West Wind Blows 21april2024

Connemara Community Radio is broadcasting a series of educational programmes for Leaving Certificate students. In one lecture, Dennis Craven discusses the portrayal of women in Shakespeare's play Hamlet. He argues that both Gertrude and Ophelia are weak and easily manipulated characters. Gertrude is portrayed as false, shallow, and morally flawed, while Ophelia is innocent and lacks strength of character. Both women are used by men and do not drive the plot themselves. Gertrude's marriage to Claudius is seen as a means for him to gain power, and Ophelia's obedience to her father leads to her downfall. Overall, the portrayal of women in Hamlet is unflattering. This programme is sponsored by Connemara Holiday Lettings, your one-stop shop for all your holiday home rental needs. 095 22 669. Attention Leaving Certificate Higher Level English, French, Classical Studies, Chemistry and Physics students. As part of our commitment to education, Connemara Community Radio is now broadcasting, within the West Wind Blows, a series of 14 programmes including English, French, Classical Studies, Chemistry and Physics, directed towards Leaving Certificate students Higher Level course. Leading English lecturers discuss all of the poets on the Leaving Certificate English syllabus and give tips on how to approach Paper 1, the essay paper. The series includes a lecture on themes, topics and characters in the Shakespearean play Hamlet, which is also on the Leaving Certificate syllabus. The series runs each Sunday at 5.05pm and is repeated on Monday at 12.05pm. These programmes are available to listen to or download on a dedicated webpage on www.connemarafm.com. Tune in to 87.8 and 106.1 FM or log on to www.connemarafm.com. Hello and welcome to the educational programme. Today Dennis Craven will lecture on themes, topics and characters from the Shakespearean play Hamlet, which is on the Leaving Certificate Higher Level English course. Over to Dennis. In this talk I will deal with a number of topics in Hamlet. And the first topic I will deal with is Shakespeare's unflattering portrayal of women in Hamlet. In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare paints quite an unflattering picture of women. He sees women in a rather negative light. Both Gertrude and Ophelia are more significant for the use that is made of them than for anything significant they achieve by themselves. Neither of the two women initiates or plans anything. They are used as pawns by men. They are easily manipulated. They do not consciously drive the plot by anything they do, but rather by what is done to them. They are both weak. The Queen is flawed and weak. Ophelia is innocent and weak. Let us look first at Gertrude, the Queen. Claudius may refer to her as the imperial jointress of this warlike state, but the reality is she has no power, nor does she seek power. She is false, shallow and morally flawed. The ghost's reference to Claudius as an adulterous beast suggests that Gertrude was an adulteress and was false to her first husband, Hamlet, while he was alive. Furthermore, she has allowed herself to be manipulated by Claudius. The ghost tells Hamlet with witchcraft of his wish, with traitorous gifts, Claudius won to his shameful lust the will of my most seeming virtuous Queen. It seems that Claudius manipulated Gertrude and used her as a means to the throne. The hasty, incestuous marriage was probably designed to prevent Prince Hamlet's succession. It is significant that in the prayer scene, when Claudius is listing his reasons for killing his brother, he gives them in this order, my crown, mine own ambition and my Queen. The Queen comes last, reinforcing the idea that she was used by Claudius as a means to the throne. Of course her moral weakness made this possible. To her shame, not once in the play does she show any concern for having denied Hamlet his right of succession. As well as being false to her first husband during his lifetime, she is also false to him after his death. She betrays his memory. She followed his coffin like Neo by all tears, and within two months she has remarried, and worse still, the marriage is incestuous. Remarkably, she seems utterly unaware of the wrong she has done. She seems morally dense to an extraordinary degree, morally dense in the sense that her conscience seems not to be functioning. Her conscience is dormant until Hamlet awakens it for her in the famous closet scene. She is, as we have said, false to the memory of her dead husband, and she wants her son Hamlet to be equally false, telling him, Do not forever with thy veiled lids seek for thy noble father in the dust. In her shallowness she asks Hamlet why his father's death should seem so particular with him, the fact that she cannot or does not want to understand Hamlet's natural grief for his father shows Gertrude in an extremely unflattering