Act Three
Act
Three Scene One
Sub
Scene Five
One
of the doves had died.
“O,
what a noble mind is here overthrown!” Ophelia was saddened by the ways of
Hamlet.
“Him
whom I once knew! The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, and sword”,
Ophelia remembered so much of Hamlet in his heydays. She attended his play when
she was out of the castle. She sat alone in the audience hidden by the shadows
to see him act.
“The
expectancy and rose of the fair state,” Hamlet was ever courteous to all.
“The
glass of fashion and the mold of form, the observed of all observers, quite,
quite down! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, that sucked the honey of
his musicked vows: Ophelia was entranced by an actor rather than a friend for
her.
“Now
see that noble and most sovereign reason, like sweet bells jangled, out of time
and harsh; that unmatched form and stature of blown youth blasted with ecstasy.
O, woe is me. Rosy it will be never meant. A Prince he will remain while the
Emperor takes the throne; favored to the likes of Mark Antony lest he betrays
Caesar for the love of another.”
Ophelia
had watched the play with Hamlet as the ally of the great Emperor, but he fell
for the love of the Emperor yet to sanction even Emperor’s death, and thus his
soon after. Mark did not betray his Emperor, but his love for the other made
him indifferent to the events that unfold. As maybe Hamlet was in pain for he
had become whom he once portrayed.
“A
prince never to be set as the King. And Ophelia not to be his Cleopatra.”
Ophelia faults not Hamlet for he was a checkmate in the position.
The
expectation and rose of the fair state; talked about the future being ‘rosy’ if
it’s hopeful or looking promising. Hamlet was the great hope of ‘the fair
state’ of Denmark: its future king, indeed didn’t automatically inherit the
throne upon the King’s untimely death, but was instead side-lined in favor of
his uncle, Claudius.
He
was once admired by everyone who observed him: the one everyone watched and
followed eagerly. And now he has been quite destroyed, and his mind is ruined.
“Where
art thou, Hamlet?” Ophelia turns her thoughts to herself, the one who most
enjoyed hearing Hamlet’s acts, and then he was the pleasant-sounding voice that
is now out of tune, making a harsh sound that was woes to listen to.
The
discordancy is all the harsher because one remembers what a sweet sound they
were capable of.
“That
unmatched form and stature of blown youth blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me
that I have seen what I have seen, see what I see!” Ophelia went on about her
woes about Hamlet. “He is tamed by madness.”
“To
have known him when he was of sound mind, so brilliant and noble and talented
and graceful, only makes it so much harder now to be faced with what he has
become.” Ophelia took the seat releasing the tears from the book she hold
endearing. She looked at the book and said.
“May
it offer me salvation? I do hope.”
No comments:
Post a Comment