In Claudius’s second speech to Hamlet, Claudius shows himself as pragmatic yet hypocritical and self-protective. After Hamlet’s father’s death, Hamlet still mourns and Claudius humiliates him in front of the gentry, affirming the noble’s correct decision on making Claudius the king instead of Hamlet since Denmark used the electoral system to elect its king. Claudius proves himself to be pragmatic when he explains to Hamlet his long-period of mourning: “But you must know your father lost a father, That father lost, lost his” (I.ii.89-90). However, Claudius becomes self-protective as he humiliates Hamlet by denying his manhood twice: “’Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet” (I.ii.87-88). Also, Claudius basically says Hamlet’s mourning is “unmanly grief” that not only improves Claudius’s building reputation but degrades Hamlet’s manliness and inadequacy if he was king (I.ii.94).
Nonetheless, Claudius remains hypocritical to Hamlet when Claudius asks Hamlet to stay to be a family: “And we beseech you, bend you to remain Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye, Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son” in which Claudius only wants to keep Hamlet in Denmark to keep an eye on him in case Hamlet finds out about King Hamlet’s murder (I.ii.115-117). However, Claudius also wants Hamlet there to win his allegiance and become a family.
3. How does Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act I, scene 2, work as a dramatic device to reveal his state of mind? What is his state of mind? Cite lines and explain how the literary devices work.
Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act I, scene 2 shows his suicidal state of mind in an imperfect world: “too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew” (I.ii.129-130). Hamlet uses synecdoche by using flesh to represent his body melting and thawing into a dew, meaning death. Hamlet goes on to talk about his imperfect world, the “unweeded garden” with the weed representing Claudius, which produces “things rank and gross in nature” (I.ii.135-136). By using this metaphor, Hamlet reveals his angry state of mind, which is supported by the allusion made to Hyperion to compare King Hamlet to the sun god and Claudius to the satyr: “So excellent a king, that was to his Hyperion to a satyr” (139-140). A satyr is a half man/half goat that performs sexual acts with the nymphs in the forest and Hamlet compares Claudius to a satyr because from the waist down, Claudius is a beast with hooves and sexual desires.
Hamlet curses women in general, furthering Hamlet’s angry state of mind when Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude, marries Claudius, and shows his outrage by using an apostrophe to women: “frailty, thy name is women” which shows his misogynistic attitude (I.ii.146). Hamlet also alludes to “Niobe, all tears” to compare her to Gertrude after the death of King Hamlet and making Gertrude’s and Claudius’s marriage even more disgusting to Hamlet (I.ii.149).
Last, Hamlet uses understatement to end his soliloquy and explains his irritated, chaotic, aggravated mind to foreshadow the impending disaster to come: “It is not, nor it cannot come to good. But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue” (I.ii.158-159).
4. At the end of Act I, scene 5, what does Hamlet’s swearing his friends to secrecy instead of immediately denouncing or killing Claudius reveal about Hamlet’s character? How do Hamlet’s revelations relate to Claudius’s analysis of him?
Hamlet swears his friends to secrecy in Act I, scene 5: “Here as before, never, so help you mercy, How strange of odd some’er I bear myself” (I.v.169-170). By swearing his friends to secrecy, Hamlet reveals he has no self-knowledge of his manhood and acts childish by thinking of a plan to get vengeance on Claudius. Hamlet feels conflicted when he must find evidence on Claudius’s guilt and kill Claudius because of his promise to King Hamlet’s ghost. This slow plan reveals Hamlet as a man of no action, as if everything must be done in secrecy which reveals his child-like state of mind. Hamlet’s actions relate to Claudius’s analysis of him when Claudius says Hamlet is not a man by describing Hamlet as sweet, commendable, and blatantly unmanly.
5. Explain how Shakespeare reveals the double sexual standards of Elizabethan England as dramatized by events and dialogue in Hamlet.
