In Hamlet, pansies symbolize thoughts and memories. Ophelia passes out various flowers in her garland, each representing aspects of her life. Crow-flowers signify innocence and humility, while daisies represent faithlessness and dissembling. Fennel represents sorrow, while daisies symbolize innocence. Violets symbolize faithfulness and modesty. Rue is associated with grace and can be seen as a herb of grace. Ophelia suggests wearing it with a difference, highlighting the need for unique grace in different situations.
Daisies are often associated with innocence, though they could also represent faithlessness and dissembling. Ophelia may give a daisy to Queen Gertrude, who is driven by emotions rather than reflection. She is affectionate, impulsive, and strong-willed, but not conspicuously intelligent. Ophelia’s flowers symbolize her many-faceted personality and desires, which have been stripped, squashed, and corrupted by society’s expectations. She sacrifices her innocence because of her love for Hamlet, living in a world where she has lived in a state of naivety and ingratitude.
In the painting, daisies appear at the character’s right hand, symbolizing innocence and gentleness. Pink roses and white violets are also present, symbolizing fertility and innocence. Ophelia believes that there is no place for innocence in the garland, as she has no violets left, which symbolize humility and naivety. The Ragged Robin, often referred to as the Ragged Robin, symbolizes naivety and ingratitude, suggesting that Ophelia was an innocent harmed in the crossfire.
📹 Ophelia, Gertrude, and Regicide – Hamlet Part 2: Crash Course Literature 204
In which John Green teaches you MORE about Bill Shakespeare’s Hamlet. John talks about gender roles in Hamlet, and what …
What do the flowers mean in Hamlet monologue?
In her speech, Ophelia employs floral symbolism, presenting Rosemary as a symbol of remembrance and pansies as a representation of thoughts directed towards characters such as Laertes Fennel, Gertrude, Claudius, and Columbine. These floral offerings are suggestive of frailty and flattery, and may also be interpreted as a reference to Gertrude.
What does Daisy represent in Hamlet?
Ophelia keeps a daisy as a symbol of purity and innocence, as it no longer represents Denmark’s place in the world. Daisies symbolize hope and hope, while a colombiine symbolizes forsaken love. In Hamlet, relationships between Hamlet’s family members and friends are strained due to the Ghost’s request to remember him. This leads to many characters being isolated. Violets, a symbol of melancholy and early death, represent the danger in the world of rotting Denmark.
Persephone, who was kidnapped by Hades, gathered violets as a symbol of her early death. These symbols symbolize the danger in the world of rotting Denmark and the importance of maintaining a sense of hope and innocence.
What do flowers symbolize in Shakespeare?
Rosemary symbolizes remembrance of the dead, while pansies symbolize thoughts. Fennel symbolizes marital infidelity, while Rue represents regret and sorrow. Daisies symbolize innocence, while violets symbolize faithfulness. Shakespeare often uses flowers as seasonal indicators, such as the rogue Autolycus in A Winter’s Tale and Perdita in disguise teasing noblemen by comparing their middle age to mid-summer flowers. These flowers are often used to represent the seasons and their significance in Shakespeare’s works.
What does Daisy represent?
Daisy, also known as Bellis Perennis, is a symbol of purity, childbirth, new beginnings, and cheerfulness. Its petals symbolize innocence and are often associated with childhood memories of collecting wildflower bouquets. Daisy petals are scattered at weddings to represent love and newborns, and are given to those going through difficult times. The delicate and beautiful Daisy Flower has a rich history and cultural significance, making it a beloved symbol of love and happiness.
What do daisies symbolize?
Daisy flowers are a symbol of innocence, first love, cheerfulness, hope, freedom, and nature. They are often given to young ladies as they symbolize youth and blossoming despite tough conditions. In Greek mythology, daisies symbolized innocence and purity, and were used to symbolize happiness and saying goodbye to those who passed away. In Roman history, they were arranged with violets to symbolize eternal life. Today, daisies carry different meanings, which vary between countries.
They are often associated with hope, freedom, and the outdoors, and their short life span makes them a beautiful symbol of youth and blossoming. In modern times, the meaning of daisies varies between countries.
What is the spiritual significance of Daisy’s?
Daisy mythology has various cultural significances, including Roman mythology, Norse mythology, Celtic mythology, Christianity, Old English, and the Wisdom of the Daisy. In Roman mythology, the daisy is associated with Belides, a nymph who transformed herself into a daisy to escape Vertumnus’ advances. In Norse mythology, the daisy is connected to Freya, the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. This connection links the daisy to themes of motherhood, childbirth, and new beginnings.
In Celtic mythology, daisies are seen as symbols of simplicity and innocence, believed to lessen the sorrow of grieving parents. In Christianity, the daisy is a symbol of the Virgin Mary, emphasizing purity, innocence, and humility. Its simple beauty reflects Christian values of modesty and virtue.
In Old English culture, daisies represented loyalty and trust, stemming from their etymological roots in “day’s eye”, referring to their dawn-to-dusk bloom cycle. These colors represent purity, innocence, and untainted beauty, making them ideal for weddings and christenings.
