Well, rather surprisingly to me,
the Classic Play that I read for the Back to the Classics Challenge hosted by
Karen at the blog Books and Chocolate was Hamlet. I was initially considering reading more
Oscar Wilde and then I though instead maybe some Sheridan based on Reese’s excellent review of School for Scandal at the blog Typings. I was looking for, you
know, something light and comedic. Instead I read Shakespeare’s longest play
and a tragedy to boot. I have a very good friend who teaches English and she
convinced me to read it with her so we could discuss it since she is
considering teaching it in future. Her go-to for teaching Shakespeare is
Macbeth, which she can quote, amazingly to me, by heart.
I think like many readers, I was
familiar with the play prior to reading it. I may have read it in high school or we may have only read the famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy…the farther I get from my teen years, the more trouble I have remembering the details. But regardless, like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet has permeated the culture of the English speaking world by osmosis. Originally I wanted to listen to it on audio in tandem to
reading the text, but since it is such a long play, I couldn’t find an audio
book with the full four and half hour production.
Like I said, I knew the story
(and am assuming you, dear reader, know it too), so what is my take away from
the play? I was surprised that Hamlet is
so morose. As I read, I pictured him as a
tortured, goth teenager moaning about his parents and how unfair life is. I do understand that Hamlet does have legitimate
cause for complaint; his father had been only dead for two months and no one
seems to care or notice. However, I did find him particularly mopey-just my
take. I understand from a little internet research that there are a multitude
of ways to play and interpret Hamlet, so I may have been reading into it, since I was a pretty mopey teenager myself once upon a time. I also didn’t know that Polonius is
supposed to be such a pompous windbag and I had assumed that Queen Gertrude was
complicit in Hamlet Sr.’s death, but she appears to be innocent. Clearly there were many details I was unaware of and I am glad I read it and set the record straight. Maybe one of these
days I will watch an adaptation or even see it live now that I am better acquainted with the play.
One other thing I really enjoyed
was discovering a lot of phrases that I already knew but did not know came from
this play. A few examples are below:
“…though I am native
here and to the manner born, it is a custom more honored in the breach than the
observance.”
“Though this be
madness, yet there is method in’t”
“The lady protests too much, methinks.”
My friend and I had an
interesting discussion on what we felt was the ultimate message of Hamlet. I wasn’t expecting a moral but
she was, since she feels that Macbeth makes a clear point about the dangers of
ambition. We decided
there really isn't any one moral conclusion to Hamlet. Which is
probably in part why the play has endured since it is so open to
interpretation.
