That's interesting and all, but, truth: there's only one big question we're really interested in. (You can check out our discussion of " Sex" and " Gender" if you want to know more about Hamlet's attitude toward women and sexuality in general.) Hamlet and The Really Big Question But this also has major consequences for Hamlet's relationship with his girlfriend-it might even drive her all the way to her death.
So what's the deal? Is he mad that Gertrude is into her new husband, or that Gertrude is into any man at all, including his dead dad? And check out that, by the end of this passage, Hamlet's attitude toward his mom has generously expanded to include all women, who, according to Hamlet, are "frail," or morally weak, because they're so lustful. But here's the thing: Hamlet says he can hardly stand to "remember" the way his mother couldn't get enough of his father when he was alive -"she would hang on him" with a major sexual "appetite" that she seems to have simply transferred over to her new husband. OK, we get that Hamlet's ticked that mom's moved on so quickly -less than two months after his old man died. (Let me not think on 't frailty, thy name is woman!) (1.2.141-150) Must I remember? Why, she would hang on himīy what it fed on. That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Hyperion to a satyr so loving to my mother Here's what Hamlet says in his first soliloquy after he tells us he wants his "flesh" to "melt."īut two months dead-nay, not so much, not two.
So, you've probably noticed that Hamlet is seriously angry with his mother-especially her sex life. Hamlet's complex psychological response to life and death, his mother's sexuality, and the implications of avenging his father's murder is like taking a psychological roller coaster ride. Yet, that's what makes Shakespeare's character (and the entire play) so bizarre -and so brilliant. Sounds more like an episode of Days of Our Lives than the greatest play in the history of the world. Instead, Hamlet pretends to be a madman, runs around delivering lengthy philosophical speeches, verbally abuses his girlfriend, stabs his girlfriend's father in the guts, and terrorizes his mother. Great! We can get behind a revenge tragedy-only that's not what happens. (Did we mention that Hamlet's new stepdad also calls him a wimp for being sad about his father's death?)Īnd then a ghost claiming to be Old King Hamlet's spirit shows up, tells Hamlet that he was murdered by Hamlet's uncle/stepfather, and basically orders Hamlet to take revenge. To make matters worse, his mother, Gertrude, has already remarried and is now the wife of Hamlet's uncle, Claudius, who's also helped himself to the Danish crown. Pretty intense stuff, right? And he's got some pretty intense problems: it turns out his father, Old King Hamlet, died less than two months ago, so Hamlet's feeling the loss. In his first soliloquy, he tells us he wishes his "too, too sullied flesh would melt / Thaw, and resolve itself into dew" and that the world seems "weary, stale, flat," like an "unweeded garden (1.2.133-134 137 139). Thirty?! Well, not everyone agrees on this point-and Shmoop just can't seem to picture him as an adult. But in Act 5, Scene 1, the gravedigger pretty much tells us he's thirty. He's a moody and smart-alecky kid with suicidal tendencies, a penchant for wearing black mourning clothes, and a habit of delivering long, drawn-out speeches on the futility of life.