In Act 5, Scene 1 when Hamlet leaps into Ophelia’s grave grappling Laertes he screams “I prithee take thy fingers from my throat, / For though I am not splenative and rash, / Yet have in me something dangerous, / Which let thy wiseness fear.” (5. 1. 253-256)
In this impulsive moment what do you feel is Hamlet’s rationale behind his action? What would enrage Hamlet to target Laertes or what would provoke Hamlet to act without discretion? Could there possibly be another motive…?
Take Note of:
- Parallelism
- Theme of repressed emotions
- Hamlet’s growth as a character throughout the play
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In Act 5, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the character Hamlet leaps from concealment into Ophelia’s grave, to fight Laertes, upon hearing the news of her death. Hamlet does this because it is only at her death, that Hamlet realizes the affect his actions and behaviour have truly had on Ophelia- not only is he angry at himself for driving her to her death, he is angry at Ophelia for not leaving to a nunnery like Hamlet ordered her to, and he is furious with Laertes’ act of love for his sister. By jumping into the grave, Hamlet protests his love, for it was unmatched by any in Denmark, including her brother’s love for her. It is as if Laertes has returned to Denmark once his father is dead and his sister is nearing her death- he is absent throughout the downfall of Ophelia. Thus, Hamlet feels Laertes has no right to be portraying such emotion towards her, as Hamlet was the only one who ever genuinely cared about her. He does not feel that Laertes’ love for his sister is sincere in comparison to his own: “Forty thousand brothers / Could not, with all their quantity of love, / Make up my sum,” (5. 1. 234-236). Hamlet rationalizes this action because he makes it clear that he does not believe Laertes is worthy of Ophelia’s grave, that he is undeserving of being near to her one last time.
Hamlet may have jumped into her grave out of rage for himself. Hamlet only ever tried to protect Ophelia- by telling her he did not love her, he was trying to save her; but the result of his actions were not predicted accurately. She did not leave for a nunnery like he had asked her to and he had no choice but to let her believe he did not love her. He could not have explained his behaviour to her, as she has an obligation to her father, and he feels she cannot be trusted as a woman. Hamlet has seen his mother’s disloyalty to both Hamlet and his father, making it difficult for Hamlet to think he can confide in Ophelia. It is at the moment of her burial that Hamlet acknowledges he has failed to protect her: “Woo’t tear thyself? / Woo’t drink up eisel, eat a crocodile? / I’ll do’t,” (5. 1. 265-267). Hamlet remains devoted to Ophelia and retaining her innocence even at her funeral. But, enraged at his failure and the loss of Ophelia, he tries to protect her one last time from Laertes- the brother that says he loves her, but leaves her to her madness.
In Hamlet during the final two scenes of the play many events occur that make anyone who reads them wonder how in the world Hamlet, as just a character in some play written hundreds of years ago, could actually relate to you and do things that make even the smartest human beings on the planet scratch their heads. In the first scene of act 5 Hamlet upon hearing of Ophelia’s demise immediately leaps into her grave to tussle with her brother Laertes. This at first seems as a barbaric act but is in fact just how Hamlet copes with the death of the women he loved. Some deal with the loss of a loved one through self pity and tears but Hamlet deals with the death of his one true love in anger. This act is only natural through the fact that when Hamlet realizes what he has done through his actions that have spanned the play Hamlet finally decides to erupt and begin to take out his anger on the only other living person that could have helped Ophelia, her brother Laertes.
Hamlet’s eruption of anger towards Laertes is only natural as Laertes should have been taking care of his sister who went insane but instead of seeing if his sister was okay after hearing of the death of his father, Laertes stormed the Danish castle and later plots to kill Hamlet. Through the eyes of most this act of neglect towards his sister did contribute vastly to the death of Ophelia and because of his obsession with revenge Laertes really did absolutely nothing to save his sisters life. This is an example of parallelism, in that, both Hamlet and Laertes did not do enough to save Ophelia’s life. So because of a combination of Laertes’ and Hamlet’s tendencies not to act, both lost a person they love due to the fact that they procrastinated while Ophelia’s life was at stake. This is why Hamlet confronted Laertes in Ophelia’s grave.
