2/21/14

Hamlet just keeps getting more and more complicated. Thanks to the snow week, we had to read Act three of Hamlet on our own. I read the act and understood what was going on, but these past few days in class have definitely helped me fuehrer understand the deeper meaning in the play. I mean the conversation Hamlet has with Ophelia in scene two... What?! I did not catch how rude Hamlet was being or what he was referring to.  I think most of us were shocked by how rude Hamlet is in that scene. He is back to being the moral judge. He is judging Ophelia and his mother in front of everyone!  In the Branagh version, Hamlet, Ophelia, Claudius, and Gertrude are watching the play amongst an audience. When I first read the scene, I believed that Hamlet was speaking only to Ophelia and Gertrude, and they were the only ones who get hear him. But oh no! In the Branagh version the whole audience hears the rude comments Hamlet is making towards his mother and Ophelia.  I think this adds a whole new meaning to Hamlet. Isn't he being a little hypocritical? He is bashing Ophelia and his mother for the wrong doings he believes they have committed, but isn't Hamlet being rude and a bad person by publicly humiliating them? Hamlet is the moral judge of everyone, but the standards he holds of everyone else to not seem to apply to him.
  Another part of Act three that I found to be interesting is Hamlet's aside at the end of scene two. Depending on the way you read the aside, you could claim that Hamlet has in fact gone mad. However, there is still a collected method to Hamlet. In this aside, it seems there is a method to his madness. He his planning on telling his mother how he truly feels and accusing her of what she's done. He states, " I will speak daggers to her, but use none," (line 429).  He is planning out how he is going to come across to his mother. However, when he goes to speak to her the method to his madness disappears. He could not kill Claudius before because he was too busy contemplating whether it was the right time or not. And in scene three, he runs and stabs Polonius before he can even make sure that he is killing the right person! Hamlet's method is gone and his ways of doing things have changed. In the Branagh version, Hamlet sees the ghost in his mother's room. His mother cannot see the ghost and believes that Hamlet is mad. It can be argued that Hamlet has in fact finally gone mad. In the beginning of the play, Horatio and others could see the ghost. Now only Hamlet can see the ghost. Could it all be in his head? Has all of the stress finally gotten to Hamlet? It is hard to come to a certain conclusion because the play can e interpreted in so many ways! I'm interested to see what shenanigans Hamlet gets himself in to in Act four.