Hamlet, read as a Dialectic form.

 

Prepared By: Chennur Amrutha Valli Reddy

Roll No: 38

Semester 1

‘Revenge is barren of itself: it is the dreadful food it feeds on; its delight is murder, and its end is despair.’

                                                                                Friedrich Schiller.

 

Hamlet.

Hamlet is the longest play of William Shakespeare, the Father of English Literature. It is the story of a Prince named Hamlet from Denmark, who is told by the ghost of his father to take revenge of his death, but at the very same time, not to give any woe to his mother, who is now married to the executioner of his father.  The whole play depicts the psychological conflict that the son faces in taking the revenge. The atmosphere of revenge is very much alive in the air of the play. Every son in the play is desperate to take revenge of his father’s death. Hence, Hamlet is instigated to take revenge as soon as possible.

 

The beauty of the play lies in the delay of taking revenge. There are many questions which pop up in the mind of the Prince regarding the assassination of his dear father. He is surrounded by many anonymous questions. This play is about a protagonist who set out on a journey to find the answers to the miscellaneous questions that constantly rise in his mind. When, Hamlet acquires the answers of these questions, he again sets on a journey to take revenge of his father’s death and give justice to his soul.

 

In this very course, the audience is the only eyewitness of innumerable deaths that take place on stage. The wind of suspense is very much around in every scene of the play. It ultimately touches the heart of the spectator, and gives place to pity and fear in the minds of the audience.  To make the feeling more dominant, Shakespeare has also employed supernatural elements like ‘Ghost’ in his play.  Nature adds to the beauty of play. It can also be said that nature is personified as fear throughout the play. 

 

Hamlet is rich of symbolisms. We find most of the characters in the play to be surrounded by the clouds of death. Yet, the characters are full of gallant and live to their fullest. The scenes of graveyard are found in all the five acts. Hence, the tone of the play is very much ironic, melancholic, dark, passionate, contemplative, violent and desperate. All the characters with revenge motif are in the thirst of the culprit’s blood. A trap is set by each one of them to hunt the criminal. We see all such characters fighting with their death with the strong passion to live.  But, nature had its own ways. All the characters are stuck in trap of nature ultimately.  Death has ruled upon them and made them the poor slaves of their own guilt.

 

 

Dialectic Form.

 

The very beauties of the writers lie in ornamenting their language with the use of different Figures of speech. He also amuses the readers with the hidden meanings that he gives in his texts. The readers are amazed by the symbolisms that are employed by them. In the very act of symbolisms, nature is personified. Many other symbols can also be used, such as food, places, situations and many more. The difference between the lay man and the creative writer is he employs the words in a creative manner by pouring life to his imaginations. He nurtures them by portraying different emotions through words and making every scene very lively and appealing to the audience.

 

Hamlet is the best example of the dialectic form. The intensions of Shakespeare as such, might not have been to give multi meaning to this long tragedy of his. But, he has succeeded in giving it to the audience.  The book can be read from the perspectives like, feministic, psychological, dialectic, philosophical and etc. Hence, this adds to the beauty of the play. The very important aspect of the play is the dialectic form. As it is commonly said,

 

                 Every word has a meaning of its own in its own context.

Every word written by Shakespeare adds to the meaning of the play.  It has its own symbolisms. It rather has its own trap. Readers are tricked by Shakespeare. Some of the dialogues seem to be of the protagonists. But, in fact they are spoken by the antagonists. The cosmos had its own trap for all the characters.  They all knowingly or unknowingly walked on the path of death. They set a trap for other characters. But, they themselves were entangled in the trap. They dig the grave for others. But unfortunately, they themselves were buried in the graves. People tend to believe that whatever is witnessed by us is the truth. But, in fact it wasn’t.  Hence, this also gave place to innumerable deaths in the play. At the same time, there were some intellectual characters, which seemed to see and know the things.  Here, I would go forward by illustrating the four categories of the dialectic form.  They are,

 

1.     The Trap Imagery.

2.     The Cosmological trap.

3.     Seeing and Being.

4.     Seeing and Knowing.

 

The Trap Imagery.

We all know the meaning of the word trap. Trap is to catch a person with a trick. Here, we see Shakespeare is trapping his spectators with the mesmerizing dialogues and the script. The flow of the language is very philosophical. As the protagonist of the play - Prince Hamlet - is a philosopher we get trapped in his language assuming all the philosophical and beautiful dialogues to be delivered by him.

                    ‘Though inclination be as sharp as will,

                    My stronger will defeats my strong intent,

                  And, like a man to double business bound,

                 I stand in pause where I shall first begin,’

                                                                 Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3.

