Metadrama in Hamlet - Essay Example

Metadrama in Hamlet 2007 Shakespeare used metadrama in a number of plays. Yet, nowhere has it aroused so much discussion as in Hamlet. Obviously, it completes several functions. At first sight, it seems to express the author’s vision of theatre and its impact on the audience. Shakespeare points to the theatre as the medium of evoking one’s conscience and thought. However, the situation is not that simple in the case with Hamlet. References to playing are met all over the play. Most of characters seem to perform some roles, Hamlet being one of the leading actors. Yet, Shakespeare is often ironical. The playwright shows Hamlet violating the rules of playing, distinguished by the character himself. Metadrama in Hamlet serves the purpose of the protagonist’s characterization, revealing peculiar features of his personality. In his speeches on the nature of theatre and playing, Hamlet seems to convey Shakespeare’s vision of theater. “…they (actors) are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time,” – warns Hamlet addressing Polonius, – “after your death you were better have a bad epitaph, than their ill report while you live” (II, 2). Hamlet praises players very high. For him, they are the carriers of the truth, which is so important for the protagonist. He believes in the magic power of the theatre. In his soliloquy finishing Act II, Scene 2 Hamlet tells of the cases when criminals admitted their guilt after watching the plays dealing with stories similar to theirs. It is a well known fact, that a good playwright creates images resembling ourselves and stories narrating of our sins and fears. “I have heard/That guilty creatures sitting at a play/Have, by the very cunning of the scene,/Been struck so to the soul, that presently/They have proclaimed their malefactions; For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak/With most miraculous organ,” (II, 2) – says Hamlet. This power of the theatre provides him with an opportunity to prove Claudius’s guilt. Hamlet has an idea of staging a play of a murder similar to that of the old Hamlet. This, to his mind, should provoke Claudius to give himself away. Moreover, Hamlet hopes that the play will evoke rage in his own soul. Unable to accomplish the legacy of his killed father, Hamlet is seeking support and inspiration in the theatrical performance played by the best actors. Hamlet’s nature revolts the idea of murder, which throws him into the state of “weakness and melancholy”. However, the play is to give him “grounds more relative” than the testimony of the Ghost. “The plays the thing/Wherein Ill catch the conscience of the King” (II, 2), - states Hamlet. Shakespeare really demonstrates that the theatre does possess the power prescribed to it by Hamlet. The Mousetrap awakes Claudius’s conscience, resulting in his moral sufferings. Besides, Shakespeare uses metadrama ironically to foreshadow the destiny of Polonius. In Act III, Scene 2 there is a short dialogue between Hamlet and Polonius. “Hamlet: You played once ith university, you say. Polonius: That did I, my Lord, and was accounted a good actor. Ham. What did you enact? Pol: I did enact Julius Caesar; I was killed in the Capital; Brutus killed me. Hamlet: It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there”. Later Hamlet brutally kills Polonius. However, the audience feels the author’s irony, while Polonius sooner resembles Brut than Caesar. Yet, Hamlet overestimates the role of theatre in our lives, turning the life itself into the theatre. For him the parts the actors play seem real. “He that plays the King shall be welcome: his Majesty shall have tribute on me; the adventurous Knight shall use his foil and target; the Lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous Man shall end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled athsere, and the Lady shall say her mind freely, or the black verse shall halt for it” (II, 2). Hamlet sees actors as personalities able for decisive actions and great passions. “Is it not monstrous that this player here, / But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,/Could force his soul so to his own conceit/That from her working all the visage waned/ –Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,/A broken voice – and his whole function suiting/With forms to his conceit; and all for nothing,/ For Hecuba./Whats Hecuba to him, or he to her,/That he should weep for her? What would he do,/Had he the motive and the cue for passion/That I have? He would drown the stage with tears,/And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,/Make mad the guilty, and appall the free,/Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed/The very faculties of eyes and eares” (II, 2). That is why he strives for being an actor himself. Certainly, all the characters do perform some roles as all the people in the world do. Moreover, Claudius even realizes the importance of performing his part well. As he designs a plot of Hamlet’s murder by Laertes, he warns: “if this should fail,/And that our drift look through our bad performance,/Twere better not assayd” (IV, 7). Claudius, feeling his guilt for his brother’s murder, has to perform roles constantly. He is not to give himself away, while he is not ready to deny the kingdom and the queen and his power. Hamlet, like Claudius chooses the roles deliberately and purposefully. As an example, Hamlet chooses Yorik, the dead fool of his father. “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!” (V, 1). Though Shakespeare doesn’t give direct indications to the early influence Hamlet was exposed to, we may guess, that the clowning manner chosen by him in performing his madness might take origin in Yorik’s manner of playing. Hamlet’s love for truth made this choice natural. Only fools and players can tell the truth without being punished for this. That is why Hamlet pretends to be mad, thus integrating the parts. This provides him with an opportunity to say everything he thinks. Hamlet’s performance is intended for the King and the Queen. Everything he says and does is meant for their ears and eyes. “The Players cannot keep, they’ll tell all,” (III, 2) – says Hamlet to Ophelia during the play. He comments on the events taking place on the stage, so that Ophelia remarks: “You are as good as a Chorus, my Lord” (III, 2). Hamlet is so preoccupied with the King’s exposure and revealing the truth to the world, that he violates the principles of the theatre enumerated by him for the actors. Shakespeare is ironical about Hamlet’s perceptions of the theatre and performing. Hamlet breaks the rules of a good theatrical performance. He warns the actors against passions: “in the very torrent tempest, and as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness” (III, 2). The whole passage seems to ironically describe the manner Hamlet behaves in pretending his madness. His speeches are always passionate. Hamlet is constantly overacting. Further Hamlet advises: “suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you oerstep not the modesty of nature” (III, 2). Hamlet’s speech and actions are often characterized by discrepancy. He behaves so that he frightens Ophelia. He is clowning. However, he gets awfully indignant at Laertes’s behavior at Ophelia’s grave. Tough himself having lost his temperament, he accuses Laertes of overacting, sarcastically offering him to affirm his feelings with actions: “Swounds, show me what thoult do: Woot weep? woot fight? woot fast? woot tear thyself? Woot drink up eisel? eat a crocodile?” (V, 1). Earlier in Act II, Scene 2 Hamlet discusses the play once seen by him in the city. “…it was, as I received it, and others, whose judgements in such matters cried in the top of mine, an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning,” – recollects he, pointing to the way the plays should be written and demonstrating his interest in theater and tastes. However, the following lines sound rather ironical due to conglomeration of words, similes and images: “I remember one said there were no salads in the lines, to make the matter savory, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affection, but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much, more handsome then fine” (II, 2). Moreover, as Hamlet starts reciting the speech he admired so much, its pretentious and fanciful style strikes the ear: “The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,/Black as his purpose, did the night resemble,” etc. (II, 2). The weird play produces such a strong impact on Hamlet that he runs away in tears. Shakespeare seems not only to mock at some author’s manner of writing, but also to indicate Hamlet’s love for the effect and tendency to overact. Childishly, Hamlet does not identify himself with the roles he plays. “Never Hamlet: If Hamlet from himself be taen away,/And when hes not himself does wrong Laertes,/Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it./Who does it, then? His madness: ift be so,/Hamlet is of the faction that is wrongd;/His madness is poor Hamlets enemy” (V 2), - explains Hamlet to Laertes, as he tries to reconcile with him. Metadrama is widely used by Shakespeare. Hamlet is full of lines comparing the life of the personages with the theatre. The same lines reveal Shakespeare’s vision of theater, drama, the proper way of performance, and highlight Hamlet’s tendency to overacting, his unstable character. Shakespeare mocks at his contemporaries, indicating to the major faults of playwrights, actors and audience, and simultaneously reveals irony in relation to his personages. Read More

