Hamlet and Pride and Prejudice. On the surface they seem like polar opposites. Tragedy and Comedy, Laughter and Tears, Lizzy and Hamlet. However, both are an interesting look at rebellion.
Lizzy refuses to acquiesce to the societal dictates of her gender. She refuses to marry Mr. Collins despite the precarious nature of her family's land title because she does not respect him nor believe that either could be happy. She then later shoots down Mr. Darcy (one of top 100 richest men in Britain) because of his condescending attitude. Then to top it off she desides she will marry him, but piss off his super rich aunt. Egad! What a rabble rouser! Well, kind of, yeah. Not only does she disobey parental mandates, she subverts many of the rigid class distinctions. Her hostilities with Lady Catherine are something that nice girls just don't do. Lizzy's techniques for retaining autonomy are particularly interesting in comparison to Hamlet. She becomes the master (as Hamlet is himself) of saying one thing and meaning another. She whips snide comments disguised as polite niceties. Lizzy learns that she can hide behind her words and remain true to herself by saying what she thinks, but safe by not having others understand her intent.
Hamlet. Oh, Hamlet. What chance did he have? He's either going to hell for murdering his uncle, or haunted by his father's ghost. He too finds himself in conflict and alienated from his society. After returning from Wittenburg he's got all kinds of new ideas, ideas that don't mesh with the warrior tradition of Denmark. On top of that his dad has been murdered and his mom got remarried a month later. Angst, angst, angst. Despite Hamlet's closeness with Horatio, and Lizzy's closeness with Jane, they are both alone in their struggle. After deliberating over every option available to him, Hamlet finally makes a decision and walks into what he suspects to be a trap. Why? Hamlet chooses an almost defiant trust in fate and rebels against what should have been his destiny. Through his death Hamlet ends up rejecting what he had been born to be: the next king. Born without even his own name, he finally makes his choice defines himself.
It's interesting that you decided to group these two together. I wouldn't have thought to do that, but after reading this entry it does make sense to me. It may not be the easiest thing to study from, because it focuses on comparing the two works and not really the meaning of the two separate works. I didn't get a lot of meaning out of the explanations in this entry, but you did include a lot of good details and things to remember about the two.
ReplyDeleteLike Kim mentioned, initially I was wondering how these two books could possibly be grouped together. I am not so sure I understand still. Your summary of Pride and Prejudice is good, but I feel like the Hamlet one is slightly lacking. Instead, you jump into a comparison of the two novels. You do a good job of comparing the two, but I am not sure this is a tool that I could use to help me study. That being said, each to his own. Overall, great job.
ReplyDelete