eclogues: so..been thinking about the structure of the sullied/solid flesh soliloquy again esp. sinc
eclogues: so..been thinking about the structure of the sullied/solid flesh soliloquy again esp. since we visited in discussion today. anyway the entire soliloquy seems to follow the pattern of hamlet’s own self-loathing -> frailty thy name is woman (calling back to unmanly grief?) -> loathing gertrude interwoven with loathing himself, seeing himself as gertrude and hating himself, seeing himself as niobe, having to fulfill the role that gertrude abandoned? like rather than reading this as just another example of his misogyny throughout the play, i’m viewing it more from the perspective that he relates to femininity in his own grief and as claudius relates femininity with being unnatural/grief as “unmanly”/ “unmanly” as unnatural. so rather than relating to niobe’s slaughtered children, hamlet could be relating both himself and gertrude to niobe, thus feeling the need to carry on weeping and grieving when gertrude stops -- source link
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