Can Hamlet Change?

As I might have mentioned once or twice in previous posts, Hamlet can be interpreted in many different ways. Basically, it could be anything. If you were to listen to this radio program you would know exactly what I mean.

Hamlet in prison. It's not just Hamlet in prison, though: it's prisoners in prison performing Hamlet in prison! Yay!

It's funny to think about how murderers are acting as murderers. A moment where, for once, seeming is equal to being.

As murderers, our fellow inmates can make connections from the play to their own lives, making the experience of performing in Hamlet all the more interesting and self-reflecting. They can relate the acting with what they have each done in the past.

While these people perform, they are not themselves, but rather the actual characters from Hamlet. Sort of like a vacation from reality. However, when the play is over, inevitably, they return to their reality in jail.

This reminds me of the comparison between American prisons and prisons somewhere in Europe (I forget where it was. I think it was Norway.).

In America, the point of prison is to punish one for his deeds, spending some crap-quality time in there. Your inmates beat you for being the 'new guy', your bed is harder than concrete (or is concrete), the walls and toilet is as dirty as they can be, and the food resembles the stuff that come out of your... Uh... Closet. You get my point.
On the other hand, the Norwegian prison is like a five star hotel: Ping pong, bubble baths, Marvel comic books, your own Angry Birds plush pillow, and most importantly, hamburgers. This is because the point of these prisons is to change the person. To prepare them to be released into society once more.

Some interesting fact here: In the US, many released criminals end up going back. There was a word for that. I believe it was 'recidivist'. While jail is supposedly supposed to make criminals 'better' in the sense that they actually learn from their mistakes and don't do such a thing again, it just seems to happen again and again. What might be wrong?

In Norway, however, things are quite the opposite. Enough said.

Unfortunately, this story takes place in America. However, this story was different. These prisoners were given a chance, although it might not have been intended, to change their lives and walk forward. Hamlet actually seemed to be a step forward for everyone. The prisoners themselves admitted to how important it was for them to have an opportunity to act Hamlet out, and how without it, their life would have had a bit less of a spark.

Hamlet had changed these people.

Now the real question is whether Hamlet (the character) can change himself.
I'll figure it out soon enough.

Anyways, if in the near future, you happen to meet an ex-criminal that continually quotes Hamlet...

...you'll know.

Shove That 'Crazy' Up Your -

To be or not to be. That is the question.
However, in the reader's perspective, it's more of a 'to do or not to do'.
Either way, Hamlet is a very weird, possibly crazy, undecided man, whose every action and throught seem to drive us towards the conclusion: He is mad.
Or is he?

Hypothetical situation coming up!
One of your pet goldfish died yesterday. It hasn't been too long since little Jimmy went to goldfish heaven (as in, the sewers). Then, one day, when you come back from school, you see Jimmy, floating in the air, glowing bright green. Jimmy then tells you that Timmy, the fish next door, snuck into the house and poured boiling water into the fishbowl, so that he could make out with your other goldfish, Wendy. He asks you to avenge him, and then disappears. You think you might be hallucinating, but then you look back, and see your mom, who also tells you that she saw the same thing. Something doesn't really add up here, but whatever. There are more important matters! To think that Timmy is now making out with Wendy... That's horrible!

...and that is how Hamlet felt.
Hamlet isn't crazy. He's just been going through something that, hopefully, no one else had even gone through. Therefore, his actions and thoughts are not ones that you would see usually, and this leads us to think that he is insane.
If a person came and told you that he saw a flying purple highlighter pen with eyes as big as whales and apple-sized oreos falling out of its tip, you would either think it's a joke, or that the person is crazy. 'Highlighters can't be purple!' you'd think.
Now, what if the same story was told, but through the news, and scientists all around the world have proven that this is very possible, you wouldn't say anything about it. In fact, you might believe in the story yourself.

Get it? 'Play'? Hahaha, oh, I really need to stop this.

How about this: define 'crazy'.
Basically, 'crazy' in our society is a nonconformist that went a bit too far.
In other 'normal' peoples' terms, Hamlet is crazy, but there is no way to tell whether he actually is. 'Crazy' is just another man-made idea. Taking into consideration his rather unique turn of events in life and all the burdens he has been given to take till the end, it is no wonder that he is 'crazy'. But the fact that he is still human makes him 'normal'. Much more 'normal' than most of YOU PEOPLE reading this right now.
Who spends his/her time reading someone else's response to Hamlet? Hahahaha. Haha. Ha...

But seriously, to be honest, Hamlet seems a bit cra- um, different.

Instinct Strikes Back

Bam! Star Wars.
But that is not why we are here.

In the course of life, it's normal for people to have conflicts. After all, we are by no means perfect beings (and we know such things would probably not exist). Conflicts are, of course, meant to be resolved. Hopefully. And how do we do that?

