Hamlet. They also decide to poison Laertes’ sword and as a backup plan poison a cup of wine to serve to Hamlet. So many people are avenging their fathers in Hamlet, yet none of the avenging brings happiness or satisfaction. I think it’s a commentary about revenge and yet also about fathers. Also, Gertrude reports that Ophelia has drowned. It is unclear whether it was suicide or accident but I’m pretty sure it’s suicide. I bet Gertrude and Claudius are embarrassed for the kingdom because of a significant societal figure’s shameful suicide. Ophelia was surrounded by flowers, which is a callback to scene 5. Her death reminds me of the movie The Hours when Virginia Woolf committed suicide. Drowning is a slow means of suicide and implies that the person who committed it was in an absurd amount of pain. 

A major theme of this reading was manipulation, on Claudius’s part, as we learned that he is far smarter than he has seemed so far. Another theme was once again revenge, as Claudius pushing Laertes to murder somewhat parallels Hamlet’s father’s ghost pushing him to murder Claudius. We know that revenge is bad and everyone dies in the end but I’m starting to question the purpose of this play. What is it teaching us? Why is it teaching us this?