Act 5, Scene 2 (Second Half)

Yep. Everyone dies. That’s a surprise. With so many ways that one might die in that one room, was there any doubt?  (Really?)
Perhaps the most hilarious death is the Queens. Just taking a drink, offhandedly. Oops! The king Claudius couldn’t say anything, because that would blow his cover! So thus, the reason why he got into this whole mess is then removed in his methods to secure his place from Hamlet. Who knew that this was really The Ironic Tragical History of Hamlet! (A good title as any.)

What change is there, really, Shakes, that a single poisoned rapier would take two three lives, unbeknownst to Hamlet (and especially how do they get switched in the midst of the duel?)? (Although, also, Hamlet doesn’t seem to think that this is enough and makes the king Claudius drink the poison as well.)

What more is there to say? Horatio should have been the one to inherit the kingdom, in my opinion. He’s the only honourable one of the bunch, esp. since he wants to get everyone in on what’s really been going on (when all is said and done). (Finally, someone who doesn’t exactly want to hide things from anyone else.)

292 Queen: No, no, the drink, the drink! O my dear Hamlet!
The drink, the drink! I am poisoned.
[Dies]

308 Hamlet: Here, thou incestuous. murd’rous, damnéd Dane,
Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
Follow my mother.
[King Dies]

312 Laertes: Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet.
Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee,
Nor thine on me!
[Dies]

335 Hamlet: O, I die, Horatio!
The potent poison quite o’ercrows my spirit.
I cannot live to hear the news from England,
But I do prophesy th’ election lights
On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice.
So tell him, with th’ occurents, more and less,
Which have solicited – the rest is silence.
[Dies]

And thus all are dead. Interesting to note that the king Claudius really has no dying words, although the others do. Also, that Hamlet, although the struck first, dies last. Hmm.

Act 5, Scene 2 (First Half)

Well, with only a handful of pages left, it feels as though we’re now watching the world poker tour on TV and there’s only 5 minutes left before the next show starts. That is to say, there’s really only so much more that can go on, and no matter how far up or down anyone happens to be, the cards are on the table and some mean shit is going to go down.

Hamlet… Hamlet, is an odd one. That’s for sure. He’ll steal the mandate on his head, change it, and send his college ‘friends’ off to die.

58 They are not near my conscience; their defeat
Does by their own insinuation grow.
‘Tis dangerous when the aser nature comes
Between the pass and fell inceséd points
Of mighty opposites.

What contempt he seems to have for none but Horatio, and perhaps the late Ophelia? Who do you feel Hamlet? Or perhaps your abandon comes from this void left open?

193 It is but foolery, but it is such a kind of gainqiving as would perhaps trouble a woman.

Which then leads me to question this interpretation of Hamlet to this joust. Is his indifference causing him not to see the plot unfolding here? He’s escaped so many of them, and hatched a few of his own, so how is this, the most blatant of all ways that he might be subdued, flying under the radar?

I also found myself surprised at the lack of form in some of this section. Undoubtably Shakes is intentionally switiching between the structure and colloquial nature, but… when?

Looking back, it seems that only when ones are not in the presence of the king Claudius do they not speak so. Save, of course, Hamlet, who speaks to Claudius often in an easy manner. I am wondering why I didn’t notice this before.

Let that be a footnote, and now to the next half.

Act 5, Scene 1

Even in death is Ophelia uséd! Now, after being swayed by her father’s dictates, her brother’s dictates, Hamlet’s ‘madness,’ her own insanity, is she to be used again as an excuse for Laertes to seek the revenge that the want of which he seems to have harboured since the begining? What madness is this? As corpse-Ophilia I am only left wondering how all of this would have been different if I had only beena little more rebelios, or picked a different side.

Of what could have been made a life more aligned with Hamlet? The Queen even states that she had wished Ophelia to be Hamlet’s wife. O, what could have been!

But regardless. Thus is thus and Ophelia is no more, while young Hamlet and Laertes squabble over who really has more woe than the other, while Yorick’s skull sits by and laughs.

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The Gravediggers have a queer humour about them. More talk about mortality. Nice joke about who builds the strongest (gravediggers, because their houses last ’til doomsday) and so on and so forth. Breifly speaks about the rite aloted to this maiden because of the circumstances of her death.  The water did not come to her.

Act 4, Scenes 6 and 7

Hamlet, now bound for England, apparently now is willing to take action against a band of sailing thieves, or so his letter tells us. This seems a little dubious to me, seeing as he really hasn’t done anything regarding another threat to himself and his kingdom, so why be the only man in the boarding party on the high seas? And the pirates giving up the ghost so easily? Unless there is something here that I’m missing, Hamlet’s story just doesn’t seem so plausible.

Again, I might be giving him too much credit here, but it seems to me that he must have had at least some of this escapade planned out. This is just not how Hamlet has been playing out thus far.

