Saturday, September 26, 2015

Between act 1 and 2, identify 2 character traits for Hamlet. Provide a quote to support each.1 trait as described by other characters and 1 trait...

Hamlet is depressed, and perhaps even suicidal. He reveals this in his soliloquy, saying:



O, that this too too sullied 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.



He establishes himself as melancholy from the beginning, due to his father's death and his mother's marriage. He will continue to identify himself by his melancholy throughout the play.


Gertrude notices this as well. She is worried for Hamlet, probably because she doesn't want Claudius to have a reason to suspect Hamlet of anything but grief over his father's death. Yet Gertrude senses Hamlet's disgust over their marriage, and she wants to make sure she's the only one. She gently chides Hamlet for his mood:



Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust.
Thou know'st 'tis common. All that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.



The line that gives it away is "look like a friend on Denmark." she is specifically telling him to acknowledge the King as the royal head of state, and her husband as well. Of course, Hamlet refuses to do this, & this will determine his action (or lack thereof) throughout the play.

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