Hamlet Cultural Studies

                       Dave Mayuri P.

M.A.                   : Sem -1

Roll No.             :15

Ppaer No. 1      : The Renaissance literature 

Topic Name    : Hamlet cultural studies

Submitted by : Department of English                                      M.K.B.U.

·        Hamlet

Cultural Studies examines power relationships also. It emphasis on it. For example, Cultural studies and its critics assume "oppositional roles in terms of power structures, wherever they might be found. It wants us to have a lance at some marginalized characters we have not been given enough importance and those who should have been given recognition in their lives. Ho politics, power, indeed on all matters that deeply affect people's practical and day to day lives. The people who have money and power position they will be given importance and recognition, no matter whether they deserve or not. No one those people. Who have power so the hero of Shakespeare's novel 'Hamlet' comes under that category.

Hamlet is the play within the play. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are marginalized characters. Claudius - villain is having a necessary talk arth Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet's fellow students from wittenloery.  They were studying there. In response to Claudius's plan to send Hamlet to England Rosencrantz delivers a speech. They both were not at the centre and they were not having any inheritance like Hamlet was the son of late king Hamlet and belonged to Royal family but they were intelligent, educated with a proper understanding. Rosencrantz's speech shows his excellence and mastery over language.

·        The Speech of Rosencrantz's :

The singular and peculiar life is bound

With all the strength and armor of the mind

To keep itself from noyance, but much more

That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests

The lives of many.The cease of majesty 

Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw

what's near it with it. It is a massy wheel

Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,

To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things

Are mortised and adjoined ;which,when it falls,

Each small annexment , petty consequences,

Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone

Did the king sigh but with a general groan.  

The passage is a thoughtful one. It is praiseworthy. This is one of the examples of excellence of a marginalized character. In spite of having access of excellence they have been marginalized and Hamlet being a hero. From a wealthy and Royal Family has been put into the category of a moral hero. Who has a few lacks also. The question arises about the people  howmany people will be there to notice it ? These lines should have been considered as the best known lines of the play, but they have been ignored. Hamlet's soliloquies, king's soliloquy of conscience his futile efforts to pray to god have been considered the best well-known lines as compared to Rosencrantz's speech.  Guildenstern had just agreed that he and Rosencrantz would do as they were told by the king. The agreement is only a reaffirmation of what they had told the king when he first received them at court. The two are distinctly plot - driven : empty of personality, sycophantic in a sniveling way, eager to curry favour with power even if it means spying on their erstwhile, Friend. They  admit, without mush skill at deniel, that they "were sent for".

The meanings of their names match what seems to be the essence of their characters. Murray J. Levith, has written that "Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern are from the Dutch - German : literally, 'garland of roses and' golden star'. Their names give them a position and meaning lightness.

These details do not seem to fit the personalities and general vacuity of Shakespeare's two incompetents. So it becomes necessary to know and have a look at what they do and what is done to them. They were students at Wittenberg. They return to Denmark, because they were requested by claudius. They try to Dry from Hamlet and his inner thoughts what he has been thinking and wanting for many days since his Father's  death, especially his ambitions and frustrations about the crown. Hamlet foils them. They crumble before his own questioning. Claudies then sends them on an embassy with Hamlet, carrying a letter to the king of England that would have been executed by Hamlet. They both may not have known the contents of that letter or "Grand Commission". Hamlet's suspicion and dought is enough for him to decide their future. Here Hamlet has capacity to device Murderous schemes.

Hamlet's action in replacing the king's letter which Rosencrantz and Guidenstern were carrying by another letter which  asks English authorities to put an end to the life of these two men shows again that Hamlet can be heartless when occasion demands it. When Horatio remarks that Guildenstern and Rosencrantz have gone to their death, Hamlet feels not the least regret in having sent them to their death, but syas :

They are not near my conscience; their 

defeat Does by their own insinuation grow.

