Picture Vocabulary

Aberrations: A deviation from the proper or expected course.

Intractability: Difficult to manage or govern; stubborn.

Feigned: Not real; pretended, made-up; fictitious.

Ruse: action or plan which is intended to deceive someone.

Levity: Lightness of manner or speech, especially when inappropriate; frivolity.

Regrets

The characters in Hamlet all are going through a personal dilemma. But in Act 3 scene iii we can see a very preoccupied Claudius, he reveals that he killed his brother and his repentance for doing so. He shows his feelings to the audience, repeating many times how sorry he is for doing such a thing.

“It hath the primal eldest curse upon't, /A brother's murder” (Lines 41-42) We see how the king is classifying his status as a “curse”, showing his feelings towards what he has done. “My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent” (44). He regrets his actions to the extent of saying that his guilt is greater than his prize for being the King.

You might say that Claudius is balancing the pros and cons of having killed his brother, “Of those effects for which I did the murder, /My crown, mine own ambition and my queen” (58-59) though he is doing this late for he could have done it before he actually killed King Hamlet. But this of course is an assumption I make from outside, for one thing is to have an idea and another is to act upon that idea.

Hamlets Rage

Act III begins with a lovers fight. Ophelia and Hamlet have a bit of an argument that can’t be traced, since Hamlet begins to attack Ophelia with no reason. All this happening while Polonius and Claudius are spying them.

We see how he rapidly changes when speaking to Ophelia, he is first approaches her gently, “The fair Ophelia. - Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered” (Act 3, 1, 97-98) and then decides to mistreat her, “You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so (inoculate) our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not (…) Get the to a nunnery”. (Act 3, 1, 127-131) Hamlets behavior, not only here, but in the scenes earlier in this play intrigue me. Why does he always doubt the intentions of other characters? He is always looking for an answer, his thoughts are clouded by his thirst for revenge and this is not healthy for his decision making.

It’s not hard to predict what will happen next since we are beginning to see the rivalries of different characters grow, and Hamlets thirst to avenge his father’s death expands. I’m starting to think that each character has its own idea of what is about to happen, so at the end of the day anything can happen.

The Last Tape

In Krapps Last Tape we can see a series of different reactions by Krapp to what the tape is saying. The tape brings him many memories, some of which he is happy to hear again and some that make him hesitate, that make him hurt.

At the beginning of the tape, before he even starts to listen to any of the tapes he seems very enthusiastic. He actually shows an expression that gives away his anticipation to just hear the tape. When he says “Spooool!” we see pleasure in his eyes, he is impatient to hear those memories, the thing he once said and now cherishes to live but must find comfort in hearing them. It’s possible to say that he is desperate to do this, when he finally finds the record and plays it, he aggressively throws everything on the table to the floor. We see his impatience and insanity, those records are like obstacles for him, he wants to hear the record and that record only.

When he is listening to the tape his facial expressions begin to change almost every second. There are moments when he is too shocked from his memories and from the thing he once said that he must stop the tape. He then resumes, and when necessary stops again, afraid to remember what came next or maybe just sad that it will never happen again. His eyes stare into empty space, into the darkness, into the past. He also has moments of joy, of very strange laughter, as though he remembered and felt joy of what he once did. He reacts to everything, every small detail with a unique facial expression. Each memory deserves a different reaction.

I have heard the saying “the eyes are the windows to the soul”, and in this case through Krapps eyes you can see his soul, his repentment, his sorrows, his delights, his past. The tape ends by saying, “Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn't want them back.” (Becket) His life is near the end, and the only comfort he can now find is in his tapes, memories of what once happened, and of things he wishes he had done.