Hamlet Final Exam (High School, 1991)
Hamlet Final Exam (High School, 1991)
S lEImGIllI$lH[
Take Home Final - Part I
January 15, 1991
Mr. McSweeney
DUE: Tuesday, January 22, 1991
Do One of the following
I But we can find, if we return to the play itself, more in Shakespeare's conception
of Hamlet's character than an embodiment, however profound, of the difference
(between appearance and reality. (The difference between appearance and reality
himself; Polonious, the ghost, the King, all mention it in one way or another;
(isthecontinually referred
frequency with to images
which throughout the play by
of painting, of other
coveringpeople besidesdiseases
up hidden Hamlet are
used is another illustration of its prevalence; and it is the central idea of Hamlet's
m.~~~~Cit~9I1sin the qr~ve.y.ar.d..) Shakespeare had made severafeariierexperiments
with the development of character; in portraying Romeo and Prince Hal, among
others. he had shown his ability to make a hero change.. as the result of the play's
.'--
action. But just as ..------ ----
Hamlet Ulustrates both a more expanded and a , more fused
control of dramatic convention an~nat beJ.ief than the earlier plays, so it
shows a greater mastery of hOw to describe the growth, inside dramatic limits, of
a hero. This can be clearly seen if we examine, in order ,rHamlet I s great
(solil~qUies.
the chaos of hisWhen we first
thought and see Hamlet
feeling alone, heinisthe
is reflected emotionally
grammaticalin chaos
pieces, of and
his
/utterances; before he can finish a sentence some new agonizing disruptive thought
:explodes to distract his mind. The order of the world, of the state, and of the
individual are all in pieces and the chaotic grammar reflects the universal chaos
of his thought. The same is true of his second great soliloquy, the one beginning:
In the soliloquy that follows (as far as the audience is concerned, about three
minutes later), the "To be or not to be" soliloquy, we see a Hamlet who is able
to generalize on a new level. No longer is there a grammatical torrent, and no
longer is Hamlet thinking about~.~~nce as opposed to I).Q.n.=~~l~~~_ only in
relation to himself; he has grown, psychologically and philosophically, so that he
can think of the problem more universally. In the first soliloquy it was "This too
too solid flesh"--Hamlet's own -- about which he was concerned. Now, as the play
reaches its center, it is no longer" I", but "we" --aUl1l,UnaIti,ty--that he reflects
upon: "When we have shuffled off this mortar-coiL •• " ..
I suggest that we can understand Hamlet best by realizing that in the play Shakespeare
for the first time used to the full the conflict between the two views of man's nature
which was so deeply felt in his age. One side was the pictLre of a man as he should
~be--it was bright, orderly and optimistic. ~-
On the other was the picture of man as he
is--it was full of darkness and chaos. Shakespeare puts an awareness of this con-
trast into the character of Hamlet, and his having done so is one of the main reasons
for tl...amlet's greatness. Previously Shakespeare had used the tradliional beliefs
descriptively as part of the background--the sun is compared to the king, the human
bc?dyis compared to the state--and there is no question as to whether the beliefs
are true. But in Hamlet, they are not in the background, they are an essential
part of the hero's consciousness I and his discovery that they are not true I his
awareness of the conflict between what theory taught and what experience proves I
wreck.s him. Shak.espeare had used the difference between appearance anQ..reality
as a dramatic device many times before I but never like this I and.-never in such
close relation to the thought and feeling of his time.
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Hamlet Final - Part I - Take Home
II
If Hamlet is not content with the simple soldierly code of honor, it is because
he sees too deeply and skeptically into that cosmic setting of human life which
Shakespeare's theater symbolically represented. He sees beyond the tiny human
involvements of the foreground to the social order indicated by the stage house
facade and, above that, to the order in the stars implied by the canopy over his
head. This is especially clear in his first scene with Rosencrantz and Guilden-
stern (Act II, scene 2). It is in this scene that he m~kes the great speech on
man which Tillyard quotes as an exposition of the traditional ordered universe.
But the speech ends bitterly: "And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?"
Though Hamlet accepts this order, he does not know where he belongs in it;
he is not even sure which way is up. He would have felt the forces of that remark
of Heracleitus which Eliot uses as an epigraph to Burnt Norton: "The way up and
the way down are one and the same." His intellect plays over the world of the
religious tradition with an all dissolving irony like that of Montaigne in the
Apologie de Raimond Debonde: A truly double-edged irony, for he can neither
do with nor do without the ancient moral and cosmic order.
How does Hemlet resolve his place in the ordered Elizabethan universe and what
factors contribute to his finding his place in the sup? Be as specific as you can
is your reply.
