The Rest Is Silence

Those are Hamlet’s last words before he dies. They seem especially appropriate as I attempt to write a review of a play, which strikes me as more than worthy of a scholar’s, actor’s, and/or director’s entire career.

After reading Claudia Roth Pierpoint’s thought-provoking article in The New Yorker about the rivalry between Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles in making movies of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Henry IV,  Henry V and Richard III, I decided to read them all, starting with Hamlet.

As a school girl, I read the historical plays and saw Orson Welles play Falstaff in Henry IV, and Othello in his movie where he famously couldn’t afford costumes for one scene and so filmed it in a bath-house. During more or less the same phase, I read Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Othello. In high school, and perhaps even earlier, I read The Merchant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet. The poetry washed over me, as it often did back then, and I experienced mostly its sheer beauty. I swam in the music of the words, which then (and now) affected me powerfully enough to bring tears to my eyes. But somehow I never read Hamlet, until now.

So, who am I to revview what may be Shakespeare's greatest work? No one. I finished reading the play late last night (that’s how astonishing it is--it kept me awake) and imagined the death march as attendants carried away the bodies in the final scene.

Dead are: King Claudius; Queen Gertrude (who as Hamlet’s mother still puzzles me no end); Laertes, son to Lord Polonius, whom Hamlet killed by accident; and brother to Ophelia, who drowned in love-addled madness. And of course Hamlet, who has been lured into a duel with Laertes, craftily arranged by the King.

It’s a classic tragedy based on an old Danish legend. But Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in my unschooled opinion, stands among the most profound and resonant works of art we know.

Early in the action, Hamlet’s recently deceased father appears as a Ghost, first to sentinels and then to Hamlet. The Ghost tells Hamlet that King Claudius poisoned him in his sleep and encourages him to slay the monster. The Ghost adds that Hamlet shouldn’t blame his mother; apparently her weakness for passion explains how quickly she has married her brother-in-law.

Taking this much to heart, Hamlet treats Gertrude gently, although her obvious rapture in the King’s arms prompts the famous, and famously misapplied, quotation:

--Frailty thy name is woman!...I, i

Famous and often misapplied quotations stud this play. Among the most familiar:

To be or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer ...III, i

O that this too too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into dew...I, ii*

How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seems to me all the uses of this world!...I, ii

What a piece of work is man!...II, ii

If this be madness, yet there is method in it...II, ii.

...to die, to sleep;
To sleep; perhaps to dream...III, i

Get thee to a nunnery. Why, wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?...III, i. 

Good night, sweet prince...V, ii

What strikes me most, however, aren’t these well known lines, but rather practically all the others, which resonate equally as powerfully in my mind. I question, too, why I hadn’t read this earlier--the Shakespearean plays I read in school made up part of a curriculum. Why not this, which seems so superior to, say, The Merchant of Venice? And although Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, why isn’t it produced more often?

Is it because extravagant emotions exasperate people, or worse? How many times have I heard, “Spare me the drama!” And, “Such a drama queen!” Or,“Let me live without drama, please!”

How nice if Hamlet didn’t play anymore because we had evolved beyond jealousy and vengeance. But it remains as timely as ever. Jealousy and vengeance slither along quite well, unless I’m wrong.

* Rather than “sullied,” I’ve heard the quote using “solid,” but that might derive from my mother resolving to diet.

Comments

[Dan Leo]

Maybe one reason Hamlet isn't produced more often is just that it's so hard to do well. And it's very, very easy to do a bad Hamlet.

[Kathleen]

I'm sure that's true. But Hamlet's not difficult reading. Every line (practically) resonates. Never good at acting, not even well enough to tone my feelings down a notch, I can't imagine performing the role. But the lines stick in my mind like a song.
Then, too, I've seen several productions of Macbeth, which some say carries its own curse. I've overheard amateur directors swearing their production was doomed because of that.

[Dan Leo]

There are old-school Ancient Mariners of the theatre world who won't even refer to Macbeth by name. They call it "the Scottish play". But of course it's a lot easier to blame a screwed-up production on a curse than on good old incompetence.

[Kathleen]

Ancient Mariners! Wish I knew some of them, some not all.