September 16

Who's There?

actions vs. words

soliloquy- one person speaking to audience; inner thoughts; creates dramatic irony; Hamlet in 1.2

monologue- a long speach by one person to audience or others; Claudius in 1.2

Hamlet's solioquy in 1.2. 133-164:

• inner thoughts, depressing
• jumping from thought to thought
• using images that are a mess in his heads
• state of things in Denmark with his uncle
• father's death - not even 2 months dead; wonderful king; "that he might not beteem the winds of heaven visit her face too roughly"
• doesn't want to let himself think about it
• inspecting how much his mother actually loved his father since she went for Claudius right after Hamlet's death
• mother is worst than a beast; beast would have mourned longer
• does not respect his uncle
• "incestuous sheets"
• troubled mentally because he is upset with his mother

Act I, Scene 5

Ghost:

- "Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned" (do you come with good or bad intentions)
- "Thou com'st in such a questionable shape"
- "I'll call thee 'Hamlet,''

Ghost claims that Claudius poured poison in his ear when he was sleeping

motifs:

-ears (listen, spy, tone, gossip)
Ghost is sticking poison in Young Hamlet's ear after conversation

mind vs. body
(1.5.108-110)

Ghost doesn't blame Gertrude as much as Young Hamlet does

Hamlet asks Horatio and Marcellus to swear on his sword:
-Ghost hears them swearing and says "swear"
-Do Horatio and Marcellus hear the Ghost?
-Ghost could be coming from Hamlet's conscious

Ghost comes and "poisons" Hamlet... "time is out of joint"

EVERYTHING is out of joint