Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2.

Act 1, Scene 2: Lines 71-80 + 87-92.

Queen: … Seek for thy noble father in the dust.
Thou know’st ‘tis common, all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.
Hamlet: Ay, madam, it is common.
Queen: If it be, Why seems it so particular with thee?
Hamlet: Seems, madam? Nay, it is, I know not “seems.”
‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, [good] mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forc’d breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
King: ‘Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
To give these mourning duties to your father.
But you must know your father lost a father,
That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious sorrow. But to persever.

The queen talks like she does not even care about her husband’s death. She is telling him that it is normal and that it happens. Hamlet does not have another option but to say that it is all right. Then the queen asks why if he thinks that it is normal then why is he acting like that; why is he so sad?
Claudius instead tells him that it is so sweet. Sort of calling him a girl for crying over his dad’s death and for having feelings. And that everyone at some point losses a father and that’s normal. Claudius sounds like he has no feelings.

1 comment:

Erika R. 6 said...

I chose this blog entry because it really calle my attention how the queen was portrait in those lines like she did not care about others but only about herself and I don't really think that any woman should think like that.