light. In the dumb show of the mousetrap play, and in the dialogue which follows, we again see the Queen in a poor light. She is presented with the clear representation of her own falseness and of her own betrayal of her husband. On stage she sees a woman, like herself, a queen, expressing undying love to a king husband, and telling him that once a widow she would never remarry, and then being won over with gifts from a new lover. Gertrude watches this representation on the stage. She watches and hears all this, and she remains unmoved. This indicates an absolute lack of conscience, extreme moral density. The closet scene, although it does mark the awakening of her conscience, highlights how weak she is, how she allows herself to be used. The meeting in the closet scene has been arranged by Polonius and Claudius, and she has gone along with it without protest. She allows Polonius to dictate to her how she should behave with her son, and, as if she were just a mere mindless creature, Polonius instructs her, Look you lay home to him, tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with, and that your grace had screened and stood between much heat and him. One of the most significant moments in the closet scene is the queen's rather sudden arrival at moral awareness. After Hamlet has graphically contrasted her godlike dead husband with Claudius, whom he calls a mildewed ear, the queen suddenly cries out, 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 tint. Here she emerges in a very poor light. She should not have needed Hamlet to make her realize her falseness and her betrayal of her first husband. She is either entirely morally dense, or else she has deliberately chosen to ignore her conscience. There is yet another occasion that reveals the queen's weakness of character. Ophelia, in her madness, approaches the queen's chamber, but the queen refuses to speak with her, declaring, I will not speak with her, until Horatio insists that she do so. T'were good she were spoken to, says Horatio. Here we see in Gertrude a woman who lacks the strength of character to deal with difficulty. She prefers the comfort of non-involvement. This attitude also displays a lack of genuine compassion for the distraught Ophelia. Gertrude then is false, shallow, weak, easily manipulated, and utterly lacking in the ability or the courage to confront her own falseness and acts of betrayal. Let us turn now to Ophelia, and how she is portrayed in an unflattering light. If Gertrude is easily used and manipulated, so is Ophelia. Her main purpose in the play is the use that is made of her. Gertrude is morally flawed and weak. Ophelia is, to an extent, innocent and weak. Although very different from Gertrude, Ophelia still emerges from the play in a rather unflattering light. There is only one occasion in the entire play where she displays a moment of strength. When her brother is lecturing her on the importance of protecting her virginity, she stands up for herself briefly, telling him not to show her the steep and thorny way to heaven while he wrecks not his own reed. Soon she is ordered by her father to break off her relationship with Hamlet and not to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet, and she weakly submits, telling her father, I shall obey my Lord. We know that she did repel Hamlet's letters and denied him access to her. By obeying her father, she is actually betraying both Hamlet and herself. She is morally certain that Hamlet loves her, that his love is genuine. She tells her father that Hamlet hath importuned me with love in honourable fashion, and hath given countenance to his speech with almost all the holy vows of heaven, and yet she weakly allows herself to be overruled by her cynical father. She simply lacks character, or, if you like, she lacks moral courage. Like Gertrude, Ophelia is intellectually limited. She has little reflective element. For instance, she gives no thought to the effect that suddenly, dramatically, and totally breaking off her relationship with Hamlet and denying him access to her will have on him. If she were meant to be a character of substance, she would have experienced extreme soul-searching in the conflict between loyalty to her father and loyalty to Hamlet, whom she certainly loves, and who she knows loves her. But there is no soliloquy, and there is no moment of soul-searching, indicating her intellectual limitations. We know that when Hamlet frightened her by entering her chamber in the guise of a mad lover, she immediately informs her father of what has transpired, and, in an act of betrayal, she gives her father a love-letter of sorts that she has received from Hamlet. This indicates a weak, totally father-dominated young girl. As I said before, she lacks strength of character. The entrapment scene shows Ophelia allowing herself to be used, used as a pawn by Claudius and by