a thing of nothing.pdf

8/10/2019 A Thing of Nothing.pdf

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George Washington University

A Thing of Nothing: The Catastrophic Body in HamletAuthor(s): John HuntReviewed work(s):Source: Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Spring, 1988), pp. 27-44Published by: Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2870585 .Accessed: 04/11/2012 18:10

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A Thing of Nothing: The CatastrophicBody in HamletJOHN HUNT

IF HAMLET ACTUALLY WRITESDOWN MORALLESSONS on his tablets as hestudies his revenge, many of them urely have to do with how life s lived,

and lost, in bodies. Far more even than n Macbethor Coriolanus, the humanbody nHamletforms uman xperience, eing hemedium hrough hichmensuffer nd act. But the body lso deforms uman eings nd threatens ltimatelyto reduce hem onothing. he nonbeing urking t the material enter f beingannounces tself everywhere n the play's corporeal magery, nd occupiesHamlet's mind as he tries to find his way from he regal death that nitiatesthe ction o the regal death hat oncludes t. This essay examines he problemin two parts, using an analysis of the imagery s an approach to the greatmystery f the play, Hamlet's quandary bouthow to act. It suggests hatHam-let cannot dequately espond o the Ghost's commands ntil he learns o acceptphysicality, ith ll its dissolute nconstancy, s the mage of mentality. otuntil he finds is

way out of a despairing ontempt or he body can he achievethe wish of his first oliloquyand quietly ease to be.

I

At the end of Hamlet, all the remainingmembers f the two great familiesof Denmark ie crumpled bout the stage. Meta-theatrically oubling histab-leau, Horatio sks Fortinbras o "give order hat hesebodies / Highon a stagebe placed to the view" (V.ii.379-80)-an order hat s carried ut as the playends.1 Polonius's "guts" have already been hauled off the stage less cere-moniously;Ophelia's body has been brought n with runcated eremony ndlowered nto the

pitbeneath he

stage,from which kulls have come

flying pto make room for t; and all the carnage has been set in motion by the pale,glaring dead corse" of King Hamlet. The eyes of the mind, f they re open,behold n the play's language spectacle f ruined odies fully s grim s whattheir hysical ounterparts ehold on stage. Before hearing f and seeing thebody's demise n the churchyard, e imagine n unorthodox utopsywhenonegravedigger ells heother he results f the nquiry ntoOphelia'ssuicide:"Thecrowner ath ate on her, and finds t Christian urial" (V.i.4-5). Grotesquevisions arise when he responds o the suggestion f his companion hat theoriginal pade-wielder, dam, was a gentleman, the first hat ver bore rms.""Why, he had none," the clown objects, only to be refuted n a manner hatmakes his statement monstrous. What, art a heathen? How doest thou un-derstand he Scripture? he Scripture ays Adamdigged. Couldhe dig without

1 All quotations re from he Signet ext dited by EdwardHubler 1963;rpt. New York: HarcourtBrace, 1972).


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28 SHAKESPEAREUARTERLY

arms?" (V.i.30 ff.). Amputeegardeners, orpses used as sofas (perhaps woof the thousand atural hocks that flesh s heir o), and many kindred iguresdrive the play's physical violence deep into the minds of the audience.

The body thus represented s no mere vehicle or Platonic nstrument or hesoul; it incarnates pirit, s Christ, His Church, nd the Host incarnate God.Shakespeare'smetaphorical igures o to eery engths o show man deeply ootedin a material ubstrate. hus Hamlet akes the saying f Genesis and Matthewthat man and wife become one flesh s authority orhis mocking aledictionto Claudius:

Ham. Farewell, dear Mother.King. Thy oving father, amlet.Ham. My mother-father nd mother s man nd wife,

man and wife s one flesh, nd so, my mother.(IV.iii.50-53)

Claudius himself mparts corporeal acticity othe old figure f horseman sCentaur, elling aertes f a Norman ider who "grew untohis seat" and seemedto have been "incorpsed nd deminatured With he brave beast" (IV.vii.85-88). And Laertes warns his sister not to love the prince because his ambitiousmind grows along with his young body and, as lord of the kingdom, e willbe "circumscribed Unto the voice and yielding f that body / Whereof e isthe head" (I.iii.22-24).

The bodypolitic s more han metaphor or ocial organization n this play;it describes tightly ntegrated orld where reality tems palpably from hecenters f political nd religious uthority. rancis Barker, escribing hepub-

lic, spectacular uality f Hamlet nd other Jacobean ragedies, asargued hatthe abundant orporeal magesused in texts f this period were not the "deadmetaphors" hat hey re now, but "indices of a social order n which hebodyhas a central nd irreducible lace." "With a clarity ow hard orecapture,"he says, "the social plenum s the body of the king, and membership f thisanatomy s the deep structural orm f all being n the secular realm."2 Theextravagant dea, examinedby Ernst Kantorowicz hree ecades ago, that heking n fact has two bodies-his own plus a superbody quivalent o the cor-porate ife of his nation-always threatened o revert o a mystical bstraction,and eventually isappeared rom olitical heory. iscussing ts role n RichardII, Kantorowicz bserved hat f the conceit "still has a very real and humanmeaning oday, his s largely ue to Shakespeare. t is he who has eternalizedthat metaphor."3 here s nothing n Richard I to match he really stonishingconcreteness hat he metaphor cquires n one passage of Hamlet, when Ro-sencrantz nd Guildenstern ccede to Claudius's plan to "dispatch" Hamlet oEngland:

We will ourselves rovide.Mostholy ndreligious ear t sTo keep hosemanymany odies afeThat iveandfeeduponyourMajesty.

(III.iii.7-10)

2 Francis Barker, The Tremulous rivate Body: Essays on Subjection London and New York:Methuen, 1984), pp. 23, 31.3Ernst Kantorowicz, he King's Two Bodies: A Study n Mediaeval Political Theology Prince-ton: Princeton niv. Press, 1957), p. 26.


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A THING OF NOTHING:THECATASTROPHIC BODYIN HAMLET 29

Calling up pictures f a bloated nsect ueencoveredby her ucking ttendants,or a convocation f politic worms easting n a corpse, or a communion moreliterally annibalistic hanmost, hisviolently rresting mage ocatesthe kingat the dark center f a world dense with material ignificance. is universalBody, symbolizing eligious uthority ver a commonality, oes not hover nsome library f legal abstractions, ut pulsates with grisly vitality.

