ENG1400 essay. compare and contrast essay between 2 stories, the question attached below. NO EXTERNAL SOURCES please. CITATION FROM THE BOOKS IS NECESSARY. Attached below are the stories as well. PLAG

Hamlet:

Act 1 scene 1

The key to this scene is the opening question and its response: “Who’s there?” and “Stand, and unfold yourself.”

What Shakespeare is pointing us to look at is who we are as humans, how we know who other people are, and if there is anything other than who we are (that is, if there is a God). “Who’s there” is THE existential question the play is based on.

After seeing the ghost of the dead king, Horatio and the soldiers question why it was there. They believe it’s because Denmark is going to go to war with Norway, but in reality the ghost is there because he was murdered by Claudius. No one has any clue about this.

Act 1 scene 2

This scene takes place in the court of the king. The king and his new wife (former sister-in-law) are there, along with lords and ladies. And Hamlet, who is dressed all in black and is not happy to be there.

Claudius gives a long speech outlining why the country should be sad and happy at the same time. Sad because the old king, his brother, is dead. Happy because he is now married to Gertrude. Everyone is happy here EXCEPT Hamlet.

Claudius deals publicly with the affairs of the state, and then turns to Hamlet.

C: But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son.

H: A little more than kin, and less than kind. (1.2.64-65)

Claudius is saying here that Hamlet is both his nephew and his son. Hamlet replies by saying that they are too closely related (uncle-daddy) and yet that in spite of their close relations, they are nothing alike – not kindred. But he is also saying “I don’t like you and won’t be kind to you.”

Claudius then responds with: “How is it that the clouds still hand upon you?”

He means this to be an insult – ohhh, poor Hamlet has a rain cloud over his head. But Hamlet once again tosses it back to Claudius as an insult: “Not so, my lord, I am too much i’th’ sun.” Which means I am too much a SON. That is, I now have two dads; one too many.

Gertrude tries to persuad Hamlet to cheer up, by saying it’s common nature that things die. Hamlet responds by saying it is “common,” which suggests his disgust with his mother that she now is married a second time, to her former brother-in-law, no less. Hamlet is suggesting that two men have now *had* her in “common.” A vulgar sexual remark.

Then Hamlet launches into an important speech (1.1.76-86) on how some people might “seem” to be upset, but that he truly *is* upset. He is aware that the outside of people, what they show you, might be faked, but also that sometimes what people show you isn’t faked, but rather inadequate to show you their “inner self.” How do you show someone who you are, other than by SHOWING? Which might be fake, but also might be true. And how are you to know? But how are you to show someone else how you feel, without SHOWING (which might be faked) but is also not nearly ever enough to show what “passes show.” You can never show what passes showing, by definition.

Claudius gives a long speech about why Hamlet is wrong to mourn for his father, but everything he says actually reflects back on him. He is the one who committed a fault against the dead, a fault against nature, and a fault to heaven by murdering his own brother. Everything he is says is actually an admission of his own guilt.

Claudius asks Hamlet to stay in Denmark. Why? Because he knows that Hamlet IS THE REAL KING. Claudius stepped in and usurped the throne, but Hamlet should have inherited. Hamlet is the adult son (he is 30) of the former king. Every breath he takes is the breath of the true king of Denmark, and Claudius knows it. Claudius wants Hamlet close so that he can watch him. You keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

After Claudius, Gertrude, and the lords and ladies leave the stage, Hamlet has his first soliloquy of the play. Here is wishes for EITHER his flesh to disappear OR for him to be able to commit suicide. What he is articulating is the difference between his soul and body, and he feels his body to be “solid,” “sallied,” “sullied.” -- his body is material, attacked, and polluted. (see the lone footnote on pages 382-84 of the Oxford Edition). What Hamlet feels disgust at is the “uses of the world,” the things in this world that prevent him from being the true, inner self he feels is there. Once again, Hamlet is drawing attention to the inner-outer duality he feels exists. What is REALLY bothering him is his mother’s remarriage to Claudius. Hamlet, as of yet, does not suspect any foul play with regard to his father’s death.

Horatio and the guards come in, and Hamlet plans to go and see the ghost with them. He will talk with the ghost, and discover that his father was murdered by Claudius. The ghost orders Hamlet to talk revenge on Claudius. BUT HOW?!

