One day this kitten was picked up outside the studio where ISSAY and his Hamlet Machine partner TATSUYA were recording and taken in. ISSAY and TATSUYA called him Tatsuichi (Tatsu was given by TATSUYA, and Ichi was given by ISSAY.) The kitten received a lot of love and grew up big and healthy.
Has anyone thought about Hamlet? Ever. Guys I'm sorry for the insufferable person I will become.
Hamlet Machine is an eleven page play that deconstructs Hamlet by throwing Ophelia and Hamlet and Horatio and Claudius and Gertrude and Polonius at a wall, and picking up pieces and constructing them, combined with the political discussion of revolution, and patriarchal power.
It is a play(art piece) that requires multiple reads to start fully digesting it (digesting kings/ij). I will attempt to go through the first scene/soliloquy/whatever-the-fuck-scene-one-of-Hamletmachine-is and attempt to get intrigue from people.
The first scene is called Family Album. Hamlet's actor/Hamlet goes through his family. It's comfortable for a few moments before being thrust into loud a grotesque discussion. It details King Hamlet's funeral.
Hamlet is talking about the fact that his uncle (Claudius) has sullied Gertrude. But the notion of Hamlet saying "FLESH AND FLESH GLADLY JOIN TOGETHER" is an important part and "SHOULD I HELP YOU [,] UNCLE [?] OPEN YOUR LEGS MAMA" (punctuation added for clarity).
Sex is prevalent in this whole entire mindfuck. It's how Hamlet thinks and talks about sex that is what I believe to be notable and important
NOW, before I continue, I'd like to say that this is simply MY interpretation of Hamlet Machine and how I believe it contextualizes Hamlet and Hamlet(Character). You may have differing beliefs on this and thats okay <3.
Continuing on, I'll put the rest below the cut as it talks about sexual assault and abuse and incest
Hamlet is very open about not wanting to be alive in this segment. He expresses that he does not wish to have been born. He is very clear with that regarding "I'd have been spared. Women should be seen shut, a world without mothers." Hamlet is very queer coded as a character and I clock him as being seen as more feminine and less masculine. He loves his mother but that love for her is robbed by men in power (Claudius and to an extent, Polonius and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern whom I'll shorten to R&G)
"What do you want from me? Is one state funeral not enough for you, old deadbeat? Do you have no blood on your shoes?" Hamlet expresses grief and confusion of his father and his death and from what I glean from this, his relationship in regards to his father was also bad. Do you have no blood on your shoes, in my opinion, is in reference to the fact that Hamlet's father did kill people and caused as many problems as Claudius does and did.
"What do I care about your corpse? Be happy that the handle is sticking out; perhaps you'll go to heaven. What are you waiting for? The cocks have been slaughtered. Morning is cancelled." Hamlet is asking rhetorical, as Hamlet was shown in the play to care a great deal about the IDEA of his father. That's the point. His father is now a concept, an idea that literally haunts him and follows him, not going to heaven. Morning is deliberately not spelled mourning but it most certainly references Hamlets confused feeling of grief.
Morning is once again referenced and in this case, Hamlet references the fact that it is blank aside for blood. the sky and morning represent Hamlet's thinking and thoughts he has, bloody thoughts.
"YOU COME TOO LATE MY FRIEND FOR YOUR PAYCHECK/ NO SPACE FOR YOU IN MY TRAGEDY PLAY. Horatio, do you know me?" Hamlet believe in earnest that Horatio doesn't truly care for him. Like R&G, he is essentially a pawn that Claudius uses. Horatio as a character in the play functions to reveal the story and give plausible reason as to why it is told in the first place (Act 5 scene 2).
Oh boy, the paragraph that got me stuck on this fucking play.
"Do you want to play Polonius, who wants to sleep with his daughter, the charming Ophelia, she comes on her cue line, see how she shakes her ass, a tragic role." Hamlet/Hamlet's Actor views sex very poorly. He almost sees it as revolting. He also sees sexual behavior or perceived sexual behavior as abhorrent as well. Polonius is a man in power who has control. Ophelia is seen as property due to the time of the play, but Hamlet Machine contextualizes it from the perspective of incest and sexual abuse.
Hamlet then proceeds to discuss his mother.
"My Mother the bride. Her breasts a bed of roses, her womb a nest of snakes. Have you forgotten your text, Mama? I'll prompt: WASH THE MURDER OFF YOUR FACE MY PRINCE/ AND MAKE EYES AT THE NEW DENMARK. I'll make you virgin again, Mother, so the king can have a bloody wedding. THE MOTHER'S WOMB IS NOT A ONE WAY STREET."
Once again, womens nature (specifically his mothers) is vilified and made to be a threat. He enjoys qualities of women, but not the anatomy. He also believes his mother to be impure (due to the marriage of Claudius and Gertrude). In the play, Hamlet typically calls Claudius incestous, which always struck me as odd. Because it isn't incest, especially if Gertrude was from a different kingdom before. Claudius and Gertrudes marriage isn't even out of line for the time, seeing as it wasn't and odd practice to marry the widow of a sibling to keep the power, especially if the heir is believed to be unprepared.
But if you view it as Hamlet having an aversion because of past experiences with Claudius, be it getting very physical or just emotional incest, would still leave a lasting impression. Hamlet having this deranged seeming view of virginity and being new and pure can be seen in a different light when you look at it from that lens. It only gets worse.
"Now, I tie your hands behind your back with your bridal veil since I'm disgusted by your embrace. Now, I tear apart the wedding dress. Now you must scream. Now I smear the rags of your wedding dress with the earth my Father has become, with the rags your face your belly your breasts. Now, I take you, my mother, in his, my father's invisible tracks. I strangle your scream with my lips. Do You recognize the fruit of your body? Now go to your wedding, whore, bright in the Danish sun which shines on the living and the dead. I want to stuff the corpse in the toilet so that the palace chokes in kingly shit. Then let me eat your heart, Ophelia, which cries my tears."
Hamlet vividly describes assaulting his mother because he finds her disgusting. He tells her how she is supposed to act, what she is supposed to do when he says it. And he claims that this is for his father. It is to please a man who is dead and who Hamlet believes should be there and so he simply is doing what his father would do. He is influenced by powerful men in power. The last segment is bitter. Fruit of your body is a reference to the fact that he is her son, but also once again ties into Hamlets disdain of being alive. When he discusses shoving his fathers corpse into a toilet, I believe it to be bitter and angry. His father hurt him in some way, and he believes that even after death, he should be desecrated. And then he asks if he can eat Ophelia's heart. "Which cries my tears". It is frowned upon for men to be emotional but also to cry and men are viewed as weak when they are assaulted. If Hamlet was abused in such ways, this craving being different or dead is important to recognize as cries for help.
Ophelia's one of three scenes of the play/art peice/yk is one that is like. 0.5% more understandable upon just one read through. It is ophelia, alongside many women represented by her, taking back her life. "Yesterday I stopped Killing myself" its aboit taking agency and pride back in yourself and it is Ophelia choosing freedom. burning old clothes and the bed being her prison are clearly in references to sexual assault and putting it into the context of the play , especially with the lens of incest being a core theme, it leads people to question Polonius's motives for keeping her from Hamlet and the influence he exudes over her.
Anyway! That's my analysis for the first two scenes. I will probably make a scene three analysis later down the line.