her father. She is instructed to walk in the lobby and meet Hamlet as if by accident. She has no objection to this meeting being spied on and eavesdropped on by Claudius and Polonius. As a mere pawn, she accepts her father's stage directions. Walk, you here, read on this book. Ophelia's weakness of character is seen in her utter passivity. She does what she is told to do. Finally, overwhelmed by the circumstances of her life, by Hamlet's seeming rejection of her, and by her father's death at the hands of the man she loves, she is unable to cope, and succumbs to madness, dying either by accident or, more likely, by suicide. In Ophelia, then, we find a rather unflattering portrayal of women. She lacks strength of character. She is intellectually limited, and weakly she allows herself to be used and manipulated. She does not reflect. She is intellectually limited, and she is, to an extent, herself guilty of betrayal. Betrayal of Hamlet, and, more importantly, betrayal of herself and of her true feelings. I will now deal with the theme of corruption, and as I deal with this theme of corruption, I will include elements of deception, because the deception in the play is part of the corruption. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, says Marcellus. So corruption is a major theme in the play. The centre of the Danish state, and indeed the source of the play's plot, consists of poison, adultery, and what was regarded as incest at the time of the play's setting. Claudius is the corrupt centre of the state. He has come to power through the major crime of regicide and fratricide, the killing of a brother, and he has deceived the public with the false version of his brother's death, claiming that while sleeping in his orchard he was stung by a serpent. So at the very core of the play lies corruption, falseness, murder, poison, and lies. Furthermore, he is, according to the ghost, an adulterous beast, who has, with witchcraft of his witch, with treacherous gifts, won to his shameful lust the will of my most seeming virtuous queen. This corrupt adulterer has used the queen as a means to the throne, and his hasty marriage seems to have been designed to prevent Hamlet succeeding his father as king. As well as being a murderer and an adulterer, corrupt Claudius is a consummate hypocrite. He pretends grief for the brother he has poisoned. In his falseness and hypocrisy he lectures Hamlet, telling him that to persist in mourning his dead father shows a will most incorrect to heaven. The queen whom Claudius has corrupted is an adulteress. She has betrayed her first husband during his life, and after his death she betrays his memory by entering a hasty marriage, and worse still, an incestuous marriage. She is false to her dead husband's memory, and wants Hamlet to be equally false. Do not forever seek with thy veiled lids thy noble father in the dust. Her cliché comment, All that lives must die, is the comment of a false corrupt woman who has betrayed her husband. Claudius seems to have infected and corrupted the royal court of Denmark. His courtiers have accepted an incestuous marriage, and have accepted his version of his brother's death. Claudius even has the gall to thank the courtiers for having freely gone with this affair along. He has so corrupted the court that they have freely gone along with an incestuous royal marriage. Polonius, Claudius's chief minister, is also corrupt. He does not of course know that Claudius is a murderer, but he does know that the royal marriage is incestuous, and still he remains loyal to Claudius. He is more loyal to Claudius than he is to his own daughter, and his priority is serving a corrupt king rather than caring for his vulnerable daughter. His loyalty to Claudius shows his corruption and his moral worthlessness. He is so morally corrupt that he is prepared to exploit his own vulnerable daughter in the king's service. He uses Ophelia as sexual bait in the entrapment scene. His remark, I will loose my daughter to him, with all its sexual connotations, shows how morally worthless Polonius is. He is more politician than parent. The morally worthless man is prepared to eavesdrop and spy, even spy on his own son, corrupting Granaldo in the process. Almost everybody in the play is infected by Claudius. He corrupts Hamlet's former friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He uses them in an attempt to trap Hamlet into revealing his true self. They become lackeys of Claudius. Laertes, too, is infected by Claudius. Laertes, of course, was already potentially corrupt. He had purchased poison from the Montebank, obviously to have it available should he need it. The poison links him with Claudius, the original poisoner. Laertes suggests the poisoned rapier. Claudius goes one better and suggests the poison cup. The treacherous Claudius exploits the genuine grief of a potentially corrupt