we are arrant knaves, all.

David, 19. Hamlet blog, appreciating the play in its many, many incarnations. Art: @binary-bird, side blog: @4thwallseer

[binary-bird]

oh, what have i become? dirty and wretched one am i unholy land? have i forced your hand?

[arrantknave]

op tags

[binary-bird]

hamlet in forbes-robertson's costume

[shaxgirlsummer]

i read something so so fascinating about hamlet and particularly ophelia’s role in it a while back (when working on my ophelia & abortion paper) which is, summarily, that ophelia does not obey the “expected” behavior of a love interest as typical for early modern drama at this time, including in shakespeare’s own works. simply put? she denies her own desires and obeys her father. this was not the case for virtually every other early modern women “love interest”! (scare quotes because ophelia is far far more than a love interest, but it is one of her many roles in the play.) women in early modern drama did not obey their fathers, they chased after/worked hand in hand with their beloveds. juliet is an obvious and probably the most well-known example, but desdemona also defies her father’s preferences to marry othello, bianca defies baptisa, etc. and so it is deeply fascinating that, at least on one level, ophelia chooses to obey her father’s wishes and thus denies her own desire to be with hamlet. (and the fact that ophelia even “helps” her father investigate hamlet was even more a distortion of the aforementioned early modern theatrical trope—daughters helping their fathers against their beloveds simply was not done.)

which of course creates a fascinating parallel: ophelia does not fulfill her desire just as hamlet does not fulfill his revenge. these characters are defined by what they do not do throughout the play. from this alone, it is easy to argue that hamlet and ophelia are the most clearly defined foils in all of hamlet, but the reasons go on and on—they are the only two characters who experience madness, they both prioritize obedience to their fathers above all, ophelia is the only character to verbally match hamlet’s wit, etc.

[ancient-me]

[hamletkin]

[innerchildabortionclinic]

first youtube analysis i've wanted to watch voluntarily

[un-monstre]

The body of a post is where Hamlet talks to Claudius. The tags is where Hamlet talks to the audience

[two-bees-poetry]

the grief of growing

[aq2003]

this is so cool and also rosencrantz and guildenstern's sign names are killing me lol

[aurpiment]

[3liza]

touching grass isn't enough we should be staging small community productions of shakespeare

[two-bees-poetry]

horatio’s epilogue

[arrantknave]

You've killed me. You have stabbed me through the tapestry of the world wide web and I now am dead.

I like to think that Hamlet, in his madness, has the energy of an unruly pet bird.

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

hmm maybe it’s the lady macbeth in me but I feel like one thing Hamlet adaptations are missing out on is the chance to make Hamlet blood-covered as a result of Polonius’ murder. And I get that the actual act of the murder itself is generally a pretty clean cut but like. for a rash and bloody deed it could be bloodier.

like why not have Polonius’ blood pool on the floor as the scene progresses? and then as the ghost appears, and Hamlet falls to his knees, trembling, he sinks right into the mess, completely unaware. He bows and presses his palms to the floor, and doesn’t even seem to notice when he rises again that his hands are dripping wet. Gertrude jerks away from his attempts to touch her face or hands when he tries to reassure her, but she can’t fully escape the stains in her clothing, in her carpet as well. Hamlet runs a hand through his hair, to brush it out of his eyes, and again gives no reaction when it drips slowly down his face.

imagine the shock of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern finding their friend like this. Of Claudius, having committed a crime with no trace, no witnesses, and no ties to him, coming face-to-face with Hamlet, his crime visibly splattered across his skin and clothing, witnessed and inescapable, both aware of the other’s sin and both suddenly knowing the other will kill them for it. Claudius who wants to feel guilt but can’t quite manage, Hamlet who doesn’t want to feel anything of the sort and can’t quite manage that either.

[bigfriedbassoon]

The ‘you shall nose him’ line much more visceral if all anyone can smell is this guy’s blood

[ceasadh]

mmm.

[arrantknave]

icon update

[butchhamlet]

"If the name Hamlet comes from the play's sources, one thing that is distinctive about Shakespeare's naming in the play is the doubling of the name Hamlet for both the dead father and the living son. In none of the sources is the burden of the past, the psychic overlap between the two generations, so stressed as in the play. [...] Old King Hamlet symbolizes the past: familial, political, cultural and temporal. And his appearance pulls Hamlet away from the future and into the past. In the play's second scene we see two young men setting off on different courses. Laertes, son of Polonius, requests permission to go to France and is granted it [...]; Hamlet, by contrast, allows himself to be persuaded to stay at home rather than return to university, and in that decision he fixes himself for ever as a child."

—Dr. Emma Smith, This is Shakespeare (emphasis mine)