Gertrude: it is easy to think that Gertrude might be guilty, either as a self-interested and sexually loose woman, or even as an accomplice to the crime of murder. Why might we think that? Because Hamlet has many issues with his mother’s sexuality. Mostly they revolve around the fact that he cannot just see her as his mother anymore, but most now see her as the new lover to Claudius. But we should also consider Gertrude’s position: what would she do, if she didn’t marry Claudius? Further, what would Claudius do? – find a 18 young, fertile 18 year old and marry her – and have his own sons and heirs to the throne. What then? What would become of Hamlet, who exists as an alternate royal lineage? I will tell you what would happen to him: Claudius would kill him as soon as look at him.

Hamlet doesn’t seem to be aware that his mother may have married Claudius as an act of maternal love and protection? Why?

Act 1 Scene 3

This is a domestic scene, with Ophelia and her brother. In it he warns Ophelia of Hamlet and his affection for her, saying that he can’t really be true to her. He just wants her for one thing: that’s right, sex. Ophelia disagrees, but Laertes says that since Hamlet is the prince, he cannot marry Ophelia, so that it’s best to stay away from him entirely, since she will not according to him, be able to control herself. This is, yep, a sexist way of seeing Ophelia: as a person who only has value if remains a virgin, but also as someone who herself is incapable of protecting/controlling her own sexuality. Laertes is well-intentioned, but basically asserts that his sister has no meaning within herself: “Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,” he says, “best safety lies in fear; / Youth to itself rebels, though none else near” (1.3.32, 44).

When Polonius comes in, he says the same thing. “Think yourself a baby,” “You do not understand yourself,” these are the things he says to her, and because she is a good girl, she’s going to obey him.

Yet obeying her father will force her to be dishonest to her Hamlet, and one thing Hamlet despises is fakeness. Ophelia is put into an impossible situation, and she is put there because both her father and her brother tell her that she’s not competent enough to control her own sexuality.

READ THE REST OF ACT 1 ON YOUR OWN

Act 2 scene 1

The main thing to note here is Hamlet’s attitude towards Ophelia. From lines 88-101 she describes how Hamlet came to see her while she was sewing, and his behaviour shows us his torment. Hamlet seems to have really liked Ophelia, but he is unable now to tell her any of his struggles, such as his conversation with his dead dad, his new knowledge of the murder. Hamlet has to fix the whole situation, but how?! Further, he can’t tell Ophelia anything because she is a good daughter and will end up telling her father – because that’s what good daughters do. Ophelia has at this point cut off all communication with Hamlet, by her father’s orders (“blocked him”).

Act 2 scene 2

This is the longest scene of the play. In it, Hamlet is reunited with his two friends who are there to spy on him. Here Hamlet outlines his indifference and disgust for humanity, seeing it at a mere “quintessence of dust.” (2.2.308). What Hamlet is feeling here is this, I think: that because he feels like he is at the whim of Fate – personified as a woman and described in line 232 as a “strumpet” – he sees no point to existence, or to the body. If one is just a pile of dust, what does it matter what happens to us? If the “too too solid flesh” that Hamlet describes in Act 1 is all that we are, why should one care about what happens to us? If we’re just dust – matter – then we don’t really matter.

Hamlet then meets the theatre troupe who have come to Elsinore. He knows them well from the city. He asks them to give him a speech from a play about the Fall of Troy. In it, the actor describes how the “strumpet Fortune” was destroyed when Prius took decisive action. This is what Hamlet wishes to do, but doesn’t know how to accomplish. What Shakespeare shows us here is the power of the theatre to reveal us to ourselves, to express to us what we feel, so that we can see ourselves clearly by looking at other selves on the stage, and also that we can experience the emotional release that theatre encourages. – like when we cry during a romantic movie, feel a rush of sympathetic feelings: we experience vicariously the things that the people on the stage experience.

Hamlet develops a new plan: to use a play to judge Claudius’ guilt or innocence. On the surface, this sounds like a terrible idea – how is Hamlet supposed to judge another’s guilt by their outward behaviour?! After all, Hamlet knows just how deceptive and fake one’s outward behaviour may be. On the other hand, is there no way to get to the inside of person, past their outward appearance? Shakespeare suggests that the way to the truth might very well be through fiction, through drama. (In a similar way, Oscar Wilde suggests that maybe fiction IS our only truth).

Act 3

Act 3 scene 1: In this scene, we see Hamlet give his “To be or not to be” speech, which is important in this regard: because Hamlet cannot find any way to answer the question: Who’s there, he cannot see any point to being alive. Hamlet isn’t “suicidal.” He simply doesn’t see the point of existing when he cannot locate any meaning in the world, and where would meaning come from? In knowing who we are. In knowing who others are. In knowing whether there is a God, or if it is, rather, just a material meaningless world we inhabit, where we can never really know others, or ourselves.

