#16 Horatio 4

To “The Masses”, Oh, the clarity, the clarity! Peter J Seng uses all parts of rhetoric to uncover “Dramatic Function of the Songs in Hamlet”. Through analysis and careful attention to detail, he sifts through the surface meaning of many great fragments in “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare to undercover the depth in their denotation. Aye, the poor girl the poor girl, has no one a care in the world?? Ophelia cries out through song with the venous lashings as her fate becomes more and more apparent. Beyond “The surface irony…that the ballad relates to the death of Polonius- is not wrong,” (Seng217) no one seemed to break the ice for I originally believed that the death of Polonius was all that it concerned, oh I was wrong. Ophelia is the oppressed, nay, the victim of an “unweeded kingdom” (2.1.117) she cannot bear the hurt of what she encounters any longer. “Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind” (3.2) I found this most meaningful to when Laertes and Polonius come in to convince her to stay away from Hamlet, mocking her in verse. Later, when she hears of Polonius’ death, witnesses Hamlets madness, and finds her love confused. She transitions most rapid into a rabid dog, from the form of a docile sheep. Love can twist and shake. And with good reason “Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love,” (2.2.88). In her song as a reader I witness the ballad talk of “true-love”, aye; this is Hamlet (Seng219)? Yes, but Ophelia uses the broken love to highlight “His disappearance, illuminates in her deranged mind the few paltry facts she possesses,” (Seng219). My fair Hamlet doth address that the death of Polonius was not sorrow, what came after is sorrow, “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions” (4.5.37) The source of the sorrows is mistrust and as far as we know is “Something new to her” (Seng220). However, do not let my talk confuse you Hamlet’s love for Ophelia never disappeared, only faltered, for he says “Forty thousand brothers could not (with all their quantity of love) make up my sum,” (Seng222). Oh, the false pretenses, how could I not see, I was blind. The songs “can be seen to be intimately related to the tragic fortunes of the family of Polonius” (Seng223). Polonius and Laertes warned Ophelia, and not we see the irony in their family meeting. Fragile is Ophelia, “A young maid’s wits should be as mortal as an old man’s life,” (4.2.76). She is broken a symbol of permiscuity , “picturing herself as Marian to Hamlet’s Robin Hood… the nightmare world of her valentines song,” (Seng 223). The Ballad and lines of song in haste seem so shallow but in fruit the lines bite deep. For when the reaper comes a knocking, and the day is laid to ash, the lines go on talking and all roles intertwined lead to that something rash. Till next a time, Horatio