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I believe that Shakespeare had a specific intent in Hamlet's willful denial of whatis generally staged as a verifiable reality: the letters and trinkets Ophelia holds inher hands. Hamlet's gesture speaks to a much larger project of resisting adefinition imposed on him by what he sees as a coercive and illegitimate speechculture headed by the king.- SMITH, DAVID M. "Shakespeare's HAMLET.(William Shakespeare)(CriticalEssay)." The Explicator 59.4 (Summer 2001): 174. Expanded AcademicASAP. Thomson Gale. King County Library System. 13 Mar. 2007<http://find.galegroup.comThe essay, which I can not claim to have read quite the rest of, contends that Hamlet istired of Claudius's fluffed-up speech at all times, and Hamlet is making some sort of avant-grade protest. However, I really think it goes much further than this. Hamlet spends the whole play, inmy opinion, trying to break free of banal reality. He goes around what he does to define other people's reality - he convinces everyone else he really is insane, while actively disregardinganyone else's views as "words, words, words." In th end, however, Hamlet has a point. Everyone bears some notion to reality, but disposes of it when they want. Gertrude had a quite banal hopefor Ophelia and Hamlet to get married as any normal person should have such a happy, normalmarriage. Yet not only does this version of reality clash horribly with Polonius's, but what isGertrude, marrying her brother-in-law despite having a child, doing trying to lay a claim onreality? Than again, the same could be said of Hamlet as well. He tries to mold Ophelia's reality,or rather destroy it with an on-off relationship, yet he is certainly not completely sane! In the end,this "war of realities" leads to all the protagonists dying or murdering each other. The only two people who have normal endings are Fortinbras and Horatio: Fortinbras is portrayed by thecharacters as the brash, obnoxious lad who doesn't care about what others think. In reality, he is just refusing to confirm of their realities. Horatio, who rarely speaks throughout the play, justlistening. This is because unlike everyone else, he has no agenda, but trying to pierce realitytogether.
Several times during the play, Hamlet expresses dissatisfaction with words[...] Infact, the play has been described as a portrait of a man who thinks too much--thatis, a man whose head is so filled with interior verbalizations that he is incapableof taking action.- Delaney, Bill. "Shakespeare's Hamlet." The Explicator 63.2 (Wntr 2005): 66(3).Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale. King County Library System.13 Mar. 2007 <http://find.galegroup.com>Is this really true? Hamlet is upset at his inability to take action throughout the entire play, but itis not like there is a direct correlation between wordiness and inaction. Just take a look at theother characters, one by one. Poloniuos has pompous talks constantly, yet is always schemingand acting on supposed behalf of his children, spreading rumors and spies to keep track of themand to make sure they do what he wants. Claudius does the same, and is filled with speeches androyal pronouncements. Perhaps this because they wear their thoughts on their sleeves, so theimplication is that the disgust of words is about thinking to oneself. First of all, that does notmake much sense, because words are something that one shares. Second, as you go through thecharacters, the only heroes are the silent ones, Fortinbras and Horatio. Who does Hamlet have inmind when he is talking about words? Even as a self-evaluation, it is kind of weak. His mostsuccessful forays, driving Ophelia crazy and appealing to his mother, were done with words.Explaining individual scenes in the play where words are talked about is easier than trying todraw a conclusion from all of these disparate people, as the author suggests. For example, in the"words, words, words" scene, he could easily be just putting on a show of "Oh, life doesn'tmatter, this is useless, etc." But the author has a point, especially since this book was written by a poet. Is Shakespeare just being ironic and self-referencing for fun, like the advice on the acting? perhaps. Perhaps Hamlet really does believe it on face value, but he is rationalizing his failures,or is just insane. But that's an obtuse argument. There is some meaning here. I still just don't haveany idea what it could be.
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