Like a Soldier, to the Stage

Finished Hamlet!

A few random notes.

The last act took me aback a little. The tone of the play moved from quick and hectic to a more serene rhythm... not so much the plot itself, which remained very full of incident, but the way Hamlet reacted to the events and the way the play moved from close focus on him to a wider, almost national focus in the last part. I am having a difficult time describing it, but the edginess of the first part seemed to culminate when Laertes and Hamlet scrabbled in Polonius' grave. After that, Hamlet seemed to take back stage as a persona and move into front stage as a more historical character. The final scene where practically every key player is poisoned by cup and rapier seemed to be a bit of a homeopathic anodyne.

To me, his hesitation during the earlier parts was not the ineffectual hesitation you see in something like The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock.

Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

Hamlet's hesitation is informed by a kind of grace. When he finally can act effectually, he does.

Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have proved most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldiers' music and the rites of war
Speak loudly for him.
Take up the bodies: such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

A couple of sites:

This one is a standard informational study-guide place with resources for teachers.
This one is interesting and a bit quirkier and more personal.

Here's a Shakespeare Theme Page.