For College I just read and discussed Shakespeare's Hamlet. This is the paper I just wrote about this more commonly read tragedy. Anyone who wishes to comment is welcome to. And just so you know I don't feel like it is truly finished. However I had to turn it in by a certain time on Sunday night and my thoughts seem to have dried up and I can't concentrate on it any more, and so I turned it in as is. Please accept it for all it's flaws, and don't judge it to harshly.
Hamlet Paper
Lark Milius
January 2012
To Be: Faithful, and True, to Trust, and to Do thy Duty, or Not
I find it interesting the flowers that the Bard decides to use when Ophelia is crazy. I know that there are works of literature about the Language of Flowers, and flowers acted as a sort of code in the Bard’s day as a "delicate way of conversation". With this in mind it struck me that Shakespeare might be trying to say more than what you initially read in the text. As for flowers; we find the violet (Faithful), the columbine (foolishness), the daisy (purity and innocence), and pansies (thoughts). There are herbs as well; fennel (flattery and deceit), rosemary (remembrance), and rue (regret). I think that Ophelia gave the fennel and columbine to the king, rosemary and pansies to her brother Laertes, and rue and daisy to the queen. Ophelia also offers the queen violets yet they had all withered away when her father died.
Violets mean faithfulness. This flower is mentioned three times in this tragedy. Why would Shakespeare refer to a flower with that particular meaning more than once? Is the story of Hamlet really about faithfulness of faithlessness?
Rosemary is for remembrance. Often it is the fools in Shakespeare’s plays that speak the most truth. What is Ophelia asking us to remember and ponder? What is Shakespeare trying to say?
There is so much in this piece that it could be about; yet this is what I kept thinking as I read it.
To Be: Faithful, and True, to Trust, and to Do thy Duty, or Not?
Faithfulness goes hand in hand with my other points of thought. How can you be true to your own self when you are being unfaithful to who you are? “This above all: to thine ownself be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” How can you perform the duty you have been given if you don’t trust yourself?
From the very beginning of the play Shakespeare seems to be showing you a few characters that demonstrate being unfaithful or to be perceived as such. The Queen is the first one we see. Now is she really being unfaithful to her husband’s spirit or is it just what Hamlet wants you to think? King Claudius is deceitful to the memory of his brother, considering he killed his brother and then married the queen. Next we see that Ophelia is torn between whom to be faithful to; her father, or Hamlet the crown prince that she is in love with but might not have a future with. Hamlet is unfaithful to himself in not doing the duties he is obligated to do. Hamlet’s school fellows Rosencrantz and Gildenstern prove to be unfaithful friends when they try to kill him. The only one in this play who does seem faithful is Hamlet’s friend Horatio.
Why do these characters struggle with faithfulness, truth, and duty? Some possible reasons could be:
Hamlet being the heir apparent has a duty to his country that he becomes the next king. He has a duty he feels to avenge his Father’s murderous death. He also has a duty to be true to Ophelia, whom he might have gotten pregnant depending on how you look at it. And yet he denies his throne, he discards the girl he loves. By doing this he is unfaithful to himself. His only course of action is to avenge his father’s death. And with this intent he ends up hurting several others that weren’t supposed to die.
Sometimes to hide the pain you begin to lie to yourself, and you no longer see the truth, you see a counterfeit. This is how Hamlet perceives his mother the Queen deceived herself into trusting Claudius, and by thus doing so she became unfaithful to her previous oaths to her recently departed husband.
So I ask again: How can you be true to your own self when you are being unfaithful to who you are? How can you perform the responsibilities you have been given if you don’t trust yourself?
When a truth is found it becomes a very part of you, when you deny that truth you cease to be a whole person, you are then unfaithful to your own self. To do your duty well you must act in accordance with one mind and one heart. This is one of the things that I find so interesting in Hamlet. Some people would say this is a play about going crazy. However I believe that the insanity comes when they have removed a truth from their being.
When you shirk the duties given you, you cause yourself to be more negative towards life because you know you aren’t living up to your full potential. This could also be one of the reasons that Hamlet sometimes seems suicidal. I know for me that when I do less than what is expected of me I tend to feel more melancholy.
When a friendship is betrayed you start to doubt who you can trust. If Hamlet had had no one to trust in the play I think his insane acting would have ceased to be an act but become a reality. The only reason that I think Hamlet did not really go mad was because he had Horatio who was continually steadfast to help him remain sane. I think this is also part of what drove Ophelia to be crazy; she didn’t know who she could put her trust in anymore, her brother was out of the country, her father had been killed by the man she loved. She didn’t even know what to think about herself anymore. Which leaves her without many options of people to confide in? And for girls it is essential to have a friend whom you can trust.
