Shakespeare: Hamlet

The story of Hamlet is one that was known for generations, long before Shakespeare picked up his quill. In fact many of Shakespeare's works are re-tellings of familar tales or historical events. However it is, along with King Lear and Macbeth, one of Shakespeare's best plays.

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Warning: spoilers ahead. Hamlet's uncle Cladius secretly murders Hamlet's father, becomes the king of Denmark and marries Hamlet's mother. Hamlet learns the truth of this murder, but is paralyzed by his own thoughts and words from acting to avenge his father's death. In the end Hamlet does kill Cladius, but his dithering means that seven other characters also die along the way through treachery, combat, accidents and suicide.

Hamlet is a complex, thoughtful character who finds himself immobilized by his self-reflections on the purpose and meaningfulness of life. In the end we are all food for worms and so life seems futile - "To be or not to be". Is it better to be alive and suffer misery or to be dead and enjoy a long sleep. Hamlet realizes that he will die, like all men, and he would have his life extinguish knowing that he did what he thought was right rather than doing nothing but enduring a mortal existence.

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Reading Hamlet well-prepared with the vocabulary, historical background and double-entendres gave me the opportunity to appreciate the other subtitles in this play, as well as the grand story without being mired in misunderstood phases and words.

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For example, when Hamlet yells at Ophelia, "get thee to a nunnery" this doesn't mean a convent - well it does - but also a whorehouse. When he calls Ophelia's father a fishmonger, Hamlet is not talking about a seller of fish per se, as a fish is another name for a prostitute. Not surprisingly, Hamlet's charm probably contributed to Ophelia's watery suicide.

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A final thing about reading Hamlet that I found amusing was being surprised by a line that you have heard a hundred times, but you were still not prepared to see it suddenly jump out at you in your reading.

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"Neither a borrower nor a lender be, for a loan oft loses both itself and friend"

"The lady doth protest too much, me thinks"

"Frailty, thy name is woman"

"I must be cruel to be kind"

Of course....

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"

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And Finally...

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"To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;"