Hamlet's Obsessive Change

O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?

And shall I couple hell? Oh, fie! Hold, hold, my heart,

And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,

But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!

Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat

In this distracted globe. Remember thee!

Yea, from the table of my memory

I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,

All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past

That youth and observation copied there,

And thy commandment all alone shall live

Within the book and volume of my brain,

Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!

O most pernicious woman!

O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!

My tables!—Meet it is I set it down

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark. (writes)

So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word.

It is “Adieu, adieu. Remember me.”

I have sworn ’t.

Until this point in the play, not much has been revealed on Hamlet’s character. We can tell by his passive aggressive remarks to and about his uncle that he is quite upset about most things. By his willingness to go see the ghost we can also see that he has a bit of hopelessness. However, both of these things are attributes of himself at the moment we meet him, but not attributes of his character in general. This passage reveals Hamlet’s pliability when it comes to changing his current situation, and his near obsessiveness towards finding a solution.

For most, swearing your life on a task given by a ghost would not seem reasonable. There are many possible reasons to doubt that the ghost is giving good advice. For example, the ghost was exceptionally and suspiciously adamant that the soldiers never tell of his having appeared, constantly interrupting with  “swear” in trying to convince them to stay quiet. Also, no one has ever had experience with ghosts before, and yet Hamlet blindly trusts this one? I think this shows that no matter how believable the ghost may appear, Hamlet doesn’t want to do nothing about his uncle being King. The ghost wasn’t exceptionally persuasive, and yet Hamlet takes all of his words to heart. He promises to devote all of his thoughts and focus on getting revenge for his father very suddenly and follows through with this. He quickly changed his lifestyle (from a student to a person whose mom thinks might have gone crazy) for this one cause, showing that Hamlet doesn’t put much value in his own wants or hopes, if he even had any.

This passage also shows that Hamlet has an obsessive personality. When he becomes angry, he does not hold back in his emotions or insults. When he decides to get revenge, he stops thinking about or caring for any other aspect of his life. He seems unable to focus on more than one goal and instead puts all of his energy and time into one. He almost becomes excited at when planning his revenge, imagining the last moments as he strikes back at his uncle and says “Adieu, adieu. Remember me.”

This passage is very revealing of Hamlet’s character. He is easily molded by other’s ideas and will quickly cling to a thought. He doesn’t seem very concerned about his own future, but instead worries only about seeking revenge and cleaning up his current state. He is not suspicious of the ghost, though it would be logical to be so. However, he does seem suspicious of most other characters. This passage begins to develop Hamlet more as a person from the moody character he was previously portrayed as.