Subtext

SCENE IV. The Queen's closet.

Enter QUEEN MARGARET and POLONIUS (always scheming)

LORD POLONIUS

He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.
Pray you, be round with him.
(Spoken vehemently...Polonius really wants to see Hamlet get it)

HAMLET

[Within] Mother, mother, mother!
(Mockingly, as if he's acting much younger than he is)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

I'll warrant you,
Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.

POLONIUS hides behind the arras but not well enough....

Enter HAMLET

HAMLET

Now, mother, what's the matter?
(Still with some condescension. He clearly knows what is the matter)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.

HAMLET

Mother, you have my father much offended.
(to use a more modern phrase...OH SNAP)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
(She is still patient with him at this point. Perhaps as if she is reprimanding a young boy)

HAMLET

Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
(Ouch.)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Why, how now, Hamlet!
(She begins to lose her temper)

HAMLET

What's the matter now?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Have you forgot me?
(Since she still babies Hamlet to an extent, she seems to think that he should still show her the same affection that a young boy would show his mother even though that is not the appropriate way to treat Hamlet.)

HAMLET

No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.
(Slightly taken aback)

HAMLET

Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.
(Now Hamlet gains "control" of the scene. He is the one driving all the action)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho!
(She realizes she's lost control and is scared)

LORD POLONIUS

[Behind] What, ho! help, help, help!
(He unnecessarily panics and reveals himself)

HAMLET

[Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!

(He knows what is really behind the curtain and believes that whoever it is deserves to die for being a co-conspirator in this scene and perhaps even Hamlet's father's death) Makes a pass through the arras

LORD POLONIUS

[Behind] O, I am slain!

(Crooooak) Falls and dies

QUEEN GERTRUDE

O me, what hast thou done?
(Shocked by what just happened, she begins to feel faint and cannot seem to hold her ground)

HAMLET

Nay, I know not:
Is it the king?
(He wishes. He speaks very calmly for someone who has just committed murder)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!

HAMLET

A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
(Almost as bad...but not quite. He places himself out of the same league as Claudius)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

As kill a king!

HAMLET

Ay, lady, 'twas my word.

Lifts up the array and discovers POLONIUS

Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damned custom have not brass'd it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
(His anger is apparent)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?
(She seems to have missed the bigger picture)

HAMLET

Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.
(He continues to reprimand his mother for what she has done, reminding her of the extent to which he holds her in contempt)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Ay me, what act,
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?
(She still doesn't get it)

HAMLET

Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. (He points to a portrait on the wall of Hamlet Sr. and Claudius)
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband. (Hamlet Sr.=a god) Look you now, what follows:
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. (gross) Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it love; for at your age
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment
Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,
Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd
But it reserved some quantity of choice,
To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope.
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn
And reason panders will.
(With each line, his anger mounts and he moves closer to his mother. As he speaks, Gertrude becomes more and more upset by Hamlet's harsh words.)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct.
(She wipes tears from her eyes)

HAMLET

Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty,--

QUEEN GERTRUDE

O, speak to me no more;
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet!
(She cuts him off, appalled)

HAMLET

A murderer and a villain;
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!

QUEEN GERTRUDE

No more!
(She begins to sob)

HAMLET

A king of shreds and patches,--

Enter Ghost

Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
(He looks up and in the opposite direction of Gertrude to where the ghost is)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Alas, he's mad!

HAMLET

Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command? O, say!

Ghost

Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.
(He rebukes Hamlet for upsetting his mother so. After all, the ghost still loves her)

HAMLET

How is it with you, lady?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Alas, how is't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?
(She is slightly more collected but still thinks Hamlet is bonkers)

HAMLET

On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!
His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects: then what I have to do
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.
(He doesn't understand that she cannot see the ghost)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

(They speak quickly) To whom do you speak this?

HAMLET

Do you see nothing there?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.

HAMLET

Nor did you nothing hear?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

No, nothing but ourselves.

HAMLET

Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!
My father, in his habit as he lived!
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!

Exit Ghost

QUEEN GERTRUDE

This the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.

HAMLET

Ecstasy!
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: it is not madness
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that mattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks: (I'm crazy but I know what I'm talking about)
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
For in the fatness of these pursy times
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
(He still has some love for his mother. He wants her to reform her ways. He has not yet completely given up on her soul. He still holds her in higher regard that he holds the others)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
(You broke my heart)

HAMLET

O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night: but go not to mine uncle's bed;
Assume a virtue, if you have it not. (He is clearly begging her to listen to him)
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery,
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either [ ] the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night:
And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,

Pointing to POLONIUS (and effecting a more scornful tone of voice)

I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so, (looks up)
To punish me with this and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
One word more, good lady.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

What shall I do? (She is exasperated by everything that has just taken place)

HAMLET

Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top.
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.
(He wants her to reveal the truth about Claudius because her word is more reputable than Hamlet's. He begs her to condemn Claudius even at her own expense)

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.
(I can't do it.)

