Hamlet
The story of Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, is a remarkable play about how a perfectly sane man can be mistaken for mad. Hamlet returns to Denmark to find his father dead and his mother married to his father?s brother. The wedding of his mother and his stepfather so soon after her 1st husband?s tragic death gives a feeling of a tornado spinning out of control.This tornado of romance and treachery spins around the eye of the new King of Norway. By telling the readers that the old King of Norway is dead and that the new king (his brother) married the Queen, nothing seems to be wrong, like the beginning of a tornado; but as the story progresses, the tornado begins to twist and turn in disturbing ways. When Hamlet first encounters the ghost of the Old King, it gives way to the idea that nothing is as it seems; and this proves to be true when Hamlet finds that the old king was murdered and that the murderer now wears his crown. A disturbing twist to the tornado is that even though the king has just died the Queen marries rather quickly as is shown in Act 1 Scene 2 Lines 180-181, "The funeral baked meats/Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables". According to these actions, it would seem that greed is thicker than blood and marriage vows are not sanctified; but greed is not blind. When a traveling troupe of performers arrives at the castle and Hamlet has them performing a play of his fathers' death, Claudius realizes that Hamlet knows how his father died. The tornado begins to split into two as romance is pealed away to show treachery within.
With the realization that his crown could be taken away, Claudius begins to plot on how to get rid of the menace called Hamlet. When Hamlet unknowingly kills Polonius, this gives Claudius the perfect way to get rid of Hamlet. Using Polonius' son, Laertes, desire for revenge, Claudius declares a dual between Hamlet and Laertes. The tornado shows it?s insane path when it is discovered that Laertes? rapier is soaked in poison and the king tries to poison Hamlet with a tankard of wine. The tornado begins to converge as romance blends with treachery, when the Queen drinks the wine instead of Hamlet and finds the wine poison by her husband; she dies with the realization that her husband has treason. Upon seeing his loved one die at his hands, Claudius thus shows his love for her and follows her into the afterlife. The tornado begins a huge decrease in power has Hamlet soon dies after his mother and stepfather by Laertes poisoned rapier. As the commotion dies, so does the tornado. Throughout the whole play, the tornado twists between romance and treachery and in the end, both twists turn toward each other for the killing blow.
The tornado is the one thing that stood out for me. The twisting of words, of loves and of loyalties shows how fickle human nature can truly be. A connection between my life and this tornado has appeared only a few times, but is more dramatic in my sisters' life. I have seen her twist and turn from boyfriend to boyfriend looking for Mr. Right and then to find him along with a tornado of feelings. Between loving him and being mad at him, she twists and turns in so many directions that Hamlet sane act of insanity reminds me of her, but in the flesh of reality and reality and not in words of imagination or treachery.
The one thing that has intrigued me the most about this play is the fact that Hamlet's name is so close to the name of William Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet. Is the feelings of this play, the tornado of romance and treachery, behind the death of Shakespeare's only son? Could this play actually contain information about Hamnet and his life? If this is the case, then what is it?
Written by J. Morgan 1999
© 2005-2008 J. Morgan