The imagery hat hakespeare nvents oestablishman's corporeality tartlesmost when solated parts of the body function s metonymic r synechdocalequivalents or actions and states of being. Every audienceremembers Theharlot's heek,beautiedwith last'ring rt"; Hecuba's "lank and all o'er-teemedloins"; Fortinbras harking p men "For food and diet to some enterpriseThat hath stomach n't"; Osric complyingwith his dug before he sucks it;Hamlet beating his brains; nd countless imilar figures. his usage pervadesso much of the play that ne can hardly eador hear twenty onsecutive ines

without ncountering t. To maintain he motif's mpact n the midst f suchcopious use, Shakespeare ccasionally resorts o violently ressured nd im-probable mages. "Let the candied tongue ick absurdpomp," says Hamlet oHoratio n an indictment f the flatterer o suggestively ewd that even thecompleat ourtier might lush to hear t, "And crook the pregnant inges ofthe knee / Where hrift ayfollowfawning" III.ii.60-62). Shortly fterwardshe asks Horatio o watch Claudiuscarefully, For I mine yes will rivet ohisface" (1. 85). After his natomical utrage as been performed ponhim, Clau-dius decides that with Hamlet n Denmark he is not safe from he "Hazard sonear's as doth hourly row/ Out of his brows" (III.iii.6-7). In such images,strangely ransformed arts f the body-the flatterer's lazed tongue nd preg-nant knees, Hamlet's bolted yeballs nd malignantly ypertrophic orehead-figure orthmorbid tates of mind ypified n the pursuit f some compellingaction. One thinks f certain unishments n the ower reaches of Dante's In-ferno: Mohammad's riven trunk ulfilling is schismatic mischief, Ugolinognawing his enemy's malevolent kull. Indeed, the Ghost hints hat, were itnot for the intolerable ffects hat uch a tale would have on the living, hecould tell of such a treatment f the body's parts n his purgatory: But thiseternal lazon must not be / To ears of flesh nd blood" (I.v.21-22).

It has, I believe, never been observed that hese images of body parts nHamlet add up to a virtual natomical atalogue or, to use the Ghost's grimlittle oke about dismemberment, blazon") of the human orm. Consideredcuriously," s curiously s Hamlet considers he dust of Alexander, heplaylooks like a dissecting oom, tockedwith ll of man's limbs, organs, issues,and fluids. Certain parts re mentioned ncessantly: yes, ears, heads, hearts,hands, faces, tongues, rains. These major melodies n the carnal concerto reaccompanied y numerous esser themes. We hear in varying egreesof fre-quency) f mouths, oses, ips, cheeks, aws, teeth, yelids, oreheads"brows"),the crown f the head "pate"), the skin, hair n general, beards, necks, imbsin general, rms, egs, knees, feet, heels, toes, fingers, he thumb, hepalm,the wrist, he shoulder, he back, the loins, the waist, the breast n general("bosom"), the mammary rgan Osric's "dug"), genitals n general "pri-vates"), male genitals "cock" and the "long purple" flowerswhose commonnamehas been euphemized o"dead men's fingers"), emale enitals "countrymatters"), nd the anus ("bunghole").4 Of internal rgans, there s mention4The OED identifies he nus as a contemporary igurative enseof "bung-hole," iting n entryin Cotgrave's Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues 1611) for he cul de cheval or sea


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30 SHAKESPEAREQUARTERLY

not only of the heart nd brain, but also the throat, ungs, stomach, pleen,liver, guts, bones, marrow, erves, inews, spinal cord "pith"), and arteries.Of the fluid roducts f the body, we hear of blood and tears ncessantly, ndalso of sweat, milk, fat, and gall. The play also refers o various corruptinggrowths n the body-moles, cankers, warts, ulcers, abcesses, sores, scabs,and "contagious blastments." Finally, t alludes to such bodily functions sspeech, hearing, ight, ouch, taste, smell, eating, drinking, hewing, diges-tion, vomiting, vacuation, leep, dreaming, allucination, awning,weeping,laughing, reathing, opulation, regnancy, uckling, ulse,disease,fever, eath,and decomposition.

More than imply ainting bloody backdrop orhis tragedy f revenge, nthe manner f Webster, hakespeare eems to be methodically econstructingthe body. His universal ataloguing f particulars oes to the human odywhatHamlet ellsOsric t would be hard o do to Laertes: "divide him nventorially"(V.ii.114). Like Montaigne, who sought o examine the unknown otality fhuman xperience hrough ts genesis n manyparticular, rreducible henom-ena experienced y the organism, hakespeare eeks to reduce ife to its cor-poreal lements. His characters n this play think f every sychological uality,every rational eliberation r spiritual hoice, in terms f the physical quip-ment hat ocates them n a world of action. Claudius's unsuccessful ttemptto pray s a good example, demonstrating s it does the imitation f humanpossibility mplied by this procedure. He thinks hroughout is soliloquy ncorporeal mages: the smell of his offense, he blood on his hand, the face ofa reprobate nd a penitent, stubborn nees" that will not bowdown, a "bosomblackas death" hiding "heart with trings f steel," and so forth III.iii.36 ff.).Claudius's "limed soul" reflects onditions f

corporealimitation hatMon-

taigne suggests, t the end of "Raymond Sebond," man can overcome onlythrough heextension f divine grace:

For o make hehandful igger han hehand, he rmful igger han he rm, ndto hope o straddle ore han hereach f our egs, s impossiblend unnatural.Nor an man aise himself bovehimself ndhumanity; orhe can seeonlywithhis own yes, ndseizeonlywith is own grasp.

Hewillrise, f Godby exceptionendshim hand.5

None of the angels whom Claudius begs to "Make assay" offers im an in-corporeal and; aughtwithin heparalytic ompound f his heart, ands,brain,face, voice, he looks in vain for a way out of the dwelling hathe has madea prison. Nor do any of the other haracters n Hamlet find "exceptional"release from heirnatural ondition. n their ariously ess desperate ways, allstruggle gainst heweb of matter hat ife has woven round hem nd n whichthey mplicate hemselves urther very imethey ct.

Montaigne's hallenge, fter kepticallyweighing heparticulars f humanexperience, was to put them back together n a living totality. hakespeare'sintention ppears to be very different. ar from ven attempting opresent helife of the body as an organically unctioning ntity, eportrays t more n themanner f Donne's Devotions, as a collection of pieces whose morbidity n-

anemone: "a small and ouglie fish, r excrescence f the Sea, resembling mans bung-hole, ndcalled the red Nettle."5Donald Frame, trans., The Complete Works f Montaigne Stanford: tanford Univ. Press,

1957),p. 457.


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A THING OFNOTHING:THECATASTROPHIC BODY INHAMLET 31

timates heir ltimate iolent issolution. The play's countless arts nd func-tions, inked with various extreme nd unhealthy tates of mind, engenderdisturbing ense of ontological islocation.Thingsfall apart nHamlet-or aretorn

part. Shakespeareoesnot use the

urrently opularmetaphorf

anatomyhere as he does, for nstance, for Jaques's lacerating ntelligence n As YouLikeIt), but throughout heplay we are made to think f the fragmented tateof a body that has been cut open, probed, dissected. When, n the first ine ofthe play, Barnardo nappropriately emands he dentity f Francisco, he sen-tinel he is replacing, ranciscoresponds, Nay, answerme. Stand and unfoldyourself." n the claustrophobic eart f Elsinore, the politicians ry o makeHamlet tand till o that hey an unfold im nd findwhat ies within. eeingHamlet's disturbed ehavior, Claudius resolves to discover surgically, s itwere) "Whether ught o us unknown fflicts im hus, / That pened ies withinour remedy" II.ii. 17-18). Polonius, supposing hathe has found he answer,points according othe ommonest ditorial eading) ohis head and shouldersand says:

Take this rom his, f this e otherwise.If circumstanceseadme, willfindWhere ruth s hid, hought werehid ndeedWithin he enter.