22 .January 1991
control. Man wants to bel ieve that he can control his destiny,
ball et star'. But with age comes the hesitant real ization that we
startl ing recognitions that leave us feel ing powerless. And after
up to naturi:=1.
II
the f unet""'a
1 • Soon, two friends betray him and his girlfriend is
the part.
This spurs Hamlet to find that things are not always what
• his mother with his bel ief that she only plays the part of the
mourning widow, and the related bel isf that hE is true to his
ShCH"iing. Eschewing F'olonius' t~em,,:\rktrh3.t the "clc,thes oft
pl'-'OC 1aim the man," he indi cates that his gl~i ef goes beyond his
"inky cloak" and "5.ui ts of woe" <.*ndhe is "denoted tr'uly" by', the
"actions tha,t a man might play'." Such talk is IrJr'itten off by the
"less, tha,n kind" I<ing a,s "unmanly grief."
Hamlet carries this g~ief and revisioning with him into his
f ir~,;t sol i 1oquy. He assai 1s the ent ire "Llnweeded garden" of t.he
wOI~1
d that all O~·JS
such horr'id and weak people to gr·ow. But
Hamlet stops short of announcing other people suffer as much as
he. He attacks all men, but relates misfortune only to himself.
At the s5a,me
time, he ack nowl edges his impotency"; 21,S he "mi_lst ho'l d
(ny' t.CjngLlE a II (1.2 .1~58)
past ~" (1.5.100) and r'emember" the "'JOrds of his unc 1e. He
No~"" it {'s a
r
TaU '
i and pestilent
congre·;;;at i on of va.por··s." These vapors have mCl.dehim 1o~;e i ntet"est
in what \!oJ5.S
be 1i evec:! to be the "par-'agon o·f an i ma1s , I! i. E. man.
It is not.hing mot-'E than "a qLlintessence of dus.t.!I At the E.~nd,
broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his
paragement, I·-·eal
iz in9 "what ",inCl.S'5" he is (2.2.595), and that he
"!DU'st, 1 ik e a ~'\lhor"e,
Ltnpack my he,art with wor'ds, and f a.l1 a-
Act ,'""
His next sol iloquy (3.1) shows Hamlet readying himself for
effort. This time, however, he sees that all men face the same
universal questions. All men, face confl ict, and the courses of
begins this spei-'2ch"To be, 01- not to be" (3.1.56), not "Am lor-
his. pr"ob1err.O:l.nd
the pr'ob1em of a 11 man -- that "consc i ~.:?ilce
does.
make cowar'd~" of us· all." (3.1.83) Fearing that he wi]'; "lOSE the
s.hocked.
action. The gravedigger shows Hamlet that all men meet the same
mew, .and the dc'S) will ha.ve his day," (5.1.294) the motive and thE
cue for pa.ssion s~"Jell ~'ljithinhim, embol dening him for C:l.ction.
In his last
pei~%a5 i
stet~ 1 iz es, the F'otten state 0'( Denmad::.
words, Hamlet bestows the throne u.pon Fortinbras, a man who
..
II ea",;::'
er to play upon than .::.,
pipe,~ Ii ,:':l,ne!
though the pa ir cou 1 ,j 'f n?t
;....'
him p12l.YLlpon" Illin
t.hey llCannc.it. t=
Though Rosen-
r '
crantz and Guildenstern are from t.he formidable or 19l.tr-e
Hamlet reluctantly
His encounter' ~'"J ith his mother has Ham] at Ii speak i ng dagger's ~II
then directs his fury directly at his mother, searching for an-
By Act IV, Scene iv, Hamlet. seems to have lost all faith in
'. the virtue of man. Man is nGt~ he bel ieves, inherently good. He
20,000 men who will die "foF" a trick of fame." But the speec/"'j
not.hing wor-th,"
but hi,:;:; Dllm action (ot" inaction) leads to his. collapse. He ha:;:;
influence, but. his hold on that throne was not. It is not mOt~al
Aristotle bel ieved that man's actions, not fate, brings true
real izes that Ophel ia, Getrude, and ClaudiLls are not as pure as
At the same time, Hamlet must choose between two worlds: the
are new doubts and fears, new shocks to the flesh, and Hamlet
(joes not alwc\ys feel pr-'ep2u-'t:~d
+':0cope irJi+.:h
t.hen·,)
~f1t.ilhe t·::.
action. The gravedigger shows Hamlet that all men meet the same
the "spec ial pf"ovidence in the fall of a sparrow, II C::.2 .220- ..221) ,
his confrontat ion IN ith Laet~tes a.ssures Ha.mlet V'lat II The cat wi 1 1
mew, and the do'; wi.ll have his day," (5.1.294) the mcd:ive and the
cue for passion swell within him, emboldening him for action.