Category Archives: Psychological states

More Learning, More Problems

Death and dying, Hamlet, Psychological states, Tragedy, Tragic hero

As a very educated man, Hamlet serves to be a good example for some of the virtues of intelligence. Unfortunately for him, these virtues also end up playing a role in his downfall. His passive and pensive attentions to detail are as much parts of his character as his reluctance to act on his true will are. I have no doubts it is particularly easy for us to empathize with Hamlet for having suffered from his scholarly pursuits, especially during the end of the semester. I would imagine this also calls into question whether or not it is these traits that made Hamlet a scholar or his being a scholar that brought these traits in him, but that is an argument for another piece of writing.

What makes Hamlet such a memorable character are the endless facets of him we can find ourselves empathizing with. Everyone at one time or another has probably caught himself or herself pondering a decision that needs to be made, and finding every distraction and diversion to keep away from making that decision. And that is perfectly understandable considering that some actions are more final than others. In Hamlet’s case, not many more decisions are more final than to murder someone. What lies in Hamlet is a truly frightening existential question. This question gives light to his famous “To be, or not to be…” line that feels applicable to so many of Hamlet’s questions: to act, or not to act, and to kill, or not to kill seem to be high on that list. I believe the interpretation of that line that is most accepted is probably the very morbid one of being or not being alive. Perhaps a contemplation of suicide might be one of the harder reasons to empathize with Hamlet, but it does represent the fatalistic attitude Hamlet has for much of his play.

A Letter to Leontes

Character types, Psychological states, The Winter's Tale, Tragic hero, Tragicomedy

Dear Leontes,

You may think you are not one of the beloved characters to the audience of The Winter’s Tale. You may think every one in the audience of The Winter’s Tale has a negative attitude towards your character. You treat Hermione out of jealousy; you treat Polixenes unfriendly; you are to blame for the death of Mamillius, your young son whom you love as much as every father on this earth loves his child; you are also to blame for the death of dearest Hermione; and finally, under your command newborn Perdita is left on the seacoast of  Bohemia.

All these events take a toll in your life. You have suffered for 16 years. These 16 years, you have mourned over your virtuous queen’s death. Yes, you are wrong to think of her having a romantic relation with Polixenes. Georges Duby would support your suspicions, though. In his A Courtly Model, Duby explains that courtly love is secret and not seen in marriage life since medieval marriages were not based on love. Nonetheless, you have proved that maybe you didn’t wed Hermione out of love, but you have showed the audience that the magical thing that has kept you in mourning all those years is nothing but love, your passionate love.

You are very cruel to newborn Perdita, who you think isn’t your legitimate daughter. So, you order her to be abandoned, because you don’t want to be called Father by a bastard. Your decision to abandon Perdita is very common for a royal family in the medieval age where bloodline determines the heirs to thrones.

Human beings are not angels. Like angels, we don’t live in a divine realm where mistakes presumably don’t exist. We live in a human world where making mistakes is obvious. We make mistakes because our knowledge is limited. Therefore, making mistakes from not knowing should be justified.

In the beginning of the play, you are the King Leontes, Father Leontes, Friend Leontes and Husband  Leontes. But only one mistake, one unknowing mistake destroys the whole chain of relationship. You suspect Hermione and Polixenes, which makes you angry, which leads to a break in life-long friendships, which causes a motion to throw Hermione into the prison, which leads to the separation of Mamillius from his mother and to his death, which forces you to abandon Perdita. You cause the disruption 16 years ago in Sicilia with a mistake.

Now, after 16 years here you are again, King Leontes, facilitating the reunification of all broken relationships. In Sicilia, Perdita finds her father, Polixenes meets his old true friend, and fair Hermione is restored to life with a magic touch.

It all starts from Sicilia, at the court of Leontes, it all ends now in Siciclia, at the court of Leontes. This 16-years-later Leontes has learned from the time, from his mistakes.

