Hamlet Analysis of "Black Hamlet: Battening on Term Paper

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Hamlet

Analysis of "Black Hamlet: Battening on the Moor" by Patricia Parker

In the journal article "Black Hamlet: Battening on the Moor" (2003) in Shakespeare Studies, author Patricia Parker centered on 'blackness' as one of the emergent symbolisms in William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet." Parker used blackness as the symbolical representation of important themes that were underscored in the play. Synonymously associating blackness with impurity, malice, death, deviltry, vengeance, and melancholy, the analysis showed how blackness as both a symbol and a concept led to the creation of conflict among the characters in the play, specifically that of Hamlet, Old Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, and even Ophelia. Moreover, Parker illustrates how, through the persistence of blackness and its associated themes, "Hamlet" can be truly considered a tragedy.

This paper looks into the use of blackness and themes associated with it as the catalysts that led to tragic end of the characters in "Hamlet." Centering on the main characters of the play, Parker demonstrates how blackness created a distinction between goodness and evil between the characters of Old Hamlet and Claudius, and in Gertrude, Hamlet, and Ophelia. More specifically, this paper posits than blackness was utilized in various ways in order to illustrate (1) the 'Moor-ness' of Claudius against Old Hamlet's 'angel-like' character; (2) the 'stained' or impure characters of Gertrude and Ophelia; and (3) the vengeful, grieving, and melancholic nature of Hamlet. This paper also analyzes how, with these illustrations between blackness and the play's characters, blackness brings together the characteristics that made the play a tragedy, what with the presence of death, vengeance, malice, and impurity.

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One of the dominant themes discussed in Parker's article was the conflict between and the contrasting natures of the characters of Old Hamlet and King Claudius, Hamlet's father and uncle, respectively. Blackness surrounds the Old Hamlet-Claudius relationship because it is filled with malice: malice for Claudius' killing of Old Hamlet and consequently, malice was also present when Queen Gertrude, Old Hamlet's wife, decided to marry Claudius right after her husband's death. Parker symbolically identified the conflict between the two kings as a conflict between the "angel-like" character of Old Hamlet and "Moor-ness" of Claudius' nature (128). Associating with Old Hamlet with being an "angel" and Claudius as a "Moor" designates both as individuals having a 'white' or good and 'black' or bad personalities, respectively. Focusing primarily on Claudius' black, Moorish character, the author associates him as one who leads over "carnival misrule," an individual who is an "... 'adulterate Beast' who won the "will" of his most virtuous-seeming queen as a contrasting devil" (129, 149).

The angel-Moor characterizations assigned to Old Hamlet and Claudius (respectively) were evidently more than mere depictions of the goodness-versus-evil theme. Parker's association of blackness to that of Claudius' Moorish character (which, in her analysis, was equated with deviltry) highlighted how blackness surrounded not only Claudius, but people associated with him. His 'blackness,' according to Parker, "besmeared" the purity of Queen Gertrude as his wife and the kingdom that he eventually ruled. Thus, associated with Claudius' blackness meant the pervasiveness not only of impurity and malice, but most particularly, treachery, which dominated the lives of Hamlet and Claudius throughout the play......

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