Term Paper on "Hamlet Shakespeare as Political Critic"

Term Paper 6 pages (1947 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Hamlet

Shakespeare as Political Critic: Hamlet and the Rule of One"

Treachery, intrigue, ambition and lust all emotions and situations the modern world is intimately aware of, yet universal in their historical control over humankind. Unresolved grief for many is the cornerstone of madness, the death, or subversion of reason as the monitor of emotion the biggest fear within Shakespeare's Hamlet, within the play itself and within the character of Hamlet.

Levy 83) Stricken by the universal outgrowth of treachery, intrigue, ambition and lust Hamlet struggles to regain control over his emotions. Hamlet wavers between the rational and the emotional, with only marginal ability to control either and within his struggle lays the fate of a nation.

Hamlet, as a literary work, is clearly an assassination of the fragile nature of a monarchical government controlled by one fragile man and his selfish desires. Shakespeare challenges the status quo not with what is within the work but with what is left out, any mention of the population of lives altered by the treachery, intrigue, ambition and lust inherent in humankind. Shakespeare's subtlety allows viewers to overlook the political assassination in the work as it boldly pronounces the very personal and local results of the real assassination of a king.

In David Linton's work on Shakespeare as a media critic he describes just what it means to be a critic. There is little doubt that Shakespeare had motive and intention for challenging both history and change. Though Linton's intention is to argue that Shakespeare's messages are media criticism it creates the very important link between his art as a medium for criticism of any kind.

Content-analyses most often deal with controversial subjects such as violence, erotica, propaganda or political messages, while effects-analyses focus on the social, psychological or cognitive alterations that result from the use or exposure to a given medium.

Linton 1)

Shakespeare clearly demonstrates, with its shear diversity that his work is cultural, social and even political criticism at any given time. Within Hamlet there is not a desire to assail the man for his inability to subvert emotion through reason but a very personal demonstration of the danger of one man, with human frailty holding the fate of a whole population within his hands.

Though speaking of another work, Linton assigns Shakespeare the role of ventriloquist, with a greater message than the apparent theme of his works: "As ventriloquist, Shakespeare has slyly made the dummy express the dangerous truth and then reprimanded the dummy on the point of Iden's sword."

Linton) in this manner Shakespeare's Hamlet gives the masses a view of the fragility of despotic rule. Though Hamlet is presumably and good man, as we are drawn into his lust for the righting of wrongs, he nonetheless loses his mind over his personal anguish. Is any one man fit to rule?

The system of patronage that ruled the arts in Shakespeare's time demanded decorum, you could say certain things but only in the context of other more neutral backdrops. Allegorical representations of well-known historical situations where his favorite, much the same as the true crime fiction that popular American culture has embraced over the last twenty years, the stories, are as they say, "ripped from the headlines." If a work was deemed to political, to critical or to thought provoking for the masses or the aristocracy it was simply not produced or requested and without such it died in pre-performance text. Shakespeare is a crack political critic, with his messages subverted in the guise of the independent emotional man, as in Hamlet, or even in the relative safety net of comedy, as in Much Ado About Nothing, a clear critique upon the institution of marriage, foundational to the economy and the culture of Shakespeare's time. It is even suggested that Much Ado About Nothing would have had a limited production history within Shakespeare's time because it was simply too controversial.

Hamlet is a man bent on revenge. He is destined to exhibit his madness through such revenge, and the work portrays this heartily in its demonstration of Hamlet's individual wavering over the rational and the emotional. In fact his relationship with Ophelia is a direct reflection of his wavering between rational and emotional, with a political twist. On the one hand Hamlet is aware that allying with Ophelia would be a rational second choice to his more accepted progeny as his father's heir.

He finds himself drawn to her as a person, thus making the internal conflict even more extreme, and yet he implores what she represents, an acceptance of the fate of his mother and uncle's treachery and ambition realized. Hamlet knows he should love and accept marriage with Ophelia, as the alternative to his previous design. It is presumed, without further treachery, that if Hamlet makes this alliance, he can step into the role of the assumed heir to his uncle rather than his father, yet Hamlet's emotions rule the day, as we all know and Ophelia sacrifices herself as the scorned pawn that she has become, and Hamlet sinks further into his madness. "Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats; with 'em? Mine ache to think on't."

Hamlet, V, i, 99-101.

Hibbard 325)

The death of individuals is though of as a tragedy, as they are simply born to be pawns to the greater cause of one man's power and wealth over another. Hamlet asks are we all to become pawns to the treachery of the mighty?

Yet, we all know this. The subtle message of political/cultural/social criticism is found as stated before, not in the story but in the omission. During all these trials and tribulations, of this very personal account at court, there is remarkably no mention of the effects such treachery could have on the country. Hamlet's "Something rotten in the state of Denmark," is the first and nearly last mention of the whole of the state and it is in the guise of his discussion about the treachery of his family, not the state of its people. Does Shakespeare really mean for Hamlet to say, something's rotten in the state of Denmark? The whole of the state is presumably at the mercy of the king, yet there is no mention of the state of the nation, as it pertains to its people.

The new alliances are formed, before Hamlet returns, and the changes in governing, are according, yet despite the power of the elite over the masses, there is no mention of the regime change with regard to their welfare. There is even no mention of Hamlet as a ruler, his father is alluded to as a good king, yet on what merit? Shakespeare builds a case for the madness of the mighty as the bane of the masses, yet he must step forward with care, or not be heard at all.

In fact, there are many mentions of Shakespeare's own acting as best exhibited in his portrayal of the ghost in Hamlet. "That 'the top of his performance was the ghost in his own Hamlet' (Rowe, 1709)."

Holzknecht 25) for Shakespeare this mouthpiece, with so much to say and so little dialogue, creates the backbone of a message about man, beware he is selfish and uncontrollable.

In a fascinating passage of a historical context analysis of Shakespeare's works there is a description of Hamlet that is often lost in modern translation, because the work is often stripped of the information in modern production.

Shakespeare developed his play as three parallel stories of sons who have lost their fathers -- Hamlet, Fortinbras, and Laertes. Some time before his murder, the elder Hamlet, in response to a wagerchallenge, has killed the elder Fortinbras in single combat and taken possession of some of his land. In Norway, as in Denmark, the throne has passed, not to the son of the dead king, but to his brother. When the drama opens, the young Prince Fortinbras, "of unimproved mettle hot and full," is quietly gathering an army, without his sovereign-uncle's knowledge, to take advantage of political changes in Denmark and retrieve the territory which had been forfeit.

Holzknecht 253)

Holzknecht makes clear that the death of the elder Fortinbras, at the hand of Hamlet's father is not one that the king should be damned for, as it was in this case and alls fair in love and war kind of situation. "As audience, we are not expected to become excited over the justice or injustice of vengeance for death in a fair fight. We are merely to recognize, as Hamlet himself does, the similar position in which the two young princes stand, and the differences in their temperaments."

Holzknecht 253) the story is really a retelling of the madness and lack of social interest that is derived from the ambition of kings, and it is also a way to point out that Hamlet, regardless of his position as a wise and learned young man, presumably worthy of the throne,… READ MORE

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