Junior Varsity English (Prep for AP, Humanities, and Big Time University)

This a blog for Mr. James Cook's eleventh grade honors English class at Gloucester (MA) High School. Remember what Northrup Frye writes in _Fearful Symmetry_, "No one can begin to think straight unless [she or] he has a passionate desire to think and an intense joy in thinking."

Friday, April 13, 2007

corruption and virtue

corruption and virtue: 1.2. 133+, 1.4.90, 1.5.210, 1.5.49+
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2 comments:

ElenaGaudiano said...

Corruption and Virtue

1.5.210-211 "The time is out of joint. O cursed spite / That I was ever born to set it right!"

This is a quotation by Hamlet, addressing the ghost of his dead father, the King Hamlet. Hamlet has just been informed that his father was, in fact, murdered by his Uncle, so Hamlet is obviously distraught. What makes it a fascinating quote is that the scene ends dramatically with Hamlet bemoaning not the fact that his father was murdered, but the fact that he himself must now take action. Hamlet has a huge issue with morality: corruption, and virtue. He wants justice to prevail- making him perhaps virtuous- but his hesitance to take responsibility to deliver justice (possibly due to desire to protect himself) makes him seem cowardly: corrupt. He cannot subscribe fully to either quality: nor corruption, nor virtue.

1.5.60-64 "But virtue, as it never will be moved / Thought lewdness court it in a shape of heaven / So, (lust,) thought to a radiant angel linked, / will (sate) itself in a celestial bed / And prey on garbage."

I picked this quote because it contrasts Hamlet's inner conflict between corruption and virtue. Hamlet (as shown in the first quote discussed here) can't decide if he wants to be virtuous or cowardly. Here, the ghost is saying decisively that corruption and virtue can never be confused: that when corruption infiltrates virtue (as it has in the court of Denmark) corruption will nevertheless not prosper. The ghost describes corruption as "lust" and "lewdness" trying to disguise themselves as heavenly "angels" but, although they are in a virtuous place or "celestial bed", they will "prey on garbage" in the end. The ghost's declaration of the difference between corruption and virtue leaves no room for interpretation and indecision, like Hamlet is doing. Of course, his father's certainty must confuse Hamlet even further, because Hamlet has these doubts about whether to take action or not, and his father's assertiveness would make Hamlet feel guilty for having these doubts.

*question*
Is there any character in this play who we can call admirable- a recognizable representation of virtue? Because so far it seems like every character is either blatantly corrupt or at least quite wishy-washy in their pursuit of Justice and Good.

April 24, 2007 at 2:02 PM
Unknown said...

“Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts-
O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
So to seduce!-won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.
O Hamlet, what a falling off was there!
From me, whose love was of dignity
That it went hand in hand even with the vow
I made to her in marriage, and to decline
Upon a wretch whose natural gifts wer poor to those of mine.
But virtue, as it never will be moved,
Though lewdness of heaven, so lust, though to a radiant angel linked,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed
And prey on garbage. (1.5.49-64)

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. (1.2.133-141

The ghost is speaking to Hamlet in this quotation. The situation is when Hamlet is speaking with the ghost, and he says that Hamlet must avenge the death of his father. “He is talking about Claudius, and saying that he is a beast. This is the turning point in the play that seems to set off Hamlet to either insanity, or to cut off his ties to everyone in order to avenge his father’s murder. He knows for sure that Claudius killed his father, and that he can no longer hide.

At this point, Hamlet is convinced that the world is corrupt and that no one has any virtue. “The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen,” Hamlet’s mother, is not even true. Everyone is tainted, and even his mother was seduced by the gifts of his uncle. The ghost, who loved the queen with dignity, and made vows, was betrayed by the woman he loved. She settled for less, and his virtue was not changed, though hers was. Claudius is a beast, further proving that nature is corrupt. Hamlet is obsessed with corruption throughout the play, and it possesses his mind. It influences every action, and leads to his distrust of his friends and family. It is the reason he hires the actors, why he acted so strangely with Ophelia. She did not do anything to lose his faith, but the fact that she is human made her lose her virtue in the eyes of Hamlet.

In the second quotation, Hamlet is talking to the audience. His uncle and his mother sicken him, and he is wishing that he was to melt away. Even God is against him, and he no longer has faith in anyone. His own mother is tainted, and therefore, he is. No one is pure, everything is corrupt.
Even God cannot fix the corruption of the world. Nature itself is corrupt, an unweeded garden full of things that possess no goodness. At this point, Hamlet is starting to reveal that he is deeply bothered by what is going on. He is aware that not only is something rotten in the state of Denmark, everything is rotten everywhere. Sacred institutions like marriage no longer mean anything. He decides that nothing is valued anymore, or held holy. He gives up in his belief in mankind, and in essence, life.

Did Hamlet hold up his father as a measuring stick for virtue? Did he only view him as good when he died?

April 24, 2007 at 4:43 PM

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