I’ve always found it interesting that Hamlet and Mercutio’s deaths could ultimately reverse their closest friend’s strongest character trait.
Starting with Horatio: Through all the death and drama that tears Hamlet up inside, it is important that Horatio is “not passion’s slave”. He is the one able to think clearly and hold it together when Hamlet can’t and it makes sense that during Hamlet’s death he would try to kill himself out of some sense of duty. However I like the idea that Hamlet’s death could switch Horatio from a level-headed stoic to a sobbing shuddering mess completely unprepared to live without Hamlet.
Benvolio is the pacifist and voice of reason for the ill-tempered Mercutio. At Mercutio’s death Benvolio’s “brave Mercutio is dead” is usually delivered with sadness and meek regret. What I really wanna see is a Benvolio who, upon seeing his best friend die in his arms, forgets every reason he ever wanted to be peaceful. This is a Benvolio who would walk straight past Romeo, gaze set, ready to fight Tybalt himself until Romeo pulls him back.
The idea that these characters’ entire establishing trait could become something so flimsy when faced with tragedy is.. incredible
Today’s DAILY SNACK provided by: @shakespeerintomysoul who wrote this meta and who I am shamelessly reblogging it from.
This reminds me of a post I read that suggests that the real tragedy of Othello and Hamlet is that the protagonists are respectively trapped in the wrong play:
If Othello were in Hamlet’s situation, he’d kill Claudius quickly, efficiently, and with soldierly precision. No fuss, no dithering. Just action.
Whereas if Hamlet were presented with Iago’s poisonous lies, he would be incredibly suspicious, doubtful, thoughtful, and prepared to do ALL the necessary research before enacting any sort of vengeance on Desdemona.
If Shakespearean tragedy really is its own unique form, then I think it could be (simplistically) defined as the tragedy of living in the wrong world.
It baffles me that some people hate Shakespeare just because it’s like:
“Villian, I hast done thy mother” will never get old
Don’t even get me started on how GAY Mercutio and Benvolio are
Or how GAY Hamlet and Horatio (Horatio deserves better tho)
Beatrice saying that men are dirt
“Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man” – said Mercutio, on his deathbed
How GAY the Twelfth Night is
The hybrid comedy-tragedy that is Romeo and Juliet so we can laugh our asses off while these fools die
“What, you egg!” *stabs*
[Exits, pursued by a bear]
Hamlet the Angsty Emo Teen ™
Seriously Hamlet is the biggest Drama Queen in all of literature and that includes Sirius “Only one will die tonight” Black
Pretty much all of A Midsummer Nights Dream was legendary
THE DAD JOKES
Not to mention that The Lion King is Hamlet, West Side Story is Romeo and Juliet, and Heathers could’ve easily been based on Macbeth from what I can see
I ran into my deacon while running errands and she is one of the loveliest people ever to grace the planet and I was so excited to talk books and history with her and then she up and casually said she didn’t like Shakespeare and…
That kind of thing just hurts my soul. It makes me seriously reevaluate people sometimes. Conversely, I was so utterly and joyously surprised when I had a conversation with an older coworker who spat out one of the sonnets with little stumbling. Like I wanted to cry I was so delighted.
In King Lear (III:vii) there is a man who is such a minor character that Shakespeare has not given him even a name: he is merely “First Servant.” All the characters around him – Regan, Cornwall, and Edmund – have fine long-term plans. They think they know how the story is going to end, and they are quite wrong. The servant has no such delusions. He has no notion of how the play is going to go. But he understands the present scene. He sees an abomination (the blinding of old Gloucester) taking place. He will not stand it.
His sword is out and pointed at his master’s breast in a moment: then Regan stabs him dead from behind. That is his whole part: eight lines all told. But if it were real life and not a play, that is the part it would be best to have acted.
romeo and juliet were just kids making dumb decisions in an impossible situation, why criticise them when u could lay the blame on the grown ass adults who let the younger generation carry on their pointless feud, to the point where they’d created such a toxic hateful environment that it was viscerally unsafe for their children to experience the pangs of first love
-William Shakespeare
I mean – I like this little comment because yeah, this really was Shakespeare’s hot take on the R&J story. R&J had been told dozens of times before Shakey came along and had a crack at it, and the moral of the story was traditionally “children beware the perils of lust and see what happens when you disobey your parents.” It was really meant as a cautionary tale that you should always be obedient and dutiful to your parents.
The way Shakey tells it, you get an ending where the Prince berates the Capulets and the Montagues, saying:
Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague! See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate, That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!
By contrast, Shakespeare says is the moral of the story is holy fuck, you grown ass adults need to get your fucking shit together. Your pointless hatred led to love (not disobedience!) being the death of your children. The moral of the story is your children WOULD BE ALIVE NOW IF YOU DIDN’T CREATE SUCH A HATEFUL AND DANGEROUS ENVIRONMENT FOR THEM TO GROW UP IN.
Cheloneuniverse 