Laertes to arrange what he hopes will be the death of Hamlet. The whole world of corruption has, in a sense, corrupted and polluted Hamlet's mindset. All this world of corruption has, to a considerable degree, corrupted, tainted, polluted and damaged Hamlet's mindset. We know from Ophelia's evidence that Hamlet was once the noble, perfect Renaissance man. He had a noble mind. He had the courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue. He was the glass of fashion and the mould of form. We do not see this Hamlet, however. Instead, we meet a Hamlet whose mindset has been corrupted. His view of life, of women, of sex, of marriage, has been corrupted by his disgust with his mother's behaviour. His outlook has been polluted by his mother's corruption. The world for him is an unweeded garden, things rank and gross in nature possessed merely. The canopy of the sky is a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. His comment on women, frailty, thy name is woman. And to Ophelia he associates marriage and procreation with corruption, telling Ophelia, Get thee to a nunnery, why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? The corruption that is so much part of the play is manifested especially through pretense, deception and false appearances. As mentioned already, the Danish public have been deceived by being fed a false account of old Hamlet's death. The queen was the most virtuous queen. Hamlet himself resorts to deception in an attempt to find the truth. He plays false, he puts on an antic disposition, he deceives Ophelia by entering her chamber in the guise of a man suffering from lovesickness. Of course the mousetrap play further represents deception, deception designed to find the truth, to catch the conscience of the king. Even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet's former friends, are caught up in the web of deception and pretense. They become the instruments of Claudius. The entrapment scene represents deception. Ophelia is enlisted and used as a pawn to meet Hamlet in the lobby by accident as it were, while the encounter is being listened to by the eavesdropping Claudius and Polonius. Nothing is what it seems. The situation is designed to trap Hamlet into revealing his true state of mind. Sending Hamlet to England, ostensibly to collect neglected tribute, is a desperate act of deception by a desperate Claudius. Of course Hamlet escapes the plot by his own act of deception, by forging a new commission, thus sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths, not striving time allowed. And finally there is the poisoned cup and the poisoned rapier plot, designed to deceive and kill Hamlet, and in the process deceive the queen, who Claudius expects shall uncharge the practice and call it accident. So much for the theme of corruption and the equally corrupt theme of deception. If you want to go further in that question, this is what you would do, and I'll just mark the beginning of it. You would go on to say that the whole atmosphere of corruption is conveyed through images of poison, rottenness, and disease, and you'd show that throughout the play we find images of ulcers, blisters, carrion, dust, maggots, worms, sickness, and poisoning. Several characters die from poisoning. Throughout the language of the play there are several references to and images of poison. Claudius, referring to Ophelia's madness, says this is the poison of deep grief it springs from her father's death. And you will look through the play and find several other examples of poison, rottenness, and sickness, all helping to create the atmosphere of corruption which is central to the play. This program is sponsored by Connemara Holiday Lettings. Your one-stop shop for all your holiday home rental needs. 095 22669. I will now do a separate answer on the theme of deception in itself. Deception is a recurring theme in Hamlet. We encounter deception in the motivation of many of the characters, in events, and in imagery. The deception in the play is manifested in lies, pretence, false appearances, and the hiding of the truth. At the very source of the play's action lies a major deception. A lie has been told to the Danish public. They have been fed, probably by Claudius, a false version of King Hamlet's death. A ghost tells Hamlet that the Danish public have been deceived. "'Tis given out the sleeping in my orchard the serpent stung me, so the whole ear of Denmark is by a forged process of my death rankly abused." Claudius, a central character in the play, is a consummate hypocrite, a prime exponent of deception. When we first meet him in Act I, Scene II, he is pretending grief for the brother he has murdered, and he is masquerading as Hamlet's caring uncle, my cousin Hamlet and my son. This hypocritical murderer puts on the mask of morality in order to deceive. He tells Hamlet that it is a sin to grieve