Hamlet: Playing The Roles
In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the protagonist exhibits a puzzling, duplicitous nature.
Hamlet contradicts himself throughout the play, endoring both the virtues of acting a role and that of being true to one's self. He further supports both of these conflicting endorements with his actions. This ambiguity is demonstrated by his alleged madness, only to become perfectly calm and rational an instant later. These inconsistencies are related with the internal dilemmas he faces. He struggles with the issue of revenging his father's death, vowing to kill Claudius and then backing out, several times. The reason for this teetering is directly related to his inability to form a solid ...
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to follow shift. This shift consists of Hamlet giving up the role of a student and mourning son. Hamlet says, "I'll wipe away all trivial fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, That youth and observation copied there, And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain" (1.5.99-103). Hamlet is declaring that he will be committed to nothing else but the revenge of his father's death. In the next act, however, Hamlet's status and intetions suddenly, and with out demonstrared reason, become mired in confusion.
When Hamlet appears again in act two, it seems he has lost the conviction that was present earlier. He has yet to take up the role assigned to him by the ghost. It is not until the very end of the act that he even mentions vengeance. If he had any of the conviction shown earlier he would have been continplating his revenge. So, instead of playing the part of the vengeful son, he stays in the middle, pretending ...
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catch the conscience of the King" (2.2.606-607). Before the mouse trap is to be played, Hamlet runs into Ophelia and makes the telling statements. Upon the issue of Ophelia's beauty, Hamlet says, "That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty" (3.1.109-110). He is saying that Ophelia can be honest and fair, but that, honesty being an inward trait, and fairness being an outward trait, but the two cannot be linked. He goes on furhter to say that "Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd that the force of onesty can translate beauty into his likeness" (3.1.13-15). So not only can the inner and ...
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"Hamlet: Playing The Roles." Essayworld.com. February 5, 2008. Accessed April 24, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlet-Playing-The-Roles/78594.
"Hamlet: Playing The Roles." Essayworld.com. February 5, 2008. Accessed April 24, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlet-Playing-The-Roles/78594.
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