(II.ii. 156-59)

Rosencrantz nd Guildenstern, ortune's rivates, who make ove to their m-ployment, who would play on Hamlet's stops as on a pipe, reaching or theheart f his mystery, re themselves round p in their bscene probings, oomed"by their wn insinuation" V.ii.59). The king keeps them, s Hamlet tellsRosencrantz, like an ape, in the corner f his aw, first mouthed, o be lastswallowed" (IV.ii.19-20). Finally they become nert matter n Hamlet's ownperversion f Claudius's plans.

Other nsinuations f partition r dismemberment ome n reference o "parts"or "pieces," as in the fragmented ines that open the play. When two morefigures nter, arnardo sks, "What, s Horatio here?" nd Horatio nswers-perhaps n numbness t the frigid weather, erhaps n disdain for he spookyproceedings, ut certainly trangely-"A piece of him" (I.i. 19). Laertes, "thecontinent f what part a gentleman would see" (V.ii.112-13), suffers ftenfrom uch usages, severalof them n the scene n which Claudiusreduceshimto a tool of his murderous ntentions IV.vii.57 ff.). Laertes agrees to obeyClaudius on the condition hat "you will not o'errule me to a peace," andClaudiusreplies To thine wn peace." Laertes s content, ut wishes t couldbe arranged That might e the organ" of Hamlet's punishment; nd Claudiusagrees that, f Laertes's courtly sum of parts," he will use one "part," hisfencing, oentice Hamlet to his doom. The ideas of incision nd partition recombined n the closet scene, where Hamlet's promise not to let Gertrude ountil he has made her ee her "inmost part" makesher fear hat he is literallyto be carved up (III.iv.20 ff.). After er hasty xclamation as caused that ateto befall the vigilant olonius nstead, nd after Hamlethas thrust is merelyverbal daggers n her ears, the queen laments hat her heart has been "cleft ntwain" and is told, "0, throw way the worser art f it, / And live the purerwith heother alf" (III.iv. 157-59). Hamlet teems with uch figures f a bodythat has been dislocated, broken nto ts parts. "The time s out of oint" in


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Denmark, nd the young prince has been called upon to plant his foot n thesocket nd violently set it right"-an action hat nvolves him n causing tillmore violation nd dislocation.

All this magery ertaining o the unmaking f the body bears some resem-blance to the magery f the Henry V plays, which Neil Rhodes discusses nthe course of his study f the Elizabethan radition f isolating nd distortingparts of the body for comic and admonitory ffects.6 ood metaphors n par-ticular ttach hemselves o the person of Falstaff, lternately voking oyousphysicality nd miserable orporeal egeneration. similar mphasis n whatRhodes calls "the mere materiality . . of existence" nheres n the omewhatdifferent orporealmetaphors f Hamlet,which erive ltimately rom he Ghostwhohovers ehind he cenes and mpels he ction. Despitehis relatively rieftime on stage, the Ghost fills he inguistic abric f his play with mages ofbroken odies,much s the fat knight enerates magesof sensory ratification

and discomfort. Something s rotten n the state of Denmark," and he sym-bolizes it. Since Wolfgang Clemen's book on Shakespeare's magery, t hasbecome a commonplace n Hamlet riticism hat he motif f ulcerous nfectionand corruption hat runs throughout he play centers n the speech in whichHamlet s told how poison was poured nto his father's ars, coursed throughhis blood, and ate away his body from within, overing t with ores.7 t couldbe added to Clemen's important bservation hat he figure f the dead kingalso organizes corporeal magery mplying islocation nd dissolution. Thephysical undoing of King Hamlet accounts ultimately-in terms f both thestructures f magery nd those f plot-for the physical, sychological,moral,and political undoing uffered y the play's living characters.

As theking

was "cut off"I.v.76)

from ll that heloved,

soOphelia

findsherself, n Claudius's words, "Divided from herself nd her fair udgment,Without he which we are pictures r mere beasts" (IV.v.86-87). Deprived fthe coherent orm f reason, but still obscurely ntelligible, Her speech isnothing, Yet the unshapeduse of it doth move/ The hearers o collection;they yawn at it, / And botch he words up fit o their wn thoughts" IV.v.7-10). Claudiuscorrectly ays of this psychicmutilation, 0, this s the poisonof deep grief; t springs All from er father's eath" (IV.v.76-77)-just ashe discerned arlier hat ome ruinous matter" n Hamlet's heartwasdistortinghis appearance nd behavior III.i.165ff,). Claudius an seethat he ame psychicrecapitulation f KingHamlet'spoisoned isfigurations taking lacein Laertes,who "wants not buzzers o nfect is ear / With

estilent peechesf his father's

death, / Wherein ecessity, f matter eggared, Will nothing tick ur personto arraign In ear and ear" (IV.v.91-95). Noting ll these changes, and thepolitical rouble hat hey re bringing-Hamlet has ust been sent oEngland,"For like the hectic n my blood he rages," and Laertes s about to burst nupon the nner anctum f the palace "in a riotous head"-Claudius too suc-cumbs to a feeling f violent psychological isruption. he swellingdisasterin his kingdom, e tells Gertrude, Like to a murd'ring iece, in many laces /Gives me superfluous eath" (11.96-97).

In the closet scene, Hamlet nalyzes n terms f corporeal isfigurement hemoral depravity hat reaches out from Claudiusto all those who come underhis sway. Gertrude's ice appears n her having abandonedthe physical r-

6 Neil Rhodes, Elizabethan Grotesque London: Routledge nd Kegan Paul, 1980).7Wolfgang . Clemen,TheDevelopment f Shakespeare's magery Cambridge,Mass.: HarvardUniv. Press, 1951).


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ATHINGOFNOTHING:HECATASTROPHICODYINHAMLET 33

rangement f parts hat was King Hamlet-"a combination nd a form" thatproclaimedmanliness-for a demonstrably nferior orm III.iv.56 ff.). "Haveyou eyes?" Hamlet sks, suggesting hat nly some physical mutilation ouldaccount for such blindness. To choose Claudius indicates not merely ensualweakness, but sensory erangement:

Sense ureyouhave,Else couldyounothavemotion, ut ure hat enseIs apoplexed ..Eyes without eeling, eeling without ight,Ears without andsor eyes, smelling ans all,Or but sickly art f one true enseCouldnot o mope.