 

A Beautiful Dramedy

Generic characteristics, Psychological states, Stage techniques, The role of the imagination, The Winter's Tale, Tragicomedy

The Winter’s Tale is a play that requires major suspension of disbelief. It is at several moments more unrealistic than A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play that contains fairies and pixies, and the king’s madness is more irrational than that of even Lear. Though thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining the story itself is a preposterous flight of fancy. The king is petulant and sullen without just cause, and his moods flicker at the flick of a switch. The queen’s resurrection is a fantastical, and a pleasant surprise in an ending that seems made for “happily ever after” end credits. Even Antigonus’ death, which is both grotesque and abrupt, becomes humorous and lighthearted in this story line.

However, in my mind the humor and fantasy are marred by the death of Mamillius.  This is my one point of contention and the only scene that ties the play to tragedy of any kind. But Shakespeare masterfully fills in the gaps left by the characters taken away by death; Hermione is reborn, Florizel, who is similar in age to Mamillius, comes to the kingdom as Leontes’ son by marriage, and Paulina regains a husband of proven virtue and honor.  All of the loose ends are tied, no one is left suffering or in pain, and it is sweet, but too good to be true.  Overall, The Winters Tale is a funny lighthearted tale that handles dark, loaded topics with just the right measure of sugar to coat over the uncomfortable patches.

Preparing to 'awake' and love the husband who wanted her dead and almost made her completely childless
Preparing to ‘awake’ and love the husband who wanted her dead and almost made her completely childless

A Tale of Jealousy

Psychological states, The Winter's Tale

One of the major Themes of The Winter’s Tale is jealousy. This is best embodied through Leontes; specifically how he jumps to conclusions and makes rash decisions throughout the play. Leontes is the King of Sicilia, a man of approximately 28 years old. He is married to Hermione and their marriage, up to the introduction of the play, can be described as an extremely loving and happy one. Leontes then invites his childhood friend and now King of Bohemia, Polixenes to visit. All is well, and they are enjoying each other’s company until Polixenes wants to return home after the 9 months he has spent with Leontes. He tells Leontes about his plan to go home and Leontes begs him to stay; it is unsuccessful. However Hermione asks him to stay and with relative ease convinces him to remain in their company. They then go off together holding hands and Leontes begins to ponder. He thinks that it is odd that they are this close, showing this type od affection for eachother, and this escalates into full blown madness and paranoia driven by a jealous rage. He states:

[Aside] Too hot, too hot!

To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods.

I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances;

But not for joy; not joy. This entertainment

May a free face put on, derive a liberty

From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,

And well become the agent; ‘t may, I grant;

But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers,

As now they are, and making practised smiles,

As in a looking-glass, and then to sigh, as ’twere

The mort o’ the deer– O, that is entertainment

My bosom likes not, nor my brows! Mamilius,

Art thou my boy? (1.2.108-118).

Essentially, he thinks that they have been sleeping together this entire time. Hermione is about 9 months pregnant, coincidentally the same amount of time that Polixenes has been visiting. This convinces Leontes that she is having Polixenes’ baby. He questions if Hermione was ever faithful and goes so far as to question if his son, Mammilius is really his son. His jealousy overwhelms him, resulting in the 16 year imprisonment and “death” (or so he believes) of Hermione.

Measure for Measure: Isabella

Measure for Measure, Psychological states

If you were to ask readers of Measure for Measure who they believed to be the most innocent character in the play , certainly Isabella would come up.  I would argue that Isabella is not as holier-than-thou as she appears to be. If we were to examine Isabel’s reaction to Claudio’s plea to save him, and compare that with Isabella’s plea to save Angelo, I see a bit of hypocrisy.

Claudio:

Sweet sister, let me live:
What sin you do to save a brother’s life,
Nature dispenses with the deed so far
That it becomes a virtue.