Lonely Hearts

Lonely Hearts
by Wendy Cope

Can someone make my simple wish come true?
Male biker seeks female for touring fun.
Do you live in North London? Is it you?

Gay vegetarian whose friends are few,
I'm into music, Shakespeare and the sun.
Can someone make my simple wish come true?

Executive in search of something new—
Perhaps bisexual woman, arty, young.
Do you live in North London? Is it you?

Successful, straight and solvent? I am too—
Attractive Jewish lady with a son.
Can someone make my simple wish come true?

I'm Libran, inexperienced and blue—
Need slim, non-smoker, under twenty-one.
Do you live in North London? Is it you?

Please write (with photo) to Box 152.
Who knows where it may lead once we've begun?
Can someone make my simple wish come true?
Do you live in North London? Is it you?

Do you really want to know?

In Sophocles's play, Oedipus the King, a terrible fate befalls King Oedipus--he kills his father and marries his mother. However, he commits each of these crimes without truly knowing what he is doing. When he kills his father, Oedipus thinks he has merely killed a few random travelers, and when he marries Jocasta, Oedipus has no idea that she is his mother. Over the course of the play, Oedipus discovers these horrors and is mortified. Several characters in the play contribute information that allows Oedipus to piece together the puzzle that is his misfortune, but many of them attempt to shield Oedipus from the terrible truth. Oedipus still begs them to reveal their secrets because he is determined to solve the mystery which has brought a plague upon his people. Although Oedipus may appear to be a proud and selfish character, as the play progresses, we see that he comes to terms with his terrible fate in order to redeem the people of Thebes so that they no longer share in his suffering.

When Creon first tells Oedipus that the man who killed Laos must be exiled in order for the people of Thebes to be saved, Oedipus calls on the seer Tiresias to reveal the true threat to the kingdom. Although Tiresias refuses several times to tell Oedipus the truth, he ultimately points to Oedipus as the ruin of Thebes. Oedipus is shocked and denounces Tiresias as a fool but then spends the rest of the play trying to determine what, if any, truth there is to Tiresias's claims.

At first, Oedipus's motive is merely to prove Tiresias wrong; however, once he speaks to Jocasta and learns more about Laos's death, he begins to entertain the unpleasant idea that Tiresias might be correct. He sends for the only man who survived the journey on which Laos met his death--a shepherd who no longer lives in Thebes. Before the shepherd arrives, a messenger brings word to Oedipus of his "father's" death. However the messenger also informs Oedipus that the King of Corinth, whom Oedipus believes to be his father, is in fact not related to Oedipus at all. Once the shepherd arrives, he begs that Oedipus not ask the truth of him, but Oedipus is so set on solving this mystery, even though it will certainly only lead to his own doom, that he demands the truth. The shepherd confirms that Oedipus is indeed the son of Laos and has married his mother and killed his own father.

In a fit of rage at his own misfortune and at Jocasta’s suicide, Oedipus gouges out his own eyes and succumbs to his miserable fate. It is then that he commits his most selfless act: he chooses to go into exile himself so that the people of Thebes will no longer suffer from the plague. Although Oedipus is introduced to us as a haughty, proud ruler who thinks he can defy fate and the gods, by the end of the play, he is reduced to a humble, unhappy man who leaves the life and people who once but no longer revere him so that they may lead a better life. (WC 530)

Gerasim

In Tolstoy’s novella “The Death of Ivan Illych,” the only person with the ability to comfort Illych and to help him forget his terrible, painful suffering is his servant Gerasim. Anyone else who is even remotely acquainted with Illych seems to only irritate him further or offer him no real comfort at all. One day, in the third month of Illych’s illness, when Gerasim enters Illych’s room to attend to him, Illych asks him to please raise his legs because it makes his pain easier to bear. Gerasim does so and Illych discovers that he feels immensely better while Gerasim holds his legs up, and worse once Gerasim sets them down. Although it seems as if it is the position of Illych’s legs that affects his level of pain or comfort, I believe that it is actually the presence or absence of Gerasim’s companionship that affects Illych’s well being.