The above lines seem to be very much philosophical. We mistake it to be the dialogue spoken by Hamlet. But, the fact is the above lines are spoken by Claudius who in the dark night confesses his crime. He is guilty of the crime committed by him. He prays for the mercy of the God. Hence, we believe that a criminal in a very rare case confesses his crime as he is always in a fear that he may be caught red handed. But, the antagonist here took a daring step. Trap imagery works very actively here in this dialogue.

 

We see the characters setting the trap for others. Initially, Prince Hamlet is the one who sets the trap just to give justice to the soul of his late father. But, we witness that Claudius is also planning a trap. This trap is very much similar to the Chess game ( political ). Hamlet is playing the game. But, Claudius is adding more characters to the game. For example, Claudius invites the friends of King Hamlet Rosencrantz and Guildenstern just to make them the spy of his nephew/son. He wants them to know the real problem with Hamlet. He wants to know if it is a political issue or a personal issue. Therefore, he orders them to be around the Prince and take notes of his mood swings. Hence, it is also a trap set by Claudius. None of them are aware of the trap set by Claudius. Hamlet wants the drama company to play an act which is very much similar to the deeds done by his uncle Claudius.  He sets the trap only to know if the ghost was of his late father King Hamlet or not. If his uncle was the one who is the culprit of his father’s death. Claudius ultimately gets caught in the trap as he orders the drama company to stop the drama from then and audience was able to see the clear change in his facial expressions.

 

Claudius kills his own brother, the late King Hamlet just to get his wife and throne. He pours the poison into the ears of the King. He bluffs the people of Denmark by telling them King died by the bite of the poisonous snake when he was sleeping in the Orchard. This is also a trap set by Claudius to get power and at the same time, the Queen. 

 

Polonius, one of the best friends of King Claudius also sets a trap for Prince Hamlet. He sends his daughter Ophelia to him so that Claudius could witness the love which has blossomed between them and find a reason for his mad behaviour. Hamlet is very much aware of this trap. Hence, he disrespects Ophelia and walks away from there. But, Polonius does not accept his defeat even then. He sketches out another plan to trap Prince Hamlet. He decides to hide himself in the room of Queen and the mother of Hamlet – Gertrude without their knowledge. He wanted to listen to their conversation and inform the King about it. But, he is killed by Hamlet. Hence, he gets trapped in his own plan.

 

Claudius after learning that probably Prince Hamlet is aware of his guilt, he decides to get him killed. He sends him to England with his spies, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He writes a letter to the King of England saying, to kill the one holding the letter immediately. But, Hamlet reads the letter before hand, and re - writes the letter, saying to kill the duo who hands over the letter to him. Hence, the duo Rosencrantz and Guildenstern get trapped by the Prince.

 

Laertes is instigated to take revenge of his father’s death by Claudius. He is very much ready to do so as he loses his sister Ophelia who is not able to recover from the depression of losing her father and finally drowns herself in the madness. Thus, Laertes determines to take revenge of his loved ones death by killing the one who is responsible for all the chaos. Claudius helps him to do so, as he also wants to get rid of Hamlet. He sets a trap again for Hamlet by betting on him in the fence fight against Laertes. He wants Laertes to kill Hamlet by fighting with the poisonous sword. In the very act, their swords get exchanged and even Laertes is killed in the hands of Hamlet. Hamlet is also killed. When Hamlet comes to know about the trap laid by Claudius, he kills Claudius. Gertrude also becomes the victim of the trap. She drinks the drink with poison which is for Hamlet. Hence, the whole royal family gets destroyed. In this manner, we see the trap imaginary very much actively functioning in the play. 

 

The Cosmological Trap.

 

From the very beginning of the drama, we see something which is mysterious. The atmosphere of fear is carried out throughout the play because of the mysterious elements present in the play. The audience of those days wanted super natural elements to be involved in the play. They believe in all such stuff. Hence, Shakespeare has employed such elements in some of his plays like Macbeth.

In cosmological trap, we see the intervention of Nature in trapping the simple beings. In the very beginning of the play, Act 1, Scene 1, we see the ghost of the late King Hamlet which is very much visible to all the characters around during the night time. The guards are very much frightened every night as it is their chief guest during their routine rounds.  Horatio on seeing the ghost for the first time, gets pale and thoughtful. He wants to know if anything is troubling him. But, the ghost doesn’t talk to him. It is to his only son Prince Hamlet that the ghost opens up. He tells the Prince to take revenge without hurting his mother.

 

In the same manner, we see the entry of the ghost for two or three times. But the fact is the ghost is seen by Hamlet only. Ghost is in the room of Hamlet’s mother and his ex-wife, Gertrude on the same night when Polonius is killed. The ghost is very much present for Hamlet. But, at the same time, it is omnipresent as it is visible only to Prince Hamlet.