In the last act of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the character Hamlet who has so far shown himself to be a thinking man, acts impulsively when he finds that tragedy has struck again. When Hamlet hears the news of Ophelia’s death he comes out of hiding in order to confront Laertes who has jumped into the grave with Ophelia’s body. It seems like Hamlet takes his anger out on Laertes because he is the only one who is present that he can blame since Ophelia is deceased. Since Laertes is Hamlet’s character foil Hamlet may also compare himself to Laertes since both characters were not there for Ophelia in her time of need and only appeared after the fact. Hamlet may blame Laertes because he cannot blame himself for his actions. Hamlet faces Laertes and accuses him of not loving his sister as much as Hamlet loved her, “I lov’d Ophelia. Forty-thousand brothers/ Could not with all their quantity of love/ Make up my sum.” (5. 1. 264-266). Hamlet’s justification behind his action may be that Laertes’ emotion for Ophelia may be a fraud and that his tears are just as the Queen’s were for King Hamlet, a show. Seeing as how Hamlet loved Ophelia more than anyone else and Laertes is acting as though he was the only one who loved her, it is understandable why Hamlet would be so upset. Hamlet was shocked to hear of the death of his love but since he was the one who drove Ophelia to her death, though he was actually trying to save her, he lost all of his composure which forced him to act on impulse.
Hamlet’s impulsive actions after hearing the tragic news of Ophelia’s death are quite similar to his actions after fighting with his mother in act three. When the Queen stands up for King Claudius after the murder play Hamlet becomes enraged and acts rashly by stabbing at the curtains when he hears someone listening in to his conversation which ends with Polonius’ death.
Polonius: O, I am slain.
Queen: O me, what hast thou done?
Hamlet: Nay, I know not. (3. 4. 24-25)
Hamlet has proven himself time after time to be a thinking man rather than an action man when faced with confrontation from Claudius, Polonius and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern but when faced with tragic loss Hamlet has spouts of impulsive action. All of the repressed anger and sadness comes out in brash moments where Hamlet lets everything out come at once, in times where it is most chaotic.
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet acts irrationally when he is confronted with overwhelming misfortune and in Act five, when he is faced with the death of Ophelia Hamlet is so overwhelmed with shock and sadness that he takes it out on Laertes because he is angry at his and Laertes’ abandoning Ophelia at her time of need.
In Hamlet, act five, scene one, is the scene where we, the audience, can see a glimpse of Hamlet’s repressed emotion. In the play, Hamlet has gone through hell. He has lost his father, his mother married within a month of his father’s death, and to boot, married to his uncle. The worst part about it is the fact that a ghost of Hamlet’s father comes back from the grave to cast doubt on the legitimacy of his uncles ascension to the throne. In act five, scene one, we finally see the outburst of Hamlets repressed emotion “What is he whose grief / Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow / Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand / Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, / Hamlet the Dane. (5.1.248-251), and with that, a land fall of emotions floods Hamlet. Hamlet, after coming back from the ship in route to England has just came back to find his girlfriend is dead. This is the metaphoric breaking of the camel’s back. Another thing to note is he establishment of the kingship of Denmark. Hamlet makes the clam he is the true heir to the throne, not Claudius. With only being in his early 20’s this is a lot for any human being to keep under control, and even a man of Hamlet’s wit must crack at some point. This leads to the parallelism between Hamlet and Laertes. The cracking point for Hamlet was at the funeral of Ophelia. Laertes’ cracking point would be at the news of Laertes return, and marching a peasant army on the king, “They cry, “Choose we! Laertes shall be King.”” (4.5.106), which is an act of treason, punishable by death. Here we have Laertes’ cracking point, where he finally loses all control. The idea of treason was a serious issue in Elizabethan times; the mention of the issue would get you executed instantly. Now the parallelism between Hamlet and Laertes is similar, with both having cracked after losing someone close to them is important to mention. It retrospect, it can been seen that the single scene of and act has so much emotion and drama, it can be overwhelming to the audience. What makes us feel better is the fact we know Hamlet will finally over come his short comings and take action against Claudius.
