I'm Reading Hamlet Again.

Hamlet is a play that has been read and studied time and time again by anybody who has even the slightest interest in taking an English class, but each time that I read it I find new aspects of it to enjoy; I think that Shakespeare’s ability to create interesting dynamics between so many characters is a gift that very few people have.

I remember the first time I read Hamlet in high school, and almost the entire class discussion was focused around the argument of whether or not Hamlet was actually mad. And while I understood why that had to be the main focus, it didn’t seem to me that it actually mattered whether or not Hamlet was indeed mad. When I read Hamlet for the first time, I was much more concerned with Ophelia.

I found her character to be both absolutely intriguing and extremely heartbreaking. When Ophelia says, “He is dead and gone, lady, / He is dead and gone; / At his head a grass-green turf, / At his heels a stone,” my heart broke (IV.v.29-31). The idea of Hamlet going mad only seemed to matter to me in relation to Ophelia actually going mad.

The second time that I read Hamlet, I was in Dr. Hicks’ introduction to British literature course. Because we also read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, I was much more interested in focusing on more of the “secondary” characters that time. I remember not much caring about Hamlet’s relationship with Claudius that time.

Instead, I was interested in the relationship of Polonius and Laertes. These characters seemed to be the perfect foils for one another. In Act I, scene iii, Polonius gives Laertes advice before he leaves for France. He says, “my blessing with thee. / And these few precepts in thy memory” (56-57). He tells his son several clichés about how he needs to behave, and he gives him ideas of how to stay true to himself. It intrigued me seeing how the two father-son duos compared to one another.

This time, however, I couldn’t help but focus all of my attention on Queen Gertrude. Clearly Hamlet does not respect his mother throughout much of the play, and she herself seems to go back and fourth about whether she wants to align herself with Hamlet or Claudius.

After promising Hamlet that she would keep his secrets in Act III, the first thing that Queen Gertrude does in Act IV is run to the king to inform him that Hamlet killed Polonius. She says, “In his lawless fit / Behind the arras hearing something stir / Whips out his rapier, cries ‘A rat, a rat!’ / And in this brainish apprehension kills / The unseen good old man” (IV.i.8-12). Does she reveal Hamlet’s secret to Claudius because she believes Hamlet is mad and she wants to attempt to help him, or does she reveal the secret because she believes her best interest is to ally herself with King Claudius?

Further, during the end of the play, why does she decide to drink the poisoned wine despite Claudius telling her not to do so? I like to hope it’s because, despite the men in her life treating her poorly and having very little choice in what she does, she knows that the wine is poisoned and drinks it to save her son. To me, it feels much more fitting for a Queen to choose her end—even if it’s death.

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