Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Hamlet As A Melancholy Man
Hamlet As A Melancholy Man
Hamlet As A Melancholy Man
man. Apparently this had not been his previous character, for the king has
spoken of it as "Hamlet's transformation." This change in him was brought
about by brooding on the events that had just happened, and had been not
only a mental but especially a moral reaction.
When the first of these disturbing events occurred, Hamlet was at the
university, and apparently he did not arrive in Denmark until they had all
come to pass. The first of these was the sudden death of his father; caused
as it was given out by a serpent's sting. The circumstances were suspicious
and pointed to his uncle, Claudius, but there was no certain evidence.
Within two months followed his mother's marriage to his uncle Claudius,
which she herself afterward spoke of as their "o'erhasty marriage." To
Hamlet this seemed so improper, and followed so hard upon the funeral of
his father that he sarcastically spoke of it as due to
"Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked-meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables."
(I. ii. 180-1.)
These events had all occurred before the opening of the play, for when his
uncle and mother appear on the stage for the first time (I. ii.) they are
already king and queen. Hamlet, then, confronts these as accomplished
facts, and his mind is troubled. The suspected villainy of his father's sudden
death caused him great worry. He was not much concerned about losing
the crown. But he was stirred to the depths of his moral nature by what he
regarded as his mother's incestuous and o'erhasty marriage.
Added to these was the further fact that under the rule of Claudius his
beloved Denmark was degenerating and being given over to corruption and
to pleasure. Everything seemed to him to have gone wrong. His father is
dead, his mother dishonored, and his country disgraced and weakened.