Hamlet Machine
The aspect of sex in Heiner Mullers Hamlet Machine (1977) is very pronounced and is coupled with a graphic allusions to death and destruction in ways that suggest that Hamlet and Ophelia and caught in a vortex of schizophrenic emotions and ideas regarding the nature of life and love. Hamlet at one point says that he wants to be a woman, and Ophelia at the end of the play exclaims horrifically, I expel all the semen which I have received. I transform the milk of my breasts into deadly poison. I suffocate the world which I gave birth to, between my thighs. I bury it in my crotch. Down with the joy of oppression. Long live hate, loathing, rebellion, death. When she walks through your bedroom with butchers knives, youll know the truth (Muller 8). The message that Ophelia appears to be sending could be interpreted as a response to Hamlets own conflicted feelings about identity, sex and gender. Hamlet earlier in the play states that he wishes his mother had one [hole] too fewer, (a reference to her vagina), implying that he wishes his mother had been sexless and thus both incapable of intercourse and of bearing Hamlet (Muller 1). The death of Hamlets father has shaken him: he does not know who or what he is and does not want to be alive. In his confusion he seeks...
…coping with his confusion, rage, and identity-crisis. In the final monologue, Ophelia denounces sex and love and asserts that only hate, loathing, rebellion, death shall from here on out be the things that live (Muller 8). In other words, as Hamlet can no longer understand himself, he can no longer love, and since he can no longer love, Ophelia has no reason to live, and no reason for the world to go on. Thus, her response is to reflect the destabilizing sentiment implicit in Hamlets orientation: her threat of walking through the bedroom with butchers knives suggests that she may have to cut off Hamlets manhood in an act that, ironically, might restore the truth of who…
Works Cited
Muller, Heiner. Hamlet Machine, 1977.
http://members.efn.org/~dredmond/Hamletmachine.PDF
For Oedipus to be considered successful, then, he would have had to challenge his own fate and succeed, rather than enact it entirely according to what was set out for him. In Hamlet, on the other hand, the enemy is tangible and human in the form of Hamlet's uncle, and thus Hamlet is able to confront and vanquish him. Thus, Oedipus represents a kind of ignorant struggle against the
He does however, have a reason for his treatment of these people. In the case of the king's courtiers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, they can be seen as plotting against Hamlet and being 'two faced' in their treatment of him" (Hamlet). From the above evidence, it is clear that due to the consequences of the actions of characters, lives are destroyed, which can be seen from the direction of the stage.
He never sees things from the perspective of other people or overthinks the moral implications of his deeds. Fortinbras challenges Claudius openly, unlike Hamlet who merely stages a play to test Claudius' guilt and tries (and fails) to kill the King at prayer. At first, Hamlet drew inspiration from a Player King's passion. In his "How all occasions" soliloquy he draws inspiration to take revenge from a real person. Fortinbras'
He questions whether he should try to clear the court of corruption or just give up and end his life now. It is this emotional doubt that drives Hamlet to act deranged at times, but he overcomes it, and almost manages to answer the difficult questions posed in his life. In Act V, when calm returns, Hamlet repents his behavior (V, ii, 75-78) (Lidz, 164). In Lidz's book Freud is
" This madness likely leads to Ophelia's suicide but, consistent with the entire theme of this play, the exact nature of Ophelia's demise is left to speculation. The fascination with Hamlet is uncanny. What provides this fascination is the fact that there is always more to what is going on in the play than what actually appears to be. Observers of the play are left with an overwhelming feeling that they
Hamlet's Ghost has presented a problem for critics and readers since it first appeared on stage some four hundred years ago. Serving as the pivot upon which the action of the play is established -- Hamlet's father's ghost delivers him important information about his death and the throne -- one is likely to ask whether the ghost is truly the soul of King Hamlet or rather a devil appearing in
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now