When Making a Ham Omelet . . .

poison, incest, dust, and other ingredients

Ghosts• Have you ever seen a ghost?

• What does the ghost first tell Hamlet? (pg674, line 10)– I can’t tell you about the afterlife, but I got murdered.

• What does the ghost tell Hamlet to do? (pg675, line 80)– Don’t let the monarchy be incestuous and opulent (?), but don’t

punish your mother. Remember me!• What happens if Hamlet ignores the ghost? Can Hamlet ignore the

ghost?– The ghost is “cut off in the blossoms of his sin, unaneled” (line 77), he

is doomed to walk til his crimes are purged away (line 11).– Claudius wins, but everyone survives?– Hamlet inherits the throne after Claudius death?– The ghost torments Hamlet?

• Do others see the ghost?– Yes (Horatio), No (Gertrude—or does she?)

Ingredient 1: Poison

• Hamlet sr. dies by poison in the ear. Did you notice any other poisons in the ear throughout the play?

• Horatio says (pg 673, line 70)– The noise of the ocean might make you crazy!

• The ghost says (pg 674, line 35)– The lie of my death abuses the ears of Denmark

Ingredient 1: Poison

• What is Shakespeare saying about words, according to the previous slides?

Ingredient 2: Incest

• What is incest? All or nothing, or does it have degrees?– “Communities such as the Dhond and the Bhittani of

Pakistan clearly prefer marriages between cousins as believe they ensure purity of the descent line, provide intimate knowledge of the spouses, and ensure that patrimony will not pass into the hands of ‘outsiders.’ ”

– South Korea prohibits even third cousins from marrying.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incest#Prevalence_and_statistics

Ingredient 2: Incest

• Are Claudius and Gertrude related?• So what’s the big deal?• What would you call this kind of relationship,

since they are not related by blood?– Affinity

• Does this kind of relationship happen in our culture?

Ingredient 3: Dust

• Read pg. 739 (line 180)– What’s the meaning?– What will your dust be doing in a thousand years?• I’ll be part of a genetically resurrected Wooly

Mammoth, in the US of China Zoo.

– We discussed how this worldview is similar to that of Ecclesiastes. How does it compare to that of the Bhagavad Gita?

Salt, Pepper, and Other Spices

• Pg 749 (line 293)– Are there multiple possible meanings for this

phrase? • It could be meta—discussed the climax of the play,

which Hamlet distressed finds to be poison, just as everything turned out to be poison.• But hurt (line 296)

• Finally, Hamlet asks Horatio to tell his story (remember the Ghost?). How does Horatio tell the story, do you think?