The wisdom of the Daisy is that they teach valuable life lessons through their simple existence, reminding us of the importance of purity in thoughts and actions, resilience, and the promise of new beginnings. Their wide range of colors and adaptability speaks to the diversity of human experience, reminding us to embrace our uniqueness and the varied paths we walk in life.
Overall, the enduring symbolism of the daisy across cultures and ages teaches us the timeless value of beauty, simplicity, and the deep connections we share with nature.
What is the message of daisies?
Daisies is a film that explores social and philosophical themes, such as the effectiveness of radical resistance, the coercion of oppressive ideologies, and the oppression, objectification, and marginalization of women in society. The film’s philosophical strength lies in its farcical way in which the women ruin society. The characters trick men into buying lavish lunches and gluttony, using stereotypical seductive mannerisms to keep suitors willing to part with money.
Despite the absurdity and humor, Chytilová creates a space for reflection through the hyperbolic presentation of their actions. The Maries act as objectified dolls, fawned on by their suitors, while simultaneously exploding expectations of how women should behave.
The first Marie, Marie I, declares herself a ‘panna’, a word that can mean both doll or virgin. Cheryl Stephenson argues that the puppet aesthetic is the best way to approach Daisies, as the audience unifies the performance into a single being. The puppet is an assumed role by humans who are having a go at being objects without consciences. Stephenson refers to Heinrich von Kleist’s essay ‘On the Marionette Theatre’ to explain the profundity of the puppet aesthetic in Daisies.
What do daisies represent in poetry?
Daisies, a symbol of innocence, purity, and new beginnings, are often used in literature and poetry to symbolize love, innocence, and childhood. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”, the daisy symbolizes love for a woman who embodies these qualities. In Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, the daisy chain represents innocence and childhood. Lilies, symbolizing purity, virtue, and transience, are often used in funeral arrangements, such as the Serenity Now bouquet. These symbols can be used to brighten someone’s day with a cheerful floral gift.
What does the rose symbolize in Hamlet?
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius, is killed by Hamlet. She is described as a young woman of great beauty, like a rose of May, and is profoundly distressed by her father’s death, using flowers as a means of expressing her sorrow and grief.
What does Daisy’s character symbolize?
Jay Gatsby, a tragic hero, is consumed by his love for Daisy Buchanan, a “beautiful little fool” who represents the life of luxury, ease, and indulgence that the formerly impoverished Gatsby craves. Daisy Buchanan represents the epitome of the fantasy girl and the archetypal “beautiful little fool.”
What is the symbols in Hamlet?
A phantasmal entity, potentially a product of Hamlet’s imagination, appears to seek retribution for his demise, attired in armor for combat as a disembodied spirit.
📹 Hamlet 235 White Daisies
Http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1814253/ an actor prepares T I MM A L O N E Y … Shaktim … an actor prepares Featured as …
When my drama class and I went over Hamlet, we came to the realization that Ophelia might have known what was going on. Her name comes from Greek and means “help”. If you look at the scene when Hamlet goes to her room crazed and disheveled, we never actually see it happen. We only hear Ophelia talking about it to Polonius. There’s a good chance that Hamlet showed up and told her what was happening and asked her to help him. And in the scene with the flowers, it becomes apparent that Ophelia probably knows something. So we had the thought that Ophelia went mad because she knew that the only reason her father was melding was because of the act her and Hamlet were putting on to make him look crazy, and that meant she played a role in her father dying. It also added to the meaning about how the violets died along with her father because as a maiden, her social obligation was to her father, not her love interest. So she failed in her duty to put her father first.
I’m surprised that there is no mention of Fortinbras. He is the antithesis of Hamlet: a man of action. The Fortinbras subplot also illustrates how Elsinore is so involved with internal affairs that Denmark falls. In the end, none of the conspiracies or vengefulness was worth it, because now Fortinbras is king.
I think the women’s deaths in Hamlet are actually incredibly complicated. They might be accidents, suicides, or murders. They may both be accidental. Ophelia may have been crossing the stream on the branch and fallen in by accident. Gertrude might not have known the wine was poisoned. In that case, they are both rather tragic deaths of relatively innocent people. The might also both be suicides. Ophelia may have drowned herself, and maybe Gertrude knew that the wine was poisoned, though I don’t think that’s clear. If it is the case that they’re suicides, then Ophelia, with her flowers, might have done something brave in confronting the king and queen, and Gertrude may have shown a sign of redemption and regret for the way Hamlet was treated. If they did kill themselves intentionally, though, should we consider what motivated them to do so? Ophelia’s mental state was, of course, largely because of her father’s death at the hands of her former suitor, but also because of Hamlet spurning her. Gertrude probably felt some guilt because of Hamlet’s accusations before he was sent to England. In that case, Hamlet’s words are in part responsible for both deaths, and that adds some Shakespearean doubling and fulfills some foreshadowing. Remember, the ghost of King Hamlet describes his death in two ways. He says both that Claudius poured poison in his ear and that he was killed by a surprise sting. Hamlet, through his harsh words to both women, was poured poison into their ears, hasn’t he?
