DRJ #4: IV & V

One thing that I saw in Act V that still relates to life today is the way that Laertes and Hamlet responded to Ophelia’s death at her funeral. They did not want to leave her. Their attitudes of unwillingness to let go are not uncommon for their situation. Oddly enough their feelings and actions illustrate the grieving process as it is today. It really goes to show that death and the way that people respond to it does not vary that much.

In both Act IV and Act V it is very obvious that Laertes is quite the opposite of Hamlet. Though Polonius is ultimately the foil to Hamlet in the play, it almost seems as if Laertes is acting in his father’s place in the final acts of the play. As soon as he heard of his father’s death Laertes rushed back. He immediately took action almost without thinking, whereas Hamlet is slow to act. The use of Laertes’ rash behavior and quick action is a way of making clear Hamlet’s more thought out form of problem solving. In actuality the interaction between Hamlet and Laertes in the final acts are rather brief. Laertes’ role in solidifying the thoughtful way that Hamlet acts is something to been seen by the outsider, not the characters of the play.

An interesting theme in both Act IV and Act V is suicide. Ironically, although Hamlet is the one who spends so much time considering death throughout the play, in the end it is the women in his life who end up committing suicide. It can be argued of course, that both women might not have meant to kill themselves. Ophelia might have simply fallen into the water and Gertrude might not have understood what she was drinking, in the context of the play though it does seem logical that their lives were ended by choice, not accident. Ophelia had gone mad, her father was dead and she thought that Hamlet had gone crazy. Live as Ophelia knew it was destroyed and as a result she went insane.  Because Ophelia was very obviously mentally unstable, it is easy to see why she would kill herself. Gertrude’s act of suicide is a bit more thought out and logical. It almost seems as though Gertrude knows what is going to happen next and is trying to spare herself from it. Ophelia was suffering from the aftermath of the destruction of her life, but Gertrude was trying to prevent herself from ever seeing the destruction of hers. It is really interesting that Shakespeare uses this theme at the very end of the play. Suicide is a sign of weakness; it is really the coward’s way out. In a difficult situation the easy thing to do is give up; the hard thing to do is to keep going. So why would Shakespeare want to illustrate the weakness of Ophelia and Gertrude so late in the play? It could be that Shakespeare was not illustrating Ophelia and Gertrude at all but rather he was trying to prove something about Hamlet. Throughout the play Hamlet not only considers suicide but also has the issue of his delay in seeking revenge. Hamlet does not really give a sense of power and strength. But through Ophelia and Gertrude’s act of ultimate weakness we are finally able to witness Hamlet’s strength.

DRJ #3: Hamlet Act III

One situation that really stood out to me in this act was the set up of the play. Hamlets plan mirrors that of a modern day interrogation. The way that Hamlet presents the situation and watched Claudius’ reaction is ultimately the same thing as the integration tactic that detectives use to figure out whether or not a suspect is guilty. Of course Hamlets plan was more visual, Claudius actually saw the play, rather than having it described to him as a scenario or question, but ultimately the idea behind it is the same.   

Hamlet is of course the protagonist of the play, but, on a more centralized level, he is an important character in this particular act. It is in Act III that we find the famous “to be or not to be” speech. Having never read Hamlet before, I have to say that I was surprised to find the speech in such an obscure place. It seems almost like a mistake. However upon closer inspection it is easy to see the significance in its supposed randomness. Through the speech we get a clearer understanding of Hamlets inner though process. The speech seems to be about suicide, this is a slightly confusing concept to grasp at first. If Hamlet wanted to avenge his father’s death, then why would he even consider suicide? Both the subject matter of the speech and the placement of it within the act serve as a window into Hamlet’s character. We see just how often Hamlet contemplates death. I think that the obscurity in the placement of the speech is meant to lead the reader to believe that thoughts like this are a normal thing for Hamlet. In my opinion, the nature of the speech does not necessarily mean that Hamlet was suicidal, but rather that his thoughts of death were so deep  and frequent that they travel past murder and revenge to other forms of death such as the self-inflicted.

