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.