HAMLET (THE MADMAN?) Essay

Prompt: Do you think Hamlet's nuts?  After our discussions today I reflected back on all the commentary and all the productions I could remember, and it seems like the overwhelming majority talk about Hamlet being mad.  But I still wonder whether his ability to see the ghost is commentary on Gertrude's blindness to the truth and Hamlet's ability to see right and wrong.  In fact, I wonder if it's the sanest thing in the world to be freaked out by feeling obliged to kill someone, and I also still wonder about Hamlet's ability to plan and say the right things (with double meanings!) under pressure.  I guess he could be an endearingly fiendish sociopath, but he seems too self-critical for that.  What do you think, and what is your evidence?  Especially curious about your perspectives after you read DeBoer's paper. 

The character Hamlet has been described in multiple instances as a 'madman,' and as a man who 'cannot make up his mind,' while in reality he is a very meticulous and calculating person, with an ability to create a sub-persona. Throughout Act I, II, and III, Hamlet clearly depicts his abilities, not only at being precise with his words and actions, but at his ability to masquerade his thoughts and intentions. Hamlet in no instance has ever seemed 'nuts,' rather in scenes where he seems crazy, he has simply unleashed an intense and deep anger, rooted to the murder of his father. Hamlet has complete control of his mind, scared only by the presence of his task and his mother's participation or inability to see reality as shown in the first three acts.

Madman is not the correct term for the young Hamlet, rather he is a man who wishes to control his future. From the day he saw the ghost of his father and was told of the true events of his death, Hamlet has schemed to act mad, going as far as letting his two companions know that he would act strange. Hamlet has a reason behind his every action, unlike someone who if lunatic would act irrational. Hamlet's first plan of tricking those around him to conclude that he is crazy worked because of his commitment to a character, his sub-persona. His anger fueled this action, the first part of his major scheme to murder Claudius. In scenes where Hamlet seems completely lunatic, such as the scene in Gertrude's closet, Hamlet is only releasing his immense anger. In this particular scene Hamlet allows his intense feelings to overtake him, for a moment seeming irrational. However, if analyzed correctly it is easily noticeable that Hamlet is releasing his bottled up emotions, while also attempting to figure out his mother's participation in Old Hamlet's death. All of Hamlet's movements and actions are calculated, except for Polonius' death. The death of this man was simply an accident, Hamlet mistook him for Claudius, and seizing the opportunity to turn his words into actions, Hamlet struck.

Hamlet's task to kill a man would drive any normal person insane. Hamlet handles the task, of keeping his intentions and thoughts secret, quite well. To some he may seem like a sociopath, or guilty of premeditated murder, but he only wants to correct the unfair instances that have occurred. His inability to kill Claudius at first shows his sanity. Hamlet realizes that his actions are not morally correct, which may have fueled his idea to act mad. This realization shows his sanity, his unwillingness to kill Claudius, no matter what the ghost said or told him to do, depicts that he has not been crazed with anger.

Hamlet is not a cold-blooded killer, rather he seeks revenge for his father's life, a man who was his idol, he seeks retribution for the mistakes his mother made towards his father, and overall, he hopes to end the life of the man that completely ruined and destroyed his. Although the death of his father caused him trauma, and the quick remarriage of his mother furthered it, Hamlet is not crazed, not by anger nor by love. Hamlet is simply a young boy angered by the unfair cards he has been dealt, especially with the perfect life he used to have.

Hamlet Notes ~ Act III Scene IV

• Polonius hides behind the thick curtain as Hamlet approaches 
• Gertrude begins with telling Hamlet that he has offended his father, this upsets him and he reproaches and throws her words in her face repeatedly > his father and Claudius are very distinct people, Hamlet was actually a true man unlike the villainous Claudius
• Gertrude feels threatened and asks if Hamlet will murder her, then begins shouting for help, to which Polonius joins in
• Hamlet stabs at the curtain, killing Polonius yet hoping it is Claudius
• Hamlet also accuses his mother in part taking in the murder of his real father
• Hamlet attacks his mother viciously, paying no heed to her feeble attempts at defending herself
• Ghost enters and as Hamlet speaks to it, Gertrude calls him insane
• Ghost gives him two tasks > keep Gertrude from going mad, and avenge him
• "How is it with you, lady?" > Gertrude asks what he speaks to, trying to calm him
• Hamlet attempts to show the ghost to his mother, failing, the ghost exits
• Hamlet returns to his former attack, his mother saying that her heart is cleft (deeply troubled) > but what could be troubling her, other than Hamlet's sanity?
• Hamlet asks of his mother to refrain from laying in bed with Claudius and asks her to become virtuous
• Hamlet repents having killed Polonius, only for the fact that his death will cause much trouble
• Hamlet asks his mother if she knows of his departure to England, the answer is yes, which she seems saddened by, Hamlet says he will have his "trustworthy" friends by his side and they will enjoy themselves
• Hamlet says his final goodbye and drags out the body of Polonius

Hamlet Notes ~ Act III Scene III

• "I like him not" > King Claudius doesn't like Hamlet, and does not like where this current situation is heading > Claudius plans with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to send Hamlet off with them to England, in order to protect his name and the state
• Polonius enters and tells the King that Hamlet is about to speak with his mother, he also tell the King that he will spy on them while he rests
• King Claudius' soliloquy: alone with his conscience, hopes that none but God know of his deeds, attempts to pray but fails, cannot repent and be forgiven because he is still reaping the rewards and riches of his sin, asks the angels to aid him so that "All may be well."
• Hamlet overhearing Claudius' prayer refuses to take his life when he is clean of sin, Hamlet wants his soul to go to heaven blackened, without having a chance to repent, as his father was forced to leave this mortal world
• King's prayer was useless >> "[Rising] My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
  Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