The “falling of a sparrow” speech is my favourite part of Hamlet – maybe my favourite thing that Shakespeare ever wrote. It’s not about death – it’s about the acceptance of change, in circumstance, in feelings, and especially in yourself. “The readiness is all” is how he concludes it – being ready for whatever may come is what he spent the whole story learning.
One of the main reasons why Hamlet is arguably my favorite character in literature is through his intelligence and wit. Sure, he is indecisive, though the decisions he has to make take a lot of will power and courage. Where he shines is in the dialogues he has with Polonius, Ophelia, and even Claudius. The way he uses sarcasm, irony, and just flat-out insult make him truly fascinating.
I think it’s interesting to notice how in Shakespeare’s tragedies there is always some section about ‘telling the story to others.’ It’s a very meta thing to consider because it is like the play you are perusal suddenly feels like a true story, or at least the perspective of the one person who survived (Horatio in this case). It also makes you feel like Hamlet might not have been the good guy: he is only the good guy of the story because that is how Horatio wanted it to be? It was also like that in Antony and Cleopatra, where before she dies she talks about how they might be made fun of on stages, but then we see them heroically. I just think that is a very cool thing Shakespeare did.
I firmly believe that Hamlet has gotten Ophelia pregnant. There are some strong indications he has – when he refers to her as “nymph”, when he says “conception is a blessing, but not as your daughter might conceive.” Also, in Ophelia madness scene, all her snatches of poetry are about a young woman who was duped into having sex with her boyfriend and who was then dumped.
I really appreciate the discussion around gender issues in these episodes! I do think it’s important to note that Hamlet isn’t a book, it’s a script. One of the things I love about reading a script is that there is so much wiggle room in how to interpret a character. A small change in inflection, movement, or even where the actor is looking can drastically inform the audience as to what’s going on for that character. … This makes me want to do a read through (outloud! with friends!).
I just wanted to share this: My favourite scene in hamlet is where Ophelia hands out the flowers, most of the theatrical productions (not just the movie) that Ive seen have her handing out bits of junk and saying that they’re flowers. It made her seem so sad, but with the thought of her purposely doing this give her a lot more depth.
I’m also interested in a greater discussion of gender and gender roles within Hamlet, especially taking into account Hamlet’s more pensive, brooding nature, which was considered less masculine, as opposed to Laertes characterization as a typical charismatic hero even though he is a minor side character.
Hamlet has always been one of my favorite stories of any kind, and I had the good fortune of an invested teacher in an otherwise awful parade of the disengaged at the time of my reading. Two thoughts always resonated with me: 1) as our illustrious host pointed out, Hamlet’s inability to act is relatable, and is detestable because of our familiarity to it. It is no coincidence that Hamlet himself admires Fortinbras for his decisiveness, and that it is Fortinbras that is alone left standing in the throne room when the dust settles. It is also to be remembered that following Hamlet’s admiration, he goes right on navel-gazing. “Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all” 2) The ‘to thyne own self be true’ speech. This is a recitation by Polonius to Laertes, a father passing on his wisdom to his son on the eve of his leaving to start his adult life. Since all advice more or less tends to be simply telling someone what you would do in their place in a given situation, this collection of seemingly helpful guidelines need to be considered with the context of the source. Polonius is an odious toad, a sycophant, an obsequious and conniving man of little admirable quality. This speech is a profession of the sort of man polonius purports to be. If that is the case, then this advice is a guide on how to be polonius himself. Which is awful.
John, I disagree with the premise that Hamlet is a man of inaction, or a man who cannot make up his mind. While the play is lengthy and slow in parts, the action actually plays out at a very fast pace. The play opens with Marcellus, Francisco, and Horatio seeing the ghost. They immediately go to find and tell Hamlet. That night, Hamlet sees the ghost (24 hours have passed, and now Hamlet knows the story of Claudius killing his father). From his encounter with the Ghost, Hamlet goes to see Ophelia, she immediately goes to tell her father about Hamlet’s strange visit. In the afternoon of this day, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive in Elsinor. Moments later, Polonius tells Gertrude and Claudius of Hamlet’s encounter with Ophelia and he fears Hamlet has gone mad. By the end of this scene, Ros and Guil meet up with Hamlet and tell him about the players–Hamlet arranges for the players to perform that night, and also realizes he can use the play to get to the truth of Claudius’ actions. Later in the day, while waiting for the play, the “Get thee to a nunnery” scene occurs. and Claudius realizes there’s more to Hamlet’s madness than meets the eye and resolves to send him to England. That night, the players perform, Claudius freaks out, goes to pray. In the chapel, Hamlet gets his FIRST opportunity to kill Claudius since the ghost’s appearance and since the play confirmed the ghost’s story… Hamlet doesn’t kill Claudius here because he wants Claudius to go to hell, or at least suffer as his father is suffering.
When we studies Shakespeare, our English teacher had us act out the scenes and study them as actors ourselves. Getting into the minds of the characters and attmepting to understand this character, how they act, feel, react, and most importantly to shakespeare, say that makes their words powerful. I’m taking an acting Shakespeare course now, and the detail of every line, every word, is truly remarkable in how he tells his stories.
