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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 4.2.97: Top | Help
...is a blend of fate, outside forces and the hero's own character. In this case there are two major patterns at work. The play's imagery makes it clear that Claudius didn't just kill one guy; he set something basically askew in the order of the universe (time out of joint, unweeded garden, etc). The basic pattern of all S's tragedies is for the order of the universe to reinstate itself, but only at the cost of radical surgery, excising everyone involved in the problem. So, in that sense, H was probably doomed even if he did nothing (as Ophelia is). At the same time, it seems unmistakeable that H is in some ways the wrong man for the job, and that his own delay - and the character elements (note I do not limit it to "flaws") that generate the delay, contribute to the shape of the ending. As someone once said, "There's a divinity that shapes our ends/Rough-hew them how we may."Posted by Hamlet on April 18, 1997 at 14:31:40
In Reply to "Hamlet, what do you think of this?" posted by Not to be? on April 18, 1997 at 13:34:50
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 4.2.97: Top | Help