a word from our sponsors
See the new shakespeare.com. This feature, while it still provides useful information, is no longer maintained.
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help
Osric is a symptom of the rot that is infecting Denmark. He is one of the new men who are now welcome at court, but who would never have been seen there in the days of good King Hamlet. His only claim to respectability is his money--he is "rich in the possession of dirt." He hasn't the faintest idea how to behave, so he apes all the latest and most trivial fashions of speech, dress and deportment. Think of America during the Gilded Age, when self-made robber barons suddenly began to wield enormous political and social influence. Hamlet and Horatio are right to despise him. His ridiculousness is not endearing (a la Robin Williams) but contemptible; and the corruption of manners which he betrays is evidence of a more profound degeneration.Posted by Charles Weinstein on April 01, 1997 at 07:30:35
In Reply to "Why Osric!!!" posted by Jacky on March 31, 1997 at 16:07:05
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help