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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help
The climax is the moment of highest tension, when all the buildup that's been going on all evening is suddenly resolved. Thus it has the same function in the drama that a sexual climax has in sex.(One of my playwriting students once said, "What if I put the climax at the beginning?" I said, "Forgive me, but what if that happens with you and your boyfriend?" I'm not usually that kind of teacher, but I felt I was close enough friends with both her & her boy friend. She took it all right. She said, "Well, I guess we start over & build to a new climax." "Exactly," said I.)
So the climax of Hamlet isn't even (exactly) the duel; I'd say it is the moment when Hamlet forces the poison down Claudius' throat. Or you might argue that it's the actual moment of Claudius' death. I think it's Hamlet finally taking the action of killing him, because that's what his angst has been about all through the play.
It definitely isn't the killing of Polonius -- which is a fascinating, brilliant moment, and which happens, by the way, almost exactly halfway through the play. That's a major turning point which sets in motion all the action of the second half of the play: Hamlet's exile to England, his offstage adventures with the pirates and his return; Ophelia's madness and suicide; Laertes' return and his eagerness to kill Hamlet. But -- again, as in bed -- a great turning point halfway through doth not a climax make. :-)
Posted by John Lazarus on March 26, 1997 at 23:12:34
In Reply to "Hamlet: Climax???" posted by Mia on March 26, 1997 at 22:45:13
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help