You do not have my interpretation of Hamlet, only a very short snippet. No
judgment as the quality of the whole can be based on that. a
Duveyoung <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Edg, thanks,
I'm going to take you up on this,
just for the hell of it--although you may want
to withdraw the offer on the basis of the
following reply.
Judy
--------------------------------------------
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Is Flaming Evil not allowed here? (9-11 --
The Inside Job )
I can't let stand the twisting of my favorite
play to promote a nutcase agenda.
Angela wrote:
> When the ghost of Hamlet's father tells him that it is necessary
to re-establish order in the state of Denmark, and that to do so
Hamlet must kill a relative (synecdoche for all our fellow humans),
he also says that he doesn't care how Hamlet does it, the important
thing is 1) "Taint not your mind" and 2) leave your mom (symbolic for
Nature) out of it.
> Even when rulers accomplish that state of consciousness in which
they do not incur evil karma (tainted mind) and when they act
established in a state beyond nature, it still tends to be a
universal truth that "Uneasy lies the crowned head."
Nice summary of Peter Brook's interpretation of
"Hamlet," except that he and you are mistaken
about the quote.
Here it is, in full:
-----
But, howsoever thou pursuest this act,
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught: leave her to heaven
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her.
-----
"Taint not thy mind" is not an isolated command;
it goes with the rest of the sentence: "nor let
thy soul contrive against thy mother aught."
Hamlet is neither to taint his mind against his
mother, nor is he to let his soul contrive anything
against her. Heaven and her own conscience will
mete out her punishment.
Note the dualism of mind and soul here.
Note also that Hamlet is told to kill his uncle
because his uncle has murdered his own brother,
Hamlet's father (the Ghost), in order to gain the
throne of Denmark and marry Hamlet's father's
widow, Hamlet's mother.
So it isn't just to "reestablish order in the
kingdom of Denmark," it's to right a grievous
wrong within a family, to revenge a fratricide
and the sanctification of the murderer's adultery
with his murdered brother's wife.
Note further that at first Hamlet accepts the
Ghost's demands enthusiastically:
-----
Yea, from the table of my memory
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,
Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven!
-----
This might fit with Brook's interpretation, if it
weren't for the fact that Hamlet proceeds for most
of the rest of the play to agonize over whether
killing his uncle is the right thing to do; he's
almost driven to suicide by the conflict, but
fears what he'll encounter after death too much to
actually take his own life. He agonizes as well
over his mother's perfidy, at one point berating
her so brutally that the Ghost has to make another
appearance to get him back on track.
And finally, Hamlet *dies* in the end, along with
both his uncle and his mother (and sundry other
characters along the way). It isn't as if
Shakespeare is putting the bloodletting on some
exalted transcendental plane washed clean of guilt
and blame; none of his characters take what they're
doing lightly, least of all Hamlet. None of them
act "established in a state beyond nature," nor
do any of them escape from the evil karma they
have wrought for themselves.
Horatio sums it up, gazing at the bodies strewn
about the stage:
-----
And let me speak to the yet unknowing world
How these things came about: so shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on the inventors' reads.
-----
Not only do Hamlet and his family members suffer
their just deserts, but the whole world is going
to hear about the terrible things they did.
There's nothing wrong with looking for novel
interpretations of the classics; but you can't
just pick a line or two that suit your fancy
and throw out the rest of the text.
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