over long for a dead father, that it shows a will most incorrect to heaven. He says that "'tis a fault to heaven, a fault against the dead." There is evidence, of course, that the queen has been guilty of deception also. The ghost claims that she was guilty of adultery. She deceived her husband. He refers to her as a most seeming virtuous queen. The knowledge of this deception on his mother's part has a profound effect on Hamlet, filling him with disgust and causing him to lose faith in womankind to such an extent that he generalizes and condemns all women, declaring frailty thy name as woman. Most of the deception in the play is carried out either to hide the truth or to find the truth. In an attempt to find the truth, Hamlet uses deception. He puts on a nantic disposition, pretends to be mad in order to conceal what he suspects from Claudius, and also in the hope that some clue or hint or word might be dropped in the presence of a madman which would reveal to him Claudius' guilt. He plays the role of madman, for instance, entering Ophelia's chamber in the guise of a mad lover, with his stockings fouled, ungartered, and down-jived to his ankles. His aim, of course, is to deceive Ophelia into believing that he is suffering from love madness. He hopes that she will tell Polonius what has transpired, and that Polonius will inform Claudius, and thus Claudius will be deceived as to Hamlet's true knowledge and purpose. We will see how this act of deception by Hamlet leads to another act of deception, the famous entrapment scene arranged by Polonius in an attempt to deceive and trap Hamlet into revealing his true self. Apart from Claudius and Hamlet, there are other characters who engage in deception. Polonius himself instructs Rinaldo to use deception in order to discover how Laertes is behaving himself in Paris. He wants Rinaldo, by indirections, to find directions out. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, in their failed attempt to deceive Hamlet, reinforce the theme of deception. They tell him that they have come to Elsinore mainly to visit him out of friendship, when in reality they are the king's spies. Several incidents in the play originate from the intention to deceive, to hide the truth. I have mentioned already the situation where Hamlet enters Ophelia's chamber in the guise of a mad lover. There are several other incidents designed to deceive. For instance, the entrapment incident is an attempt to trap Hamlet into revealing his true self. Polonius arranges what he wishes Hamlet to believe is an accidental encounter with Ophelia, an encounter that is spied on by Polonius and Claudius. He enlists Ophelia in the scheme of deception, actually giving her her stage directions, walk you here, read on this book. Deception is so rife and rampant in the play that even the innocent Ophelia is forced to play her part in deception. She allows herself to be used as a pawn in the game of deception in the entrapment scene, just as Hamlet earlier used her as a pawn when he entered her chamber in the guise of a mad lover. Of course, the play within the play neatly fits into the theme of deception. Here we have Hamlet using deception in an attempt to find the truth. What on the surface is a harmless piece of royal entertainment is designed to catch the conscience of the king. It is the mousetrap. The all-pervasive theme of deception is furthered by Claudius's devious plan where he hopes to have Hamlet killed in England. Hamlet adds to the theme of deception when, on discovering Claudius's plan to have him killed, he writes a new commission himself, sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths, not striving time allowed. And finally we have Claudius and Laertes arranging the rapier contest, which in reality is a murder plot. Things are not what they seem in Hamlet. Here the devious Claudius, aided by Laertes, is confident that his plan will deceive everybody, including the queen, and for his death no wind of blame shall breathe, but even his mother shall uncharge the practice and call it accident. Deception in this play takes the form of concealing the truth, but also of physical hiding and spying. The entrapment scene is an example of actual physical hiding. The closet scene is another where Polonius has arranged to eavesdrop on Hamlet's supposedly private meeting with his mother. This eavesdropping, of course, leads to the death of Polonius. The queen emerges from this scene a somewhat redeemed woman, so redeemed that she is prepared to deceive Claudius, which is a new departure. She lies to Claudius out of love for her son. She lies to Claudius, telling him that Hamlet is mad as the sea, and the wind in both contend which is the mightier, and that he weeps for what he has done. The theme of deception is reinforced throughout the play by images of acting and poison. The image of acting runs through the