(3.1.133-136)

Isabella:

O you beast!
O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!
Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?
Is’t not a kind of incest, to take life
From thine own sister’s shame? What should I think?
Heaven shield my mother play’d my father fair!
For such a warped slip of wilderness
Ne’er issued from his blood. Take my defiance!
Die, perish! Might but my bending down
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed:
I’ll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,
No word to save thee.

It is understandable to say Claudio is asking for much. Specifically, for Isabel to go against her beliefs. Not only is she repulsed by Claudio’s plea, but she scolds him, by  saying what he did was a sin and that, “Tis best thou diest quickly.” Before we revisit her plea to save Angelo, we can recall her plea to Angelo to pardon Claudio:

I have a brother is condemn’d to die:
I do beseech you, let it be his fault,
And not my brother.

Here Isabel is asking Angelo for mercy, to “Condemn the fault and not the actor of it?” as Angelo put it. But she cannot understand that Claudio is asking for the same kind of act on her part, “What sin you do to save a brother’s life,”. As egregious as the sin may be, to save Claudio is it so inconsiderable, to bring Isabel to say to a brother waiting for death,  “Tis best thou diest quickly.” ? I cannot agree.

Finally, Isabella’s plea for Angelo’s pardon is a bit odd considering her rebuke of Claudio’s plea. After she kneels for Angelo she states, “thoughts are no subjects;
Intents but merely thoughts.” Isabel considers that Angelo’s poor intentions ought to be forgiven, but cannot consider acting against her beliefs for the sake of her brother. Her reaction to Claudio is what Harold Bloom called a “sadistic display of enraged virtue.” And I agree. I think Isabel is a very complex character. I’m not saying she should or should not have taken Angelo’s offer, or that Angelo’s proposition was right, but I found it interesting how she thought of mercy for others intentions, while mercy for her, if she done wrong, for the sake of her brother’s life, is unfathomable to her.

“One ought to hold on to one’s heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

Character types, King Lear, Psychological states, Tragedy, Tragic hero

imageKing Lear is a tragic hero, doomed by the misfortune of his own error. A reigning example of how a noble man can be defeated by his flaws, he drives himself to the brink of insanity. King Lear’s flaws are that he is arrogant, prideful, and biased. It’s the reason for his insanity that brings out strong emotions in the reader. King Lear’s daughters Goneril and Regan are insincere about their love for him; they give a fantastical view of how daughters should love their father. Cordelia, however, gives her father a realistic view of a daughter’s love, which he isn’t equipped to handle. King Lear appears to be a good man, if not a bit egotistical and foolish.  It is very easy to like him. Yet, consider that Goneril and Reagan may have turned out the way they did because their father has a clear biases, a favorite child in Cordelia. The idea that a parent has a favorite child is conceivable, yet to express that emotion so clearly can be damaging to a child’s psyche.
King Lear has always approached his daughters as the king, with an extreme expression of authority. He never visited his daughters as simply a father. It’s a shock to him when reality hits, and the love he thought he had was simply an illusion, and his only saving grace was Cordelia. At the end of the day, King Lear learns what it’s like to feel other people’s pain, but sadly with no rewards, he must find company in insanity.

A few words on the philosophy of justice in Measure for Measure

Measure for Measure, Psychological states

Among all other themes in Measure of Measure, Justice is the central one towards which all characters and their actions are inclined. It all starts off with the protagonist’s, the Duke, plan to take a short leave from the power and empower someone well known for having profound integrity in justice and morality. Few questions rose to my mind while I was reading the opening scene of the play regarding the Duke’s intension of leaving his chair to Angelo, a man believed to have strong sense of ethics and duties, and disguising himself as a friar. However, as I continued to read the play, the underlying objectives of Duke’s plan started to unfold clearly in front of my eyes. It’s a test that he left for Angelo to conquer as a rational being, but Angelo, nonetheless, found himself as a human being, who was a slave to his personal necessities.

