Art and culture Flashcards
When Gertrude asks Hamlet why he “seems” to be taking the death of his father so personally, he responds that no outward behavior on his part can “show” what he truly feels inside.
“‘Tis not alone my inky cloak […] That can denote me truly”
Hamlet will act mad
“To put an antic disposition on”
Hamlet wants the traveling players to put on a play, so when King Claudius watches a murder take place on stage, his emotional response will reveal whether or not he’s guilty of murdering Old King Hamlet.
“For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak […} Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks”
If the player can conjure up such intensity and “passion” for a fictional character, why can’t Hamlet move himself to action against the man who killed his father? By the end of the passage, Hamlet tries to place himself in the position of this stage actor and wonders what the player would do if he had Hamlet’s knowledge that Claudius has killed his father
“What would he do
Had he the motive and the cue for passion”
Hamlet’s critical opinion of himself
“O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!”
Hamlet begs for the actors to procede with his plan of catching Claudius
“Speak the speech, I pray you”
At this point in the action, the Player Queen has professed over and over again that she will not remarry after her husband, the Player King, dies. Gertrude says here that the character “protests too much” and Hamlet, as usual, finds a way too insult his mother. The faithful Player Queen, he insists, will live up to what she said before, unlike Gertrude, who Hamlet sees as unfaithful and adulterous.
HAMLET
Madam, how like you this play?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
The lady protests too much, methinks.
HAMLET
O, but she’ll keep her word.
Hamlet wants the player’s performance to be authentic, as though it were holding a “mirror up to nature.” This idea about theater being a kind of “mirror” also seems to be in keeping with Hamlet’s belief that the play will reflect King Claudius’ guilt. And it does.
“mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature”
Claudius looks pretty guilty when he gets up and leaves the room after he sees the on-stage poisoning.
“The king rises.” (OPHELIA)
At this moment, after the final bloodbath, Horatio and Fortinbras basically turn the royal court into a giant theater.
These actions suggest that theater can be a kind of tribute to the dead, like a funeral service. It can also be a place where memory is preserved indefinitely. Hamlet will never be forgotten
“High on a stage be placed to the view”
