/lit/ - Literature

>>23421257
In the play itself Hamlet's actual course of action isn't terrible. He's worried that the Ghost is lying and is actually a demon from Hell sent to damn his soul. So he needs to test the Ghost's accuracy and become certain of Claudius' guilt. Hence the play-within-a-play; the Mousetrap, as Hamlet calls it, meant to "catch the conscience of the King."

Hamlet seems satisfied by Claudius' reaction to the play; he seems convinced that Claudius is guilty of his father's murder. You can argue he should have killed him when he found him at prayer, and maybe that's where Hamlet starts to go wrong. Specifically, Hamlet doesn't want to kill Claudius at prayer because he doesn't want his soul to go to Heaven. And perhaps that's a serious flaw, an un-Christian line of thought: willingly wanting to kill someone in a way that damns them to Hell. He probably should have killed him there.

But he IS willing to kill Claudius when he thinks he's behind the curtain in Gertrude's dressing room. Hamlet doesn't know that's actually Polonius; he thinks it's Claudius. And when he thinks the king is there, he runs him through. It's not Hamlet's fault that Polonius was doing the snooping, and Hamlet didn't mean to set all the bad events in motion that flowed from Polonius dying: Ophelia's madness and suicide, and Laertes' plot of revenge against Hamlet himself.

Hamlet's behavior has some flaw, but I think the extent to which he errs is sometimes overstated. He's not a complete fuckup. More than anything, he's done in by circumstances entirely out of his control.

The Ghost has to be a demon. It can't actually be a spirit from Purgatory, no matter what test Hamlet applies. If it really were the soul of Hamlet Sr. sent back from Purgatory, then it would be sent back with the full consent of God Himself. But the Ghost explicitly commands that Hamlet seeks revenge on his father's murder, and we know that in a Christian context it is forbidden to seek revenge. "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord," goes the verse. Revenge is not a thing humans are supposed to pursue according to Christianity.

Ergo, the Ghost is a demon, and it is trying to get Hamlet to sin in a way that damns his soul. His earlier fears are correct.

Shakespeare. To Be Or Not To Be.

You DO have several speeches an monologues from Shakespeare memorized, don't you, /lit/?

I've memorized To Be Or Not To Be, the Saint Crispin's Day speech, and the closing speeches from The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream. I keep meaning to memorize Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow.

You DO have speeches and soliloquies of Shakespeare memorized, don't you, /lit/?

I sometimes think that Hamlet's reluctance to kill Claudius, which seems to have no reason behind it at all, makes him one of the most realistic characters ever.

I mean, don't we all occasionally have things we have to do, and need to do, and even want to do, but we don't do them? It's like a force we can't explain holds us back, something that makes us slow and sluggish. Scholars keep hunting around for a motive behind Hamlet taking so long to kill Claudius, but what if there is no motive? What if he just feels stuck, and can't move forward, and dithers? Isn't that a very realistic thing for a person to do in Hamlet's situation?

>>12622278
Basically, we in the 20th and 21st centuries are spoiled as far as Shakespeare productions go; it's only been within about the last 150 years or so that there's been a return to completely gimmick-free stagings of Shakespeare. One of the gimmicks that used to be popular is that Hamlet would constantly be talking to his dog throughout the play.

>>11723343
To be or not to be

You're actively reading a book right now, aren't you, /lit/?

Don't tell me you post on a literature board and aren't in the midst of reading.

What are your thoughts on beauty and aesthetics, /lit/? What IS beauty? How is beauty communicated in literature, and in other art?

Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet is amazing. It's the full play with amazing acting.

Was Hamlet right to trust the Ghost?

If you can't enjoy the beauty of Shakespeare's verse you are doomed to be a pleb. Give up writing and study. Go get a job in an office somewhere. Get married, have children, go drinking with your friends on the weekend. Enjoy that beauty which you can find in the small movements of the everyday. The beauty of great motions is beyond you.