Hamlet Notes ~ Act III Scene II

• Hamlet speaking to the players about "his lines" and reminds them to keep it natural and refrain from over-acting or over-gesticulation
• Hamlet, truly seeing a friend in Horatio, asks him to watch Claudius throughout the play and to see if he witnesses any guilt, after they will compare observations
• Hamlet continually uses puns with the arrival of the Queen, King, Polonius, Ophelia > "Lady, shall I lie in your lap?"  "No, my lord."  "I mean, my head upon your lap"  "Aye, my lord."  "Do you think I meant country matters?"
• Hamlet also repeats the idea that his mother is merry when her husband hasn't been gone for so long, only about 2 months have passed
• "dumb show" > mime play about a loving Queen and King, King murdered, and Queen won over by the villain
• the real play resembles the situation of old Hamlet and Gertrude, Hamlet asks his mother about the play and she responds with an irrelevant comment, Claudius however asks if their is some offense (there is, obviously) > Hamlet reveals excess information such as the Lucianus poisons the King in the garden while he sleeps, etc. >Claudius refuses to keep watching and decides to leave, taking his entourage with him, only Hamlet and Horatio remain
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell Hamlet that the King is very upset, and that Gertrude wishes to speak with him in her closet
• Rosencrantz is still pushing for answer about Hamlet's well-being, but Hamlet uses the recorder brought by the players to create a metaphor >

"Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of
me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know
my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my
mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to
the top of my compass: and there is much music,
excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot
you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am
easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what
instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you
cannot play upon me."

• Hamlet is now assured of his father's murderer and plans to seeks revenge, even if it includes his mother

Hamlet Notes ~ Act III Scene I

• scene opens with the questioning of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by Claudius and Gertrude > they have no satisfying answers about Hamlet, only that he has invited King and Queen to the play
• Gertrude continues to wonder if Hamlet acts lunatic because of his love for Ophelia, and they hope to conclude the answer with their meeting > belief that Ophelia can "save" Hamlet
• the famous soliloquy occurs moments before Hamlet encounters Ophelia, strategically placed and posed with a book
• Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner
  transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the
  force of honesty can translate beauty into his
  likeness: this was sometime a paradox, but now the
  time gives it proof. I did love you once.
• Hamlet responds to Ophelia's love as never having felt it, he tells her to go to a nunnery, where she will be protected from all men
• When Ophelia lies about her father being at home, Hamlet is outraged and insults her, twice saying farewell and returning to heap on insults
• I say, we will have no more marriages:
  those that are married already, all but one, shall
  live; the rest shall keep as they are. > Suggesting the approximating death of King Claudius "all but one, shall live"
• After Hamlet's exit, Claudius wants to send him far, feeling as though Hamlet has an idea about the murder, but Polonius still believes in the despised love idea and forms a second scheme involving Queen Gertrude

"The Performative Utterance in William Shakespeare's Hamlet" Notes

• "a play about a man who could not make real what was found in his mind"
• he knew from the start what his task was, Hamlet waivers in committing the physical action of his duty
• "Hamlet, a character of almost unique vocal power--aesthetic power, descriptive power, artistic power, dramatic power-- " always has the ability to speak but not do
• performative language acts > "How to Do Things with Words (1962) [J. L. Austin], how certain language does not merely describe action but acts in being spoken."
• three main forces: locutionary force: deliver a message, the force of mutual intelligibility the illocutionary force: what is done in being said and the perlocutionary force, what is achieved by being said, the consequences of one's utterance, such as an order being followed (or refused).
• Technically, Hamlet only swore to remember his father, not to seek his revenge
• connection between "performative" and "performance" >> "simple connection of physical demonstrations of emotion to belief in the presence of that emotion to belief in the authenticity of the speaker's words."
• to over-do a self-performance is to risk all further opportunities for performative utterances (Hamlet's advice to the first player, as well as his own act of lunacy, emphasizes the need to act natural and real "hold a mirror up to nature")
• "Hamlet's antic disposition is not merely a tool to confuse and evade those around him, but an opportunity to cast off the constricting dictates of a preformed identity." > as well as an opportunity to explore himself
• "all of us create "utterly different yet self-consistent" visages of ourselves every day." > "creating utterly different yet self-consistent voices for his more than one hundred major characters"
• "Contrast this again to Claudius, who sees in his powerlessness to properly repent only the despair that comes from such a lack of agency, saying "What then? What rest?" (3.3.64). For Hamlet, the admission of his own inability to determine his fate is instead a moment of peace, a falling into faith, with the credo of acceptance, "Let be""
• "a man who uses that performative power in the unending task of the realization of the self."

Day of the Dead Rally!

"Let's spread cultural awareness and diversity at Righetti. Come to the Day of the Dead Rally tomorrow! With performances from the Thunder Drumline, Marimba Band, and Ballet Folklorico! Presented by the Latinos Unidos Club! We meet every Thursday at lunch in Room 323, join our community. (:" -President of Latinos Unidos, Edgar Rodriguez 

Come and join this cultural celebration! 💀💃🎶 Dance, music, and fun!