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246 NOTES ON M. JFECHTER'S HAMLET AND OT...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
» - By Ms. F. P. Fellows.
readers are aware , is a vexed question . Many critics incline to the belief that Hamlet ' s mind is thrown off the balance by the
tremendous scene with the spectre , and never quite recovers its equilibrium . In support of this theory , his conduct to Ophelia is
constantly brought forward as a proof of the disorder of his intellect . But we must remember that Opheliaamiable , loving creature as
, she is , has already been sufficiently weak to return Hamlet's letters and presents at her father ' s bidding , and throughout the play ,
appears to obey Polonius ' s mandates unquestioningly . The tender Juliet would brave father , mother , and the whole wrath of a
princely house , sooner than abate one word of affection to her proscribed lover . But Ophelia does not show this stedfastness of
character ; her supposed duty to her father more than counterbalances her constancy to her betrothedand she willingly lends
, herself to the plot which places Polonius and the King as eavesdroppers to the noble Hamlet . "With characteristic acuteness of
perception , the unfortunate prince has already fathomed her yielding characterand never once dares to seek solace for his heavy cares
, by sharing them with her . So much does he fear her subordination to her father ' s influence , who again in his turn is entirely a
tool of the King , that he dare not raise a corner of the mask to her whom he loves so well , and until the dire destiny that weighs upon
his soul is worked out , he must set even her aside . Throughout this parting scene the bitter struggle between his
love for her , and the imperative necessity for concealment , is painful and touching to witness . Most pathetic are his broken
ejaculations , his looks of unutterable tenderness in strong contrast to the hardness of his words , his open arms ready for an embrace ,
his sudden stiffening into stone as she turns to gaze at him wonderingly once more , and his strangled voice bursting into a sob ,
as he bids her for the last time , go to a nunnery , " and abruptly leaves her , not daring to remain a moment longer in her presence ,
lest his iron resolution should fail . A fitting pendant to this picture of woe , is the despair and
remorse that seizes him in the cemetery , when , without the slightest preparationhe is suddenly apprized of the sad fate which has
, befallen the hapless girl who had given her heart into his keeping . It was then her grave that yawned at his feet , where the rugged
sexton jested and sang at his work ; her funeral that , shorn of half its solemn riteswound through the dreary churchyard ! In an
agony of grief , he throws himself into the arms of Horatio , that faithfullest of friendsand receives the reproaches of Laertes , unjusii
, as they are , with a gentleness that xnarks his sympathy with the brother ' s sorrow .
No princely coldness , nothing of the man of the world is discernible in Hamlet ' s abandonment of grief at his father's untimely fate ;
his abiding love and pity for his degraded mother first manifested
in the emphatic " I shall in all my best obey you , madam ; " and
246 Notes On M. Jfechter's Hamlet And Ot...
246 NOTES ON M . JFECHTER _' S HAMLET AND OTHELLO .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1862, page 246, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121862/page/30/
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