All Buried in Post-It Notes

The Secrecy, the lies, the mystery of it all...what's the reality? What's really going on? Does anyone know the truth? No wonder Hamlet's going insane!! Or is he?


I think it's interesting that Hamlet is aware how his behavior is changing since the death of his father. At first he was just in mourning solely because of the death and marriage of his mother. But now there are so many other vague factors, like the ghost and Ophelia. Personally I think that the ghost is some type of portrayal of his subconscious or his unconscious mind. And it just comes in the form of a ghost in order to inform the audience of what turmoil is going on inside Hamlet's minds. However the evidence that goes against that theory is if the ghost is Hamlet's unconscious then how does Hamlet “know” how his father was killed? If he doesn't actually know perhaps he is just making it up as an excuse to kill Claudius, because the man was a heartless ass who married his mother. In this case Hamlet is really losing his mind. And his insanity can sort of be connected to the fact that “there is something rotten in the state of Denmark.”



In class today someone mentioned that whatever it is that is rotten is the syphilis, that Hamlet supposedly has. Which means that he and Ophelia really did have a genuine relationship. But then is he half going crazy because she cuts him off? This theory makes less sense to me because the way he is shown to treat her in that scene we read today it just seems more like he is trying to find someone who he could vent some of his insanity out onto. Her lack of recent communication doesn't seem to be the cause of anything...just perhaps something that adds to his discomfort. Otherwise I fell he would have yelled or said something to her. It just doesn't seem solid enough.



But that brings me to the fact that Polonius thinks that Ophelia is the heart of Hamlet's problem. It comes back to his stupid image. If Ophelia WAS the problem and he managed to “fix” it by letting Hamlet be with Ophelia again then he would be famous or he would be awarded and would have more acknowledgment. His tone seems to change completely when Ophelia reveals that Hamlet might love her..or that is what Polonius understood from her description. So to him it's all about “seeming” as well.