For the
love of God, both Polonius and Ophelia are gone! There is much rot in the state
of Denmark, and sadly to say, it is originating from within the royal family.
Poor
Ophelia, her composure on life completely changed, “all from her father’s death”
(4.5.72). The last time I saw her, during the play where my Hamlet acted out my
murder of his father, Ophelia was normal! She was in love with the prince of
Denmark, albeit against her father’s will, but at least she was herself. Now
that Polonius is gone, I fear that the devil might have overtaken her, as she
is “divided from herself and her fair judgment” (4.5.80). She immerged into my
presence a completely new person, bubbling with tragic song. As I am reading
this news magazine analyzing the recent songs of Ophelia and company, I cannot
help but agree and sympathize with some of the terrible happenings that Seng
interprets from her ballads. Ophelia, after Hamlet left for England, feels as
if “she is all alone in Elsinore”, that “Denmark has become a prison” (Seng
218). True love broken, Ophelia can only sing to sooth her pain of the “mysterious
voyage whose import is unknown to her” (Seng 219). But if I must say so myself,
she was clueless. She did not know that Hamlet killed her father! In the place
of me! “As one incapable of her own distress”, the only feasible means to an
end that Ophelia could seek was suicide, and so she drowned herself (4.7.176).
Looking
at the situation as a whole however, I cannot blame Ophelia for reacting how
she did; her brother and father both sheltered her too much in her original
pursuit of Hamlet. Even at a harmless stage in the relationship, Polonius strongly
discouraged Ophelia “to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet” (1.3.134). A
young girl has to begin her courtship eventually. Both Polonius and Laertes
were “the critics who are so concerned to salvage her innocence” and the ones
who ended up causing the “spoliation of her mind’s purity and her childlike
trust” (Seng 220). What the heck, her entire family was against her, sending
her messages that “no one is to be trusted or taken at face value” (Seng 220).
While I would 100% agree with this statement, I would not have handled the
situation between Hamlet and Ophelia in the same way as Laertes and Polonius
did—and we can all see why from her eventual outrage and suicide. Ophelia’s
positive view of human nature is always counteracted by Polonius’s “own
unlovely view of man and the world” (Seng 221). Even so, she submitted to his
demands…
As much
as it hurts for me to say this, I do agree with this critic that Polonius is an
immoral and political schemer. It is only through his “spying, sneaking, and
eavesdropping that finally brings about his own death” (Seng 221). Even Hamlet,
the sinful murderer, was disgusted to find that this “wretched, rash, intruding
fool” had been in my wife’s bedroom in the place of me (3.4.32). Am I a
political schemer as well? Of course! The difference between Polonius and me is
that I do it well, and he does not. I, Claudius, can spy correctly without having a dagger
stabbed through my chest as a result. That is why I am the king—and he is now
dead.
I am sad
both Ophelia and Polonius are gone. But I have a country to run, and a son to
tame. So let the second round of funerals begin. Having just experienced the
burial of Hamlet’s father a week ago, my mind is still fresh from the juices of
death. I pray that the bloodshed ends here… but with Hamlet lying in the looms,
still untamed in his actions, who knows what will happen…
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