(11. 2-74, 79-82)

Hamlet continues his indictment f Claudius with acomparison

o the dis-membered ody of the dead king. The new ruler f Denmark's government ndGertrude's ffections s, he tells the queen, a sum of parts hat do not makeup a whole, a living body that has already been reduced to fragments: e is"a king f shreds nd patches," "not twentieth art he ithe Ofyour recedentlord" (11.103, 98-99).

Thephysical mitation f KingHamlet's undoing hat ulminates n the play'sfinal cene with our eathsby poisoning-five f Horatio ould have his way-beginswith he death f Polonius, whosecorpse s made an emblem f physicaldecay. After Hamlet has rendered he old courtier most grave" and luggedhis guts offstage, laudius asks where Hamlethas gone and Gertrude eplies,

with choes of dismemberment:To draw part hebodyhe hath illed" IV.i.24).Claudius sends Rosencrantz nd Guildenstern o "bring the body / Into thechapel" (11.36-37), but their ersistent nquiries re parried y Hamlet, whomakes the absent orpse a kind of absent prop for dramatizing hemystery fundoing evealedby his father's host:

Rosen. What ave youdone,my ord,with hedeadbody?

Ham. Compoundedt with ust,wheretotiskin.

Rosen. My ord,youmust ellus where he bodyis, andgo with s to the King.Ham. The body s with he King, ut he Kingis not with he body. The King is athing-

Guilden. A thing, my ord?Ham. Of nothing. ring me to him.

(IV.ii.5-6, 26-31)

The death of kings s the beginning nd the end of Hamlet's study n this play.Polonius offers im an imaginative ink between he ive king who attaches omuch mportance o bodies and the dead king who knows how ittle hey mountto. Brought efore Claudius and asked once more "where the dead body isbestowed," Hamlet waxes philosophical bout kings, beggars, nd the wormsthat onsume hem oth. Considering hat ven a king, whosemystically oubleBody represents he corporate eing of all his subjects, "may go a progress


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through he guts of a beggar," he recites the lesson of the play's corporealimages. The body personal nd politic s a provisional tructure, oth a formthat ustains human eing and a shadowthrough hichnonbeing eckons. Asa composition f parts that will inevitably all apart and decompose, humanlife s paradoxically a thing . . of nothing," n existence onstructed roundthe void.

II

In his famous ubtilization f the Romantic dea that Hamlet s unnecessarilyand morbidly eflective, . S. Eliot argued hat hakespearehimself ailed nHamlet to establish ny clear correspondence etween hought nd action, deaand image. The play is "full of some stuff hat he writer ould not drag tolight, ontemplate, r manipulate nto rt," Eliot suggested; nd since nothingin the fictional ccasion is sufficient o account for he

protagonist's reat p-prehension nd disgust, his thoughts nd feelings annot be expressedby "askilful ccumulation f imagined ensory mpressions."8 The morbid orpo-reality f the magined ensory mpressions escribed n the first ection f thisessay mayprovide n answer o Eliot's charge, n that hey onstitute omethinglike an "objective correlative" for Hamlet's obsessive withdrawal rom heworld of action. The attitude oward orporeal xistence nherent n the play'simagery igures rominently n the protagonist's hinking s well; it contributesto his inability o "act" by challenging what he regards s the ntegrity f hisbeing.

Insofar s Hamlet suffers rom psychologicalProblem distinct rom he

formidablemoral nd practical ifficulties resented y his situation, t consistsin questioning is own being; and this n turn as much o do with his inabilityto dentify imselfwith hatwhichdecays, "passing through ature oeternity"(I.ii.73). A small eternity f dramatic ime must pass before Hamlet an thinkof himself s a creature f flesh without xperiencing aroxysms f anguishand disgust. His observation hat king may pass through heguts of a beggaris intended s a thinly eiled threat gainst Claudius's life, but t attacks lsohis sense of himself s a dignified, urposeful, eroicbeing. Fearing hat hys-ical actions may never adequately mbody virtuous ntentions, e makes thedoubt self-fulfilling y shielding his high sense of himself within n over-whelming ontempt or he body-a contempt hat abotagesmeaningful ction.

MarkRosehas observed how Hamlet s "bound" to certain oursesof actionby his birth, by his uncle's calculating refusal to let him leave the corrupt"prison" of Denmark, nd by his loyalty othe Ghost "I am bound to hear";"So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear"); he rebels against hese con-strictions, ose argues, by becoming obsessed with he dea of freedom, withthe dignity hat esides n being master f oneself."9 But Hamlet s bound aswell to his body, and obsessed with his contempt or t. Even before he iscalled upon to "set right" the unnatural murder nd the ncestuousmarriage,he laments his connection o the royal couple's physicality. is mother's as-civious "appetite" prompts imto wish for way out of the hateful ody that

8T. S. Eliot, Selected Essays: 1917-1932 (London:Faber and Faber, 1932), pp. 144-45.9Mark Rose, "Hamlet and the Shape of Revenge," English Literary Renaissance, 1 (1971),132-43, esp. pp. 132-34.


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A THINGOF NOTHING: THECATASTROPHIC BODYIN HAMLET 35

can lead peopleto forget o quickly he piritual oods that ave sustained hemfor a lifetime:

O that his ootoo sullied lesh wouldmelt,Thaw, ndresolve tself nto dew,Or that he Everlasting adnot fixedHiscanon gainst elf-slaughter.

(I.ii.129-32)

Claudius's rowdy behavior with the boys becomes the occasion for anothermeditation n corporeal ubversion f virtue. Denmark's "heavy-headed e-vel," he tells Horatio, has taken "from ur achievements . . / The pith ndmarrow f our attribute" I.iv.17-22)-hollowing out the bones, enervatingthe pineof a national eputation uilt p from he chievements f noble Danes.

If an irruption f physical mpulse an so damage the reputation f an entirenation, t is not surprising hat ome "vicious mole of nature" or "the o'er-growth f somecomplexion" can undermine hereputation f individual men,to such a degree hat heir irtues Shall in the general ensure ake orruptionFrom that particular ault" 11.23-36).

The Ghost calls Hamlet deep into this world of disruption. ts invitation odecapitate hebody politic seems a horrific harge "O cursed pite"), and bythe nd of the play t will manifestly e so: Opheliawill have been emotionallybrutalized nd lost to lunatic distraction; he king and queen will have beenpiercedwith ateful nsight, heir ttempts o reconstitute harmonious oliticalentity hattered; hepopulacewill have been raised to the brink f revolt; Pol-

onius, Rosencrantz, uildenstern, phelia, Gertrude, aertes,nd Hamlethim-

self will have fallen as more or less innocent ictims efore Claudius finallydoes;and Denmark tself will be put n the hands f the recklessyoungmarauderwhose hostile approach he sentries nticipated t the beginning f the play.In setting ight wo njustices, amletwill causephysical, sychological, oral,and political dislocations n a universal cale.