Shakespeare reveals the double sexual standards of Elizabethan England in the conversation between Laertes, Ophelia, and Polonius. Laertes starts of Act I, scene 3 by warning Ophelia of Hamlet’s persona: “For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor, Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, A violet in the youth…The perfume and suppliance of a minute, No more” (I.iii.5-9). Laertes basically calls Hamlet a player and says Hamlet’s love will not last because metaphorically, the things he compares Hamlet to will not last as well. Laertes adheres to his belief by telling Ophelia to protect her chastity because Hamlet just wants to deflower her and then leave, and warns her of the dangers of sex by giving unappealing reasons of pregnancy and diverse social ranks: “But as this temple waxes, The inward service of the mind and soul Grows wide withal…His greatness weighed, his will is not his own. For he himself is subject to his birth” (I.iii.12-18).
Ophelia offers a rebuttal to Laertes that reveal the double sexual standards of Elizabethan England:
I shall the effect of this good lesson keep,
As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whiles, like a puff’d and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
And recks no his own rede…(I.iii.45-51).
Ophelia counteracts Laertes lecture on chastity by calling him a “puffed and reckless libertine,” a male whore, who will leave for Paris soon do sleep around with women. By calling Laertes a whore, Ophelia reveals the double sexual standard of society as men who sleep around are being praised, yet women who sleep around, or have sex with another man other than her fiancée or lover, are treated like dirt.
The double sexual standard appears again when Polonius speaks to Ophelia about why she cannot trust Hamlet: “For Lord Hamlet, Believe so much in him that he is young, And with a larger tether may he walk Than may be given you” (I.iii.123-126). Polonius blatantly says Hamlet is allowed to whore around and sleep with other women, and that he probably will given the temptation, but Ophelia cannot have the same freedom he does.
6. What is blank verse and why does Shakespeare use it? Quote an example and mark the accents by hand.
Shakespeare uses blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter, to show who is of royalty or high rank in his plays, and to resemble the natural speech in Elizabethan England.
“O that this too too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew” (I.ii.129-130).
7. What is inversion, or anastrophe? Cite lines from Hamlet, Act I that use inversion, and then rewrite the lines in normal word order. What rhetorical effect does the inversion create, or what purpose does it serve in your example?
Inversion and anastrophe share the same meaning: reversal of normal word order. One example of inversion is: “So frowned he once,” which in normal word order is “so he frowned once” or “so he once frowned” (I.i.62). The word “frowned” is inverted so that the dark, somber atmosphere and mood can be reiterated as opposed to having “so he frowned once” which doesn’t have the same purpose that’s achieved in the inversion. Another example is: “That can I” which rewritten is “that I can” or “I can do that” (I.i.79). By using this inversion, Shakespeare creates a more formal sounding response, said by Horatio, to show he is a formal, important man.
8. Cite any pun, and explain its multiple purposes in the play.
Within this play, Hamlet usually elicits the most puns in Act I and throughout the play he uses them to insult people indirectly. For example, in Act I, scene 2, Hamlet speaks to Claudius and his mother, Gertrude, first with his aside: “A little more than kin, and less than kind!” (I.ii.64-65). Hamlet’s aside is after Claudius’s remarks to Hamlet being Claudius’s son. Hamlet insults Gertrude’s and Claudius’s marriage and how incestual it is because now Hamlet is a “more than kin” which is now more than being Claudius’s nephew, now his son, and “less than kind,” meaning Hamlet’s anger towards Claudius for marrying his mother and Hamlet doesn’t consider the relationship warm or loving.
Hamlet renders another pun in his response to Claudius: “Not so, my lord. I am too much in the sun,” a pun on “sun,” homophonic to the word “son,” meaning Hamlet is still grieving over his father’s death and still feels like King Hamlet’s “son” (I.ii.67). The purpose of this pun creates Hamlet’s state of mind as depressed, foreshadowing his suicidal state in the upcoming soliloquy.
Last, Hamlet responds to his mother in an impolite way: “Ay, madam, it is common” (I.ii.73) The word “common” has two meanings, universal and vulgar which Hamlet uses to say that death is common but that his mother is also a whore, adding to Hamlet’s misogynistic view on women.
Misogyny and Incest in Hamlet Act I
Shakespeare creates the characters of Gertrude and Ophelia to emphasize the misogynistic attitude of Elizabethan England and the incestual marriage between Gertrude and Claudius. In this play, Hamlet begins to develop the misogynistic view on women, with Claudius and Polonius further supporting the idea. By implementing misogyny and incest, using puns and insults, Shakespeare shows the vulnerability of women during the Elizabethan time and that their obedience causes them to be inferior and disrespected.