John, I love your interpretations and think you make some valid points about Gertrude’s power in the play. However, I believe you are mistaken about her casting the only choice in who gets to be king. When we were reading this play in my English class, we learned that Denmark elected its kings as part of our historical background.
One of the million things that I find fascinating about both the character and the play is that Hamlet’s inaction seems to be an inevitable result of his intellect. He has the imaginative capacity and mental ability to envision an infinite set of consequences for any given action, each of which might have negative components. Couple that with Hamlet’s philosophical discovery that “one may smile, and smile, and be a villain,” that his senses (the only thing that he has to understand the world with) can, at any given moment, be fooled, and it’s no surprise that he is simply paralyzed into inaction.
I played this part in 2013. As I read the play it occurred to me that in addition to the very salient points John made about conscience, fact checking, the nature of revenge, regicide, etc., another reason for Hamlet’s long procrastination is that he appears nowhere to have any desire whatever to be the king of Denmark. As John said, perhaps the life of a grad student was more appealing. I do agree with the view that the Hamlet who returns in Act V is a changed man. He had no problem sending Rosencrantz & Guildenstern off to their deaths, and I don’t think it was merely because they were conspiring with Claudius to have Hamlet killed. Although he has become more a ‘man of action,’ I agree with John that still he hesitates to kill Claudius until his own fate (as well as the fates of Laertes and Gertrude) are sealed. In the final seconds of his life he avenges not only his father, but all the other lives lost in the play, including his own. Also, beyond Hamlet’s narcissism he is obsessed with acting itself. The only two characters known to have been played by Shakespeare himself are the ghost and the player king, both in this play. I’ll take John’s admonition against equating authors with the characters they create and reserve judgment on whether this obsession with acting, the art of deceit if you will, extends to the playwright.
I love Hamlet. It is easily my favorite shakespeare play, followed closely by The taming of the shrew. Whats more i loved learning about it in class. I was particularly good at essasys on Gertrude. But i was kind of disapointed that some of the perspectives i found so interesting in class didn’t show here. But thats the beauty of literary discussion. Plus i larned some ways of perceiving certain parts i haden’t heard before. So thatnks for that. Was fun
I thought the reading of Ophelia as hiding her judgement (from the flower scene) behind madness really interesting. Also, I’ve never seen a production that took made that choice, but I would love to! It seems like the potential for parallels between Hamlet and Ophelia are more than I’ve ever thought about. One thought I had while perusal this article is that the play really examines potential reactions to the death of a close family member. Hamlet (b/f ghosty visitation) is quite depressed and withdrawn; Gertrude very quickly moves on (I think as both a mental and physical act of self preservation); Laertes is all rage and killing people; and Ophelia decides not to deal with grief by killing herself (totally agree with and appreciate John’s comments about suicide btw). I really enjoyed this episode! I think that Hamlet’s fact checking as John calls it is the most admirable of the various actions in this play. I also think that it makes him a much more modern “hero” than a lot of Shakespeare’s other characters and possibly why Hamlet remains such a popular play. Because a modern reaction to murder is more hesitant and Laertes’ actions seem rash and a little crazy, while they may not have when the play was written. I would have trouble calling any of the actions in this play heroic though because for me the term heroic implies a reduction of complex actions and internal struggle to single notes. I think that there is a purpose to presenting a character as a single note and that it is very effective, but that’s not how I interpret Hamlet.
I hope in the future we have a CC Literature 300 covering (for example) the Lord of the Rings, MacBeth (or is it McBeth?), the Prince, the Inferno and ad absurdum infinitum. For now, I shall remain satiated and fascinated by this year’s selections. Keep up the fantastic work, John (and ditto to Hank).
One side note; when Hamlet tells Ophelia “get thee to a nunnery!” he’s not saying “I wish you’d join the church and become a nun.” That would’ve been nice, and might have prevented her from spiraling into madness in the first place. No, in the time Shakespeare wrote the play, a place where nuns reside would be a Convent — a Nunnery was a whorehouse. I’ve always had a thought that Hamlet seduced Ophelia at some point, and she dearly hoped he’d marry her, but then his father died and the play began. But that’s just my PoV
Thank you for your Crush courses, all of them are awsome, though, I love this one the most. Answering your question, dear mr. Green: I believe that the definition of heroism has been changing through ages. Nowadays, maybe because the era of Information has come, heroism most of the time is being shown by revealing an obvious truth in public.
Hamlet has long been one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. I found it fascinating reading it when I was 12. It struck me then, as it strikes me now, a central theme is Hamlet and Ophelia working through depression. For the longest epoch, I’ve thought that after Ophelia dies, Hamlet has nothing left to lose and that is why he takes can finally take action.
In which John Green teaches you MORE about Bill Shakespeare’s Hamlet. John talks about gender roles in Hamlet, and what kind of power and agency Ophelia and Gertrude had, if they had any at all (spoiler alert: we think they did). You’ll also learn about regicide, Ophelia’s flowers, and Hamlet’s potential motivations. Also, Oedipus comes up again, but we don’t buy it. Ophelia, Gertrude, and Regicide – Hamlet II: Crash Course Literature 204
This is a tragedy. But I have a more important question. Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? I thought not. It’s not a story the Jedi would tell you. It’s a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life… He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying. The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural. He became so powerful… the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew, then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. It’s ironic he could save others from death, but not himself.
