O,
what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword,
Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Th' observ'd of all observers- quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That suck'd the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me
T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword,
Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Th' observ'd of all observers- quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That suck'd the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me
T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
The references to sight are the most numerous - glass of fashion and mould of form, observ'd of all observers, unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth, t'have seen what I have seen, see what I see.
However, sound is another big theme. Honey of his music vows, sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.
The most interesting part is the connotation of the words that she associates with each different sensation. The physical aspect she describes have these reverent adjectives attached to them, such as unmatch'd, or delicate and pleasing to the mind's eye, such as glass of fashion. Although she may be disillusioned by how much he loves her, the physical aspects of Hamlet have not changed at all. They are still intact and the glass remains unbroken.
The audio, however, is marred. The word jangled is harsh coming off the tongue and to the ear, as seen by the additional out of tune and harsh. In addition, even 'sucking' the honey of his music vows is not a pleasing image. Honey is sweet, but sometimes much too sweet, and sucking connotes a sort of gluttony to a substance that is quite disgusting in large amounts. In addition, vows always turn out tragically for Shakespearean lovers - those of Romeo and Juliet, those enchanted in Midsummer's Night Dream, etc.
So if everything she hears hurts but what she sees has these connotations of beauty, why "woe is me, to have seen what I have seen, see what I see?" Do Hamlet's harsh words hurt even more because Ophelia has seen the most beautiful aspects of him? Is she then choosing to focus on what is still crystalline and attractive, and thereafter ignore his harmful words?
No comments:
Post a Comment