Responsibility in Hamlet and Phaedra - Essay Example

Responsibility in Hamlet and Phaedra Tragic heroes, for all the appearances of internal and outward weaknesses and their consequences, are exemplars of the noble dimensions of the human spirit. Such are the protagonists Hamlet and Phaedra in the plays with their names as respective titles. These noble aspects manifest in their soliloquies, declarations and conversations and even brought to light by their decisions and choices. Hamlet and Phaedra, despite the differences in the circumstances and challenges they faced, exemplified in their character and actuations a deep sense of personal responsibility that are similar in most respects. For both of them responsibility is fidelity and commitment to the truth as it presents or reveals itself to their awareness or memory at the present moment. To be responsible to truth is to encounter it/respond to it for what it is. Hamlet first manifested it in his adamant refusal to shed the outward trappings of mourning against the protestation of his uncle king and queen mother, who wanted him to express the jubilation of their new marriage. Stubborn as he is in his fidelity and sense of responsibility towards his deceased king father, he insisted in the truth of “that within which passeth show” (Shakespeare, Act 1, Scene II). As for Phaedra, when pressed by Oeneoneas to the cause of her depression, she made a simple acknowledgement of the truth raging within her: “I feel all the furies of desire”. (Racine, Act 1 Scene III). No matter how fearsome the truth is, she shrinks not in acknowledging and recognizing its potent poison. Both of them yielded to the power of this truth but differ in the manner of their response. Hamlet refused to hide the truth; Phaedra chose to languish in secret till she could bear no more to hide the truth. To be responsible to truth is to act so that that the truth comes to light, no matter what the price. When the deceased king’s apparition revealed to Hamlet the dastardly act of murder committed by his uncle against his father and commanded him to execute vengeance, Hamlet subsequently manifested a prolonged ambivalence towards acting on the revelation. Far from fear of the challenge, Hamlet’s tarrying was rather a strong proof of his commitment and responsibility for truth. His words: “prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,” (Shakespeare, Act III, Scene I) belied his confidence in the apparition’s revelation and could not commit himself to such unverified disclosure. He, however, was committed to ascertain the truthfulness of the apparition’s revelation, to the extent of feigning madness and suffering the negative consequences of such demeaning stance, if only to achieve his end. Phaedra on the other hand, needs to discover the truth about the consequences of the truth she nurtures within her. She has from the start sensed the risks and dangers of giving in to this enticement towards the truth burning inside her. She realized with tremendous force the power of this truth to destroy - though it ravished her soul - that she exclaimed, “I recognized Venus and her fearsome fires” (Shakespeare, Act I, Scene III0. Her insight to the darkness that hangs upon her moved her to solicit with extraordinary entreaties the favor of the same Goddess whom she believed caused her torment, but found no relief from her. She tried all means to discover the truth and attempted “ to banish the enemy” (Racine, Act 1 Scene 3) by urging the exile of Hippolytus; but upon his return she discovered the enemy not vanquished. Thinking that by yielding to this power within will conquer the enemy, she mustered whatever strength of will remained inside to unveil her dark secret in progressive step, first to her nurse (Racine, Act I, Scene III) and confidante and by the latter’s help to the object of her desire - Hippolytus himself (Racine, Act II, Scene V). Only then did she discover a far heart wrenching truth that her truth does not match with the truth inside Hippolytus. Rather, the truth inside her became the subversion of all she hoped her truth would bestow upon her. Thus her commitment to discover the truth caused her much more (Racine, Act II, Scene V). To be responsible to truth is to fight against truth’s enemy. This particular aspect of responsibility for truth is very characteristic of Hamlet and he exhibited it by his skill in unmasking untruth in others. All the harbinger of untruth sent to him by his uncle king were disrobed of their hidden intent. When the king and the queen sent for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to assess the state of mind of Hamlet, with stark question he unmasked their true intent and secured with ease their confession that they were sent for by his uncle. Polonius’ scheme against Hamlet’s protestation of love for Ophelia was likewise unmasked through her converse with Ophelia. And finally Hamlet’s grand design of unmasking the dark secret of Claudius through the play he pre- directed was an accomplishment par excellence that brought to completion his search for the truth (Shakespeare, Act III, Scene II). Even when Claudius sent Hamlet to England together with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with the intent of having him killed by the King of England, Hamlet penetrated behind the veil of their intentions and manage to reverse his fortune with that of the two accomplices who were then killed instead of him (Shakespeare, Act V, Scene II). In Phaedra’s case the truth is an uncanny kind of truth that is an enemy as well. The truth about the passion living within her, or rather its’ two bladed sharpness that wound herself as well as her object of love, is the enemy par excellence. And her manner of fighting truth’s enemy was by plunging her being to the truth’s necessary end - yielding to the truth with the venom that it releases, bringing upon herself the tragedy it carried, so that at last truth’s venom be released and lose its power. She tried to fight the truth imploring the source of truth – Venus the goddess, that truth be taken from her and when her entreaties, prayers and sacrifices fell as if in cold stone heart, she let truth conquer her and in conquering her, she conquered truth itself, giving back to the day the purity of truth. To be responsible to truth is to be willing to suffer the consequence of fidelity to it. This is most exemplified in Phaedra who, from the very beginning cradled the truth of her passion for Hippolytus giving her untold suffering which she bore in silence and solitude (Racine, Act I, Scene III). Even when love unrequited and jealousy for her discovered truth of Hippolytus love for Aricia would have justified in her heart the fate of Hippolytus (Racine, Act V Scene VI) from the cursed prayer of his father (Racine, Act IV, Scene II). Phaedra’s fidelity to the truth moved her to unveil the truth concerning untruth and confessed her lies about Hippolytus’ apparent guilt (Racine, Act V, Scene VII). In the end her fidelity to truth, though maligned by her prior untruth, led her to suffer death, so that in her words, “Death, from my eyes, stealing the clarity, Gives back to the day, defiled, all his purity” (Racine, Act V, Scene VII). Hamlet likewise suffered for the truth. In the pursuit of truth he suffered the condescension of her mother’s love and brought him to the distasteful task of bringing before her mother the unpalatable truth of her own weakness and frailty. He promises to hold up a mirror to her face so that she can see what she has become saying, “You go not till I set you up a glass Where you may see the inmost part of you. (Shakespeare, 2008, Act 3, Scene IV. 19-20). He suffered likewise in not knowing the truth and the burden that goes with it, a situation that brought him to consideration of death: “ To die, to sleep— No more—and by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to” (Shakespeare, 2008, Act 3, Scene 1). He eventually suffered as an object of malfeasance by him whose untruth he unmasked. Yet despite these he was unrelenting in his pursuit of the truth. Both plays, Hamlet and Phaedra, exemplify heroes with a deep, though unusual sense of responsibility for the truth. And both in the pursuit of truth courageously pursuit truth to the bitter end, bringing upon themselves the tragedy that follows truth to its logical consequence. But in the end both unveiled the purity and clarity of truth like broad daylight to those who wait to see the truth. WORKS CITED Racine, Phaedra. A. S. Kline © 2003 Shakespeare, William, Hamlet. All new material ©2008 Enotes.com Inc. http://www.enotes.com/hamlet-text Read More