‘’If power changes purpose’’ (1.4.54), this quote hints the purpose of the Duke’s plan, to see whether power is superior to morality. Angelo’s verdict towards Claudio was objective at first, assuming Vienna had good laws, and he, as the interim Duke, followed  the code of laws for the sake of good of societies and its citizens . However, It became subjective on the arrival of Isabella, who came begging mercy on her brother, Claudio. His action was justifiable at the beginning, but it started deviating from the moral ground while his desire for her started losing ground in his consciousness. Here, desires consumed duties.

We define justice to be universal, uniform and equal to every one regardless of one’s status and situations. In a true rational world, we define our morality, according to Immanuel Kant, based on reasons. Kant gave us an account on justice and morality, which depend on freedom and reasons.  From the Kantian point of view, given this situation, Angelo as a Duke didn’t do justice on Claudio out of duty, but rather out of inclination, out of his personal interests towards Isabella. As a result, his motive of judgment lacked moral value. His determination of will, sentencing death penalty to Claudio, wasn’t autonomous as he wasn’t following the reasons; he was following the trail of his personal necessities. He wasn’t acting freely, autonomously, but he was acting heteronomously.

Angelo’s actions would have been moral, if he hadn’t chosen the Claudio as a means to an end, his desire for Isabella, if he hadn’t acted out of the motive of inclination. It would have been moral, if he had made the justice for the sake of justice, if he acted out of the motive of duty.

‘’Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.’’

Immanuel Kant.

For Kant, motive is what gives our actions moral value. So when we have motive of duty, not the motive of inclination, then we only act out of duty, then we resist our motive for acting on our self-interest.

Angelo failed to rise above his self-interests. He failed to respect Isabella’s dignity. Even after she agreed with his proposal to save her brother’s life, he yet secretly gave the provost order to have Claudio executed. He didn’t keep his promise, which is odd with the categorical imperative. He used Claudio as a means to an end. His motives were the motives of inclination, his determination of will was heteronomous and his reasons were hypothetical.

Therefore, his all actions were immoral.

Angelo hasn’t given ground to his desire to Isabella, but he has to his morality to justice.

Is Marriage Worse than Death?

Death and dying, Measure for Measure, Psychological states

Within Measure for Measure we are presented with the situation that bearing a child out of wedlock, despite out of love, is equivalent to death. (Having sex prior to marriage is illegal.) Although Claudio truly loved Juliet, the woman bearing his child, he was to be executed for his illegal actions. As we all know, he eventually escapes execution and is happily reunited with Juliet, leaving the possibility for the assumption that they marry and live “happily ever after.” But for some of the other characters, their ending was not so merry.

Lucio claims :”Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, / whipping, and hanging:” (5.1.30) This suggests that the woman who bore his child is a prostitute whom he did not love or care for marrying. Despite the severity in the repercussions, he still wished to not marry her. In effect, he preferred death, or any punishable acts, over being forever bound to a prostitute, or any woman whom he did not love.

A similar situation is presented to Angelo when the Duke orders him to marry Mariana for having pre-marital sex with her. Although he obeys the Duke, he never speaks a word, implying his dissatisfaction with the event that has occurred. This may be going too far into it but the fact that he sentenced Claudio to death may have implied that he was doing him a favor. By not believing in the true love between Claudio and Juliet, he would save him from a life of suffering. (This may of course be an invalid interpretation but i thought it was a bit humorous.)

Surprisingly, Isabella is confronted with the same situation. When she is finally told that her brother is alive and well, the Duke suggest that he has done her a favor. Most individuals believe that no favor is done out of pure kindness but rather because there is something that’s wanted out of the act. This applies to this event. After implying that he has done her a favor by forgiving the illegal act of her brother, and in effect, saving his life, he asks for her hand in marriage. She remains silent after the proposal but we are unsure whether she is silently happy or silently upset. One can assume that the silence is her expression of disbelief that she is once again being conned by a powerful figure. (Angelo attempted a similar action) “If he be like your brother, for his sake/Is he pardon’d; and, for your lovely sake,/Give me your hand and say you will be mine” (5.1.61).

