HamletJoin now to read essay HamletRe-read Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 2 Scene 2, from“Hamlet: Ay, so god buy to you! Now I am alone. O,what a rogue and peasant slave am I!” (line 543)“O, vengeance!Why, what an ass am I!” (line 578).What impression do you gain of Hamlet and his state of mind at thispoint in the play? How far is it consistent with his portrayal elsewhere inthe play?Hamlet is one of the best-known plays, written by William Shakespeare. It tells the story of young Prince Hamlet, who bears the same name as his father, the King of Denmark, who has recently died unexpectedly. Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, has inherited the throne and taken the former King’s wife (Prince Hamlet’s mother), Gertrude, as his own. This has grieved Prince Hamlet greatly; these consequences, and the appearance of the ghost of
Gertrude, are further proof of his great character, since he is the author of the poem:Hamlet’s father, George, is the brother of Hamlet’s sister, Catherine, a peasant, whom he is now serving as his chief cook, and whom Hamlet’s father sent to the north for a little while to fight the Danish king. The next day they arrive at an inn of a sort in St. Maarten. It is then decided, upon entering, that the king’s wife will join the king’s household, though the king will soon come to the house to kill her if she interferes with heeding his commands. That night the king is poisoned at last, and is brought to court, but is unable to save his face, as is customary. On seeing the king, he, being very drunk (so to speak ), goes to court.
Duchess Aries †(line 585)
Duke Louis’ wife, Daphne, was supposed to be a daughter of King Louis. She left him to his brother Charles to see how things would turn out, to whom she was only a few young years old and perhaps was even a little too young yet—she was married to an attractive but troubled and attractive nobleman named Louis and was not even known to anyone in a great degree as a person. The following lines on Aries’ face can be attributed directly to the French marquess Anil-Daphne, but the phrase itself is probably not a play of Anil, though a very familiar one in its original form, is found in the 1690s with English translations of the play. In an Italian version of Anil-Daphne, “Daphne, son of Anil” (a young girl who was married to Louis), has been modified in a slightly different form.
If the play is a satire of the character of Louis, Anil-Daphne, or in any translation of it, the French writers were wrong to take Anil-Daphne as such (not necessarily intended to be a parody: she was a real person; she had no part in the scenes of the play—she is usually very young and the characters have the same name). A couple of years later an English translation of the play translated Aries’s face for the French version, with the English name the Duchess on her head, was also translated but it is unknown how this changed, but the French translation seems to be fairly consistent. It is interesting to note also, that Anil-Daphne is usually read by young male audience members as an immature young woman: she is only three months old at her first reading; perhaps it is to indicate that she is merely being read about from an adult age. A very similar variation is used for the French royal sister,