Nothing bout he pparition ivesHamlet ny confidence hat he purposefuldetermination eeded to persevere hrough heplay's violence s grounded nsubstantial, asting virtue ranscending resteian utility. n the contrary, heGhost s simultaneously nsubstantial nd a horrifying emento f all that ots,seeming oembody hevery forces f corporeal uin hat Hamlet fears may beinimical o virtue. t recalls n appearance nd dignity he majestic king whowon honor destroying he Poles and conquering mbitious Norway. But theGhost s a weak and ephemeral ubstitute or he king, referred oby Horatioand the guards s his "image," "this thing," "illusion," "this portentous ig-ure," a "horrible orm," a figure ikeyour ather," omething like the King."Hamlet's astonished rostration efore t in the closet scene contrasts ith hequeen's equallygreat stonishment hat er on s gazingwildly nto vacancy"and holding iscoursewith th'incorporal ir" (III.iv.118-19). The Ghost eemsvery much a thing f nothing" whenHamlet's appealsfor Gertrude o confirmits existence licit only fears hat her son is a victim f schizophrenic allu-cination:

Queen.To whom o you peak his?Ham. Doyou eenothing here?Queen.Nothing t all, yet ll that s I see.


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Ham. Nor didyounothing ear?Queen. No, nothing ut urselves.Ham. Why, ookyou here, ookhow t steals way

Myfather, n his habit s he livedLook where e goes, vennow, ut t theportalExit Ghost.

Queen.This s the very oinage f your rain.Thisbodiless reation cstasyIs very unningn.

(III.iv. 32-40)

Hamlet answers his mother's harge of "ecstasy" convincingly. We cannotbelieve that heGhost s a figment f his imagination: oratio has raised pre-cisely this ssue in the first cene of the play, and has been quickly onvincedthat the apparition s "something more than fantasy" I.i.54). But Shake-speare's stagecraft makes us feel poignantly ow little Hamlet s able to relyon the Ghost s his ustification or murderous ourse of action. Cast on thedefensive, orced o ustify heright f a lunatic o catechize sinner, Hamletis in no way aidedby the encore ppearance hat heGhost makesto whet his"almost blunted urpose."

In addition o being "incorporal," insubstantial, he Ghost dwells on theterrifying rocessesby which orporeal reatures re reduced o fragments fthemselves. ts first ords eem calculated o plungeHamletdeep nto houghtsof undoing. "My hour s almost ome, / When to sulf'rous nd tormentingflames Must render p myself," t begins, evoking visions of human flesh"rendered" o its elements ike animal fat I.v.2-4). The Ghost may be Ham-

let's "father's pirit," but it is a spirit ound by "foul crimes," doomedtowear away by fasting nd fire he mpurities hat t acquired n nature 11.9-13).The punishments f ts "prison house" are not ess intense hanwhat leshis heir to; in fact, they re so much more ntense hat hearing f them

Would arrow pthy oul,freeze hy oung lood,Make hy wo yes ike tars tart rom heir pheres,Thyknotted ndcombinedocks o part,And ach particular air o stand n endLikequillsupon hefearful orpentine.But his ternal lazon must ot beTo earsof flesh ndblood.

(11. 6-22)

The Ghost pares Hamlet he sympathetic ndoing hatwould befall him f heheard this tale of the Almighty's urging ires, but it treats him to the nextworst hing, n account of the effects f Claudius's poison. When he is toldthe manner f his father's eath-cut off nstantly rom ife, wife, nd crown,with venom oursing hrough isbody, his blood congealing nd skin rusting,andunrepented ins weighing pon his head-Hamlet hardly equires heGhost'saccompanying njunction: 0, horrible Most horrible f thou hast nature nthee, bear t not" (11.80-81). Reeling s beneath physical low, he feels thathis own bodymayno longer ohere,no longer upport is consciousness: Hold,hold, my heart, And you, my sinews, grow not instant ld, / But bear mestiffly p" (11.93-95).Earlier, the sight f the Ghost has left Marcellus and Barnardo distilled /Almost o elly with he act of fear" I.ii.204-5). The tale of how his father's


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A THING OF NOTHING: THECATASTROPHIC BODYIN HAMLET 37

body sank from dmirable eauty o horrifying onstrosity n an instant, ndhow in the same instant nvisible ins overwhelmed is father's oul, plungesHamlet nto horror s much ntological s physical, nto world where man

the effectual thical agent seems distilled o utter nconsequence. s ambitiona shadow, s Rosencrantz nd Guildenstern uggest n a feeble ttempt obroachthe topic of Hamlet's political ntentions? Then are our beggars bodies, andour monarchs nd outstretched eroes the beggars' shadows" (II.ii.267-69).Just s a king's body might e imaginedgoing a passage through heguts ofa beggar, his ambitious, outstretched" piritmaybe nothingmore asting hana ghostly hadow. In this world, thoughts may be no more capable of tran-scending uin han re bodies. The earth now seems "sterile" to Hamlet, thefirmament morbid xhalation f nfectious vapors," andgodlikeman hand-ful of dust waiting o return o its disorganized tate II.ii). The best things nhimself-his fidelity o his father, nd the ove of Ophelia-are seen now as

compromised y the ld corrupt stock" of mankind hat irtue an "inoculate"but never supplant III.i). Linking himself with men such as Claudius-andOphelia with women such as Gertrude-by the corruptiblematerial n whichthey re commonly ooted,Hamlet sees virtuous urpose nd rational ignifi-cance threatened verywhere y corporeal orruption.

This perception f bodily xperience s corrupt nd corrupting rivesHamletinto disdainful, lienated ontempt: ontempt orhis own flesh, ontempt orthose parts of his experience hat eem tainted y corporeality, ontempt orpeople who threaten o harm r to compromise imby insinuating hemselvesinto his thoughts.WhenHoratiowarnshim f the possibledangers f followingthe Ghost, he welcomes the destruction f his body: "Why, what should bethe fear? / do not set

myife at a

pin's fee,/ And for

my soul, what can itdo to that, Being a thing mmortal s itself?" I.iv.64-67). Horatio's rea-sonablereminder hat he soul is no more mmutable r invulnerable han hebody, but may tself e wrecked n madness s it hovers ver the byss, drivesHamlet nto what eems to Horatio "desperate" violence:"Unhand me, gen-tlemen. / By heaven, 'll make a ghost f him that ets me " (11.84-85). Thisviolentwithdrawal rom isbody nd from iscompanions s augmented hortlyby withdrawal romhis own worldly elf. Hamlet magines hat, n order ohonor he Ghost's parting ommand, he must obliterate rom memory ll theexperience nd learning tored n his brain, uprooting ast impressions ntilonly hose f the venging pirit ive here, Unmix'dwith asermatter" I.v. 104).

Forsakingor he moment he

prudentialonsiderations hathis

yearsof "ob-

servation" would suggest to him, and also his trust n his companions, hecontents imself with wild and whirling ords," like a falcon owering ighabove the earth.