In conclusion, we can  now see that death has typically projected a better outcome than that of marriage. If we took a step back, in the play. and attempted to imagine what it would be like if anyone who engaged in sexual actions prior to marriage, would be sentenced to death, how would it affect the characters. Who would change for the better? Would it change anything at all?

 

Measure for Measure: Uneven measurements of sin?

Measure for Measure, Psychological states

Isabella’s sound reprimand of her brother when he dared to ask her to consent to what was essentially her rape(3.1) seemed, at the time, wholly justifiable to me.  Whether she was afraid of her own basic, human desires more than the act itself was not a major concern, simply because it was her decision, a very personal and possibly emotionally scarring decision.  In the same position, many women would be torn and miserable if asked to make such a decision no matter what course of action they may choose.

However, this view changed when I was confronted by her rather abrupt change if heart in falling to her knees to beg for the salvation of Angelo (5.1). The strong overtones of Christian imagery make this an enlightened and beautiful act of growth and true justice, but it calls to my mind questions of her true reasons for her anger at Claudio. Her love of her brother was not strong enough to allow her to even entertain the thought of being bedded for his salvation, but the man who in essence attempted to rape her and murder Claudio is deemed forgivable? Her brother who simply begged to be saved, called on her ‘love’ to save him she condemned to bitter, restless death but Angelo was worthy of her falling to her knees for his life? This draws into question yet again the idea of degrees of sin. Are some sins more forgivable than others? Is Lucio more sinful than Claudio? Is Mariana less sinful than Juliet?

Rereading the scene in the prison between Claudio and Isabel, I have decided that the “lady doth protest too much”  (Hamlet 3.2).  No longer does she appear as the chaste, inexperienced woman balking at an insult against her Christianity and purity and instead has transformed into a woman terrified of her own desires, of the possibility of enjoying that which she has been taught to view as sinful.

(I rather like the differences between these two interpretations of the Act 3 Scene 1.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUaCwSASd24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7siwW5Oqnk

 

Some by virtue fall

Measure for Measure, Psychological states

There is a recurring theme in Measure for Measure, a paradoxical relationship between vice and virtue where one becomes a vehicle for the other. This is reflected in both the plot, such as the duke’s deceptive approach to justice, as well as in the actual language of the characters.

 

Deception becomes a means for learning the truth and meting out justice. The duke disguises himself as a friar so he may learn about the goings on of the city: “Hence shall we see, / If power changes purpose, what our seemers be” (1.4.54).  In this quote the duke reveals his intention to disguise himself, so he may discover Angelo’s true nature, not just who he seems to be. But what does this reveal about the duke’s own nature? He prefers to manipulate in shade, rather than govern in a straight forward manner.

 

The duke’s questionable antics allow him to bring about what he perceives as a happy ending. Once he discovers the truth about Angelo he uses his disguise as a friar to save Claudio’s life, Isabella’s virginity and Mariana’s betrothal. He uses a morally questionable instrument to balance the scales.

 

Isabella’s virtue becomes a vehicle for sin in that her purity and innocence incites carnal desire in Angelo. Also, her unyielding adherence to the oath she made to the church forces her to abandon the one way of saving her brother’s life.

 

After Isabella’s supplication, Angelo admits that: “Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue” (2.3.180).  Isabella’s saintliness is highly desirable to Angelo, perhaps because he sees himself as an upstanding man up to that point. Or perhaps because he represents that quality in human nature that desires to defile that which is pure. In either case her chastity becomes a vehicle for lasciviousness.

 

Escalus echoes this theme in act 2 scene 1, when he says: “Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.” Angelo “falls” because of Isabella’s virtue. Similarly, one could argue that Isabella falls because of her own virtue in that she is so chaste she is causes the audience to question her morality. What really is the good of virtue, it one will not sacrifice a part of themselves to save the life of one they love?