My initial reaction is a feeling of disgust for Gertrude and Claudius. The act that they have both committed is horrific. Claudius betrayed his brother in the worst way. Gertrude betrayed her husband, and in a sense her son as well. I feel sorry for Hamlet. He is grieving over the loss of this father but is forced to conceal it. I cannot believe the audacity of Claudius and Gertrude expecting Hamlet to just get over his father’s death that quickly. I cannot believe the audacity of Claudius telling Hamlet to accept him as his father now. These thoughts and words are very disgusting to me. This situation does remind me of my sister-in-law. She was once guilty of trying to carry on an intimate relationship with someone in our family, while still married to my brother. These acts are disgusting and difficult to over come.
Claudius’ character seems to be comprised of greed and possibly jealousy towards his brother. We get a glimpse of his selfishness when during his first speech in Act I, Scene II, he says “Yet so far hat discretion fought with nature that we with wisest sorrow think on him, Together with remembrance of ourselves”. Instead of taking time to mourn the death of his brother he is concerned about himself. Claudius’ mention of mourning his brother’s death seems mechanical. He only mentions this to appear righteous to those listening. Claudius’ fatal flaws are greed and selfishness. These characteristics are strong enough to provide conflict in the story as an opposing character to Hamlet. I look forward to seeing how the story unfolds.
The theme of this first act is evil versus good. Shakespeare uses the plot and characterization to support this theme. We see the evil acts of Claudius in Act I, Scene II, when Claudius speaks to everyone about mourning former King Hamlet’s death but quickly getting back to business. To use the lame excuse for marrying Hamlet’s wife shows how evil Claudius is. Shakespeare writes “Therefore out sometime sister, now our queen, Th’ imperial jointress to this warlike state, have we, as ‘twere with a defeated joy”. He is happy to have married Gertrude. The act of doing so is evil and for him to be happy about it is equally as evil. The opposing good that we see in Hamlet also supports the theme of evil versus good. Here Hamlet is left to deal with the grief of losing his father and yet the good in him forces him to just follow along with the evil demands of his uncle and his mother. After being asked to quickly get over the death of his father and accept his uncle as his new father and remain in Denmark with his mother and uncle, Hamlet responds with “I shall in all my best obey you, madam”.
LaDawnM,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved your interpretation of the first Act of Hamlet. I think you nailed the intricacies of the relationship that Shakespeare was trying to portray. I too, had initial reactions of repulsion for not only Claudius, he is an obvious character to despise but, for Gertrude who's betrayal is much more personal and therefore, much more deep and biting for Hamlet. I cannot imagine having to keep my mouth closed and my emotions pinned up while this was happening. I think as you pointed out as Hamlet was asked to get over his beloved father's death and to remain in Denmark he replied , " I shall in all my best obey you, madam", is such a perfect way for Shakespeare to convey how painful yet how Hamlet will appear to be obedient in an outward way. I can almost picture a young man saying those words as he bows slightly looking very demure yet as you look into his eyes you can see a flash of hatred and disgust. It must have turned his stomach to knots to utter those words.
-Taryne