Poor Hamlet

After reading Act I of Hamlet, I felt sympathy for Hamlet. Hamlet has many crosses to bear dealing with his dysfunctional family. Hamlet reveals the sadness he feels for his father's death and the shame of his mother's hasty marriage to his uncle. His father's death is difficult for him as he is badgered by his mother to accept Claudius. Claudius also makes the situation difficult as he chastises Hamlet for his sullen behavior stating “In obstinate condolement is a course/Of impious stubbornness, 'tis unmanly grief/ It shows a will most incorrect to heaven” (1.2.93-95). Claudius seems to want to make Hamlet feel guilty for his behavior rather than to offer sympathy or even remorse for his own actions.

Hamlet must deal with the embarrassment of his mother being with his uncle which I'm not sure is so odd for the time especially as we have seen some interesting unions between couples in the plays we have read so far. In Hamlet, the thought of the mother and uncle is so unimaginable to Hamlet that he really doesn't know how to deal with it. He remarks “But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two--” (1.2.138) and “She married. O most wicked speed, to post/With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” (1.2.156-157). Both of his comments reveal the shame feels for his mother's actions because she didn't even give his father's death the respect it deserved. Hamlet is so full of questions regarding his mother especially because her loyalties have shifted away from his father and even him in so quickly. I wonder why she married the uncle so quickly too. Was it a secret affair or did she just want to keep a title? I guess I will see if it is revealed as I continue to read the play.

I find Hamlet to be a dynamic character with many layers of emotions. He definitely has a score to settle for all he has to endure. As he meets the ghost of his father it adds another layer to the plot and it reveals that deceit is all around him. As a loyal son it is his duty to avenge his father's death. Hopefully mentally he can handle all that is happening around him.

The weak vs The Strong willed Women

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             Gertrude is introduced in the second scene of the play. She is Hamlet's mother, the widow of The late King Hamlet and now King Claudius's new wife. I do not like her character so far in this play because she does not seem like a strong powerful female role. Gertrude seems more like Lady Anne's character in Richard III than the strong- willed, Queen Elizabeth or Queen Margaret. Both of the Queens in Richard  have a powerful voice and in the nature of the way Richard approaches them. Gertrude does show compassion towards her son, Hamlet. She seems like the type of character that wants to stand up for herself and protect her son, but she is shows as a weaker side. I said she is like Lady Anne's character , because she is being played for a fool. She is being tricked by King Claudius, just like Lady Anne was tricked by Richard.

              She is really dependent, which is sad to me because I love reading about strong independent female characters in Shakespeare. She follows King Claudius around as he orders her to do. I always try to imagine myself in the women's situations in the plays and how I would do things differently when I am reading. 

           I also find that I can use more emotion when I get to write about these strong-willed women who act as a role model for some. I loved reading  Much Ado About Nothing. Beatrice is my favorite character because she shows that she is  strong, independent and witty which is a perfect role model when reading these plays.  I haven't read this play in quite a while , but I predict that Gertrude will not become a strong-willed individual in this play. 

An Atypical Mother/Son Relationship

I wanted to approach this blog post differently.  Usually, I consider the characterization of female characters, and question Shakespeare’s attitude toward a patriarchal society.  However, Professor Mulready’s post inspired me to analyze the text from a different angle this time.  As I read through the first three acts of Hamlet, I found the relationship between Hamlet and his mother extremely interesting.  I decided that the connection between son and mother that is illustrated in this play is atypical, and there is something especially strange regarding Hamlet’s behavior toward his mother.  Did Shakespeare’s audience feel the same way?  In other words, was it normal for a son to display such outrage and contempt toward his own mother in Shakespeare’s society?  I am inclined to believe that it would have been even more disrespectful for a child to mistreat his or her parent during Shakespeare’s time versus our modern society.  Therefore, I think his audience would have been shocked to witness Hamlet’s harsh, angry behavior toward his mother, Gertrude.  With that said, he certainly has a few reasons to be furious with her!