play. Claudius acts the role of good and moral man, he acts the role of loving father. The queen puts on the mask of faithful wife, being a most seeming virtuous queen. Ophelia is made to act a role in the entrapment scene. We have the player-king acting out a high passion in the speech about Pyrrhus and Hecuba. We have Hamlet himself acting the role of madman. And finally, we actually have a play. Within the play we have the mousetrap play. All these images of acting help to reinforce the theme of deception. Things are not what they seem. The image of poison furthermore runs throughout the play. Poison is by its nature sly, cunning, devious and deceitful as a means of murder. Claudius poisons his brother. There is poisoning in the centrepiece of the play, the play within the play. There is the poisoned cup and the poisoned rapier. In all, including old King Hamlet, five characters die of poison. I will now look at the closet scene. And the reason I'm doing this is, often in the Leaving Certificate examination, students are asked to select a scene, any scene they wish, and comment on its significance and its importance in the overall plot. So I think it's a good thing to have one particular scene ready and be very familiar with it in case such a question should arise. A good scene to have prepared would be the closet scene, the significance of the closet scene. In this talk, I'm not going to go through word for word the actual happenings of the scene. I'm not going to paraphrase the scene. That's not what you do. I'm going to talk about the significance and importance of the scene. So then, the significance of the closet scene, especially as a turning point in the play, I repeat, especially as a turning point in the play, a key moment in the play, a crucial, important, significant moment in the play. First of all, this is the first and only one-to-one meeting between Hamlet and his mother. I repeat, one-to-one meeting. It is the occasion when the queen first feels guilt. Remember, the play within the play had no effect on her. She saw a representation of her own falseness on stage before her, and it left her unmoved. Hamlet's more direct approach to her in the closet scene is more successful. Now she realizes what she has done. Here is her first show of guilt or conscience. Oh, Hamlet, speak no more. Thou turnest mine eyes into my very soul, and there I see such black and grainy spots as will not leave their tint. The closet scene marks the reconciliation between Hamlet and his mother. Up to now, from the very beginning of the play, Hamlet's relationship with his mother has been extremely fraught, extremely fraught, and here the closet scene marks a sort of reconciliation between Hamlet and his mother, a turning point. It marks also, and this is very important, it marks also the queen's switch of loyalty from Claudius to her son. The queen's switch of loyalty from Claudius to her son. Hamlet asks her not to reveal to Claudius, under any circumstances, that he, Hamlet, is only mad in craft, pretending to be mad. And in one of her very few redeeming moments in the play, she promises to keep his secret, telling him, 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. And she does keep her word. In loyalty to her son, she lies to Claudius when they meet, telling him that Hamlet is mad as the sea and wind when both contend which is the mightier. And again, in her loyalty to Hamlet, she further lies to Claudius, in reference to Hamlet's killing of Polonius, telling Claudius that Hamlet weeps for what he has done, which of course he doesn't. Another very significant event, a very dramatic event from the audience's point of view in this scene, is the ghost's appearance. The ghost's appearance in the closet scene is a dramatic and significant moment. It brings the audience and Hamlet back to reality, and I'm going to have to repeat that. The ghost's appearance brings Hamlet and the audience back to reality, the reality of Hamlet's duty to avenge his father's death, which the audience seemed to have forgotten about for the moment, and which Hamlet has failed to carry out. Minutes earlier, Hamlet had an opportunity to kill Claudius, but he found a reason for not doing so. He would wait for total revenge until he could send Claudius to hell by killing him, when he was about some act that had no relish of salvation in it. By ranching against his mother's immorality, Hamlet is achieving nothing, only in a rather adolescent way, indulging his own rage. So the ghost brings him back to reality, the ghost brings him back to reality. The ghost says to him, this visitation is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose, this visitation is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. Brings Hamlet back to the reality of the duty he has, and brings the audience back also to the duty of revenge which Hamlet has, which the