had hamlet lived...

Mar 29, 2007 00:33

would the play hamlet have been worse if the character hamlet hadn't died ( Read more... )

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sunjoy March 30 2007, 20:02:43 UTC
Right, so his tragedy would be equally devastating if he survived, having killed his best friend, and failed to save his beloved sister and aldulterous mother from death.

Insofar as his father's ghost is a metaphor for Hamlet's own sense of guilt and disgust at a crime he barely has begun to suspect, he'd be haunted all the worse if he lived.

Does the kingdom not want him? I'm not sure about that. *He* on the other hand seems to find redemption in knowing that the true story will be told after he passes (redeeming him, I guess, or at least explaining him).

Anyway, the 20th century story (can't make grand pronouncements about 21st century lit yet, now can I?) of Hamlet is how the post-climactic Hamlet subdues his guilt and ego, and adjusts himself to a life of mundane governance, without finding it stale and unprofitable.

Come to think of it, I guess the 21st Century story might be about his attempt to effect regime change in russia.

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sunjoy March 30 2007, 20:06:13 UTC
"Stranger than Fiction" is a pretty good movie that deals with this theme.

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