Is interesting that in many ways Ophelia is mirroring Hamlet using her ‘madness’ to tell the truth to her enemies. Maybe she was the only one who picked up Hamlet’s strategy. Like John said she decided that she wouldn’t become a murderer and funny enough water bodies are important for both characters epiphanies. Very good course 😀
I just love how so many people think that John Green is the only one writing the script and sharing opinions and doesn’t collaborate with a dozen plus people about what’s going to be in the script and how they’re going to present these stories. I know it’s John’s face and voice that we’re seeing, but, at least with Crash Course, he’s not writing the scripts himself. Think we all need to step back and realize that.
Can we also say Horatio is a hero in his own merits? By knowing the truth and Hamlet’s source of agony, but not attempting to talk him out of it not deriving judgements? Obviously I know that he may only exist as a character devised to lay out the plot (as told from high school English), however, as we may see, most characters involved in this play, regardless of whether they’re deeply invested or informed, take sides (team Claudius or team Hamlet), but with Horatio, he acts loyally as a friend but never beyond that extent, he seems to be kind of neutral. It takes courage to not make judgements because of love, and courage to not side with love.
It’s so interesting to examine Hamlet from a non-theatrical point of view. Having studied the work in several classrooms and acting in a production, it seems that there are facets of the play that require human embodiment to answer. For instance, so much of the play (and its subsequent discussion) focuses on inaction, yet the atom of theater is action. Can one actor stand on stage for three hours and not act? I have also found the opening lines of the play particularly important. In original Elizabethan productions (taking place in the afternoon) on a well lit stage, Bernardo and Francisco’s case of mistaken identity immediately requires a suspension of disbelief while foreshadowing the plagues of doubt to follow.
I believe that Hamlet had every right to wait and think about what he should do, Hamlet had a conscience which ate at him constantly and although he deeply wanted to avenge his father he also did not want to murder Claudius, I dont think Hamlet is a hero, however the time he took thinking and being indecisive was heroic in my eyes as it shows his inner battle with morality. I may be wrong but Hamlet is a very complicated guy…
I’m a great fan of Hamlet. Always disappointed, though, when they cut out my favorite lines, spoken by the players. (For let the stricken deer go weep,/ The hart ungalléd play/ For some must watch while some must sleep/ So runs the world away.) To me, these lines say a lot about the nature of life, death, mourning, and the idea that the world moves on even through tragedy. Anyway, David Tennant’s portrayal of Hamlet is available for free on PBS, and it’s pretty good. Especially if you’re a fan of David Tennant.
I feel like Ophelia is the Hamlet who was decisive, who took paths of her own, and maybe made some wrong choices but made the choices just the same. She, like Hamlet (I believe) faked her madness to be allowed to speak truth, similar to how court fools would feign stupidity to deliver biting commentary without retribution (something Shakespeare had quite often in his plays: see Feste and Touchstone for good examples) and, once she had said her peace, was ready to die and be done with it, because she couldn’t wait around any longer for action, and frankly could not listen to the others’ heresy anymore. Gertrude saw her death not for what it was but rather what she wanted it to be: an accident by a madwoman, not a direct death by a person (arguably) far braver than she was (up until the final scene) who confronted her problems head-on. That said, I find Ophelia a tragic character, in that none of this had to have happened to her. She could’ve gone through her life unaffected by tragedy until someone did act, that someone being Claudius, and her life could’ve been righted by an action to levy it (by Hamlet or Gertrude alike). Also, she deserved better than Hamlet, whose “Get thee to a nunnery” is far more biting considering the Elizabethan slang of nunnery=brothel. As in ‘the only way anyone will sleep with you is if you’re employed to do it.’ Ouch, thanks, quasi-ex-kinda-boyfriend.
You did not really go into the grave digger scene. That is the most important part of the play. Before that scene Hamlet discusses the idea of death as a Metaphysical one. Death is a concept that deals with emotions and spiritual issues. When he is holding the skull and speaking of it, Hamlet begins to understand death in terms of empirical reality. To anyone that reads or sees Hamlet take special notice of the language of that scene. Then again that is the great thing about this play. So much to discuss that 20 + minutes is not enough.
An open letter to John Green – Thank you kindly for naming two of your most famous characters with the last name “Grayson”. My English teacher recently discovered Will Grayson, Will Grayson and she has taken to making jokes about my “flamboyance” even though I’m perfectly straight. Best wishes, Grayson Jenkins
Polonious is cool, of the three father figures in the entire play he is the best, even to Hamlet. His family is the healthiest and deals the healthiest with their lack of a parent (where’s their mom?). I like to read this as a commentary on family and grief, in that the family that doesn’t deal appropriately with grief ends up killing the healthy one one by one. It would seem that family trouble affects more people than just that family, but everyone connected with them regardless of health. Meanwhile Polonious’s family tries to help Hamlet, serve their country, and take care of each other.
Inaction reminds me of civil disobedience, where one might refuse to follow a law or expectation with the idea that the law or expectation is immoral. Rosa Parks had the choice to comply by the rules enacted on a bus, but she chose to stay right where she was. It is a difficult choice, weighing in the consequences and risks, that would ultimately bolster change.
