(DOWNLOAD) "Securing Sleep in Hamlet (Critical Essay)" by Rebecca Totaro ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Securing Sleep in Hamlet (Critical Essay)
- Author : Rebecca Totaro
- Release Date : January 22, 2010
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 92 KB
Description
Why, let the strucken deer go weep, The hart ungalled play: For some must watch while some must sleep, Thus runs the world away. (1) These are the first words Hamlet speaks to Horatio after Claudius rises from his seat, Polonius calls for "Light, lights, lights" in an end to The Mousetrap, and all exit, leaving Hamlet and Horatio alone (III.ii.264). Hamlet's initial assessment of the situation seems clear enough: Claudius is the "strucken deer" that will "go weep" while he himself is the "hart ungalled" that can "play." Hamlet revels in his success; he has caught the conscience of the king. Ending the interpretation of this rhyme here, however, ignores the final parallelism. Shakespeare extends the comparison between the deer by likening the wounded, weeping one to the "some" who "must watch" and the other, unharmed deer who plays to those who "must sleep." This pairing of images runs counter to our current use of the terms "sleep" and "watch": we would be more likely to pair a wounded creature with sleep and a playful one with watching, thus causing a confusion that makes it difficult to identify the significance of the rhyme.