NATURAL+ACT+II


 * __Natural vs. the Unnatural - Act II -By: Hannah Samuel__**

//**Ophelia-** "...Lord Hamlet with his doublet all unbraced...his stockings fouled...his knees knocking together... as if he had been loosed out of hell...he comes before me."//
 * Act II, sc. 1, lines 78-88:**

//**Guildenstern-** "My lord, we were sent for."//
 * Act II, sc. 2, line 297:**

//**Hamlet-** "...a broken voice...forms to his conceit- and all for nothing! For Hecuba! What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, that he should weep for her?..."//
 * Act II, sc. 2 lines 564-569:**

The motif of the natural vs. the unnatural in //Hamlet// comes through again and again displaying the importance of disconnection between thought and action throughout this Shakespearean play. Act II is filled with various scenes and lines where the natural acts of life are construed into unnatural happenings. Three examples that stand out, take place in scenes one and two. Firstly, in scene one, lines 78-88, Ophelia is talking of an event that recently happened to her with Hamlet. Here she describes the unkempt and distraught Hamlet that frightened her before her and her father make assuptions as to what is the matter with Hamlet. This scene toys with the viewers' (or readers') perception of what is really going on with Hamlet. It is here that we begin to question whether Hamlet is truely (and naturally) distressed about Polonius's (Ophelia's father) recent order to seperate his daughter from Hamlet, or if it could be a trick Hamlet is playing upon to deceive the King about his recent "lack of mirth" becuse of his own recent plans to avenge his father's murder upon the King (the unnatural). The true intentions behind Hamlet's descibed emotions and nature are here unclear and so, create tension between Hamlet, the King, and Ophelia. This tension is then played upon further into Act III when the King and Queen develop and experiment with the idea of Hamlet's disheaveled love life, unknowingly of his plans to guilt-trip the King into confession later on. A second example of the natural vs. unnatural in the play of //Hamlet// takes place in scene 2, when old friends, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, visit Hamlet after being prodded by the King and Queen to discover the source of Hamlet's misery. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz pretend (unnatural) to have just arrived in Elsinore to fool Hamlet into talking (for they do not want Hamlet to know that they where sent for). The wise and witty Hamlet however sees through the unnatural disguise of his friends within a page turn, where on Guildenstern admits, "My lord, we were sent for." This scene uses the motif, unnatural vs. the natural because of the motives behind Guildenstern and Rosencrantz's words vs. the scene they are try to create to trick out Hamlet's feelings. This scene is peculiar in that the truth (natural) is revealed in the end, and Hamlet does not "play along" with their trickery. Instead, Hamlet expounds on his feelings without giving a reason to report back to the King and Queen. Therefore, Hamlet's sudden blunt honesty in this scene questions the viewers' thoughts on whether Hamlet is acting or being truthful with his thoughts, perhaps creating another unnatural behavior with an unnatural motive. The plot to solidify Hamlet's suspcions about his uncle's murderous acts against his father is played out (literally) in his plan to reanact the murder through a play with a strikingly similar story, and observing the King's face for any traces of an otherwise, supressed guilt. The main character of the play, Hecuba (unnatural), is a fictional represntation of the Queen (natural), used to toy with her guilt aswell. In Hamlet's own uncontrolable rage and excitment, he presses the point towards his mother and the King, however, Hamlet speaks through his rage of his mother, in the name of "Hecuba," bluntly disgusing his disgust for both his mother and the character's actions of unloyalty towards their husbands. This unnatural theatrical act has a very natural, and real story in the life of Hamlet, and so is stressed for the purpose of toying witht he emotions of his suspects. This scene's importance is crucial, and the true determining point where Hamlet's plans to murder the king in avengence are solidified. The unnatural vs. the natural in the play of //Hamlet//, is a true motif that Shakespeare has chosen to play upon, and so, is part of the reason this play has so many layers and requires such extensive analyztion. The mysteries and differences of what the charcters see and what we, as viewers (or readers) know, is often plays with the emotions and thoughts of the viewer and charcter alike, creating the appearance vs. reality that has made //Hamlet// so intriuging to it's viewers over the years.