Have you John Green or anyone else read “Dating Hamlet”? It’s a YA book about Hamlet from Ophelia’s perspective. They mess with the narrative and kind of create a story within the existing Hamlet story where Ophelia is the person to make things happen. I think people would be interested in that version.
Cavalier and clay is a great book! Good job. I can’t make out the other books, u should put a camera shot over your books briefly so I can book browse. Who doesn’t admire gazing with dumb wonder at a rich oaken tapestry of literature? Also you should do post moder lit with all the old family favorites like borges, barth, pynchon, dellilo, Marquez, Tom Robbins, and McCarthy
I have a question. When Hamlet comes back from the voyage, how is he changed? Just hearing his speech with the skull seems to show he has the same feeling on mortality. But people are forever saying he changes drastically. In the end, when he kills Claudius it doesn’t seem so much a resolution as a last minute decision. Anyone help
In my first year of university I wrote a paper on Hamlet, in which I tried to prove that Horatio in-fact killed Ophelia due to his jealousy and undying love for Hamlet. Before Ophelia dies, Horatio (the seemingly most honest, loyal, and competent character in the play) is tasked with the duty of perusal over Ophelia, and following her to make sure she doesn’t befall any sort of harm or misfortune.
Senior year someone, maybe the teacher maybe a student I’ve slept since then so I don’t really remember, made the suggestion that perhaps Gertrude killed Ophelia based on the fact that Gertrude seemed to have watched Ophelia drown rather than help her. Ophelia’s insult of the flowers was too great or she feared for Hamlet’s safety was the suggested motive.
I think all the meaning is what someone give to something. it might no have meant that to the author. it is good to try to decipher something, but it scares kids when they dont see it as the same way of the scholars. I guess that is the beauty of art, you see it the way you want it unless the author tells you what it means.
This is very close to Isaac Asimov’s interpretation of Hamlet. (John, have you read his book on Shakespeare, by the way? I think you’d like it. He looks at a lot of the history and it’s really cool. Good ol’ Asimov.) There are some aspects, as a result, that I agree with, and some that I don’t, particularly in terms of the Oedipus complex. It has been theorized that Hamlet’s unresolved hostility towards his father was hidden by what I (and many other psych geeks) see as one of the big things Freud thought up that isn’t BS: coping and defense mechanisms. Reaction formation, obsessive actions and forced thoughts in the opposite direction of true, unconscious feelings, can be illustrated here, assuming the Oedipus complex theory is valid, in that Hamlet takes his warlike and distant father (remember, he sent the guy off to grad school for who knows how long while he conquered Norway) and puts him square on the highest pedestal he can. He considers Gertrude’s remarriage as an insult to his memory, and talks on and on about his father’s feelings and honor. Even if he loved his father, which at some rate he certainly did, the obsessive nature of his speech does not show a healthy level of respect than an adult child would have for their parent. Even the young Hamlet interpretation (wherein he is 16 instead of 30) implies this. We see another defense mechanism as well, though, in projection. As I stated, Hamlet cites his father as the reason the remarriage so soon was so wrong. While it is certainly inappropriately soon, his ranting about it to Ophelia just before The Mousetrap play shows he’s not a rational kind of angry.
I once had to make a play about what would happen if 3 characters from different literary works ended up in hell together. I can’t remember who the third was, but Daisy Buchanan and Hamlet were definitely in it. I seem to remember the third being a drunken pessimist but beyond that, no idea. I, unfortunately had not read Hamlet because of the way I had progressed through school (they started me in regular English in 9th, halfway through the year putting me in Honors and then I went AP in 11th). I ended up taking quotes directly from Hamlet, knowing little about the character and made a pretty coherent play. I didn’t win the contest, but it was fun Hamming it up when I had to perform as Hamlet.
Each time I read Hamlet, I can’t decide if I’m more intrigued by the dynamics between he and Gertrude or he and Ophelia. I think that a certain amount of willful ignorance on the part of Gertrude makes her less strong of a character, but no less interesting. I think I let Updike’s interpretation kind of color my own; not that I feel that she was involved directly and gleefully aided Claudius in dispatching H Sr. but that she was, if nothing else, satisfied with the outcome of his loss and allowed it to override the love and loyalty she would undoubtedly had for/to her only son (Is now a good time to say that I named my cat after her? That’s…a thing). As far as Ophelia is concerned, I think she felt genuine love (in the way teenagers or young adults can) for him and he for her. Her descent into madness began with Hamlet’s rejection of her; the men in her life don’t seem to have much regard for her, and it was established early on that Hamlet and Ophelia had corresponded in writing and in person and if he didn’t love him, she must have trusted him a great deal. Hamlet’s full realization of his feelings for her didn’t occur until after her death. He may have cared for her, but did not acknowledge or respect her feelings, nor did he consider that fact that she would not be there to love him; his behavior my have been that of an Elizabethan D-bag, but I believe it was product of his — and Shakespeare’s — culture. I will not discount the idea that he felt betrayed by Ophelia when he discovered that she was being used as a de facto spy for Polonius and Claudius.
