Sunday, March 4, 2012

Can someone explain the interplay between fear and foresight within Hamlet? Thank you

Concerning Shakespeare's Hamlet, I'm
not completely sure what you're after, but I think I have an
idea.


In Hamlet's famous "O, what a rogue and peasant slave
am I" speech (Act 2.2.515-572), Hamlet reacts to the First Player's speech, delivered
with power and emotion, in two stages. 


In the first stage
of his speech, Hamlet condemns himself for not yet having revenged his father's death by
killing King Claudius.  During this part of the speech, he calls
himself:



A
dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak


Like John-a-dreams,
unpregnant of my cause,


And can say nothing; no, not for a
king


Upon whose property and most dear
life


A damned defeat was
made. 



And asks
himself:



Am I a
coward?



Hamlet calls himself
a dull-spirited rascal, a day-dreamer with no inspiration who says nothing to stand up
for a king who was the victim of murder.  He asks himself if he is a coward, and then
proceeds to say that even if he were abused, he would take it because he
is


readability="7">

pigeon-livered and lack[s]
gall


To make oppression bitter [stand up for
himself]



Part one of this
speech might be said to present the idea of "fear."


In part
two, however, Hamlet demonstrates foresight, you could say.  Beginning in line 555 with
a dash--signifying a pause--Hamlet turns his thoughts toward a solution to his dilemma. 
Hamlet needs confirmation and corroboration of the Ghost's story concerning Claudius'
murder of King Hamlet.  He states his plan to have the actors stage a play featuring a
murder scene similar to that described by the Ghost.  If the king overreacts, Hamlet
says, he will know the Ghost speaks the truth, and is not a spirit that "Abuses me to
damn me." 


Thus, an interplay between fear and foresight
exists here.  Hamlet's immediate reaction to the First Player's speech is one of
self-condemnation for his being a "coward."  But at the same time, he reveals his need
to be certain of Claudius' guilt before he kills him.  And his plan to determine
Claudius' guilt or innocence demonstrates foresight. 

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