#and for her to return to the stage in the most inconveniencing heavy to sit through maybe not as pleasant to watch way is a great end to it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

essaytime · 3 months

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do you have any fun facts about hamlet i need motivation to keep reading this play (i like it so far but its so damn long)

— @iron--and--blood

ooops not that many

I like talking about Ophelia, she's my darling, and I enjoy the play as well as Hamlet's character, but I'm nowhere near an expert and I don't really have any kind of fun fact. I'm pretty sure my mutual @gabriel-shutterson (sorry for invoking you if it's inconvenient in any way) is more of an expert here. Here's some incoherent thoughts, not really fun facts, in the tags, though

#the way Hamlet's name is so similar to Shakespeare's dead son is interesting given the role of grief (and parents) in the play #Ophelia's madness was always a very personal scene to me #there's this one post that calls it uncomfortable to sit through and not fitting the more graceful interactions of the rest of the play #or something along these lines #and I believe it's actually very telling and part of the Bard's genius #you have this girl whose feelings goals and beliefs (and often very true reflections on the situation)#are damaged and swept aside specifically for the convenience of other characters #the comfort or attempt at comfort of everyone is built on her suffering.#and for her to return to the stage in the most inconveniencing heavy to sit through maybe not as pleasant to watch way is a great end to it #she has something to say and they HAVE to listen. you HAVE to watch. she can't be silenced #and what she's saying is so problematic itself! the songs about topics unfit for the palace (which is hiding more awful things anyway)!#she becomes a problem everyone has to bear and this is a great finale for her character given that her problems were always dismissed #also my literature teacher made us talk extensively about the theatrum mundi/allegory of life side of it all and I got into it #the way everyone is playing and the sort of apparent decorum of the palace is - as I mentioned - built over horrid secrets #the main conflict being the fact that taking action would be the abandoning of ideals the ditching of which is so awful to Hamlet #the murder is what horrifies him yet the way out is also murder #how Polonius speaks to the prince with the equivalent of motivational Pinterest boards rather than acknowledging the cause of his suffering #which is kind of Standard Human Experience #the way idealists (Hamlet and Ophelia) either go against the ideals hurting people or end up completely broken #and the one sensible person trying to stay away from the situation (Horatio) is nonetheless hurt by it when someone dear to him dies #because it's impossible to stay unaffected #this is an excellent rendition of theatrum mundi to me

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