University of Maine at Presque Isle - Salmagundi Yearbook (Presque Isle, ME)

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28 SALMAGUNDI Hamlet. ,-.-..-1--- ffs11akespea1'e was thoroughly an masts' f 'he mixed motives of human characterfl He WHS Calla' ble of drawing characters remarkably true to llffh He portrayed strong characters, weak characters, noble characters and tempestuous characters. It has been said that he had more magnanimity than any other poet, and certainly more of it has been shown in HHamlet than in any other play. , Hamlet, the young son of the late King of Den- mark, comes home two months after his fatherls death to find his mother married to his father's brother, a most unscrupulous man. This is a great trial to the young man, not only because he has lost the crown which rightfully belonged to him, but because his mother had married so soon after her husbandls death. He is' very doubtful also of the manner of his fatherls death. He believes that his uncle was the cause of it, in order that he might gain the crown. Hamlet is not a character marked by any great strength of will, but he is a youth capable of very decided action. He is a student of a philosophical turn of mind, and like Brutus is the victim of an overmastering passion. The burden of the terrible duty of avenging his father's death is laid upon him, for which he feels himself unprepared, as is plainly shown when he said: f4The time is out of joint, 0 cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right? His reflective tendency and his will, which alter- nates between almost complete inactivity and tits of excited energy, disqualifying him for action. He is naturally a sensitive youth and the knowledge that his mother has so hastily married his uncle is a pain- ful shock. When he discovers that his father has been so foully ,murdered by one who has become his successor, and that the injunction is laid upon him to avenge the crime,+this together with repulses he re- ceives frofn Ophelia, causes 'a deep melancholv to lay hold of his spirits, and life looks dark and sad to him. He, knows that the,King suspects him of knowing the Carefully guarded Secret, and he is aware that he is surrounded by spies. Partly to baffle them, and partly to conceal his true self, he assumes the part of onp whose wits ghiwe. SQ11e' astray. Horatio is the gilgpilljgg Wappmhepregards as a loyal friend. As reorargs hervaz lough he loves her truly, he at times e no more honest or loyal to him, than his mother has been to his dead father. ' In Hamlet there is great power of sudden and des-

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