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.