2.2.549-581+-+Hamlet

Matt Fenske

Hamlet Act II Scene II O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!  Is it not monstrous that this player here,  But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,  Could force his soul so to his own conceit  That from her working all his visage wann'd,  Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,  A broken voice, and his whole function suiting  With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!  For Hecuba!  What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,  That he should weep for her? What would he do,  Had he the motive and the cue for passion  That I have? He would drown the stage with tears  And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,  Make mad the guilty and appal the free, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> And can say nothing; no, not for a king, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Upon whose property and most dear life <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward? <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across? <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> As deep as to the lungs? who does me this? <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Ha! <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> 'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> To make oppression bitter, or ere this <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> I should have fatted all the region kites <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain! <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> O, vengeance! <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> And fall a-cursing, like a very drab, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> A scullion! <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> That guilty creatures sitting at a play <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Have by the very cunning of the scene <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Been struck so to the soul that presently <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> They have proclaim'd their malefactions; <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Play something like the murder of my father <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks; <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> I know my course. The spirit that I have seen <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> May be the devil: and the devil hath power <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Out of my weakness and my melancholy, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> As he is very potent with such spirits, <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> More relative than this: the play 's the thing <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

//<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Playwright: // <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">William Shakespeare //<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Time of Publication: // <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">The play //Hamlet// was written around 1599 after Julius Caesar //<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Context: // <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;"> ACT II SCENE II
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Hamlet has just been left by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern after being entertained by two traveling players and now is beginning his second soliloquy.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">It has been some time since Hamlet learned from the ghost what had really happened is important to understand his anger.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">The speech starts with Hamlet’s reaction to the player and then shifts to his anger toward his uncle.

//<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Synopsis of the scene: //
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Hamlet’s soliloquy starts off talking about the emotion the player uses and how it differs from his own interpretation. He then got some idea of how he could use the play to find his uncle’s guilt and find out the true being of the ghost.

//<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Importance of the passage //
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">This passage is crucial to understanding Hamlet’s thought process dealing with finding out his uncle’s wrongdoings.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">It brings out Hamlet’s true feelings, which are very negative pertaining to his own life.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">He has a major issue with the fact that he has done nothing to avenge his uncle’s deficiencies

//<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Important details about characters: //
 * //<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Hamlet is almost disgusted at himself //
 * //<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">He is furious at the situation he is in and wants to do something to Claudius //
 * //<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">He constantly overanalyzes situations, including this one //
 * //<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Claudius knows that Hamlet has been acting strange, but does not understand the root of his feelings //

//<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Importance to the plot: //
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">This soliloquy closes the second act and works as a tool to develop the plot and Hamlet’s character and inner feelings at the acting of the players.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Hamlet determines that he is going to use a play to find Claudius’s guilt
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Hamlet’s rage toward himself increases
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Foreshadowing is used to keep the audience in suspense of how Claudius will react to the play

//<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Themes: //
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Appearance vs. reality
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">The actor pretends to have emotion while Hamlet struggles with his own feelings and emotions
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Also the fact that Hamlet will use a play to find out whether Claudius has really killed his father

//<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Structure: //
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Begins with Hamlet ranting about the player and his emotion and then transitions to him wanting to find out the truth with Claudius
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">The scene, as well as the soliloquy, closes with Hamlet’s quote:
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">“The play’s the thing/ Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King”

//<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Literary Devices: //
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Alliteration
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;"> “muddy-mettled”
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; margin-top: 0in;">Used to reveal how Hamlet feels; he is grim, uncourageous, and has yet to begin his plans for revenge.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">“bloody, bawdy, villain”
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Repetition
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">“remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!”
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; margin-top: 0in;">The “less” that is repeated at the end of each of these words shows the rage and fury in which Hamlet speaks
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Sarcasm
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">is “most brave” for acting like “a whore [unpacking] my heart with words”
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; margin-top: 0in;">The whole tone of the soliloquy is very sarcastic, as if to mock himself
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Assumptions
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">“may be the devil”
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; margin-top: 0in;">By claiming that the ghost may be the devil only fuels his disdain toward the situation
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Foreshadowing
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">“The play’s the thing/ Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King”
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; margin-top: 0in;">This gives the audience some idea as to what Hamlet is going to do, but also keeps them wondering

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">The literary devices that Shakespeare implements into his poem add to the self-deamination that Hamlet does to himself.

//<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Conclusion: // <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Hamlet in a way fuels his own fire and creates a reason to find the truth behind his father’s murder. He goes on a wild rampage that not only demeans the player, but also himself. The appearance vs. reality theme has a strong place in this passage. Hamlet begins to turn the wheels in his own brain to come up with an idea on how to bring forward his Uncle Claudius’s guilt.