An Appreciation of Shakespearean Tragedy

Hamlet: The bedroom scene

I would be utterly remiss if I did not mention this scene. It is the most misunderstood scene in the whole play, and when I properly understood what was happening, it brought a different lignt to the play as a whole. You see, Sigmund Freud brought his psychoanalytic theory to this scene and began the rumor that Hamlet has Oedipal feelings towards his mother, Gertrude. Um, no. First of all, Hamlet calls Gertrude his mother not just once, but 10 times throughout the course of this one scene, including a "Mother, mother, mother!" (Act III, Scene 4, line 8) as he is entering the bedroom (compared to one instance of calling her "lady" in the same scene). Then there's the fact that he spends eight lines comparing his father to the likes of mythical gods like Jove, Hyperion, Mars, and Mercury. That does not sound like a son who had anything for a deeply entrenched respect and admiration for his father. It makes the reader/viewer of the play understand just how much Hamlet is grieving the loss of his father and and grappling with the distancing of his mother.*

Macbeth: Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking speech

If you read Macbeth in high school, college or both, you probably have at least a vague idea that the line "Out, damned spot, I say!" (V.1.37) belongs to this play. This line opens one of the most moving speeches in all of literature, not just Shakespearean tragedy. As I already signalled with my heading for this section, Lady Macbeth speaks it when she is sleepwalking, which I don't have to argue very hard makes the speech all the more pitiful. Even when Lady Macbeth is sleeping, she must make every effort to search for something to cleanse her hands (and her conscience!) of the guilt she has incurred upon it in her zeal to clear her husband's path to the throne of Scotland. It is a scene that makes me forget that she does deserve this and she inflicted it upon herself. I find myself listening with the doctor to any reassurances that the lady-in-waiting (or gentlewoman, as the character is designated in the play) can offer to me that Lady Macbeth will be okay once she makes her way back to her bed. Although what she has done--cold-blooded murder-- is pure evil, her sleepwalking speech which wells up from her tormented soul is one of the most utterly heart-wrenching, beautifully written literary segments I have ever read!

King Lear: His rage against the storm

I have to include this speech because I'm currently memorizing it. It's a moment in which the tragedy within the play reaches a crescendo. Not only is King Lear out in a literal storm, complete with floods of rain, thunder, lightning (he calls it fire!), and wind, but his relationship with all 3 of his daughters is stormy as well. Shakespeare left it up to each person's imagination, so my assumption is that Lear yells or even screams and shakes his fists at the sky until he gets to his self-description: "A poor infirm, weak and despised old man" (III.2.22) at which point, he shatters completely and he can no longer defy the elements, because he is aware of how miniscule he is out in the wide world, with not even a roof over his head to protect him from the elements. As a reader of the play, I'm already sympathetic to King Lear's plight before he makes this speech, but the agony comes down fully to bear on the audience when the old king speaks these lines. There is no escaping the fact that King Lear is in a horrific state at this point. Were he less consumed with his grief, he would be more concerned with the fact that he is in such treacherous elements, but since he is not, we as the audience must hold our breaths in silent terror for the aged monarch's well-being as we witness his agony blossom into all of its sobering glory.