 

As it was said before, whole cosmos motivated the Prince to take revenge. We see Fortinbras marching to invade the patch of ground which of no worth in Poland. Hamlet is then forced to think, if he is really working upon the task given to him by his late father. Therefore, he decides to take revenge at any cost. This is also the intervention of cosmos as we are not informed if Fortinbras had any plants to be worked upon to invade a part of Poland.

 

The other incident that can be related here is about the attack of pirates on Hamlet. If the attack would not have taken place, then there was a probability of Hamlet being killed. The role of cosmos is very much prevalent here. Even before Hamlet goes for the fence fight with Laertes, something was preventing him to go. But, he goes only because he felt that he is responsible for the plight of Laertes because; he lost his father as he killed him and his sister as she was driven to madness after the death of her father.

 

 

 
In the previous topic, we see many people laying trap for others. But, they themselves got trapped in it. Cosmos had its own sketch to be implemented. Hence, it made the poor people puppets and got its plan into action. In a way, we can also conclude that it is cosmos which is responsible for the massive blood shed at the end of the play. 

 

Seeing and Being.

We are often told by our elders that we should believe only the things which are seen by us not the things which are narrated to us. But, it is not so always. This is play is the best example of it. Claudius seems to be the virtuous character to everyone in the play except, Hamlet and Horatio. (The ghost – King Hamlet) But, the fact was quite opposite to it. He planned intrigues to kill his own nephew/son. When Hamlet tries to frame him in front of his mother, she is not ready to believe him.

 

Mother and Queen Gertrude is not ready to believe Hamlet because, she considers him to be insane. She believes that the loss of his father had mentally affected him. It is not only she who believes so, but almost all the characters except Horatio all the others tend to believe that he is an insane. This was the illusion of the people.

 

The love that Claudius showered on Hamlet and the announcement that he made in Act1, Scene 2, of making Hamlet the next King was to win the heart of his lady love and the public. Laertes was also trapped by the good mask that he carried on his face. Making Laertes as his weapon, he plans to kill Hamlet. But, Laertes realizes this at the end of the play when he was counting his last breath.

 

Claudius not only cheated Hamlet, but he also cheated his brother King Hamlet. The portrayal of the two brothers in the room of Gertrude shows the intimacy and affection between both the brothers. None of them would have thought even in their wildest dreams that Claudius could ever kill his brother. Although, we see the character repenting for his deeds, we see at the very moment not able to sacrifice the power and the lust for the Queen.

 

We also see some downfalls in the character of the Queen Gertrude. Hamlet in Act 2, Scene 2, tells the players to act the scene of The Murder of Gonzaga. From this act, he wants to know if Claudius is the real culprit who killed his father as the scene resembles to the death scene of his father Late King Hamlet. In the act, we see the Queen promising the King to stay as her widow even after the death of the King. But, after the sudden death of the King, she remarries. In Act 1, scene 2, we see that Hamlet is very much upset with his mother because he believes that she has deceived his father by giving him fake promises and remarrying his own brother.

 

Seeing and Knowing.

Our eyes may bluff us sometime, but not our experience. Our experience helps in identifying the genuine person in the crowd of frauds. It helps us in calculating the intensions of the person. It certifies the person according to his deeds. Rarely, we find it miscalculating like our eyes because; our eyes justify a person looking him from outside but our experiences makes its calculations by peeping into the soul of the being rather than his actions. Hamlet is the character who is worthy enough of scanning all the souls of the play.

 

Hamlet doubted the character of Claudius even before the intervention of ghost in the play. He believed that might be, it is Claudius who is responsible for the sudden death of his father. When Claudius sends his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy Hamlet and let him know about his madness, Hamlet immediately identifies them as King’s spies and calls them Sponge. When Polonius wants to tell King Claudius that Hamlet is in love with his daughter, Ophelia, he sends his daughter to Hamlet while the duo was hiding them. Hamlet is very much aware of the plan sketched to trap him. Hamlet knew that Denmark was a swamp. He was very much aware of the political activities which took place. Hamlet is very much alert to every action that takes place around him. The spirit of asking several questions gave him the capacity to identify a person’s true colour.

 

The other character who is as genuine as Hamlet is Horatio. He knew all the secrets of Hamlet. Yet, he did not deceive him. He stood by his friend’s side in thick and thin times. He supported him in every manner. After Hamlet, it was Horatio who knew about the things around the Kingdom. But, he never interfered in them until he was told to do so. He fulfilled all his responsibilities as the best friend of Hamlet and also as a responsible citizen, took care of a Price of the Kingdom and the son of a worried mother.