jueves, 20 de noviembre de 2014

Who is the Hero in Hamlet?

First male hero in Shakespeare


As we know and have seen through the Literature lessons we have had, all the heroes in Shaky's plays are women that have to disguise themselves as men in order to succeed and show up hersleves, but in Hamlet, women are portrayed in a different way.
In the history of theater [1] when women started acting in the plays, all the interpretations of the characteristics of the play changed and everything was new. 

Throughout the novel, Ophelia starts losing her power until she disappears when her existence come to an end when drowning. We can come to the conclusion that Hamlet would have been the same story without Ophelia, but Ophelia would't have existed without Hamlet [1]. Thus, Ophelia, seen just as an object by Hamlet, is forced into madness--probably schizophrenia--which was probably caused by the lose of his father and also because of Hamlet's rejection that finally lead her to her end.

OPHELIA
[Sings]
And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead:
Go to thy death-bed:
He never will come again.
His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll:
He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan:
God ha' mercy on his soul!
And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' ye.
Exit
(Act IV sc V, Lines 23-27) 
 After that she disappears, we could notice that Hamlet continuous on his duty on revenge. At the end, he becomes a hero, a tragic hero to be specific, because of his tragic flaw. He states "How all occasions do inform against me, and spur my dull revenge"(Act IV sc IV, lines 31-32) when he is facing Fortinbras' army going to Poland and is in that moment when he realizes that it could be an other inconvenient in his plan to kill Claudius.
At the end, he would not survive to see the achievement of his goals come true and that's what finally turned him into a tragic hero. His most inner thoughts made him to procrastinate so that he posponed the death of Claudious until the end of the play.

Do you believe that he can be cataloged as a hero?
What is your personal opinion about Ophelia? Do you believe she was really insane or that she was just a victim of the consequences?


References: 
[1] Elaine, Showalter. Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism. 1985

Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Oxford: Globe Theater Press, 2005.

1 comentario:

  1. Certainly, Hamlet is the tragic hero of the play. Since DEATH is the cause for Hamlet to start his quest -King Hamlet's death- (as any hero who start his journey in a video game) and DEATH is what put an ending to his quest -King Claudius' death- everything around the tragic hero will no longer exist: family, friends, lover, etc. Everyone is destined to die at some moment without exception, even the hero after consummate his revenge.

    On the other hand and for me, Ophelia is just a victim for the Hierarchy's decisions. Not only Claudius who manipulates everyone's mind with elocuent speeches but also her father Polonius who uses her as a mere object to reach his objectives.

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