Within the first scene of the fifth act of the play Hamlet, Hamlet jumps into Ophelia’s grave and starts to grapple with Laertes. Though this action is horrendous and extremely inappropriate it is the only way Hamlet found he could express himself in his rage.
It seems almost ironic that Hamlet and Laertes who are constantly being compared in parallelism are fighting against each other over what seems to be the same thing, Ophelia. Hamlet’s rash actions stem from his anger over what seems mostly to be Laertes sudden great love for Ophelia, it enraged him to the point that he attacks Laertes and shouts “Forty thousand brothers / Could not, with all their quantity of love, / Make up my sum” (5. 1. 234-236). Hamlet is saying that Laertes does not even compare when it comes to how much he loved Ophelia. He also thinks that Laertes has no business being anywhere near Ophelia’s grave after technically abandoning her as she delved into insanity.
Hamlet’s anger also appears to be at his realization that her death was his fault. He is enraged that it was because of him that the one he loved most in the world is now dead and so he takes it out on the one person he thinks is not deserving of being near her grave. Hamlet realizes that the antic disposition went too far and in his attempt to save Ophelia from the future chaos to occur in Denmark he only broke her heart and drove her to death. His intentions for her to “get thee to a nunnery” (3.1. 138) to be safe had gone unrealized by Ophelia which furthers his rage that she did not understand and leave.
For these reasons Hamlet attacks Laertes in such a brazen act of rage. He is so overwhelmed by the pent up emotions within himself that he explodes on the one person he feels he has rational reason to.
In Act 5, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the protagonist Hamlet jumps into Ophelia's grave, initiating a fight with Laertes after discovering the young woman's death. These actions only commence once Hamlet begins to see that his choice of actions have had an impact on Ophelia. Hamlet takes a stand for his feelings and love for Ophelia by starting a fight with Laertes. Hamlet has an understanding that he is the only one who can love and care for Ophelia the way he does, but when he witnesses Laertes express his emotions, he is convinced to fight. His opinion is that if anyone deserves to express any emotion or feeling, it shouldn't be Laertes, but himself.
The significance of Hamlet's actions is the result of him not believing he was loved by Ophelia, and because of Laertes' actions. Hamlet is convinced that Laertes had the responsibility of being Ophelia's older brother, but did not fulfill that position. It is evident in the play that the lack of attention towards Ophelia from Laertes contributed to her death. Hamlet basically acts out of emotion for Ophelia and take it out on Laertes.
The final act of Hamlet allows for the viewer to get a glimpse of what Hamlet wanted to be throughout the entire play, a man of action. It came though at a rather inappropriate time in the form of a fight with Laertes at Ophelia’s funeral. There may have been many reasons behind Hamlet’s sudden explosion of passion. “Woo’t drink up eisel, eat a crocodile? I’ll do’t. Dost come here to whine, to outface me with leaping in her grave?” (5.1.271-273). This quotation suggests that Hamlet dislikes Laertes because of how he shows up only after everything has happened. It also could be that Hamlet is somewhat envious of Laertes and how he had all the freedom in the world, and only now comes home and is supposed to be the center of attention because of all the grief he is suffering. All the while Hamlet was suffering grief that no one knew about.
Hamlet also attempts to justify his actions towards Laertes, and that it should have been expected. “Let Hercules do what he may, the cat will mew, and dog will have his day.” (5.1.286-287). The quote shows that Hamlet has finally stopped caring about his actions and is finished thinking and planning. He has come to the realization that the world will continue on without him, and he will face his judgment like a man. Furthermore, it foreshadows how Hamlet has dark intentions for both Claudius and Laertes.
Hamlet uses Ophelia’s funeral as a trigger for his final confrontation, whether it was intentional or not. The passion that Hamlet shows in the scene may not have necessarily for Ophelia, but was genuine, and it was Laertes who came in expecting sympathy from everyone that finally set Hamlet off.
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