There is something rotten in the country of Denmark – and it is not the eggs in our peasant
There is a big trust issue between the characters in William Shakespeare’s most famous play, Hamlet. How can you blame them? They are not the most honest and respectable group. They actually make Dexter look like a cutie.
A few of these Hamlet quotes pretty much say it all in a nutshell:
GHOST: “Yes, that inbreeding, that false beast…”
(1.5.9) HAMLET: “O villain, villain, smiling, cursed villain!”
(1.5.10) POLONIUS: “At such a time I will lose my daughter to him; then it will be you and I behind arras.’
(2.2.12) LAERTES: “Justly am I slain by my own treachery.” (5.2.12)
Looks like these guys have some problems to solve. Let’s break it down and look at who does what to whom:
- Claudius kills the king, Hamlet’s father, seizes the throne, and captures his own brother’s wife while doing so
- Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, betrays her ex-husband the king by jumping into the sack with Claudius right after his death
- Laertes intervenes in his sister Ophelia’s love life and insists that she stop trying to become romantically involved with Hamlet
- Hamlet pretends to be mad. Of course, he only does it to trap his uncle, but still – deceitful.
- Hamlet plots to kill Claudius.
- Polonius hides behind a curtain to spy on Hamlet. What – were there no closets in this castle?
- Hamlet (thinking he is Claudius) stabs and kills Polonius (wouldn’t have been so easy if he was in the closet – just saying),
- Claudius conspires to get Hamlet’s friends to take him to England, where he will be out of the way at least for a while.
- Claudius and Laertes conspire to kill Hamlet.
- Hamlet, upon discovering an incriminating letter ordering his own death, decides to give Rosencrantz and Guildenstern a dose of their own medicine and kills them. (This is an expensive drug.)
- Claudius accidentally poisons Gertrude.
- Laertes kills Hamlet.
- Hamlet kills Laertes and Claudius.
- Horatio is caught cheating on the PSAT.
This is already treason and fraud. If this isn’t a primed FOX reality show, we don’t know what is.
There are many aspects of Shakespeare’s masterpiece that make Hamlet his most performed and most praised work, but you just have to call out the element of duplicity that runs throughout the text. No wonder virtually everyone ends up lying in a pool of blood and/or poisoned wine.
Hopefully the above list will inspire you to go home, tell your mom you love her, put away the cutlery, and stop acting so crazy.
#rotten #country #Denmark #eggs #peasant