Passage: O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
(Act I, Scene II, 29)
When we first meet Hamlet and see him on his own, the audience can clearly see that he is not in a good mental state. He is still grieving the recent death of his father as well as his mother's sudden remarriage and is also facing crippling depression. He has a very pessimistic outlook on life and is both angry at and mistrusting of those around him. Hamlet can see no escape or end to the pain he is feeling. The speech he makes in Act I Scene II clearly shows how unstable his mental state is at the opening of the play.
Hamlet opens his soliloquy by saying "O, that this too too solid flesh would melt thaw and resolve itself into a dew," which means that he is wishing that his physical body would literally melt and disappear so that he could die. Then he goes on to wish that God had not made suicide a mortal sin so that he could kill himself without going to Hell. This is incredibly troubling and it shows how desperate Hamlet feels. He is so miserable that he sees death as the only escape from his sorrow.
Hamlet continues this speech by describing his view of the world as "weary, flat, stale, and unprofitable". This bleak outlook on the world characterizes Hamlet and shows the effect his profound depression has on him. Hamlet is entirely incapable of seeing anything positive in the world. He calls the earth an "unweeded garden," which can be connected to the Garden of Eden. Before his father's death, he was happy and at peace. But since his father's death and his mother's remarriage, he feels as though he has fallen from grace just as Eve and Adam did.
Hamlet is clearly extremely depressed and very unstable at the opening of the play. This extreme grief and sadness is arguably why Hamlet is able to be lead to make the choices he makes. He is overcome by this sadness and begins to mistrust everyone including his own mother. Hamlet's mental instability is made clear from the beginning of the play.
You did a great job at making it clear how depressed and cynical towards like Hamlet truly was in this piece of the play. While reading it on my own, I didn't pick up on all of the details involving suicide and death that were present and you discussed in the passage. Your organization of the post follows the passage well and you do a good job of analyzing each thought and important phrase or word. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI liked how your argument regarding Hamlet's mental state is very clear. You did a nice job pulling bits out of the passage and then analyzing them in order to explain how they relate to Hamlet's depressive state. I liked how you connected the "unweeded garden" to the Garden of Eden. This part shows a great attention to detail and understanding of the story and how it connects to elements outside of the bounds of the play. I would have liked to see the second paragraph fleshed out a little more as far as ideas but overall nice job.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of really good ideas here, especially about the Garden of Eden (who knew how many Biblical references were hiding in all our favorite books?). I do think that more ideas could have been shown and fleshed out, and that there is a lot more here than you've highlighted for us. Overall, though, there's a lot of great stuff already. Good job!
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