Hi everyone! Today I was fortunate enough to sit down and chat with Bella Sougaris, a second-year master's student at McGill University. Her thesis is on Shakespeare and the supernatural. In this podcast, Bella takes us through some passages of Hamlet that particularly inspired her to formulate her thesis. We discuss how the themes of grief and the supernatural are prevalent throughout the play, and the effect it has on the characters – specifically Hamlet, and for a brief segment Ophelia.
Personally, I think the concept of Bella's thesis is fascinating. Hamlet is quite literally apprehended by an apparition. His father appears before him and divulges – in one of Shakespeare's longest monologues – his untimely death, conveying in all its minute details how he ended up being murdered by his brother. The effect of Hamlet seeing his father in this capacity sets him down a course of conduct which ultimately leads to his demise, the likes of which can be argued as being motivated by the grief which compounds as a result of bearing witness to his father's apparition.
As Bella recognises, if one was to put themselves in the position of Hamlet, they'd be paralytic as to how to act, and, as is apparent throughout the play, be stricken with grief. Hamlet is a play of indecision; he recognises the wish of his father's ghost, namely, to take vengeance unto his uncle, but he has no idea how to do this - at least in such a way that conforms with his religious values. Throughout the play, themes of grief ring prevalent; Hamlet's lamentations and soliloquies as to his own mortality; Ophelia's mourning following her father's death; and Fortinbras' quest for vengeance on the Kingdom for the death of his father.
Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's 'Christian' plays – and what is so interesting is how Shakespeare expresses the idea of purgatory by writing in Hamlet's father's ghost in the play. The ghost functions to create a battle ground of moral conflict for Hamlet. Its effect is taken to such extremes that he begins to question his own mortality 'To be or not to be…', and murders Polonius in a fit of rage. Shakespeare's use of the supernatural in this play appears to be a method of coercion to yield Hamlet's demise – his own eventual metamorphosis into a supernatural being.
In this sense, Hamlet is similar to Macbeth. Macbeth is visited by the witches – fantastical spirits who have complete control and foresight over the world – and they give him a prophecy (although this may be a stretch, the language they use and the way in which they do so – through equivocal phrases and objective ambiguity – is difficult to categorise it as such) which sets him down a course of conduct which ultimately leads to his demise; again causing, like Hamlet, his own metamorphosis into the supernatural, of which he himself was incited by.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this podcast! I had such a lovely time doing this with Bella – thank you all once again.