"Assume a virtue if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this:
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery
That aptly is put on."
By pretending you have such an attribute as virtue, it will actually become an attribute. so says Hamlet.
Alongside here, Hamlet himself is acting crazy... at the beginning, Horatio and the other guards can see the Ghost of Hamlet's father. Therefore it does not appear SOLEY to Hamlet.
when the Ghost appears a second time, in the queen's chambers, Gertrude cannot see the dead king's phantom.
Gertrude: "To whom do you speak this?"
Hamlet: "Do you see nothing there?"
"Nothing at all, yet all that is I see"
"Nor did you nothing hear?"
"No, nothing but ourselves"
Does the ghost randomly choose to whom he appears? or has Hamlet convinced himself to the point of madness that his father's revenge needs be his top priority?
We never really came to a conclusion on this in class, did we? I guess it's pretty open to interpretation. There's a real possibility that Hamlet has become so deranged from killing Polonius and arguing with is mother that his own madness calls up the ghost, reminding him of his purpose of revenge and maybe even justifying Hamlet's actions. Then again, the ghost told Hamlet to go easy on Gertrude, and maybe it thought revealing itself to her would be too much of a shock. The world will never know...
ReplyDeleteI think that Shakespeare is often concerned with this theme. As we see in the Winter's Tale, the opposite sort of comes out. Leontes has a huge dilemma of somehow working himself up to "assume" the madness that overcomes him. Because he kept thinking about it so often, it became to him a reality.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Erik about obsessions becoming reality. I think Hamlet is so crazy about this whole revenge plot thing to the point of obsession and therefore sees his father's ghost in his mother's bedchamber because he wants to. Hamlet still loves his mother, and his conscience knows he is being a bit harsh, so I think that is why the "ghost" tells him to go easy on her.
ReplyDelete