Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Rogue and Peasant Slave

"This is most brave
That I, the son of a dear father murdered,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore unpack my heart with words
And fall a-cursing like a very drab,
A scullion!" (2.2.611-616)

This sentence is basically the tipping of the iceberg to Hamlet deciding he will kill Claudius. He is fed up with simply speaking his discontent in the scenario he is forced to live with, and sends out his players to kill Claudius and gain vengeance instead of being all-talk. He realizes that he should be taking action for what has been done, almost pumping himself up in this sentence by saying he doesn't want to be a scullion (a servant).

This is important to the play because it is this epiphany that will ultimately depict that fate of not only Hamlet and Claudius, but also the state of Denmark. In general terms, attempting to kill anyone of high power will wreak havoc, and now that Hamlet has set his ambitions to do so with Claudius, it can only result in chaos and tragedy--both of which are Shakespeare's fortes apparently.

Before anything, I am most definitely not a Miami Heat fan. Lakers all the way. But, there's no denying that after all the talk before they even stepped on the court that Miami was going to win not one, not two, not three, yada yada yada, they lost the championship in their first season. Losing that championship was a loss of a season, because the Heat themselves depicted it as a Championship or bust season. In the next year, talking went away for the most part, and the Heat got to work, played hard, focused on the goal, and won it all.
Hamlet now is taking that turn into the second year of the Miami Heat, and is gearing up towards gaining that championship-in his case, revenge for his father's death.


1 comment:

  1. The video is a nice touch. Your explanation of your quote is pleasantly done and easy to read. Also, the insight you added seems to be wise. Do we know that Hamlet will actually follow through with his rant as he said? Or could the play take an unexpected turn? I enjoyed reading this, keep it up.

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