In Act III, Scene 2 there is a short dialogue between Hamlet and Polonius. “Hamlet: You played once ith university, you say. Polonius: That did I, my Lord, and was accounted a good actor. Ham. What did you enact? Pol: I did enact Julius Caesar; I was killed in the Capital; Brutus killed me. Hamlet: It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there”. Later Hamlet brutally kills Polonius. However, the audience feels the author’s irony, while Polonius sooner resembles Brut than Caesar.

Yet, Hamlet overestimates the role of theatre in our lives, turning the life itself into the theatre. For him the parts the actors play seem real. “He that plays the King shall be welcome: his Majesty shall have tribute on me; the adventurous Knight shall use his foil and target; the Lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous Man shall end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled athsere, and the Lady shall say her mind freely, or the black verse shall halt for it” (II, 2).

Hamlet sees actors as personalities able for decisive actions and great passions. “Is it not monstrous that this player here, / But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,/Could force his soul so to his own conceit/That from her working all the visage waned/ –Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,/A broken voice – and his whole function suiting/With forms to his conceit; and all for nothing,/ For Hecuba./Whats Hecuba to him, or he to her,/That he should weep for her? What would he do,/Had he the motive and the cue for passion/That I have?

He would drown the stage with tears,/And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,/Make mad the guilty, and appall the free,/Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed/The very faculties of eyes and eares” (II, 2). That is why he strives for being an actor himself. Certainly, all the characters do perform some roles as all the people in the world do. Moreover, Claudius even realizes the importance of performing his part well. As he designs a plot of Hamlet’s murder by Laertes, he warns: “if this should fail,/And that our drift look through our bad performance,/Twere better not assayd” (IV, 7).

Claudius, feeling his guilt for his brother’s murder, has to perform roles constantly. He is not to give himself away, while he is not ready to deny the kingdom and the queen and his power. Hamlet, like Claudius chooses the roles deliberately and purposefully. As an example, Hamlet chooses Yorik, the dead fool of his father. “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!” (V, 1).

Though Shakespeare doesn’t give direct indications to the early influence Hamlet was exposed to, we may guess, that the clowning manner chosen by him in performing his madness might take origin in Yorik’s manner of playing. Hamlet’s love for truth made this choice natural. Only fools and players can tell the truth without being punished for this. That is why Hamlet pretends to be mad, thus integrating the parts. This provides him with an opportunity to say everything he thinks. Hamlet’s performance is intended for the King and the Queen.

Everything he says and does is meant for their ears and eyes. “The Players cannot keep, they’ll tell all,” (III, 2) – says Hamlet to Ophelia during the play. He comments on the events taking place on the stage, so that Ophelia remarks: “You are as good as a Chorus, my Lord” (III, 2). Hamlet is so preoccupied with the King’s exposure and revealing the truth to the world, that he violates the principles of the theatre enumerated by him for the actors. Shakespeare is ironical about Hamlet’s perceptions of the theatre and performing.

Hamlet breaks the rules of a good theatrical performance. He warns the actors against passions: “in the very torrent tempest, and as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness” (III, 2).

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