Also, I think inaction could be seen as heroic. When you’ve got pressure coming from all sides to follow established codes such as vengeance, marriage etc. it takes bravery to stop and think about it. Sometimes it is best to remain inactive, though whether this is the case in the play I am not sure, as if Hamlet killed Claudius at the start then the slaughter at the end of the play would have been avoided. However, Hamlet dies with the peace of mind that his vengeance is just, but if he’d killed Claudius without that verification, he probably would have tortured himself about it for years. Therefore, inaction did have some positive effects (eventual resolution of the violence, peace of mind), but also some VERY negative effects i.e. the deaths of Polonius, Laertes, Ophelia, Gertrude. So I DON’T KNOW! Maybe these deaths were the only way to end the cycle of violence? So many questions. It’s such a good play.
Heart shaped clover grows among the brooks, behind the cloud a gentle cherub looks, and places there where she shall wet her head, a crown of columbine and violet. Dear Ophelia your youth was grand, extended further by your maddened state, instead of planting flowers with your hand, you picked them to relieve them of their fate. May your tune live long after your soul, restore the wind with innocence you stole.
Speaking of Gertrude’s bizarrely specific explanation of Ophelia’s death (that implies she’s either lying about being there, or she watched it without trying to help)… There’s a theory that Ophelia was pregnant with Hamlet’s child. One of the flowers Ophelia gave Gertrude was rue, which, obviously, symbolizes regret, but was also used as an abortifacient. When handing Gertrude the flowers, Ophelia says, “There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me… I will wear mine with a difference.” She also, in her madness, sings crudely sexual songs about a woman being abandoned by her lover once she gives him her virginity. The theory would explain why Gertrude allowed Ophelia to die – she knew that it was the only way to protect her honor. That, or she killed her herself.
Oooooh Ophelia is powerful now, she gave them flowers. Come on, anyone can go up to people and tell them how they feel, but acting upon your judgement is something else entirely. Gertrude is not the object of Hamlet’s sexual attraction, he just says how disgusted he is that she does sex things with his uncle. Nothing in the play hints at him actually wanting to bang her, just him describing how he thinks she bangs his uncle, which a person who is all up in his mom’s business would be spending his time thinking about. But it’s a good episode, I hope you do more plays and works of early literature.
I have to do a crossword for Hamlet and I’m stuck on 5 of them 🙁 “Ophelia’s funeral is:_” (13 letters) “part of the play where we learn the background”(10 letters) “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern” (7 letters) “Hamlet’s first plan to seek revenge” (16 letters) and “In a revenge tragedy a hero must always:_” (8 letters)
So most of the compelling and intellectually stimulating content of the play is in how it’s characters deliberate at length about what to do before making significant decisions. This play isn’t lost on so many students because it’s old or because they’re being obstinate. The stereotypical highschooler completely lacks the kind of experiences that the main themes would resonate with.
I will still stand by the fact that Hamlet isn’t indecisive but in a shifting society – he reflects his elizabethan context wherein the religion and therefore culture and society was repeatedly changing creating an unstable England (“time is out of joint”) … Hamlet is a modern renaissance man so he is “allowed” to grieve and show emotion and is also trying to maintain a semblance of reason – the conflict comes through the traditional structure of the court in its brisk dismissal of a murder and corruption in attempts to maintain the facade of normalcy contrasted to Hamlet’s emotions and desire to maintain morality
Can we talk about how Claudius sent Hamlet on the sea trip and basically hired the pirates to attack the boat; but Hamlet was able it intercept the letter and get the jump on the pirates, avoiding death? That certainly makes the argument that Hamlet really is a different man when he returns. He finds out his uncle had plans to kill him. He comes back determined to show everyone, his mother, and Ophelia included, that his uncle is a murder. (Ophelia’s death is a surprise, but thats another issue). God dammit. I love this play.
David Ball wrote a terrific book on script analysis called “Backwards and Forwards,” and in it he argues that The audience isn’t supposed to know whether or not Claudius is guilty. Throughout the early parts of the play, Claudius is portrayed as a jovial, sympathetic parent. Ball argues that Claudius’s secret prayer in the chapel was supposed to be an M Night Shyamalan-level twist: the friendly father-figure who went out of his way to bring Hamlet’s friends from Wittenberg is revealed.
I searched the definition of ‘heroism’, because I’m a literalist. According to Google, heroism is ‘extreme bravery’–which begs us to define what bravery is. I personally think bravery is acting in a manner you think necessary (absence of fear isn’t courage, it rather denotes a lack of intelligence–I’d say courage frequently means acting in spite of ones fear). One could argue, when looking at the characters of Ophelia and Gertrude, that heroism is making a place for yourself in the world and declaring ones own autonomy, against all odds and society’s expectations. (I never considered Gertrude or Ophelia as heroic, and for that I feel I must turn in m English nerd badge. I also always thought of Hamlet’s ambivalence as a sign he was ineffectual, not potentially heroic–for this I am also ashamed).