audience tends to have sidelined for the moment. The closet scene gives an interesting insight into Hamlet's character. He was not able to kill Claudius when he reflected on the deed a moment ago. He came across Claudius in prayer, he could have killed him, he didn't do it, he reflected and he opted out. However, he is able to kill when he doesn't have time to think, I have to repeat that. He came across the praying Claudius, he could have killed him, but he didn't, he thought about it, he postponed the action. But in this scene we see that Hamlet is capable of killing, killing when he doesn't think. The closet scene shows us a cynical side of Hamlet's character. This is clear from his attitude to the dead Polonius. He calls him a wretched, rash, intruding fool, and he says cynically, take thy fortune, thou find'st to be busy is some danger. Then he makes the most cruel, cynical comment about the dead Polonius, who after all is the father of Ophelia, whom he claims to love. He says that he will lug the guts into the neighbour room, very, very cynical comment. There is some wonderful irony in the closet scene. For instance, the queen had planned to rebuke Hamlet, the queen had planned to rebuke Hamlet for his behaviour. The opposite happens, Hamlet rebukes her. Polonius, who is eavesdropping behind the curtain, had told Claudius, I'll call upon you ere you go to bed and tell you what I know. Of course, he will not be able to call on Claudius before he goes to bed, because Polonius will be dead, ironic. He is silent forever. Meddling in other people's business has become a way of life for Polonius. It is ironic that he should die in the act of eavesdropping, his favourite occupation. It's an appropriate end to a lifetime of being a busybody. Now something else that's very, very important in this scene is the death of Polonius. The death of Polonius in the closet scene marks a major turning point in the play. Up to now, the plotting and the actions of Polonius have guided the play. But after his death, his memory guides the play. Up to now, his scheming and plotting have guided the play. After his death, his memory guides the play. The effect of his death on Ophelia and on Laertes, and the effect that their grief has on the lives of other people. The killing of Polonius is of major significance. It is a major mistake by Hamlet. It is the first time that Hamlet has acted on impulse, the first time that he has acted without thinking, and it results in Hamlet giving a huge advantage to Claudius. Claudius now has a handle with which to strike back at Hamlet, or because Hamlet acted without thinking, he killed Polonius in a reflex action. Hamlet already knows that Claudius is planning to have him sent to England, and he strongly suspects that Claudius has a plan in mind to destroy him. Now, Hamlet can protest, and he can refuse to go to England. Remember that Claudius has not yet mentioned anything to Hamlet about going to England. So, up until this point, Hamlet can refuse to go to England, and this is important. Once he has killed Polonius, that option has gone. Up to this moment, Hamlet can refuse to go to England. But once he has killed Polonius, that option is gone. He has now committed a major crime. He can be put on trial. He cannot accuse Claudius of anything now. If he does, Claudius will be able to defend himself by saying that no one can pay any heed to a madman who kills an old man for no reason. And if Hamlet claims that he is not mad, and remember, Hamlet has gone to great pains convincing people that he is mad, he has gone to great pains convincing people that he is mad, and if he brings any charge against Claudius, Claudius will just say, who would pay any heed to a mad young man who kills an old man for no reason? And if Hamlet claims that he is not mad, well, then he is guilty of murder, and Claudius can put him on trial and have him executed. So, Hamlet is trapped. That's the significance of the killing of Polonius. Hamlet is trapped. He has no choice but to obey Claudius and allow himself to be brought to England. He is now well aware of his predicament. In reference to the dead Polonius, he says to his mother. Looking at the corpse of Polonius, he says to his mother, this man will send me packing. He knows now that he has no option. An action which he neither planned nor intended has left him with no choice. The killing of Polonius in the closet scene has major consequences, not only for Hamlet. It leads to the aborted trip to England. This in turn leads to Claudius having to devise a new means of killing Hamlet. This also has major consequences, and it leads to results never intended by Claudius. We know, too, that what happens at sea has a profound effect on Hamlet's view of life and of death and of the supernatural. He has been saved in an almost miraculous sequence of events, and he returns to England a