Hamlet

Hamlet sees the ghost of his father who shows him that Hamlet’s uncle killed him by pouring poison in his ear. Driven mad by the murder of his father by his uncle, Claudius, and his uncle’s subsequent marriage to his mother, Gertrude, Hamlet spends most of the play contemplating the nature of revenge, how to achieve it and at what cost. It’s only through the accidental killing of his love interest, Ophelia’s father, that he comes to recognize some of the problems with revenge when Laertes comes to seek it out. Claudius steers Laertes in the direction he wants, showing Laertes that Hamlet killed his father Polonius in his madness. Laertes goes mad with grief too, when his sister drowns in the river, after having been driven mad by the loss of her father. Laertes proposes that they fight with foils, the one that he is supposed to use will be poisoned. Claudius suggests that in case Hamlet wins, he will also poison a cup of wine that he will give to Hamlet to celebrate his good fortune in winning the duel. Hamlet takes the poisoned foil and kills Laertes unknowingly, and Gertrude drinks the win that was supposed to be for Hamlet. Laertes and Gertrude die, and Hamlet kills Claudius, then himself.

In reading it this time, I was really focused on how the play utilizes images of nature. The poisons that course throughout the play are all of natural origin. There are multiple indications of the dividing line between heaven and earth, and man is considered a natural beast.

I’m interested in the ways nature wins in this play, over all political and personal considerations. No particular religion plays much of a role (although there is a fish-monger reference) but heaven, God and other religious motifs are mentioned or called upon.

There’s something interesting in the ghost too, if we consider this a play of natural/unnatural dichotomies. Does the ghost count as a natural occurrence? Or is he a manifestation of Hamlet’s rage and mourning? The old question about whether the ghost is real or not seems particularly relevant here. There’s a lot of talk about “matter” and “stuff” in the play… does the ghost have a material presence?