First of all, the fact that Gertrude marries her brother-in-law, Claudius, is certainly disturbing.  Based on how repulsed Hamlet is by this marriage, I presume that this was not a typical nuptial act in Shakespeare’s society.  As Hamlet comments about the wedding, “She married.  O most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets!  It is not, nor it cannot come to good” (1.2.156-158).  Thus, Hamlet feels as though his mother remarried much too quickly after her husband’s death (within two months).  He views her hastiness as a sign of disrespect toward his deceased father.  According to Hamlet, “a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer!” (1.2.150-151). Due to Gertrude’s hasty wedding to Claudius, Hamlet expresses feelings of disgust concerning his mother.  Additionally, it is important to note Hamlet’s use of the word “incestuous,” which hints that he views the union as unnatural and nauseating. 

Hamlet actually confronts his mother about how unhappy he is with her in Act III.  When he enters her chamber, he immediately displays the reason for his discontent, “Mother, you have my father much offended” (3.4.10).  He further orders, “Come, come, and sit you down.  You shall not budge.  You go not till I set you up a glass” (3.4.18-19).  Hamlet does not hold back his frustration toward Gertrude, and wants her to face the profundity of her sin.  In fact, he is so vicious that she fears for her life.  Gertrude asks Hamlet, “What wilt thou do?  Thou wilt not murder me?  Help, help, ho!” (3.4.21-22). Therefore, she is so alarmed by Hamlet’s uncharacteristic rage that she thinks her life is in danger.  I cannot help but wonder whether the majority of Shakespeare’s original audience sympathized with Hamlet or Gertrude in this particular scene.  It is certainly a tricky question to answer, especially considering the circumstances of the situation.  Which was worse, or more sinful, during Shakespeare’s time….an incestuous marriage, or a disrespectful child?  I have to say, as a contemporary reader, that I take Hamlet’s side.  I think Gertrude should be ashamed of her actions, and she deserves Hamlet’s confrontation!            

Female Relationships in Hamlet

I've had some difficulty trying to expand the flurry of fragments that intrigued me in Hamlet into a full blog. To finally take a stab at it, I was considering the way Shakespeare portrays relationships between women, starting from the relationship between Gertrude and Ophelia. Gertrude is the one to break the news that Opehlia has died, "There is a willow grows aslant a brook...therewith fantastic garlands did she make...till that her garments, heavy with their drink, pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay to muddy death" (4.7, 139). Gertrude mourns Ophelia, yet it seems to me that Gertrude is another character who failed Ophelia by not reaching out to her before it was too late.

Both Gertrude and Ophelia had received harsh treatment from the males of the play, namely Hamlet, who viciously ridiculed Ophelia to "join a nunnery" (ie, "You're a skank.") and equivalently insulted Gertrude, "As bad as kill a king and marry his brother" (3.4, 25). Gertrude and Ophelia have been name-called and overpowered by their male counterparts comparably. However, there are fewer scenes of the two women commiserating with one another or sharing their woes, as Desdemona and her attendant, Emilia, would discuss their theories of vexing husbands and men in Desdemona's bed chamber.
Gertrude may have been honestly oblivious to Ophelia's plight and grieving, for Gertrude admitted that she was expecting to lay flowers at Ophelia's bridal bed but surely not at her funeral. Even so, I am disappointed in the lack of camaraderie between the two women- they could have formed an alliance that would have strengthened them both.

Picking up on Shakespearean References
In my English Literature II class we are onto the modernist period of writing and just finished reading T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land". In one of the poem's, "A Game of Chess", the barroom scene of a labor-class woman insensitively revealing the private life of her friend, Lil. The narrator divulges extremely personal details of Lil's disjointed marraige,
but get to my Shakespearean point, the poem concludes with the narrator and girlfriends departing with "good byes" which echo Ophelia's farewell prior to her suicide, "good night, ladies, good night sweet ladies, good night, good night."
In the context of the poem, Eliot was drawing from the emotionally-charged scene of "Hamlet" in order to convey his own female characters in a bleak and dire world.

What stood out to me was the opportunity to see Shakespeare through the eyes of another writer. The in-depth analysis of Shakespeare's works that comes from our class I consider invaluable, but within a Shakespeare-concentrated class I sometimes forget how far reaching Shakespeare's characters and themes touched others besides myself and how often he is echoed in subsequent great works literature for centuries after.