Hamlet's soliloquy in 2.2 speaks to both his anthropology and his
epistemology while establishing a foundation on which he conducts himself for
the remainder of the play. Before this, Hamlet has been highly
impressionable. Other characters
directly give most of his “actions” to him. The ghost assigns him to avenge his death, his mother and
Claudius tell him not to return to school, etc. However, here he realizes that his (in)actions have made him
a “coward” and that he must begin learning and acting of his own accord. Therefore, instead of simply accepting
the ghost’s statements as truth he devises this clever play to “catch the
conscience of the king.” He’ll
“observe his looks” and determine Claudius’ guilt for himself. This is significant in two aspects. First, Hamlet is finally acting upon
his previous statement regarding the trustworthiness of men—that only “1 in
10,000” can be trusted. This ties
directly to the second point: his epistemology isn’t dependent on others. He makes the ultimate step of distrust
(in men and their knowledge) by ignoring the very premise of the play—Claudius’
guilt and the ghost’s story. For
the rest of the play, his behavior and decision-making processes follow the
model he establishes here. To
misquote President Reagan, he distrusts and verifies, which seems to be the
only semblance of reconciliation Hamlet ever achieves with the impending
disasters of his life.
When Hamlet finally does "start to act on his own accord," there is a great deal of irony because he makes a big mental step, but doesn't follow with any action to back it up; he only acts when others guide him. Essentially before this soliloquy, he is a moving puppet, and after, he is a motionless rag doll because no strings control him.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is the moment where Hamlet's character changes. It's like a recognition moment because he recognizes that he is controlled by others, and he then realizes his actions.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that he really "changed", but instead is where he attempts to fulfill the role of an honorable son and avenge his father. I don't think that Hamlet's plan of putting on this play is necessarily "clever", but instead a way to delay what he really doesn't want to do: kill Claudius.
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