While Illych has Gerasim hold his legs up, he also asks Gerasim to sit with him for a while and talk to him. Illych grows to rather like Gerasim, and though “health, strength, and vitality in other people were offensive to him…Gerasim’s strength and vitality did not mortify but soothed him (paragraph 216).” Gerasim almost becomes Illych’s role model. Although Illych knows that he will never again be young and healthy like Gerasim, simply being around him allows him to remember the only somewhat happy period of his life—his youth. Maybe if Illych could have learned from Gerasim and adopted some of his good nature, he would have recovered from his illness, or at least lived his last few days in peace.

What bothers Illych most about his condition is the fact that others around him constantly deceive him in relation to it. They either feign sympathy for him, make excuses not to see him, or deny that he is dying when he knows he really is. Gerasim is the one exception to this norm as he does not lie to Illych, and truly does pity him. This small dose of actual concern that Gerasim begrudges Illych does more good for him and gives him more comfort than any dose of medicine that he takes. He even begins to look to Gerasim as a friend, not a friend like the phonies he used to play bridge with, but an actual, honest companion.

It is worth noting that Gerasim himself is a mere peasant, therefore not in the social class to which Illych worked so hard to ascend. Perhaps if Illych had merely allowed himself and his wife and his family to live out their days as happy peasants, and not always worked so hard to advance his position in life, he might have had a happier life. He might have found more companions in life who made him truly happy, or led a life that he could look back upon and remember fondly, rather than miserably. Unfortunately though, Illych passes away as an unhappy, lonely, middle-class man.

(WC 496)

Top 10....

Top 10 Reasons (in no particular order) Why Fermina and Florentino's relationship in old age is much healthier than their relationship in their youth.

1. When Florentino and Fermina are both adults, they have more control over their own lives. Fermina is free of the restrictions her father once placed on her personal relationships, and Florentino is free of his mother's well-meaning, but often bad advice (such as the time she advised him to enjoy his suffering instead of allowing himself to concentrate on things in life which did not cause him so much pain and anguish.) Therefore, it is easier for them to court and spend time getting to know one another.

2. Since both Fermina and Florentino are both old and wrinkly, their love must be based on something more substantial than each other's appearance or physical attractiveness.

3. After his initial faux pas of showing up at Fermina's house just after Urbino's death, Florentino tries to appear less obsessive and more charming. While he is still secretly just as obsessed with Fermina now as he was fifty plus years ago, his attempts to give her some space and not to simply shower her with compliments. He no longer places her on an impossibly high pedestal as he once did.

4. They do not need to worry about money or future success. Their lives are in order so they can devote more time to one another than they could when they were younger.

5. Florentino's methods of courtship are much less creepy than they used to be. Instead of corresponding with Fermina via letters hidden randomly around their city, they simply use the post to communicate (although he does take certain precautions when doing so.) Also, they have much more face-to-face interaction. Florentino comes to Fermina's house once a week and they talk or play cards together. Fermina's son even interacts and develops a positive relationship with Florentino.

6. Their letters are no longer about blind (emphasis on blind) passion but instead about more adult topics that go beyond their relationship itself. For instance, Florentino helps her recover from the loss of her husband even though he had secretly been awaiting Urbino's death since his and Fermina's marriage.

7. They are older and wiser. While they have not lived life together and had the experience of growing old together, both are significantly more mature and therefore able to connect on a deeper level than they did when they were young.

8. Because of their age, neither has to worry about the other potentially falling for someone else. At this point in their lives, either the two of them will get together, or they will both be single for the rest of their lives. The competition factor that existed in their youth has disappeared.

9. Florentino's impulsivity is not as catastrophic as it was once; since their next day might be their last they care less about their actions. For example, allowing the captain to fly the cholera flag on their boat was an impulsive and unwise decision; however, even in the worst case scenario, nothing terrible can really come of it for Florentino and Fermina--they'll be dead soon anyway :-D.


I lied. I could only come up with nine reasons. Can you think of any that I didn’t mention that perhaps I should have added? (WC 549)

My take on one of Ariza's letters

As you might have guessed from my comments in class, I believe that Ariza's feelings towards Fermina should be labeled as an obsession rather than as love. Towards the end of class, someone pointed out that we do not actually get to read any of the letters that Ariza and Fermina write to one another. Depending on how each of us felt about Fermina and Ariza's relationship (whether it was love or not), each of us seemed to imagine the letters differently. The following is what I imagine one of Ariza's letters to sound like (with a few of my own slightly cynical comments in parentheses):


My dear Fermina,

It gives me such pleasure to watch you from the bench in the park as you walk past me each day (what a creep). Each time I look at you, your beauty astounds me as if I were witnessing it for the first time. The sheer grace of your stride makes you appear to be an angel, gliding through the air. I long to touch you gorgeous, shiny hair to see for myself if it is as silky soft as it appears to be. While we almost never make eye contact, I follow your eyes with mine; they captivate me. Once your eyes did seem to meet mine, and my heart stopped beating for that instant. Your smile and mouth, however, are what draw me to you the most. When you laugh or open your mouth to speak to your aunt, I imagine how wonderful it would be to speak to you myself. If only I were permitted to do so, I would surely be beside myself with glee (he is obsessed with a girl who he has barely ever spoken to).