Let me answer that question with a question. When you're faced with a dilemma, do you resolve it using logic, or do you stick with your gut feeling?
That didn't really answer the question did it.

Anyways, some people tend to stick to instinct, while others might think things through carefully, calculating every single probability. What's so fascinating about Hamlet from Hamlet is that he seems to have a mixture of both. He thinks things through, maybe a bit too 'through', but he does it nevertheless. He thinks of his actions, his consequences, and so on. He reaches conclusions that he must take certain actions, and he seems to be quite sure of these decisions at the moment, but when the actual time comes, he simply cannot. There's something else at work.


This is where instinct comes into play (Get it? Play? *laughs*). Hamlet's human instinct, in the end, doesn't allow Hamlet to do things according to plan, leaving the conflict the way it was, or sometimes, leaves it worse than in was before.

That is, in my opinion, the source of Hamlet's character: Two distinct forces clashing in his head, creating thunderstorms and muffin eating ponies that bite a part of the brain off, only to tape it back again with superglue (which obviously leads to Hamlet's uncertainty). He's back to the place he started at, except that he has now lost the map.


This is weird, because Hamlet knows what he has to do. Hamlet knows that he should kill Claudius, and that is what he intends to do. He knows, and yet does not do. He always seems to be delaying his task more and more, excuses running out of his mouth like people trying to get off a plane all at once.

Hamlet always has a reason for his failure and just lets the occasion fly over his head, but in reality, this might be the same thing as those excuses you make when you don't do your homework. You technically did do your homework, in that you made it one sentence into the essay. You didn't lie, but you didn't mention that you didn't even finish the homework.

Same situation here. What Hamlet says is, or could be, partially true. However, somewhere deep inside, there is something else causing the uncertainty.
And boom. Instinct has struck again.

Don't Think Too Much About It

Firstly, I want to briefly mention how the man in the picture on the left looks similar to my English teacher. Might be just me. Just saying.


Recently there's been just so many things to do (and to not do). I've just had so much stuff to do and so much stuff on my mind.
You know who else has a lot of stuff on his mind? Hamlet. From Hamlet.

We all know who Shakespeare is, right?
That guy you always hear of. That guy you think of when 'literature' is mentioned. We are here to talk about one of his best known works: Hamlet.

...and you know what they say: You can't spell Hamlet without Ham!

Quick summary of what I have read so far:
Hamlet is the son of the king. The king recently died. The queen has a rather hasty marriage with the king's brother, Claudius, and Hamlet is very sad/angry/depressed/suspecting of this. He meets his father in the form of a ghost, who tells Hamlet that Claudius had killed him (the king).

Anyways, I can't really say much about the play yet, as I'm not even close to finishing one-third of the play, but through all the different versions of the scenes of Hamlet that I have seen through YouTube and other whickawhacka stuff like that, I can say that interpretations can vary. A lot. In fact, Shakespeare left so much room for interpretation, especially for Hamlet's character, that different versions can vary infinitely. Hamlet could be a shy guy living in the Middle Ages, an angry emo in modern Russia, or a crazy piece of [carrot] living in the post-zombie-apocalypse world of Buttpoopia in the year 2766. According to a man (or woman, no way to tell) called Sigmund Freud, Hamlet could basically represent a man "whose power of direct action is paralysed by an excessive development of his intellect. According to another view, the dramatist has tried to portray a pathologically irresolute character which might be classified as neurasthenic."

Quick break here!
Neurasthenic [noo'r-uh's-then-ik] : pertaining to or suffering from neurasthenia
...Yup, that helped a lot. Thank you, Dictionary.com!

Anyways, this neurasthenia is apparently characterized by extreme lassitude and inability to cope with any but the most trivial tasks. That sort of does become what Hamlet seems to be, right? He has so much on his mind and yet he keeps it all for himself, incapable of taking any real action... yet.
According to Sigmund Freud, "the hate which should drive him on to revenge is replaced in him by self-reproaches, by scruples of conscience, which remind him that he himself is literally no better than the sinner whom he is to punish." Hamlet just thinks too much (either that or I just don't think enough).

Think. Think. Think. Act-
Oh wait, I'm not prepared. More think.
Should I? Hesitate. Hesitate. Oh, whatever. Act.
Regret. Now what? Think. Welcome to Hamlet.
It's like as if the emotions are flying up into the sky and bursting spontaneously like fireworks, only that instead of brilliant, pretty lights, there's more emotions (and occasionally, blood).

There's a certain action we, readers, expect from Hamlet. Yet, Hamlet is never certain.

For now, I'll just cut it off here. I'm way too early in the play to actually know much about Hamlet's character. I think I'll just end this with a quote from our friendly Freud: "...all genuinely creative writings are the product of more than a single motive and more than a single impulse in the poet's mind, and are open to more than a single interpretation."

Korean Hamlet!