Tragedy: Hamlet Commonplace Log

3 quotations

1. “The funeral baked meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables” (1.2.87-88)—Hamlet voicing his displeasure at the suddenness of his mother’s remarriage so soon after his father’s death.

2. “I essentially am not in madness / But mad in craft” (3.4.187-8)—Hamlet telling his mother that he is only acting crazy to throw off the king.

3. “Get thee to a nunnery!” (3.1.131)—Hamlet lashing out at Ophelia because he is angry over her apparent coldness towards him and his mother’s apparent coldness to the memory of his father.

Reaction to Hamlet

I really enjoyed Hamlet and found myself really thinking about some of his speeches and monologues. I would like to memorize one or two of them if possible because they are really moving. The famous “to be or not to be” speech is just great and never gets old no matter how many times you say it. Overall, the story of Hamlet feels a little confusing, though. It starts off with the ghost appearing, but then once it is established that a ghost is afoot that part of the story never seems to come back. The ghost seems to be there simply to spur on the action—and yet it is a play about inaction. One of the things Hamlet never does is to check on whether the ghost is truly his father or whether it is a devil from Hell trying to trick him into doing something evil.

Hamlet is an easy character to identify with, however. When he says things like, “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio,” I feel like he could be talking to just about anyone who acts like he has it all figured out. Hamlet, to me, feels like a very moody character—but I understand his moodiness and why he is like that. It feels justified to me, and he feels like a real life character—so I like that. In a lot of plays it is hard to relate to the characters but it is not hard to relate to Hamlet at all. He feels very much like a sarcastic and cynical teenager of today, angry at his parents but with good reason. I just wish it had a happier ending—I hate that it has to end with so much blood and death.