As you know, I admire you so fondly, and I long for the day when we can be together. Surely, it will be the happiest day of my young life (because he does not allow himself to be happy at all; all he thinks of his obsession with Fermina; he even seems to enjoy punishing himself with his “love” for her). While I suffer greatly because we cannot be together, it is surely worthwhile because one day we will be together and I shall be eternally overjoyed. My mother even encourages my suffering because she too believes that one day you and I will be together and that my suffering will sweeten our future love all the more (his obsession is UNHEALTHY, and this is bad parenting on Mother’s part; she should encourage him to court Fermina in a more natural and low-key way and to experience other parts of life as well).

I shall now conclude this letter and leave it underneath the porch of your house as we had planned. I hope to find your reply buried in the ground underneath the bench in the park under on which I sit and admire your loveliness. Once again, my darling, I would like to declare my undying love for you. I hope this letter finds you well. I shall see you as you walk to school tomorrow, and I hope to hear from you soon (he sees her nearly every single day but never speaks to her; they have no verbal communication).

Fondly (obsessively),
Florentino Ariza


Basically, I believe that Ariza and Fermina do not have enough face-to-face interaction to call their feelings for one another love. They simply do not know each other well enough. Therefore, Ariza can fill his letters only with compliments about her beauty and descriptions of his obsession with her. (582)

What's In a Name?...A lot if you ask Mother

Mother's character in The Sound and the Fury certainly would not have agreed with Juliet(of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) that "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." In fact, Mother is positively superstitious when it comes to the names of various characters in the novel. When characters such as Benjy, Caddy, and Quentin experience hardships or act out, Mother blames their very names for their suffering.

Mother's superstition drives her to change Benjy's name from Maury to Benjamin when he is five. Once Benjy's retardation becomes apparent, Mother simply decides that Benjamin "is a better name for him than Maury was (58)." Mother's doubt of Maury as an acceptable name is probably derived from the fact that her brother, Benjy's former namesake, is a less than successful man with limited morality. She also fears that her brother Maury's unscrupulous actions have cursed his name and that, because he bore the name Maury as well, Benjy was also cursed (with his disability). Since the name "Benjamin came out of the Bible (58)," Mother thinks that G-d will look more favorably upon Benjamin. Once he is given the name Benjamin, Caddy playfully bestows the nickname Benjy upon him. However, nicknames also upset Mother. She tells Caddy to stop calling him Benjy because"nicknames are vulgar [and] only common people use them (64)." Mother simply cannot look past the fact that Benjy will be Benjy regardless of whether his name is Maury, Benjy, or Benjamin.

Once Quentin is born and left in Mother's charge, Mother fears that Caddy's name might have an ill effect on young Quentin. She tells Dilsey that Quentin "must never even learn that name (199)" and she forbids Dilsey to even speak Caddy's name in Quentin's presence. Father calls Mother a fool for taking to such ridiculous and ineffective measures to prevent Quentin from making the same mistakes that Caddy did, but Mother prevails and the name Caddy is blotted out of their lives. Interestingly enough, this cautionary measure does nothing as we learn that Quentin does indeed grow up to be a promiscuous little rebel and not nearly so good-natured as Caddy was.

Mother is also superstitious about the name Quentin because Quentin (the girl) has such a flawed character and Quentin (the boy) committed suicide. She believes that Quentin (the girl) "has inherited all of the headstrong traits(260)" of Quentin (the boy) and of the other Compsons. She even goes as far as to claim that Quentin (the girl) "is the judgment of both of [the Quentins] upon [her] (261)." Mother claims that giving Quentin (the girl) that name was one of the many forces which drove Quentin to become the unhappy miscreant that she is today. On April 8, when Quentin steals Jason's money--the money which is really rightfully hers--and runs away, Mother immediately, and incorrectly, assumes that Quentin (the girl) has committed suicide just as Quentin (the boy) had. Mother says that she "knew the minute they named her Quentin this would happen(283)" as if the name itself were what could have caused either Quentin's suicide.

Perhaps Mother's superstitions were not all wrong, and the names did draw certain personalities to the people who were called by them. However, it is more likely that Mother is simply deranged and looking for excuses for the many misfortunes which befall her family. (WC 559)