Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Hamlet | Blog Post #2: "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something."



Scaling the Cliffs of Insanity, Battling Rodents of Unusual Size, Facing torture in the Pit of Despair - True love has never been a snap.
Inigo Montoya, a clumsy yet master Spanish fancer, has spent his entire life seeking to avenge his father, killed by a ruthless and elusive six-fingered man. Although he is not a leading man throughout the film, his drive in life exhibits one of the most prominent and impactful themes of the movie: revenge.
Inigo Montoya isn't the only being seeking revenge, however.
Hamlet has been acting mad lately - and I do not understand why. "...I was sewing in my closet/Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced/.../and with a look so piteous in purport as if he had been loosed out of hell/to speak of horror" (2.1.77, 82-83). I felt my heart drop to the pit of my stomach, as I stand there, watching him, not knowing what do or where to go. "He took me by the wrist and held me hard./.../Long stayed he so" (2.1.87, 91). I was "so affrighted" (2.1.75)! Then "he lets me go/And, with his head over his shoulder turned/He seemed to find his way without his eyes/For out o' doors he went without their helps/And to the last bended their light on me" (2.1.96-100). I ran to my father, purging everything that had just occured. My father suggests that Hamlet is "Mad for [my] love" (2.1.85), but I do not know - I am frightened he might be. "I did repel his letters and denied/His access to me" (2.1.109-110), as my father and brother requested.
Why has Hamlet gone mad? Is he really this upset about us that he would to such lengths as becoming a pale, avengeful ghost of a man? Or is there more - perhaps like Inigo Montoya?
Inigo Montoya has rehearsed his line of revenge for his entire life - "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Although a bit humorous and even a bit crass, his valiant determination avenges his father, finally. But I am frightened as to what Hamlet will do me, or worse - what my father will do to Hamlet. My father said "I am sorry that with better heed and judgment/I had not quoted him.../.../...go we to the king" (2.1.12-13, 117). What will the king do?
I am not even certain anymore if revenge for revenge is what we should be seeking. As my father simply says "This must be known, which, being kept close, might/move/More grief to hide than hate to utter love" (2.1.118-120), I dwell upon the words of Inigo Montoya, after so many years finally avenging his father - "Is very strange. I have been in the revenge business so long that, now that it's over, I do not know what to do with the rest of my life."
What should I have done? What shall I do now?









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