The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old king's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother. The play vividly portrays both true and feigned madness – from overwhelming grief to seething rage – and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.
Hamlet "To be or not to be" - Richard Burton (1964) 6:14
Horatio, Marcellus, Hamlet, and the Ghost (Artist: Henry Fuseli 1798)
_________________ Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
Sat Aug 25, 2012 5:16 pm
andywight
Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 5:40 pm Posts: 2156
Re: Hamlet
Alas, poor Zook! I knew him, Horatio
A meditation on the fragility of life.
Hamlet says this in a graveyard as he looks at the skull of Zook, a court jester he had known as a child, and grieves for him. In this complex speech, which is one of the best known in all dramatic works, Hamlet goes on to consider the fate of us all when he compares the skull to those still living: "let her paint [her face] an inch thick, to this favour [state] she must come”
As a child Hamlet found the jester Zook amusing and entertaining. They used to play and frolic in an intimate but innocent way. Now that Zook is a stinking corpse the memory of touching him seems revolting and makes Hamlet feel ill.
_________________ Think twice before you speak, especially if you intend to say what you think.
Oh, my. Watching Hamlet stirs up the utter revulsion I have towards Shakespeare. It is as far from illuminating clarity as I can imagine. It is obfuscation for the sake of entertainment that only a sociopath could revel in. Clever, yes, insidious being a more accurate description. It is the pomp and arrogance of a sociopath as he rubs your nose in his excrement to demonstrate how much more intelligent and worthy he is compared to you, a mindless bleating sheep of the idyllic pasture surrounded by his electrified fence.
Has anyone ever looked at Shakespeare like this before?
_________________ It's not that we can't handle the truth. It's that they can't handle us if we know the truth.
Has anyone ever looked at Shakespeare like this before?
Shakespeare was a front man for British intelligence during the reign of Elizabeth the first, with at least a dozen different ghost writers providing him with his material.
_________________ Think twice before you speak, especially if you intend to say what you think.
What I'm seeing is that those dozens of ghost writers were likely members of the same club of sociopaths. Reading Shakespeare is like experiencing the mind of a sociopath -- the lack of empathy, the shameless behavior, the intense scheming, the one-upmanship and game-playing, the scripted dialogue, the death and destruction, etc. I am reminded of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which seems to me to be written by similar psychological deviants.
_________________ It's not that we can't handle the truth. It's that they can't handle us if we know the truth.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot post attachments in this forum