Sunday, March 1, 2009
Tragedy? Or not....
Alright, so yes this play claims to be a tragedy, and yes loosing your father and then having your mom marry your uncle and having your uncle trying to kill you is slightly tragic, however there seems to be a lot of jest for this to be 100% sad. Both Ophelia's and Hamlet's madness, while it could be disheartening, is actually quite funny. I could be dead inside, but I'm sorry Ophelia's little scene of singing was quite funny (and no, not because of Meghan's singing, she actually acted the part of "mad woman singing" nicely, Bravo Meg). In comparison, Hamlet's little show of madness (or actual madness, that's yet to be discussed) is also comical; his interactions with Ophelia's father cause slight chuckling. "Ha-ha". In fact, even the "tragic" scenes leave a bit of comical residue, "I've been slain", and yes, I'm sure Shakespeare did not intend to make us laugh with that one-liner, but in modern times, it's one-liners like that that knock us on our back. Also, Laertes's oh so dull response to his sister's death, "Ah so she hath drowned" (I apologize for that last line not being authentic, the book is in my car...and my car is outside, you catch my drift). All of this is funny, not sad! Not even the end, a mass homicide, is that sad. Perhaps back in the day of Billy all of this was tear-jerking. Maybe back then everyone had a little more empathy for the poor little prince whose life has been turned upside down. Maybe us nowadays are just dead inside. This I highly doubt, given we're the only generation of people I know that cry at shows like Friends or Finding Nemo, oh the sadness of them no longer drawing that mama fish. Back then, when front row seats were poor peasants sitting on the ground, I highly doubt they were feeling empathy for Hamlet the prince. (That's me assuming the emotion of bitter resentment has been around for that long). Basically what I'm getting out through this sarcastic rant is that Hamlet was damn funny...really not that sad, and I'm assuming that the people back then also found bits and pieces of the play amusing. However, we still call it a tragedy...maybe we could shift that? Maybe it could be like a half-n-half pizza; half tragedy, half comedy, split the face right down the middle make a little laugh, little cry.
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4 comments:
"a lot of jest"
Lindsey,
I think you might be on to something here: this play IS very funny, and so what role does humor play in it. Your essay might wind up being less a short passage analysis, than an effort to locate the more humorous exchanges, locate them in the larger context of the play, and speculate on what formal function they play (i.e. how do they work in concert with the "tragedy" in order to forward one or more of Shakespeare's larger themes?).
I definitely agree with you. I didn't find this "tragedy" very tear-jerking. Perhaps it was the horrid acting in the film, or my simple inability to take Hamlet seriously. Either way, normal people don't react the way Shakesepare depicted. Especially not when everyone in their life has died. But that's S, i suppose. Dramatic Tragedy.
I agree Lindsey. In fact I might point out that Polonious was often times hilarious in his contradiction. He would take entire passages to say that he is going to be brief, and then when the actors are playing out a dramatic scene he says they are running too long? I don't know, but I'm not entirely sure that this was even meant to be a tragedy.
However, I may point out that lines such as "I am slain" were more to tell the audience that the character was dead. Yet, in today's day and age those things ARE hilarious because we are used to seeing an actor portray death rather than having to say he is dead.
I have to agree with you, this play was hysterical. However, i also thought that when Richard threw himself out the window, it was the most hysterical thing I'd ever seen. From what you said in your blog I think you should write about the shifts in emotional attitude over the past few centuries.
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