Shakespeare first shows women’s easy manipulation and vulnerability when Claudius introduces Gertrude as his incestual bride: “Therefore our sometime sister, now our Queen,” which reinforces the incest and the degradation of Gertrude’s reputation as the wife of Claudius, her past brother-in-law (I.ii.8). Hamlet further shows disgust for this marriage by insulting his mother indirectly using puns: “A little more than kin, and less than kind,” with kin meaning nephew in this case, since Claudius is now Hamlet’s step-father rather than uncle, and “less than kind” when Hamlet shows resentment towards Claudius and Gertrude because their marriage happened hastily, showing Hamlet’s anger at Gertrude for becoming a commoner, or a whore, also eliciting the double sexual standard weakly (I.ii.64-65).
Hamlet shows his contempt for his mother’s incestual marriage in his soliloquy in Act I, scene 2 with his misogynistic attitude: “Frailty, thy name is woman—A little month” (I.ii.146). Hamlet reveals Gertrude’s change in sexual “appetite” of King Hamlet to King Claudius in a month, showing the capricious behavior of Gertrude and denouncing women once again. Hamlet then further draws out the sexuality image of his mother and Claudius: “O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” (I.ii.156-157). Hamlet shows his distaste for the new marriage, especially at his mother for marrying practically her brother. This sexual image further degrades the view on women altogether and supports the double sexual standard of Elizabethan England.
In Act I, scene 3, Laertes and Ophelia supports the double sexual standard when Laertes warns Ophelia to save her chastity but Ophelia replies with her addressing Laertes as a “puffed and reckless libertine,” or a man whore, and a hypocrite for telling her to save her chastity when Laertes’ already lost his by going to Paris to sleep around, but no one punishes Laertes for doing so (I.iii.49). Ophelia’s daring attempt to tell Laertes to “recks not his own rede,” or follow his own advice (I.iii.51).
Laertes also creates an incestual undertone to Gertrude’s and Claudius’s marriage when he speaks to Ophelia about her chastity but also making her sound like a sex object, which is ironic and reinforces the incest theme in this sexual image:
Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sisters,
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough
If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.
The canker galls the infants of the spring
To oft before their buttons be disclosed,
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent…(I.iii.33-42).
The sexual imagery of chastity repeatedly shows up in this play to show women’s easily degrading reputation through incest or whoring around.
After Laertes leaves, Polonius speaks to Ophelia about her inability to see Hamlet’s “fake” affection to her: “Affection pooh! You speak like a green girl” (I.iii.101). Polonius speaks to Ophelia as if she cannot know what love is by Hamlet and Polonius supports this claim by having a misogynistic attitude: “Marry, I will teach you. Think yourself a baby That you have ta’en these tenders for true pay Which are not sterling” (I.iii.104-105). Polonius treats Ophelia as if she does not know how to tell the “tenders” are fake, which Polonius believes they are. Then, Polonius forbids Ophelia from seeing him: “I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth Have you so slander any moment leisure As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. Look to’t, I charge you. Come your ways” (I.iii.131-135). Ophelia responds, “I shall obey, my lord,” which demonstrates women’s obligation to be obedient to the men in Elizabethan England, and this obedience, seen in later pages, seals Ophelia’s fate to die.
Along with establishing Ophelia’s fate, the ghost of King Hamlet returns in Act I, scene 5 to reveal Gertrude’s consequences for remarrying to Claudius: “Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge To prick and sting her” (I.v.85-88). Here, the ghost tells Hamlet to leave Gertrude alone and have her guilty conscience cause her downfall because of her disloyalty and disrespect to King Hamlet by her incestuous marriage to Claudius.
Shakespeare uses the characters of Gertrude and Ophelia in this act to portray the unfair treatment of women during Elizabethan times because both women in this act of the play must obey their male counterparts without any explanation for their actions or desires. By giving the men in this play a misogynistic attitude with a double sexual standard and legitimizing the incest marriage, Shakespeare reveals the vulnerability and manipulation of women that causes them to be inferior and easily disrespected.