Why should you read "Hamlet"? - Iseult Gillespie
TED-Ed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTu39aMg_mU

Transkript (automatisch erstellt)

0:06 "Who’s there?" Whispered in the dark,
0:09 this question begins a tale of conspiracy, deception and moral ambiguity. And in a play where everyone has something to hide,
0:18 its answer is far from simple. Written by William Shakespeare between 1599 and 1601,
0:24 "Hamlet" depicts its titular character haunted by the past, but immobilized by the future.
0:30 Mere months after the sudden death of his father, Hamlet returns from school a stranger to his own home,
0:37 and deeply unsure of what might be lurking in the shadows. But his brooding takes a turn
0:42 when he’s visited by a ghost that bears his father’s face. The phantom claims to be the victim of a “murder most foul,”
0:51 and convinces Hamlet that his uncle Claudius usurped the throne and stole queen Gertrude’s heart.
0:58 The prince’s mourning turns to rage, and he begins to plots his revenge
1:02 on the new king and his court of conspirators. The play is an odd sort of tragedy,
1:08 lacking either the abrupt brutality or all-consuming romance that characterize Shakespeare’s other work in the genre.
1:16 Instead it plumbs the depths of its protagonist’s indecisiveness, and the tragic consequences thereof.
1:24 The ghost’s revelation draws Hamlet into multiple dilemmas– what should he do, who can he trust,
1:30 and what role might he play in the course of justice? These questions are complicated by a tangled web of characters,
1:37 forcing Hamlet to negotiate friends, family, court counselors, and love interests–
1:43 many of whom possess ulterior motives. The prince constantly delays and dithers over how to relate to others,
1:50 and how he should carry out revenge. This can make Hamlet more than a little exasperating,
1:56 but it also makes him one of the most human characters Shakespeare ever created. Rather than rushing into things,
2:02 Hamlet becomes consumed with the awful machinations of thinking itself. And over the course of the play,
2:09 his endless questions come to echo throughout our own racing minds. To accomplish this,
2:15 Shakespeare employs his most introspective language. From the usurping king’s blazing contemplation of heaven and hell,
2:22 to the prince’s own cackling meditation on mortality, Shakespeare uses melancholic monologues to breathtaking effect.
2:30 This is perhaps best exemplified in Hamlet’s most famous declaration of angst: "To be or not to be—that is the question:
2:43 Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
2:51 Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And, by opposing, end them."
3:00 This monologue personifies Hamlet’s existential dilemma: being torn between thought and action,
3:06 unable to choose between life and death. But his endless questioning raises yet another anxiety:
3:14 is Hamlet’s madness part of a performance to confuse his enemies, or are we watching a character on the brink of insanity?
3:22 These questions weigh heavily on Hamlet’s interactions with every character. And since he spends much of the play facing inward,
3:28 he often fails to see the destruction left in his wake. He’s particularly cruel to Ophelia,
3:35 his doomed love interest who is brought to madness by the prince’s erratic behavior. Her fate is one example of how tragedy could have been easily avoided,
3:44 and shows the ripple effect of Hamlet’s toxic mind games. Similar warning signs of tragedy are constantly overlooked throughout the play.
3:54 Sometimes, these oversights occur because of willful blindness– such as when Ophelia’s father dismisses Hamlet’s alarming actions
4:01 as mere lovesickness. At other points, tragedy stems from deliberate duplicity–
4:07 as when a case of mistaken identity leads to yet more bloodshed. These moments leave us with the uncomfortable knowledge
4:15 that tragedy evolves from human error– even if our mistake is to leave things undecided.
4:23 For all these reasons, perhaps the one thing we never doubt is Hamlet’s humanity. But we must constantly grapple with who the “real” Hamlet might be.
4:35 Is he a noble son avenging his father? Or a mad prince creating courtly chaos?
4:41 Should he act or observe, doubt or trust? Who is he? Why is he here?
4:48 And who’s out there– waiting in the dark?