30 April 2002
The “Nightly Colour” of Shakespeare’s Hamlet
By Jason Preu
Problems abound in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1600). Hamlet, Sr. is newly dead and his ghost has visited Hamlet to reveal that Claudius, his brother, is the murderer. Add to this revelation the fact that Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, is newly married to Claudius and the reader can quickly begin to understand Hamlet’s anxiety-filled dilemma. His home life and sense of security have been disrupted and completely corrupted by his father’s murder and mother’s subsequent marriage to the killer. The main problem in this play appears to be Hamlet’s desire to avenge his father as it conflicts time and time again with his reluctance to act upon that desire. Compounding Hamlet’s problems is utter mystification concerning his mother’s lack of mourning. This confusion about his mother quickly turns into a bitter, misogynistic attitude towards all women that is tersely summed up in the conversation that ensues between Hamlet and Ophelia before The Mousetrap is staged:
OPHELIA ‘Tis brief, my lord.
HAMLET As woman’s love. (3.2.137-138)
In a play whose main concern seems to be the relationships between fathers and sons, where does this attitude come from?
As the play opens, Hamlet is in an appropriately melancholic state and everyone at Elsinore knows it. His uncle and mother expect him to simply stop dwelling upon his father’s death. Gertrude doesn’t mince any words when she asks Hamlet to move on:
Good Hamlet, cast thy nightly colour off.
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not for ever with they vailèd lids
Seek for they noble father in the dust.
Thou know’st ‘tis common – all that lives must die.
Passing through nature to eternity. (1.2.68-73)
This advice, undoubtedly given in Hamlet’s best interest, has quite the opposite effect upon the prince. Hamlet cannot understand how his mother is able to move so effortlessly from one husband to another. This confusion over Gertrude’s actions, compiled with Hamlet’s idolized vision of his father, initiates Hamlet’s misogynistic attitude. He seems, in a strangely shortsighted manner, to extend his mother’s lack of loyalty as a trait embodied by all women.
This negative attitude gathers momentum during the Ghost’s initial visit to Hamlet. First, in labeling Claudius an “incestuous”, “adulterate beast” (1.5.42), the Ghost (purposefully or not) influences Hamlet’s opinion of Gertrude. Hamlet is bright enough to know that in an incestuous, adulterous relationship, it does not do to label one participant as such while thinking the other to be innocent. It is uncertain whether Hamlet thinks that his mother should be implicated in his father’s murder but his scorn for her is crystal clear as he declares, “O most pernicious woman!” (1.5.105). Hamlet is stuck in a situation that he wants to act out against, but does not and this frustrates him more and more as the play progresses. This pent up frustration seems to fuel to the fire of Hamlet’s misogyny.
Every character in this play appears to have a different understanding of Hamlet’s dour behavior. Polonius believes that Hamlet is mad from love for his daughter, Ophelia. Polonius may be reaching an almost truth regarding Hamlet’s situation, for Hamlet does love Ophelia. His troubles insofar as he is concerned with Ophelia, however, seem to stem not out of a maddening love for her but rather from his inability to see Ophelia, or any woman, as capable of acting in way contrary to his mother. In the dialogue that ensues between Hamlet and Ophelia in act 3, Hamlet harshly criticizes marriage and women’s sexuality:
If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny...Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them...I have heard of your painting, too well enough. God hath give you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nickname God’s creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance...I say we will have no more marriages. (135-147)
Obviously this criticism is over the top, but it seems to be Shakespeare’s way of indicating to the reader how ruptured Hamlet’s mind is as he obsesses over his uncle and mother’s relationship and what he is to do about it.
Throughout the dialogue mentioned above, and the one taking place before The Mousetrap, Hamlet seems to be taking out on Ophelia his growing frustration over his inability to carry out the Ghost’s request of him. The situation seems somewhat analogous to an office worker who, angry with his employer and unable to do anything about it, comes home at night frustrated and hypercritical of his wife. Hamlet is downright mean to Ophelia, of that there can be no doubt, but it seems that he is so completely preoccupied by his mother and uncle that his vicious snaps while conversing with Ophelia might be said to spoken by him without consequence. Witness this particular exchange between the two:
HAMLET [to OPHELIA] Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
OPHELIA No, my lord.
HAMLET I mean my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA Ay, my lord.
HAMLET Do you think I meant country matters?
OPHELIA I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET That’s a fair though to lie between maid’s legs.
OPHELIA What is, my lord?
HAMLET No thing.
OPHELIA You are merry, my lord.
HAMLET Who, I?
OPHELIA Ay, my lord
HAMLET O God, your only jig-maker! What should a man do but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within’s two hours. (3.2.101-115)
To say that Hamlet is speaking without consequence is to say that he speaking without understanding (or particularly caring about) the effect of his words upon Ophelia. This might seem an incredulous statement given Hamlet’s insight into the way language works but Hamlet is clearly not really considering Ophelia even as he directs his crass statements towards her. He’s talking, talking, talking, and Shakespeare had chose some other character to be next him Hamel would still be rude and mean, merely in some other way. So is it important that Ophelia is here to be the object of Hamlet’s cruelty? Absolutely, because her actions as a result of this dialogue, more so than if any other character were in her place, allow Hamlet to be jolted, however briefly, out of his self-absorption. Hamlet sole focus appears to be on ousting Claudius as a murderer. The lengthiest portion of Hamlet’s speech in this dialogue is, in fact, given over to lines concerned with his mother, uncle, and the hasty circumstances surrounding their marriage. He completely takes for granted Ophelia’s presence and only at her funeral does he realize how deadly it can be to speak without consequence.
So is an audience supposed to take Hamlet’s misogynistic attitude with a grain of salt? Hardly. His attitude is quite real and no amount of critical reading excuses this behavior; to do so would be to claim that there are instances when misogyny is appropriate. What a critical reading with this question in mind attempts to do is locate the basis for Hamlet’s attitude. In that sense, Hamlet’s misogynistic tendencies can be traced back to the earliest scenes in the play and Hamlet’s general declarations about women and marriage are seen to grow more and more hateful. As he becomes more involved in avenging his father, he gives less thought to the impact of his words upon others. This continues until he is confronted with the ultimate consequence of his rash, ill-considered statements – Ophelia’s death.
Works Cited
Greenblatt, Stephen, gen. ed. The Norton Shakespeare. Based on the Oxford Edition. New
York: Norton, 1997. All quotations from Shakespeare’s works are taken from this edition.
[Author’s note: I cannot do this piece of art any sense of justice in writing about it, regardless of the topic at hand. To me, Hamlet is an awe-inspiring character despite (or maybe because of) the full duality of his thought and action. – JPP]