Hamlet's transcendent ontempt s dramatizedmost powerfully n his treat-ment f Ophelia, the one creaturewho ties him nextricably, hysically, othecorrupt world of Elsinore. His alienation rom her begins soon after he en-counter with heGhost. At the end of II.i, she tells Polonius how Hamlethaswithdrawn imself n ghostly ilence from er society. The antic performancethat Polonius takes for "the very cstasy of love" is indeed ecstatic, houghhardly matory. amlet, n Ophelia's description, esembles he iterary igureof the distracted nd dishevelled over, but he more strongly vokes the cor-poreal ruin suggested y the figure f the Ghost. He has entered her room,Ophelia says, in a manner minous nough o strike error nto her heart, erypale (as the Ghost was said to be), "And with look so piteous n purport,


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As if he had been oosedout of hell / To speakof horrors" II.i.82-84). Silentlyscrutinizing he amazed object of his visitation, s the Ghost silently toodbefore his interlocutors efore

inally ielding p speechto

Hamlet,nd three

times mitating ts actionof ifting ts head up and down described y Horatioat I.ii.216), he at last raises "a sigh so piteous nd profound As it did seemto shatter ll his bulk / And end his being" (II.i.94-96)-then drifts ut ofthe room without he use of his eyes, they being constantly ixed n Ophelia,as the Ghost's were said to be on Horatio. n thus ffecting he shattering fbulk and ending f being that orehis father rom he queen, Hamletdeclareshis intention o tear himself romhis erotic ttachment o Ophelia.

A violent ttempt o free himself rom orporeality, esulting aradoxicallyin a deep immersion n it, characterizes ll of Hamlet's dealingswith Ophelia.When he turns is assumedmadnessupon the unfortunate irl with full forcein Act II, he revilesher s a pretty narefor he pirit-one of those reatureswho substitute ew faces for he ones God gave them, who ig and amble andlisp, who excuse their moral depravity y pleading heir ational ncapacity-and urges her to take herself ut of sexual circulation. he next scene findshim attacking erbody with ibald okes about countrymatters, yingbetweenmaids' legs, and gamesof show and tell. In thus bitterly oing violenceto thecreature who most has access to his inner elf, Hamlet does not find reedomfrom hedanger f love, but only reduceshimself nd her to ruin. The defor-mation f his former elf that Opheliathinks he sees in his harangue-"Thatunmatched orm nd feature f blown youth Blastedwith cstasy" III.i. 160-61)-prefigures her own madness n the next Act. It foretells lso Hamlet'sdistracted xpressions f anguish t her death: '

'Swounds, howme what hou't o.Woo't weep?Woo't fight? oo'tfast?Woo't ear hyself?Woo't drink peisel?Eata crocodile?I'll do't.

(V.i.274-77)

Hamlet finds xcessive and violent degradations f his own body the only ad-equate testimony o the falseness f his earlier ontempt. ll of his efforts oremove imself rom he ompromising nfection f corporeality nly drive himmore deeply nto the understanding f his dependence n the frail body.

Hamlet's violent, nd ultimately utile, mbition o transcend odily weak-

ness can be seen not only n his dealings with Ophelia, but also in all of hisattempts orespond dequately othe death of his father. n his first peechofthe play, while manifestly cting hepart of a mourner, e disdains dramaticaction as being imited by the opacity of the flesh. No physical "show," heinsists, an adequately onvey the immensity f his grief. His black clothesand the expressive orporeal ctions that accompany hem fall short f theindescribable tate f suffering hat esideswithin im. Hamlet's separation f"actions that man might lay" and the nvisible nguish f his alienated oulis an admission f futility, uggesting hatno physical cts-whether dramaticor heroic-can serve the purposes f the spirit. And his words ring alsewhencompared othe authentic lienation f Ophelia, whosemad meanderings nddistracted estures, while opaque to reason, neverthelessmove their udienceto anguished ommiserations coherent tterance ever ould-prompting aertesto exclaim, "This nothing's more than matter" IV.v. 174).


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ATHINGOFNOTHING:HECATASTROPHICODY IN HAMLET 39

The Ghost's demand for vengeancerequires ome stronger esort o physi-cality, nd when Hamlet asks the Player for "a passionate peech" he seemsbriefly o have found model for "suiting" corporeal ction to mental tate.He admires he

Player's capacityo so translate fictional ntention nto dra-

matic action that ll of his corporeal function" an be seen lending formsto his conceit" (II.ii.561-62). But it soon appears that Hamlet s not chieflyinterested n the harmonious uiting f body to soul. Rather, he has asked forthe speech in order o excite himself o a still more violent ontempt or thebody. He imagines hat, given the magnitude f his wrong, he should "drownthe tagewith ears," "cleave the general ar withhorrid peech," "and amazeindeed / Thevery aculties f eyes and ears" (11.567-71). He fixes bsessivelyon corporeal xcitation s a standard ordramatic nd ethical ction, contem-plating maginary njuries o his own body in order o work himself p intoviolence:

Am a coward?Who alls me villain? reaks mypate cross?Plucks ff mybeard ndblows t n myface?Tweaksmeby thenose?Givesmethe ie ' th' throatAs deep s to the ungs?Whodoes me this?Ha, 'swounds, should ake t, for t cannot eBut ampigeon-liverednd ack gallTo make ppression itter, r ere thisI should a' fatted ll the egion itesWith his lave's offal. loody, awdy illainRemorseless,reacherous,echerous, indless illain0, vengeanceWhy,what n ass am (11. 77-89)

Hamlet's bitter elf-hatred n these ines stems rom is conviction hat, n orderto act the part of the revenger, e must plunge deep into the bodily passionthat he so despises, and perhaps become a bloodyvillain himself. He quicklyabandons he part, determining nstead o have other ctors enact a play thatwill determine he king's guilt or innocence.

His instructions o the players orrect is bitter ontempt or he body, as-signing orporeality ts due place in dramatic mitation. enouncing is ecstaticexaggeration f physicalviolence, Hamlet ays, "0, it offendsme to the soul

to hear robustious eriwig-pated ellow ear passionto tatters, overy ags,to split heears of the groundlings" III.ii.8-11). Use the body n your cting,he tells the players, but "Suit the action to the word, the word to the action"(11.17-18). He no longer disdains the capacity of bodily actions to executeethical ntentions. he purpose of acting, he says, is to mirror he ineamentsof human xperience n stage-"to hold as 'twere hemirror p to nature; oshow virtue er own feature, corn her own image, and the very ge and bodyof the time his form nd pressure" 11.21-24). Like a mirror hat faithfullyreceives the physicalforms f things, ramatic rt takes the bodily mpress fmen nd women nd re-presents heirmoralnature n ts iving utlines.Hamletachieves in these prescriptions or art a conception f its ethically ffective

function, nd he managesto

implementhe

conceptionwhen he uses other

artists' works oprobe the psyches f Claudiusand Gertrude. he starkly mi-metic ableau of courtly odiesplayedbefore Claudius iterally howsthe king


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40 SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY

the form f his actions, and achieves ts intended ffect f driving im fromcover. The portraits f Gertrude's wo husbands ngage her conscience withsimilarly tunning ffect, onfronting er nescapablywith the ineaments fher desires.