This incident also shows that Hamlet can, on certain occasions, device and pursue murderous schemes. In spite of doing this Hamlet is seen as a moral characters who is given importance and recognition but no one considers Hamlet as a murderer. It shows how power plays a vital role in one's life. First Guildenstern and Rosencrantz were called and requested by Claudius  to know about Hamlet's mind and his desire so they both are used by Claudius. Second they were sent to their deaths by Hamlet so they are used by Hamlet. They are pawns for claudius first, for Hamlet second. It is almost as if Hamlet had tried before the sea voyage to warn them of their insignificant state; he calls Rosencrantz a sponge, Provoking. The message of power goes on and on. At first they intended only good For their erstwhile school fellow. But their more constant motive is to dease the king, the power that has brought them here. This shows power in the world of kings and princes. England had known the effects of such power off for centuries. The time of Elizabeth is well-known. Witness especially the fate of the second Earl of Essex. Whose attempt at rebellion led to his own, execution, Marry Queen's execution. Who had been imprisoned by Elizabeth for years before Elizabeth signed the death warrant. With this history. We can understand how long, It had been going on and why Shakespeare's work shows power struggles.

Claudius was aware of Power. He minutely observed his madness that madness in great ones must not unwatched go". So Rosencrantz and Guildenstern might have observed that power in Great ones also must not unwatched go.

Here our emphasis in the present reading is that one can gain a further insight into the play, and indeed into Shakespeare's culture, by thinking not about kings and princes but about the lesser and minor characters in appositions.

·        What is to be understood :

                   It is necessary to enrich our response to Hamlet by looking at a related cultural and philosophical. Manifestation from the twentieth century. In the twentieth century the dead, or never living & Rosencrantz and Guildenstern where resuscitated by Tom stppard in a Fascinating re-seeing of their existence, or its lack. They are seeking constantly to know. Who they are going. It is to note that the essence of Marginalization is here : Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are archetypal human beings caught up on a ship - that  leads nowhere, except to death, a death for persons who are already dead. If Shakespeare marginalized the powerless in his own version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, stoppared has marginalized us all in an era when - in the eyes of some all of us are caught up in forces beyond our control. In other words, a cultural and historical view that was shakespeare's is radically reworked to reflect a cultural and philosophical view of another time-our own.

·        What cultural studies wants :

                   So cultural studies gives us as a view from history and historical events or incident what had been going on from centuries and power position had played a vital role in an individual's life and marginalized characters had been ignored and their noble characteristics had been suppressed in spite of having morality and high moral values whereas heroes from royal and wealthy families were being described as noble characters in spite of being immoral and inconstant people so cultural studies wants us to have a look at those marginalized characters.

·        Hamlet's Lacks :

                   Hamlet has many lacks. For example he has lack of determination when he has a chance to kill & Claudius while praying to god Hamlet thinks that if, he kills Claudius now then he will directly go to heaven because he is praying to God but if he had killed Claudius   at that time then he would not have killed innocent polonious. Hamlet should have repented after killing polonius that he has killed the father of the girl whom he has loved truely but he does not think so and goes on talking with his mother Gertrude. As he sends Guildenstern and Rosencrantz to their deaths. He was not a man of action. He is capable of Man of action. Such a primitive hero was not likely to be of interest to shakespeare when he was at the height of his creative powers. What he did was to imagine a noble and sweet price, placed in a situation where his acknowledge duty all the more difficult. Hamlet a Man who could not kill his guilty uncle claudius but kills the innocent polonious. He does so without knowing the identity of his victim. He feels not the least compunction or remorre on discovering that his victim is polonius. Hamlet appears to be most callous.

                   Hamlet has capacity for bitter and cynical wit. When Hamlet is asked what he has done with the dead body of polonius. He replies : "Compounded it with dust, whereto" his kin." He calls Rosencrantz a sponge "That soaks up the king's coyntenarce, his reward, his authrities" When Rosencrantz again asks Hamlet replies, The body is with The King, but the king is not with the body. The King is a thing - ". Rosencrantz and Guildenstern had no idea of claudius's scheeming. They were innocent but they wanted to help both Hamlet and claudius but they are used by Hamlet and claudius and they had to sacrifice their lives too. Hamlet does not think of his two best friends with whom he has spent a lovely time and decides to put an end to their deaths.