Reading Hamlet- Crystal Downing

Crystal Downing opens her essay with a strong quote, "This is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind." Downing is speaking of the play Hamlet. Downing's article focuses on the difficulties of interpretation in Hamlet, and uses concrete evidence as support. The article focuses on how throughout the play both Hamlet and the other characters are continuously trying to interpret his mind. Hamlet questions on how he will take action to avenge his fathers death. Should he believe the words from a ghost? He renders a mental battle over suicide and questions the meaning of existence itself in his famous soliloquy "To be or not to be." Hamlet also questions the nature of love when his mother marries within weeks of his fathers death. What kind of role model love is that? Hamlet morns his father continuously, and Queen Gertrude struggles to interpret why he does so. 

Hamlet faces interpretation when he devises a plan which he hopes will help him interpret Claudius. Claudius also devices a less formal play which he hopes will interpret Hamlet. The interpretations continue through out the entire play. At some points, Hamlets interpretations fail. Downing points out that after Hamlet discovers he murdered Polonius instead of Claudius, he does not mention his fathers murder for the rest of the two-hundered-line scene. Through continuous examples Downing proves how problematic interpretation is because it relies on the speaker/writer, and the listener and reader. It is not completely reliable; it all just depends on how it is approached. 

Crystal Downing's essay was impeccably written. It was incredibly strong in both the writing, and the evidence. She pointed out the key topics of the story and dissected them in a creative way. One of strongest statements that caught my eye was that just as Hamlet has reason to suspect the Ghost, the readers have reason to suspect Gertrude. This is true because one scene shows Gertrude telling Claudius that her son is mad. The audience is left to interpret her duplicity of whether she is putting on an act of Hamlet or Claudius? Another strong piece of evidence was her thorough connection between Wittenberg and the Protestants. That was certainly something I would not have picked up on from just simply reading the book. At first glance the essay did not seem like it would be enjoyable, but it was creative and enjoyable to read. 

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet: With Contemporary Essays. Ed. Joseph Pearce. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2008. Print.