Category Archives: Death and dying

Hamlet: Acting to Becoming Insane

Death and dying, Hamlet, Psychological states, Tragedy

At the very beginning of the play, Hamlet is a very clever and cunning character, who despises his uncle, the new King Claudius. Hamlet’s fatal flaw is  over thinking.  Hamlet starts to plot against the King as soon as the ghost tells Hamlet of the poisoning that King Claudius orchestrated. Hamlet also attributes Claudius with taking his mother away from him. Hamlet plans to act crazy in order to wait for the best time to kill Claudius. The only person who could actually pose a threat to Hamlet’s plans is fooled by Hamlet’s guise. Polonius our CIA equivalent, believes Hamlet is going crazy for his daughter Ophelia. However Hamlet has it in his mind that he will wait for the best time. He becomes so enveloped in his act that he forgets how much time has elapsed since his father died. He suggest its has been days, while Ophelia corrects him and says its months. At that point it doesn’t seem like Hamlet is in an act anymore. Hamlet literally forgets the lapse of time and at that point he seems to be no longer acting.

Hamlet becomes intrigued by the actors and their natural sense of acting. He seems to be even jealous of it. He wonders how they can cry as though they have lost kin. At this point I also get a sense that Hamlet isn’t as great an actor as he thinks he is. Being a good actor is becoming a part of your role, while staying true to yourself. Hamlet starts out on this dangerous pathway and becomes what he’s supposed to act as. The climax for Hamlet’s madness is when he passes Claudius’ room to Gertrude and strikes Polonius killing him. At this point Hamlet finally has made the first action while plotting for the past months. The unfortunate part is it’s the wrong person. Hamlet causes ruin in the lives of Polonius’ children, Laertes and Ophelia, in which Laertes shows what Hamlet could have done, which is, plot to kill his father’s murder, but actually follow through with it. Hamlet’s over thinking is the end of him, but his madness is the narrow edge that leads him to his fall.

The Spectacle of Executions

Class and status, Death and dying, Measure for Measure

Since more than one character in the play Measure for Measure  has a brush with death, a deeper inquiry into the code of conduct that went into the job of executioner provides worthwhile insight for the reaction the audience would have about said topic.

Though the play takes place in Vienna, the audience would be familiar with the great symbol of power that stood during their time: The Tower of London. This site, in itself, offers pages and pages of history on how power is exhibited. Drownings, tortures, marriages, imprisonments and executions all took place there.

Executions had their own code of conducts, one of which was the class divide for the process of how an individual would be “dealt with”. The question of how was resolved through class: The upper class were deemed worthy of beheading, as apparently it was considered the least brutal ( accounts of beheadings gone wrong prove otherwise. The source for this information.

Other factors that sealed the fate of the accused included (of course) gender and the nature of the crime. Traitors were deemed especially malicious and had a list of execution methods set all to themselves.

What I found particularly interesting in the executions presented up till now (Act 3) of the play is that almost all the characters had some form of say in their ill fate. Claudio, for example, was handed a reprieve at the hands of his sister’s maiden status. In some way, he had a choice in his death sentence. Barnardine, another example, got to push off his quickened beheading with pure luck, even though his death was long coming and he seemed ready.

With the continuous mentions of birth, pregnancy and life, it’s worthy to pay attention to how death is presented in the play. While pregnancy, or giving life, seems to be met with harsh consequences (for man and woman) and great dispute, death becomes an answer and even a greater indicator of character in the play.