Regardless, it doesn’t look as if he’s going to be getting a very fond welcome upon his return. Claudius is busy stoking the coals beneath Laertes’ traumatic fire. Although apparently he’s thought this out quite a bit already, and he’s prepared an ointment to poison his rapier with. Which will come in handy when he goads Hamlet into a fencing match. Woo! Innocent fun, eh? But if it doesn’t work out, and he loses… well… then we’ll have some more poison in the wine to get him then. What schemers!

Do Laertes know that he’s being played a pawn? And does he really care, if so? He doesn’t strike me a particularly brilliant guy, so I’m just going to assume that, no, he doesn’t really know, or care, what Claudius has really got going on.

I’m left wondering, however, what is to become of our friends R&G, who Hamlet just dismisses in his letter. Apparently Hamlet has learned something that should not be related in a letter. We will have to wait to find out?

Ohh, yeah. And Ophelia has drowned.

Act 4, Scene 5

Kind of a yawner, actually.

Now we get Laertes’ reaction to his Father’s death because, surprise!, he’s back for a visit.  And he has an entourage.  Because no one knows, apparently, that Hamlet killed Polonius.

Now, I have to be wondering: it would seem to me that if the King wanted Hamlet taken care of, he would make it a point to let someone who would do him in for it, like Laertes?, in on the secret.  Secretly.  And then maybe he could get rid of that meddling kid once and for all.

Instead, we get Laertes with a whole rebel group, ready to overthrow the King!  What the hell?  Any reason to usurp the throne is a good one, right?  I should say so.  What a smart chap this Laertes is.

Ay, and now we can add another to the list of crazies.  Ophelia has lost a few marbles along the path, but instead of being hell-bent on exposing the King Claudius, she just likes to sing abut everything.  Such a much more peaceful craziness.

Next up: PIRATES!

Act 4, Scenes 1 – 4 (Quadruple Post!)

Ay!  Hamlet, I told you that this was going to be bad  The King Claudius wasn’t too happy with you after all, and here comes trouble in the form of a Norwegian army!  Oh fie!

Do you also know that the King plans to kill you in England?  This is true, is it not?  You’ve seemed to keep on top of the ball up to now, so lets get some evasion going on already.

Speaking of which, has it not now been made entirely apparent that Norway is sending it’s power to capture not a small portion of Poland by a quite large portion of Denmark?  This General sent out by Fortinbras really has loose lips, admiting to Hamlet that the region that they are purportedly going to is really worthless.  Why send so large a force, then, to secure it?

Hamlet is, once again, in the spirit of inaction.  Rather than doing something, he just is going to talk about how much better Fortinbras is than a.  What a putz.

Act 3, Scene 4

Ohh, fie! This is all wrong. Now what shall the characters think of Hamlet? His mother, who was all so ready (or at least willing) to listen to what shethought was Hamlet’s madness, now truely thinks him insane. Or at least I would think so, seeing as he was seemingly conversing with the air.

132 Queen: Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.

And no one is going to take the whole killing-of-Polonius thing to great.  Especially the King.  Ohh, and Layertes might think you a few pegs less of a gentleman, not that he had any high regard in any esteem already.  Ophelia might have qualms about this whole affair as well.  Pretty much, Hammy, you’ve… we’ll not gained a whole heckuva lot.

At least before you got sent to England you got your mother to maybe work on making Claudius not think your totally insane.

Act 3, Scene 3

Okay, okay, coupla questions, coupla questions.

First, for you… Polonius? Why do you need to know what Hamlet and the Queen converse on? We’ve got you, coming to tell the King (Claudius) that Hamlet is going to his mother’s closet private room, and then just insert yourself into this situation.

So question: Wouldn’t it be more kinder to just… ask what went on? At least from the Queen. I’m thinking that she is on your side so..? I just think that all of this my spy your spy business if all just, I dunno. Kind of getting complicated. And I’m thinking also that it might get ugly real soon, if you catch my drift. You won’t be tending to your reputation for much longer, eh? Know-what-I-mean?

Secondly… Claudius. (Before I get into my inquisition, let me say, you make a lovely soliloquy, but I digress.) Yes, yes, you’d now like to repent yourself, but… why didn’t you think of all this beforehand? I suppose that you perhaps were a moron didn’t think of it, or thought that you could get away clean, but c’mon man! You kind of have to think these things through. Repenting, as you have said, doesn’t exactly solve everything.

Thricely, we move on to Hamlet. Alright, here’s where things are a bit tricky. We know that you want to make sure that you’re getting an ultimate revenge, but for the love of Denmark!, can’t you just kill the pompous bastard and get it done with already? In case you haven’t been paying attention noticed, Norway’s about to spank your royal heiny, so get your rear and gear and secure your position as well before something terrible happens!