Hamlet then meets with Ophelia, who is allowing herself to be used by her father and by Claudius to spy on Hamlet. Hamlet figures this out (when he asks “where is your father?” it’s suddenly pretty clear that he knows). Hamlet then gets very angry with Ophelia. He rants at her, calls women fake, and repeatedly tells her to get to a nunnery. A nunnery has two meanings: one is, obviously, a place for nuns. The other is a slang term for a brothel. At first, before Hamlet figures out the Ophelia is spying on him, I think the former definition is intended; that is, he genuinely wants he to leave this polluted society and cloister herself in a brothel. Yet after he figures out that she is probably spying on him, and that she – worse – lies to his face, he likely means the latter. She IS being two-faced; she IS allowing herself to be prostituted, used, for another’s purposes. Hamlet is harsh here, but he isn’t that off-base.

When he leaves the stage, Ophelia defines him according to the kinds of jobs he has had: “courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword” (3.1.152). In other words, Ophelia entirely gets Hamlet wrong here. Hamlet wants people to see him for who he really is: that man on the inside, the inner self which “passes show.” What Hamlet despises are the “uses of this world” – jobs, social status, outward signs of one’s self-identity that the world believes should define one’s worth, but that really only describe one’s job. What Ophelia does is to misunderstand Hamlet entirely.

3.2

This scene is very important. Here Hamlet is energized because he is about to discover, he believes, whether Claudius is guilty or innocent. Gertrude asks him to come and sit beside her, but Hamlet instead opts to sit next to Ophelia. Keep in mind that they have just recently spoken, and that he got very angry with her. Now he is being silly and flirtatious with her. What is she supposed to be thinking and feeling at this moments?

Hamlet asks if he “may lie in your lap?” (3.2.105), which she take to mean, well, you know, have sex with her. He then says, “I mean my head upon your lap” (3.2.107). If he then proceeds to actually put his head upon her lap, what then? What is she supposed to do? I think she feels awkward, lets him put his head on her, and sits there, quietly and uncomfortably. Hamlet then asks, “Did you think I meant country matters?” which means, “Did you think I was asking you to have sex with me?” but in an even more vulgar way. (Hamlet really pronounces it: “Cunt-tree.”) Ophelia then says, “I think nothing, my lord.” And here we have a real serious issue. Why does Ophelia think nothing? Because in Act 1, her father told her, “I will teach you what to think, think yourself a baby’; “You do not understand yourself,” etc. Her brother Laertes told her that she needed to fear the very thing that gave her her value (her virginity). And because Ophelia is a good and obedient, she listens to her father and her brother, the result of which she has no thoughts of her own. She “thinks nothing” because she was told to transfer her sexual agency to them, since she was clearly not strong enough, smart enough, to handle it on her own. After Ophelia says “I think nothing,” Hamlet’s response to her is the most vulgar yet: “That’s a fair thought to lie between maid’s legs. […] no thing.” (3.2.110, 112). He means that a maid, a virgin, has never had a “thing,” a penis, between her legs. This is vulgar in the extreme. Why does Hamlet say this?

We have two possibilities: the first is that Hamlet is just another example of a rich and powerful man making unwanted sexual advances on a young woman. This is another #metoo moment.

The other option is a bit more complicated. Ophelia, even if she hasn’t believed that Hamlet is the worst sort of man – the kind who is only interested in her for sex – has behaved towards his as though he is just such a person, because she has listened to her father and her brother rather than to her own instincts. What her father and brother have told her, of course, is that she is too naïve and weak to handle her own sexual agency. Hamlet is no dummy. He may be responding to Ophelia in the same way she has responded to him. That is, by being inexcusably vulgar to her, he may just be saying, “Ok. Fine. If you want to behave towards me as if I were the kind of man who is only interested in you for sex, I will in fact act like the kind of man you are assuming I am. Let’s see how different it is from whom I actually am. And let’s see how you like it. If you can dish it out, you can take it.” If this is the case, and it may not be, then Hamlet is actually the only person in the play who treats Ophelia as if she is an adult, capable of handling her own sexual agency. If this is the case, then Hamlet is the only feminist in the play, because he is the only one who believes Ophelia to be a sexual equal, capable of dealing with adult sexual situations.