But artistic mitations fbodily

ction do nothelp

Hamlet oaccomplish

hismost mportant thical action. He uses the artistic usionof body and soul,form nd ntention, odo what rt an do according othe Renaissance esthetic:convey the ntelligible rder f experience o an audience and stir heirmoralresponses. He cannot-or will not-use it to accomplish egicide. ndeed, helets even his "antic disposition" lip before nd during heplay, with he ffectthat Claudiusunderstands xactly why the mousetrap as been sprung nd de-termines o remove his enemy from Denmark.

Hamlet's explicit considerations f revenge, ike his studies of models ofdramatic ction, suffer onstantly rom his ambition o transcend orporealweakness. By associating heroic action with an escape from he flesh n the

"To be or not to be" soliloquy, he initiates vain attempt o transcend hevery conditions f action. He imagines hat taking up arms" will somehowliberate is soul from he ndignities f the body. But hearing he tory f howhis father ied has made t mpossible orhim o magine heprocess f eavingthe body (so "noble in the mind") in any terms xcept those of corporealcalamity. Eternal leep suggests ternal nightmares. asting his mind up andout of corporeal misery nly eaves him "sicklied o'er with the pale cast ofthought," isface drained f "the native hue of resolution" y a consciousnessturned athologically nward. Corporeality rags his heaven-seeking houghtsto earth; ike the praying laudius, he finds hemmiserably ncapableof tran-scending he imitations f bodily existence.

His effort odraw nspiration rom he oldiership f Fortinbras, ike his verysimilar dmiration or hePlayer, oses coherent thical purpose s it sinks ntoviolent isdain for bodily well-being. he Norwegian dventure gainst olandseems to him a case of pathologicallymorbid violence, an "imposthume fmuch wealth nd peace, / That inward breaks, and shows no cause withoutWhy heman dies" (IV.iv.27-29). But he forces himself o admire t, becauseof Fortinbras's agerness oabandonbodily oncerns or he sake of the spirit.His own small sum of bloodshed, he decides, indicates beast's dull main-tenance f corporeal unctions, hileFortinbras's dmirable spirit," his "di-vine ambition," appear n his willingness o expose the great "mass" of hisarmy oindiscriminate laughter. ortinbras's acrifice f twenty housandmenfor pieceof and not arge nough obury hem utpaces n barbarity aertes'swillingness o cut his enemy's hroat n the hurch, nd his motives-"a fantasyand trick f fame"-are more nsubstantial. amlet ecognizes hemonstrosityof the deed, and even the words that he calls up to defend t betray heir s-tensible purposes: "Examples gross as earth xhort me" (can such examplesbe exemplary?); Rightly o be great / s not to stir without reat rgument"(if he is affirming ortinbras's ction, does he not need another not"?). Inyearning opattern is own revenge n this enselesspromotion f catastrophe,Hamlet abandons all realistic onsideration f good and evil in an effort oovercomehis dull animal maintenance f corporeal ife. Instead of deploringFortinbras's ailure o use the body for ubstantial urposes, he celebrates heway in which he contemptuously mashes t, and thereby ntertains houghtsof moral depravity.

In the prayer cene, we see Hamlet aught nce more n the division hathe


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A THINGOF NOTHING:THE CATASTROPHICBODY INHAMLET 41

wouldmakebetween ody nd spirit, nd oncemore ultivating hepathologicalcorruption hat he so fears. Seeing Claudius engaged, as he thinks, n "thepurging f his soul," making himself fit and seasoned for his passage"-whereashis ownfather ied "grossly, full of bread, / With ll his crimes roadblown"-Hamlet waits for a moment hat will have "no relish of salvationin't," and eavesClaudius's physic" ogiveway omore sickly ays" III.iii.80-96). An ill-intentioned onsulting hysician, he judges the alimentary ystemof the patient ufficiently ree f obstruction opermit n unimpeded passage"of the soul to paradise, nd prescribes period of waiting o that heorganism.may worsen and clog the hateful oul within t before t is killed. His falseassumption hat ny human oul, much ess one so corrupt s Claudius's, couldfree tself from he conditions f corporeality eads him to seek a barbaricrevenge ncompatible ithChristian irtue, nd prevents imfrom nacting hesimpler evenge hat ies possiblebefore him. The dramatic rony hatClaudiushas not been able to transcend is body and the things hat t still oves urgesthe nsufficiency f Hamlet's attitudes.

Purposeful ction cannot oexist with Hamlet's effort o distinguish he n-vincible soul from he ruinous body. Such an effort eeks to rescue the selffrom omething hat t depends upon for ts being and doing. Consciousnessin Hamlet s, like the body, an entity oised between ubstantial resence ndephemeral bsence. The body grows nd decays according oits own laws; bythe same inscrutable aws, men find chievement n the midst f loss, securityin the midst f fear, power n weakness, ignificance n accident. Hamletdefiesthese aws so long as he attempts oremove he pirit rom mbiguity nd odgeit in simplicity. nstead of cultivating hecompound f kindred lements hatis a spirited ody, he tries to

splitit into a

duality,nd wastes his

energycontemning alf of himself.WhenHamletbreaks ut of his dualism nd more onfidently reads he tage

as a duellist, t is because he has finally cknowledged,without read or an-guish, that princes, ike their words, ccomplish heir nds in "passing." Aclown's tricks o not outlivehis kicks: not only Yorick's lips have disappearedfrom heearth, but also his gibes, his gambols, his songs, his flashes f mer-riment. Nor, by the same token, an Caesar, "that earth whichkept heworldin awe" (V.i.215), expect oremain substantial nd functional resence, aveperhaps s a patch n a windywall. The great ersonageswhomay haveownedthe graveyard's bones dance again in imagination s creatures who mistooktheir

powerfor

somethingmore

substantial han the body, and the fragmentsof their bodies mock their pretension y outliving hem. Gertrude may haveforgotten erhusband fter nly womonths, ut tanner's lesh s still keepingout water fter ight years. As Hamletpersists despite Horatio's objection) nhis courageously eductivemeditations n human vanity, he approaches thebrash humility f the Gravedigger, who happily hovelsaside pieces of bodiesas he sings a ditty f age having shipped me into he and, / As if had neverbeen such" (V.i.71-74). The rustic's "absolute" use of the terms man" and"woman" comically relieves the anxiety enerated ince the beginning f theplay by Hamlet's effort o distinguish mankind rom orporeality:

Ham. Whatmandost hou ig t for?Clown.Forno man, ir.Ham. Forwhatwoman hen?Clown.Fornoneneither.


