My last blog for this month comes on the same day
that we finished reading Shakespeare’s Hamlet
in class, so I felt for this blog that it would be good to share some of my initial
thoughts to the dramatic and tragic conclusion of the play, and also look into
what it has to offer to many of the underlying themes and motifs that have been
developed over the course of the five Acts. Within Act V scene ii, the final
act of the play, the described deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and the actual
deaths of Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, and Hamlet himself are witnessed, but there
is still plenty of room to analyze for greater meaning behind each of the
characters’ words and actions. Perhaps one of the most prominent moments is
between Hamlet and Horatio before he goes off to exchange in dual with Laertes,
in which Hamlet confides to his guard of him feeling the inevitable nature of
his death to come and his readiness to accept this new course that Fate itself
has set before him. Hamlet reflects, “But it is no matter…it be now, ‘tis not
to come, if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will
come…let be” (V.ii.227…234-235...237). It is interesting to note here the
demeanor and perspective with which he approaches death, something he has
reflected upon in the past with fear and dread of the mysterious future that
would await. Before destroying his relationship with Ophelia, Hamlet reflected
on his views of death as “the dread of some undiscovered country from whose
bourn no traveler returns” (III.i.86-87). Now, as he prepares to meet his
destiny, he has an unusual calmness to him, seeming to accept himself and his
fate willingly despite whatever death may have in store for him. Perhaps the
greatest reason behind this is from the final line of the quote, “let be”,
which seems to serve as an answer to the timeless question that Hamlet himself
raised of “to be or not to be”. Over the course of the entire play, Hamlet has
struggled with this conflict, going back and forth between “seeming” to be a
man of insanity and irrationality while masking who he actually “is”, a man of integrity
and wisdom. Now, as he prepares to meet his death, Hamlet comes to terms with
himself and decides that if this is to be his end, he would himself die as the
Hamlet that he knows himself to be and not what others may think or wish him to
be. Hamlet hit upon the great fact of the “seem” vs. “is” argument, which is
that ultimately the truth overcomes the illusion, but what remains the critical
factor was the extent of the illusion and the damage that it has done to those involved.
Hamlet sees now, before his mother, uncle, and Laertes even die, that time of “seem”
must come to an end, that the walls of suspicion, lies, deceit and treachery
that have stood as the crux and foundation of the entire play must all come
crashing down if the kingdom is to be restored to its former state and
liquidated of all that is “rank”. It is only fitting that all those whose
actions inadvertently caused the state to deteriorate to where it is at the end
are all dead, leaving only Horatio, perhaps the only man to act out of true
reason, alive to tell the tragic tale. Hamlet’s purge of rankness in the
kingdom would claim his own life as well, and leave the kingdom open to a man
untainted by the poison of the previous kingdom, perhaps in the hopes that a
new one can be rebuilt and be fruitful and the memory of the time of the
rankness of Denmark be forgotten.
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