For some reason the idea of “heroic inaction” keeps reminding me of Asimov’s laws of robotics, where robots are not to allow harm to come to the people through inaction. I wonder if Asimov is implying that inaction is a human thing and the robots, despite being in the absolute neutral and therefore have to be objectively just, are ultimately machines and can only be just where action is involved.
You missed out on the historical reading of the play: Danes actually voted on their kings, so Polonius had to be elected to that position. This means he was probably a pretty good politician at the time; people liked him enough to vote him into office. Given this interpretation, it changes the reading of Gertrude marrying Claudius to ensure Hamlet gets the throne. But this is just a historical reading, in Elizabethan England the interpretation might’ve been more in line with English Royal succession.
John, it finally happened, you said something I didn’t agree with. Don’t get me wrong, I totally 100% think suicide is a very very bad idea. I never liked the phrase “suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem” though. Surely you want all of your solutions to be permanent. That is the point of solving things. I just think there are better anti-suicide cliches. Food for thought.
“Shakespeare’s plays have only one point. Don’t kill kings. He was paid by kings.” So said my old, often drunk English teacher. As to why he used Roman names for Danish characters, well, the vast majority of his plays were set in either Italy or Rome, so I think it must have become a habit. Every writer struggles to come up with names for his charactors, and Roman names were the ones that sprang most easily to his mind, IMHO..
I honestly think Laertes is the good guy in this play, or at least, better a person than Hamlet. Hamlet killed Polonius for really no reason, fornicated with Ophelia, and then drove her mad to the point where she killed herself (regardless of if it was intentional). While violence shouldn’t be the answer, for the purposes of the play, I think Laertes is more just than Hamlet. Laertes simply wanted vengeance, and while Hamlet wanted it too, he was kinda evil. There is also no proof that Laertes knew Claudius got the throne by killing his brother/Hamlet’s father.
That painting of Ophelia drowning is gorgeously sad…but the weird thing that struck me as I looked at this hundreds-of-years-old painting is: she REMINDS me of somebody! In real life, I mean. I can’t quite put my finger on it… (Okay, yeah, a little bit like me if I was a redhead, but that’s not it…)
I actually think Ophelia didn’t commit suicide. She’s the character whose entire trajectory you see on stage – being first degraded by her dad & bro (some srsly messed up language there), and then her descent painfully public until she’s pulled into the mud – and even then, degraded in death when the church insists on treating her death as suspicious and doesn’t give her a proper burial. Ophelia should be bringing progress with the new, young generation but the tragedy is the old, corrupt lot clinging onto their order and messing things up for everyone.
There is a great contrast between what Hamlet writes in his love letters to Ophelia and the way he treats her a few scenes later. He waxes lyrical about how he loves her, and suddenly he’s telling her to go to a whorehouse. If you want to believe the worst about Hamlet, and I do, it is starting to look like he has gotten Ophelia pregnant. There are other, strong indications that Hamlet has gotten Ophelia pregnant, like when he tells Polonius, “Conception is a blessing, but not as your daughter might conceive!” There are also indications that Ophelia is pregnant when she appears before the Queen in a state of madness. People might look askance on such behavior, but it was probably the way most young men treated their sweethearts at the time. It’s not that different now.
Hamlet is so awesome but my English teacher in high school ruined it. we didn’t read the manuscript. we watched the mel gibson adaptation and answered super basic knowledge questions with no kind of extension on humanity or misunderstanding. it was really saddenning to have read it and felt it and just watch it be crushed for all the students.
I probably deleted what I wrote. To make it simple, to solve the sheep’s problem, the first way is through legal way. The second one is a well planned strategy: x and y will leave at one midnight, without letting the sheep know. The following day, the sheep will find that it is losing control over x, and this is also the day it will receive it’s mental treatment. For either way, it is losing control over x, but the second way maybe less hurting.
I can’t decide if I think Ophelia’s suicide is an act of protest or despair. Her cleverness with the flowers is a message for the audience more than anyone else. But she really is in a bad space. With Hamlet abandoning her (and leaving her orphaned) she is living in a crumbling kingdom without a single ally. Her choices are to rely on the kindness of strangers or to actually get herself to a nunnery (either one).
It is strange to believe that non-action can sometimes be the heroic choice, but Hamlet’s ambivalence doesn’t feel like heroism. It lacks a sort of larger purpose that I think is important to the concept of being a hero. Though it is deep and meaningful debate, it doesn’t seem to extend to anything more than setting things right in his own life.
I’d say hamlet failed to take action and kill his uncle till the very end was because he was dying and knew his actions wouldn’t have consequences. hamlet wanted to kill his uncle for a long time before he actually did. he may have been angry that his uncle took his throne and was angry at his mother for allowing it. but murdering people has consequences and he was afraid of those consequences. only when hamlet knows he’s going to die does he kill his uncle with such malice.
My favorite heroic actions are those we see in Corneille’s women: Medee, Cleopatre, and the women in Rodogune are my favorites. I can’t feel comfortable saying that he actually was in support of female power, but the power dynamics in his plays are, like in Shakespeare, very subversive. For these women, revenge is opposed to love, and when the male character wrongs the character I would call the heroine, her revenge takes precedence over her love for him. That kind of pride in a female character is, for me, heroism in the 17th century.