Act 3, Scenes 1 and 2

O, how Ophelia is so uséd! Her Father allowing her to not recieve any love tokens from Hamlet, and then loosed in such a pseudo-trap; now only to recieve her love’s scorn. If I were her this would, undoubtedly, be a breaking point.

Snap!

Hamlet, why such a meany? Do you know that Ophelia is being uséd so, or is your change of heart truely on the whims that Layertes and Polonius said would sway you such? Either way, not very tactful to enter pondering your quietus via bodkin and then recomending a nunnery (whorehouse?) to the tossled Ophelia.

At this point my sympathies truely lie with her, after being so downtrodden in nigh all scenes.

Hamlet also seems on a roll for giving advice, leaving lengthy instructions to the Players about how his extra lines should be read, and, just as well, telling of how poorlysome of the entertainment has seen. Of course, all this is over the course of 30 or 40 lines, but I think we all get the picture. He wants this to go off the way he wantsit, which I suppose is also why Horatio gets in on the act, watching the King’s reaction at the crucial moment. But only after Hamlet butter’s him up with a few compliments.

I guess Hamlet didn’t really trust the Ghost. Ghosts must have done him wrong before.

Also, what are the chances that the players knew a play that also had a king being killed by ear poison? I suppose that that was a fairly common was of killing people?

Hamlet’s play has the desired effect, which is basically the King storming out. Obviously not one for being subtle about his feelings. Although it was a very blatant analogy on Hamlet’s part as well.

The best, if not least confusing part of this scene, I felt, was Hamlet concluding how he would confront his mother when she requests for him. Speaking of how he would speak daggers to his mother while using none. This is a very good example of anti-thesis, although he is moreso talking about maderation in his actions. Interesting. And a good way to close thise scene. A transcript follows:

381 ‘Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on. Soft, now to my mother.
O heart, lost not thy nature; let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom.
Let me be cruel, not unnatural;
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites:
How in my words somever she will be shent,
To give them seals never, my sould, consent!

EDIT: Ohh, but Christ!  I forgot about the recorder part.  This, is the most genius of all parts of the entire play.  I kid you not.  Hamlet is so astute to make this argument, so much so that I think that I might use it in a similar situation.  One where some of my old skool chums have come back to spy on me?  Yes, that kind of situation.

Hamlet is just so darn astute!  This must show that he is at least somewhat lucid, and only crazy when he’s around Claudius, Polonius, and for a lesser extent the Queen and Ophelia. It’s just so keen, the metaphor fits exactly.  Okay, enough rambling, I close once again.

Act 2, Scenes 1 and 2

Everyone is getting spies! So exciting! We get to secretly know, what everyone’s motives are without the other characters knowing (at least for a little while).

What is Polonius Up To?
see my first list for context
Based on the brief discussion that I had with Anna, we conjectured the following, that either:
1. Polonius is trying to get Layertes to return to Denmark from his faraway studies (well, not really that far. It’s just Paris) OR
2. Polonius is trying to get Layertes riled up about… something? OR
3. Polonius is trying to keep as close a watch on Layertes as he can, but without raising suspicion, somehow, but spreading rumors that would make Layertes confront Reynaldo, and then… they would become chums? This one didn’t make that much sense, but, then, neither does Polonius.

So, I had to get some help on this one (since Polonius is such a windbag). But not from the Internet, from Anna, although it still isn’t too entirely clear what this guy is trying to get at. Things I know:

1. Polonius is sending a guy, Reynaldo, to spy on Layertes.
2. He wants Reynaldo to spread falsities about Layertes.
3. But not so bad that they would hurt his reputation.
4. Things about gambling and… fencing?
5. And all this is so that… well, I’m not exactly sure. See the aside.
6. Polonius is a pompous jerk.
7. He is also full of himself.

On the other hand, we have the King and Queen calling on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to come remedy Hamlet’s situation, or at least find out what the heck is wrong with him. Of course, these aren’t so much the best actor-type guys, and so Hamlet decides that they have come on the call of his mother and uncle. In the same scene. This, this ‘covert’ action sure did not last long. So:

1. The Royalty is bad a picking spies for their cause OR
2. Hamlet is really good at detecting the motives of his uncle OR
3. of R&G OR
4. Hamlet is just paranoid so much that he would assume that of anyone who came to see him.

But we also must be aware of the other things now going on (finally! action!). We have Polonius making accusations that Hamlet’s madness is because of his love (or lust, if you wish’t) for Ophelia, and he and Denmark set about to put into action a plan to make Hamlet show them his true feelings on the matter. They will “loose” her upon him. What barbaric language!

R&G have also brought news of a theatre company coming into the area. Hamlet, will you perhaps use this opportunity to bring a plot about against the King? That sounds like a fair and decent game to me.