Act III-Scene I By: Elham Moradi

Scene I-the Nunnery Scene: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern report that they made little progress talking to Hamlet. They tell Claudius and Gertrude that Players have arrived and a play will be performed. Claudius and Polonius withdraw behind a tapestry, and eavesdrop while Hamlet talks to Ophelia; Hamlet rejects Ophelia and tells her to go to a nunnery. Claudius says he will send Hamlet to England.

Hamlet in scene I: *In this scene Hamlet looks to be confused and wrapped up in his own thoughts, a sense of undecibility seems to have overtaken him- he is really in the middle of something so confusing, he tries his best to get out of this endless loop by solving the riddle though. *He knows he has to decide the next step as soon as Claudius’ crime is proved. *Hamlet is so overwhelmed-or pessimistic about women-that he totally ignores Ophelia and his love for her: “I did love you once” “to a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell”

Now Hamlet thinks if it is worth either suffering “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” or taking “arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? ”- he knows such dilemmas are typical of human beings, he wishes “by a sleep” -a death - we could “end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to” but he knows: “ ’tis a consummation, devoutly to be wish’d” or he wishes we could go to “a sleep of death”, but when he considers the “dreams may come” in this sort of sleeping, he comes to know, it is just this consideration “that makes calamity of so long life” indeed.

Else “who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of disprized love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of th’unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life..” Actually it is “the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn, No traveler returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of ”

Deconstructive elements in Scene I: Logocentrism: -Fear of Afterdeath /the unknown Can be a logocentric idea in “To be or not to be..” speech, which makes “cowards of us all” :WRONG **Deconstruction does not deconstruct universal facts like Death or Afterdeath Undecibility: -Fear of death functioning as an outside power, forces us to make an undecidable decision to suffer a life of passivity without moving on or bringing about dramatic changes :RIGHT

Seemingly, In political contexts, throughout history authoritative powers have realized how to take advantage of this sort of fear which is available in the entire human race-threatening everybody with death, they repress opposition.

Hamlet chooses to resist and stay alive, although he is not sure he can take his position any more. He rather dares to stop existing and start living-surely such thing needs great guts! I am on Hamlet’s side-I believe he made the right decision, because there is no healing from cutting himself with that jagged edge. He is not done-not now! May be, for Hamlet, the best is yet to come in some other way.

* Suggestion: In my opinion, “death/afterdeath” is not necessarily going to be that dreadful, but it does not mean that we need to go and blow the candle out. Actually when the entire world is overcast by subtle shades of gray-considering the possibility of existing a more pleasurable world after death-can be a bless, a strength that enables us to go on along this bumpy road, knowing things will just be fine- exactly like Hamlet who is “crawling between earth and heaven”, and never gives up without a fight or at least without contemplation on fighting. As we see in the end of the play, Hamlet’s mission is complete, his task is done. Taking “the road less-traveled-by”, leaving his life behind himself-may be inevitably-he makes Denmark a better place!

Thank You