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Ham. Who s to be buried n't?Clown.One that was a woman, ir; but, est er oul,

she's dead.Ham. How absolute he knave s(11.130-36)

Hamlet's taking olace in the provisional absolute" that men and women remore than heir odies, but not different rom hem, uggests hathe acceptsas well the fact hat man's strength onsists n acceding ocorporeal ccidents,rather han n trying o transcend hem.

While t is clear that Hamlet adopts a new kind of understanding n Act V,and that he undergoes ome beneficial hange as a result, riticism as longbeen notoriously agueaboutpreciselywhat his avingknowledge onsists n.Hamletdoes not earn

implyoacceptdeath; ndeed, he seems alwaysto have

desired t. Nor are his words bout the "divinity hat hapesour ends" and the"special providence n the fall of a sparrow" sufficient oundation n whichto base a religious thic or cosmology. What seems to be on his mind moreessentially han either death or God is a preoccupationwith the possibilitiesand conditions f purposeful uman ction. But even here the understandingseemsto be more negative hanpositive. Hamletbegins o embrace ccidentaloccasions-seeing them under he aspect of Providence ather han Fortune-and to renouncehis earlier need to understand nd control very spect of hisrevenge. Discussingthe mportance f chance occurrence n the final ction,WilliamWarner as recently bserved owreluctant he ritics f various choolshave been to accept limitations n Hamlet's importance, nd how they havebeen driven o ngenious r vague arguments n attempts o rescue hispurposefulintentionality. 0What Hamlet earns, Warner uggests, s precisely he nsuf-ficiency f his own attempts o make final nd coherent onstructions f reality:he learns, n effect, y unlearning hat he has thought arlier n the play.

One thing hatHamletunlearns s his contempt orhis physicalnature, whichhas persistently educed his spirited nd capableexemplar f active virtue oacting not at all, or in spurts f blind rage. Hamlet's identity hroughout heplay has dependedupon his wish to exceedthe conditions f vulnerability ndincompleteness hat nhere n an animal body. But reality as repeatedly on-tradicted his assumed dentity, nsisting hat he body must be central o hisbeing, not something nessential hat an be thought nto rrelevance nd vi-olently iscarded. All of Hamlet's efforts o transcend orporeality aveonlyimplicated imamorally n its ruinous iolence. Finallyhe abandons hefruit-less attempt. He sees in the graveyard ot simply he bodily "nothingness"that has so distressed im before, but an inescapable onnection etween hatnothingness nd his own being. As James Calderwoodhas put t, "For Hamletfully To Be,' it seems,he must xperience n the graveyard, nder he utelageof the Gravemaker, hat t s 'Not To Be.' For his own dentity ocrystallize,he must come to the place where ll identities issolve."" The Hamlet whokills the king s a man who has accepted adical imitations n his being, eavingthe orchestration f his revenge o Claudius "I am constant o my purposes;

'1 William Beatty Warner, Chance and the Text of Experience: Freud, Nietzsche, nd Shake-speare's Hamlet Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1986), pp. 268-75." James . Calderwood,To Be and Not to Be: Negation nd Metadrama n Hamlet New York:Columbia Univ. Press, 1983), p. 103.


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A THING OF NOTHING: THECATASTROPHIC BODYIN HAMLET 43

they ollow heKing's pleasure"), heunderstanding f his death o God ("Sinceno man of aught he leaves knows, what s't to leave betimes?"), the telling fhis tale to Horatio "Horatio, I am dead; / Thou ivest; reportme and my ause

aright"), and the continuation f his life to Fortinbras "He has my dyingvoice"). In asking forgiveness f Laertes for he mprudent iolence that ookPolonius's ife, he detacheshimself-with diplomaticmendacity, ut lso withevident incerity-from he arrogant nd tormented elf that he has been:

If Hamlet rom imself e ta'en way,Andwhen e's nothimself oeswrong aertes,ThenHamlet oes t not, Hamlet enies t.Whodoes t then? is madness.

(V.ii.236-39)

Hamlethas not n fact killed Polonius n a fit f "madness," but hewordmay

be taken s a tactful way of referring o an assumed self that has been all butinsane. Calderwood alls it a metaphor: As a metaphor orHamlet's bond tohis father-for hat ense in which Hamlet as revenger s 'possessed' by theghost of his father-Hamlet's madness s truly no part of himself, nd is infact poor Hamlet's enemy.' "12

Secure in the ess ambitious nd less anxiousself that emains when he hascast out the demon of transcendent ower, Hamlet comes into his own as anactor on the national tage, easily and confidently ubmitting imself o the"pass" of swordplay. He acceptsClaudius's invitation o let Laertes's poison-ous hand pass into his own: "Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand fromme" (V.ii.227). His body informs im with sick misgiving hat Claudius is

arrangingis exit from his ife, but t assures him at the same moment hat

he has the physical means to act as he purposes:Hor. Youwill ose this wager,my ord.Ham. I do not hink o. Sincehe went nto rance havebeen n continual

practice. shallwin t the dds. But houwouldst ot hink ow llall's here boutmyheart. ut t s no matter.

(V.ii.211-15)

Hamlet suggests hat, n order o act, human beings must ccept the fact thattheir chievements o hand n hand with failure, nd find heir ntegrity n thewelcoming f fragmentation. ccepting hathe will himself ooner or later be"no

matter,"Hamlet onsents omake

upone

frangible artn a

larger ody,as an actor performs ne role in a play. In his final wordsbefore he cushionsand courtiers nd daggers and drinks ppear-"Let be"-he overcomes hedistinction etween spiritual ixity nd corporeal flux that has plagued himthroughout heplay. Things will be as they ecome,his death will come whenit arrives, nd he can at last eave off his effort odefine imself n oppositionto what MaynardMack has called his "imaginative nvironment.""13

Most of Shakespeare's tragedies ell the story f an arrogantman who mis-takes his grandiose onstructions f reality orreality tself. From Richard Ito Coriolanus,his heroes ttempt orcefully oimposea deludedconception freality n the world, nd reality rings hemdown. Hamletdiffers rom hese

12Calderwood,p. 44.13MaynardMack, "The World of Hamlet," The YaleReview, 1 (1952), 502-23, esp. p. 502.


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vain and power-madmen n being adolescent, ncertain, ictimized, elf-hat-ing. But he shares with them he presumptuousness f believing hat he cantranscend he laws by which other men and women think nd behave. Thefutility f his attempting obe something ther han body s comically ssertedby the madcapramblings f the Gravedigger; t assumestragic randeur n thefinal atastrophe, s newly ruined odies litter he stage, awaiting heGrave-digger's ervices.Havingfinally onsented oact the modest art f the duellist,a disciplined orporeal gent who confines is thoughts othe play of physicalcircumstances, amlet ubmits with grace and dignity othe imitations f hiskind.

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