changed man. And, as we have said already, the closet scene is crucial, crucial mainly because of one incident, the killing of Polonius. This resulted in Ophelia's madness and death. It resulted in Laertes rushing back from France, seeking to avenge his father's death. Laertes now has a dead father to avenge, like Hamlet. He is now to Hamlet what Hamlet is to Claudius. Laertes is now to Hamlet what Hamlet is to Claudius. The killing of Polonius leads to a situation where Claudius exploits the grief of Laertes and manipulates him. Once the plan to have Hamlet killed in England fails, Claudius has to devise a new plan, and he now exploits Laertes' grief. This leads to the rapier contest, the death of Hamlet, the death of Laertes, the death of Claudius. All this results from Polonius' death, a most significant moment in the closet scene. And there is more, and this is important. The guilt of Claudius is exposed in the final scene to the whole world. The guilt of Claudius is exposed to the whole court. The truth is revealed. King Hamlet's murder has been avenged. Hamlet kills Claudius, he avenges his father's death, and he cleanses Denmark. There was something rotten in the state of Denmark. Hamlet, before he dies, cleanses Denmark. And finally, the death of Polonius leads to Fortinbras getting his revenge. He takes over the kingdom of Denmark. So one action in the closet scene, which Hamlet never intended, becomes a turning point in the play, leading to profound consequences for all the leading characters, leaving us with four dead bodies on the stage in the final scene, and all the members of the two families, that of Claudius and of Polonius, dead. One last thing before I leave all these talks is this. It might be worth focusing on the theme of revenge, which of course is the central theme in the play. But if you are planning to deal with revenge, remember this, that in the play there are four avengers. There are four avengers. Hamlet has been given a duty by his dead father to avenge his death, and Hamlet agonizes over this. Hamlet cannot take the word of the ghost. The ghost could be a goblin damned. So Hamlet has to find proof. He cannot act on the word of the ghost. The ghost could be a goblin damned. So what does Hamlet do? He puts on a nantic disposition, hoping to find the truth. Some hint could be dropped in the presence of a madman, which would give him some indication as to whether Claudius is really guilty. Keep remembering the ghost comes from a place of fire. The ghost comes from a place of fire. He claims to be in purgatory, a saved soul on his way to heaven. But he doesn't sound like a saved soul. He demands revenge, which is contrary to Christian teaching, and does not at all fit in with the notion of a saved soul on his way to heaven. And remember also when the ghost disappears, he disappears a cockcrow, and remember that afterwards his voice comes from underneath, all suggesting devil possibilities. He could be the devil, or Hamlet's father could be in hell, and if so is essentially a devil. So Hamlet has a major problem when it comes to carrying out revenge. Hamlet is a mortal man. He will not take appearance for reality. He wants to act when he finds the truth, truth which he finally has in the last scene of the play. Now there are three other avengers. There is Pyrrhus in the famous speech by the actor. Pyrrhus kills innocent King Priam. Now King Priam did not kill Pyrrhus's father. Pyrrhus killed Pyrrhus's father. Pyrrhus, the son of King Priam, killed Pyrrhus's father, Achilles, not King Priam. And in Pyrrhus we are presented with the butcher, hellish Pyrrhus. He's essentially a wild savage butcher rather than a mortal avenger like Hamlet. And then you have Fortinbras who sets out to avenge his father, but he's totally unjustified because old Hamlet killed old Fortinbras not by murder but in a legal single combat. He was killed legally. There was no murder involved and Fortinbras is totally unjustified in seeking revenge on Denmark. Instead he is told by his uncle to march on Norway and he willingly does so. So young Fortinbras is motivated not by revenge at all really. Adventure is all he wants. And finally you have the fourth avenger, Laertes. The rash Laertes, the corrupt Laertes, the man who bought poison, manipulated into revenge by Claudius. So to sum up, we have four avengers and each of those other three avengers rather than Hamlet, their purpose is to throw light on Hamlet's approach. Each of the four avengers has a different approach to the task of revenge. That's it then and I wish you the very very best in your leaving certificate examination in June. A very special thanks to today's lecturer Dennis Craven for a very insightful lecture on the Shakespearean play Hamlet. This program was sponsored by Connemara Holiday Lettings, your one-stop shop for all your holiday home rental needs 095 22669.