Hamlet+2.2

__4. Quotations__ __6. Relationships__ __8. Ambiguity__ __3. Questions__ __Video Clips__
 * __Hamlet 2.2__**
 * “I assure my good liege/I hold my duty as I hold my soul,/both to my God and to my gracious king” (46-8). Duty to king and country is connected to duty to God.
 * “I doubt it is no other but the main--/his father’s death and our o’erhasy marriage” (59-60). The “it” is the cause of Hamlet’s distress. So the Queen sees that she got married quickly. So then who’s idea was it to marry so quickly? If it was Claudius’ it would fit with the character the ghost portrayed.
 * “Since brevity is the soul of wit,/and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,/I will be brief” (97-9). I think this is ironic because Polonius thinks that he is very witty and wise. To Which the Queen responds, “More matter less art,” so he wasn’t being to the point (103).
 * “The cause of this effect,/or, rather say, the cause of this defect,/for this effect defective comes by cause” (109-11). Polonius uses puns and is trying to be witty and intelligent.
 * “I have a daughter (have while she is mine)/who, in her duty and obedience, mark,/hath given me this” (114-6). This alludes to marriage, like Ophelia is an object to be passed off. This also highlights filial obedience.
 * “Lord Hamlet is a prince, our of thy star,/it must not be” (150-1) this is what Polonius tells the king that he said to Ophelia to discourage Hamlet since it would be an unseemly match.
 * “Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet” (131-2). This is how Hamlet ends his love letter to Ophelia. What interests me is how Hamlet writes “whilst this machine is to him,” referencing his body to a machine and referencing death. When was this note written? Was this part of his ploy too of was this when he really was just attracted to her?
 * Polonius and the King’s plan is to let Hamlet and Ophelia be together and see Hamlet’s reaction. Polonius describes it as, “I’ll loose my daughter to him,” which I think is really interesting diction. “Loose” implies like she’s a dangerous animal or weapon but “to” is odd with that thought.
 * “You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal-except my life, except my life, except my life” (233-5). Is this Hamlet talking crazy or does he believe this? I feel like he believes this but would not admit it unless he was acting mad.
 * “That great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling clouts” (406-7). Hamlet describes Polonius, which is comical and shows that he is not mad. He does start talking gibberish when Polonius comes over though.
 * King and Queen to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
 * “The need we have to use you did provoke/our hasty sending” (3-4). They called R and G because they have something they need R and G to do for them.
 * “So by your companies/to draw him on to pleasures, and to gather/so much as from occasion you may glean,/whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus/that, opened, lies within our remedy” (14-8). King asks them to find out why Hamlet is so distressed and to tell the king Claudius and queen what they find out.
 * “If it will please you/to show us so much gentry and goodwill/as to expend your time with us awhile/for the supply and profit of our hope,/your visitation shall receive such thanks/as fit a kings’ remembrance” (21-6). I read this as bribery, the queen saying “We’ll make this worth your while.” Do Claudius and Gertrude feel guilty for spying on Hamlet or do they know that it just isn’t right? Because if not, why else would they bribe R and G?
 * “Both your Majesties/Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,/put your dread pleasures more into command/than to entreaty” (27-30). R says that the king and queen could have forced R and G into doing this, which I read it to imply that there is a bribe to make it more like a trade.
 * “But we both obey,/and here give up ourselves in the full bent/to lay our service freely at your feet,/to be commanded” (31-4). This shows obedience and duty to the regents. Is G refusing the bribe then, but still saying they will do as the king and queen asked?
 * Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
 * Hamlet knows that they were sent as spies from his mother and uncle.
 * “But your news is not true” (257-8).
 * “Come, come, deal justly with me” (297).
 * “You were sent for, and there is a kind of confession in your looks which your modesties have not craft enough to color. I know the good king and queen have sent for you” (300-4). Hamlet can tell by their faces that they were sent to spy.
 * “Be even and direct with me whether you were sent for or no” (310-1). Hamlet demands that they tell him the truth, which they do.
 * “I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen molt no feather” (316-8). So Hamlet tells them of his depression. He seems honest and open, not like he is trying to deceive them of his insanity.
 * Hamlet is open with them, and almost confides in them. He does not act deliberately mad around them as well. More below under Ambiguity.
 * Shakespeare drops the iambic pentameter from when Hamlet enters until his soliloquy.
 * Is this because Hamlet is acting mad? I can’t think of any other reason. But I know the same thing happened in //Merchant of Venice// to show that Shylock was uncouth when he wanted a heart for his pound of flesh. But I don’t think Hamlet is uncouth because he is smart enough to act mad and manipulate others, so I think this is to go along with when Hamlet is “mad.” I will definitely keep an eye on this to judge whether or not he does go mad…if it is possible to judge that.
 * When Hamlet talks to R and G, he sounds honest and sane, but when Polonius is there he acts mad again. Does Hamlet do this because he trusts R and G more? Or does he just like them and not want to deliberately deceive them?
 * When Hamlet talks to R and G, he says a lot of ambiguous things that I think help us understand him and how he sees himself.
 * “What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison hither?...A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’ th’ worst…to me it is a prison” (258-60, 264-6, 270). What makes Hamlet feel like it is a prison? Why does he feel trapped? Parallels to the ghost.
 * “I can be bound in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams” (273-5). This brings up an interesting debate of what is real and how do different people’s realities compare and therefore what does it mean to be insane? What dreams?
 * What is the point of Voltemand? What is the back story? What I got was, the king of Norway is angry that Fortinbras was fighting Denmark and rebuked him and once Fortinbras agreed to stop, Norway paid him to fight Polack. Who is Polack? Bribery?
 * More interspersed above.
 * 1. Burton, 2. Branagh, 3. Hawke
 * The first I thought Hamlet was already mad. The second I thought he was merely emotional, that is how I read the soliloquy. The third I though Hamlet was almost insane, but more obsessed.
 * I liked how the second and third ended stressing the play, I also felt that they had edgier endings, but then again they were movie clips.
 * I did not like that the third took out that big part of the soliloquy, but I think that it fit the way they staged it.
 * The first I felt was a little too much, too all over the place, lie Hamlet was already, fully insane, but if that’s what they were going for, then it was acted well.