The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1507 Tuesday, 13 September 2005
From: Alan Pierpoint <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, 11 Sep 2005 06:44:40 EDT
Subject: 16.1486 Stereotyping Hamlet..."wandering aimlessly"
Comment: Re: SHK 16.1486 Stereotyping Hamlet..."wandering aimlessly"
Bill Arnold writes: Why am I a lone reader who reflects upon Hamlet as
the only sane and rationale (sic) player in a play of characters
"wandering aimlessly" in their madness?
Hamlet as "sane and rational"? Wouldn't it be better to say that, alone
among the characters of the play, he responds with his intellect, his
emotions, his moral sense, and even his madness, in a fully human way to
the corruption and criminality of the rotten state of Denmark? May I
also assume that you mean "wandering aimlessly" in the moral sense? If
so, I agree. This reminds me of R.D. Laing's claim, a generation or two
ago, that schizophrenia is the sane response to an insane world. It
also leads us in the direction of a moral interpretation of the play,
along the lines that Kenneth Chan has been suggesting, doesn't it?
-Alan Pierpoint
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