Blog Response 6

In this soliloquy Hamlet voices his discontent at his mother and the situation that his father's death left the court in. Shakespeare uses food to describe how Hamlet's life has gone bad, and how Hamlet reacts to that change. He laments, " O that this too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew" (129-130). The "sullied flesh" is rotten meat; Hamlet feels that with the death of his father his life rotten like the meat. His wish for it to "melt" indicates that he wishes he could go back to his life with his father still alive. This line also shows Hamlet's personality: instead of devising a plan or taking action, he is inside his mind and hoping for things to somehow change. This also comes through when Hamlet complains that "..'tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely" (136-137). The worded "unweeded" carries the connotation that the life Hamlet cultivated did not come to fruition.  Hamlet believes that the situation he's in was not supposed to happen, that it is unwanted, and the opposite of what he "weeded" or prepared for. He is out of control of his life.

Hamlet uses mythical allusions to assail the character of his mother and his uncle Claudius. He idolizes his father, and detests the speed at which his mother married Claudius, whom he considers to be unworthy and inferior. He claims his father was "Hyperion to a satyr" (140) compared to Claudius. A hyperion was one of the Titans in Greek mythology, whereas a satyr was half-man and half-horse. Hamlet Sr. was above godly. Claudius is not even human, but partly animalistic. The satyr is also associated with fertility - something that alludes to how Hamlet feels Claudius animalistically pursues Gertude. Gertrude herself is shown as weak: she cried "like Niobe" (149) for a month, but this was quickly over as soon as she married. Niobe is a Greek mythic figure that cried for eternity because her children were killed. That Hamlet says Gertrude seemed to cry like this and then quickly stop implies that her grief was somehow insincere or fake.