One theme that I found particularly prominent in this act was revenge/ forgiveness. This is evident in the scene where Claudius is praying. Essentially this scene has two parts to it. Forgiveness is displayed through Claudius. After the play Claudius is stricken with guilt, it is almost as if he realizes the severity of his actions for the very first time. Claudius acknowledges his feelings and tries desperately to get rid of them through prayer. The odd thing about this is Claudius’ attitude. He understands that he feels guilty and what he did wrong, but it seems as if he is not actually sorry. Claudius wants forgiveness, but he wants it not because he is sorry for what he did, but rather because he wants his feelings of guilt to go away. On the other side of the story we have Hamlet. He is the one that is responsible for the play that made Claudius feel guilty. Hamlet walks past as his uncle is praying. Having already witnessed Claudius’ reaction to the play, Hamlet knows that Claudius is guilty of murdering his father. For a brief second Hamlet considers walking over and killing Claudius but quickly dismisses this thought because if killed during prayer Claudius would go to heaven and Hamlet would not have actually taken revenge. The fact that Hamlet put that much thought into it, even if the thoughts only took a few seconds, shows just how serious he now is about taking revenge. Now that he knows for sure that it was Claudius who murdered his father, Hamlet is not only willing to carry out his father’s wish of taking revenge  he wants it to be perfect, true revenge.   The ironic thing about this scene is that through seeking forgiveness, Claudius is saved from death.

DRJ #2: Act II

The thing that really drew a parallel for me with a situation in my own life in this act was the exchange that Claudius and Gertrude had with Guildenstern and Rosencrantz. The way that Claudius and Gertrude ask them to check on Hamlet and try to make him feel better reminded me of situations that you see with middle school and high school students. Often students will gang up on each other and elect people to fix the problem when another student’s behavior is abnormal. As a mentor, I see it happen all the time. It is interesting to see something so similar occur in two entirely different contexts.

Although she is only in Act II for a very brief period of time, Ophelia’s actions in the act still raise questions. In the previous act Ophelia is very quick to defend Hamlet when talking to her father, but in this act her behavior seems to switch. Ophelia goes running to her father after having been scared by Hamlet showing up in her room while she was sewing. The shift in Ophelia’s attitude seems odd. Why would she tell her father? It makes more sense that she would want to protect Hamlet, not turn him in. It could be said that Ophelia is immature. Her actions seem rash and poorly thought out. Ultimately though, through telling her father about Hamlet’s strange behavior Ophelia proves just how strange Hamlet’s behavior was. If she, the one who should be most concerned for Hamlet’s health and should be the most aware of a problem or switch, thinks that Hamlet has gone mad then it seems likely that he actually has. Shakespeare uses Ophelia in this act to paint a picture of Hamlet and his behavior and to show how well that Hamlet is fooling all of the characters.

Deceit is definitely the most obvious theme of this Act II. Even at the very beginning of the act we see deception through the conversation between Polonius and Reynaldo. Polonius, in a sense, asks Reynaldo to spread rumors about the behavior of Laertes so that Polonius can get information about his son’s actual behavior. In some of the cases in this act, the situation is almost confusing because the true feelings, desires and motives of the characters can get lost in the midst of their actions. Hamlet for example, is acting as if he is crazy. He has not told anyone else of his plan and because of this all of the other characters in the play believe that he has gone mad. Hamlet’s behavior is very convincing, at certain points it is easy for the reader to forget the he is not actually crazy, he is deceiving those around him. The odd thing about the interactions between each of the characters is how common they really are. Their plans to deceive one another are in actuality situations that occur in daily life all of the time. In a group of people, be it family members, friends, coworkers, even complete strangers, it is not at all uncommon for people to lie about others, act differently from how they are feeling, or send others to gather information. It happens. Perhaps Shakespeare was using the deceptive characters for a reason. It could be that through these situations of deceit, Shakespeare was making a statement about human behavior in general and our unfortunate tenancy to manipulate situations in order to get what we want out of someone or something.