Hamlet is often called “The Melancholy Dane.” When one contrasts the delay of action in Hamlet with the immediate and thoughtless action in Othello for example, readers often see Hamlet as a pensive, hesitant, weakling. Such a reading may miss a strong message within Hamlet. To grasp that message one must place emphasis on the background plot points within the play and think of Hamlet as a prince attempting to control his world in the way that Niccolo Machiavelli would have advised.
In Machiavelli’s The Prince, he lays out a purpose to instruct rulers so that they may benefit from the circumstances of a corrupt world. This is the only beneficial mindset, “for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather learn to bring about his own ruin than his preservation” (Machiavelli 290) . Machiavelli proceeds under an assumption that no one lives as they ought to live, and therefore everyone should strive to live in such a way that benefits themselves most. Hamlet admits this total human depravity. When he asks Polonius, “Will you see the players well bestowed?” Polonius responds, “I will use them according to their desert” (Shakespeare 2445; II:ii:479-482) . Hamlet expresses his knowledge that no one lives as they ought to live by exclaiming: “Use every man after his desert, and who shall ‘scape whipping” (Shakespeare 2445; II:ii:483-484) ? He therefore pays much better attention throughout the play to “what is done” than to “what ought to be done” (Machiavelli 290) .
Hamlet’s first appearance in the play demonstrates his preference for personal benefit over the greater good. It is when Claudius is announcing his ascendency to the throne and his marriage to his elder brother’s wife. It is a tense moment and an unfair situation for Hamlet. He is, by all appearances, mature and capable enough to inherit his father’s throne. Rather than returning from his studies at Wittenberg to a funeral, and his own coronation, however, he is returning to a funeral, followed by the marriage of his uncle to his mother and his uncle’s coronation. His throne has been taken from him by his Uncle, and what is more devastating, by his mother. These circumstances cause Hamlet to arrive at this announcement ceremony still dressed in mourning. His mother Gertrude tells him, “Good Hamlet, cast they knighted color off” (Shakespeare 2415; I:ii:68) .
This seems cruel. Hamlet’s father had died less than one month ago. It shows that Claudius and Gertrude apply Machiavelli’s advice that, “it is necessary for a prince . . . to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it, according to the necessity of the case” (Machiavelli 291) . Hamlet has had to leave his studies, begin the process of accepting his father’s death; his mother’s remarrying of his Uncle, and Claudius’ ascendency to his own father’s throne. Certainly this is a deliberate choice to not be good. If any man has cause to be in mourning it is Hamlet. The circumstance of his mother’s swift remarriage is what makes the scene so important, especially when associated with the imminent threat of war with Norway. Norway’s kingdom is in flux due to a conflict over the ascension to the throne. It is a very similar situation to that in Denmark. Relations between Norway and Denmark are strained and Fortinbras, having obtained the throne, is eager to punish any who have opposed or will oppose him. At such a time the swift marriage between Claudius and Gertrude, from Gertrude’s point of view, may have been deliberate and prudent. Denmark’s neutrality about the rightful heir to the throne of Norway, tied to a perceived weakness due to conflict over the crown of Denmark, may have caused Fortinbras to declare war on Norway. This may have been the case also if a young, unsteady, new regime were initiated so soon after the ascension of Fortinbras. So Gertrude, perhaps with sincere feelings of love toward Claudius, accelerated her marriage to him in order to prevent Hamlet from inheriting the throne. This seems to make sense. Gertrude may have saved her kingdom with her swift remarriage. For the sake of the kingdom it might not be an unwarranted sacrifice for Hamlet to suspend his mourning, if but briefly, in order to sustain the stable maintenance of his father’s regime.
In Isaac Asimov’s commentary on Hamlet, he points out that, “The royal marriage had interrupted the mourning and there comes a time when an ostentatious reminder of the old King becomes an insult to the new. Hamlet is the natural opponent of the succession and if he continues to wear mourning it is clear enough that he feels there is no joy in the new King. It amounts almost to a claim for the throne on his own behalf” (Asimov 91) . Therefore we see Hamlet’s rivalry with Claudius extant before his encounter with The Ghost. His tone and demeanor at the announcement ceremony indicate a passive acceptance of circumstances beyond his control. To kill Claudius would not gain Hamlet the kingdom, only a dungeon. He accepts Claudius’ rule for now, but maintains his mourning attire out of protest and to send a message to Claudius that Hamlet would play for the throne if he could. In this pragmatic, albeit reluctant, concession Hamlet can be seen to follow another bit of Machiavelli’s advice that, “when [The Prince] is obliged to take the life of any one, let him do so when there is a proper justification and manifest reason for it” (Machiavelli 292) . No such reason existed yet.
The visitation of The Ghost provides that manifest reason, and in the episode one can see craft and careful conspiracy, rather than melancholy hesitance. The Ghost, claiming to be the departed spirit of his father, the elder Hamlet, informs him that Claudius murdered him in order to obtain the throne. The Ghost asks that Hamlet, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (Shakespeare 2426; I:v:25) . The audience expects Hamlet to react much as Laertes reacts later: simply attempt to kill the man who killed his father. That he does not immediately do so has caused readers to doubt his commitment to the cause. Shakespeare did not, with Hamlet, set out to tell a cathartic story about revenge. If he had, the final scene would create catharsis. It does not. Everyone dies whether they are a protagonist or an antagonist. Shakespeare accomplished a commentary on the futility of vengeance, and also an indictment of Machiavelli.
Hamlet does not only seek vengeance, but seeks a specific type of vengeance. Asimiov’s analysis again is instructive: “If Hamlet wants only revenge for the sake of revenge . . . execute Claudius as soon as the King’s body is within reach of his dagger. That, however, is not all that Hamlet wants . . . He wants also to be King” (Asimov 103) . It is not true revenge if one is punished after the fact. According to Edgar Allan Poe, “I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser” (Poe 715) . Hamlet wishes to not only kill Claudius, but to make a play at the throne. That is Machiavelli to a tee. That he ultimately fails, and that his calculated malice results in mass tragedy and death, can only be testament to the futility of revenge and an advocacy for a higher ethical climate than that advised by Machiavelli.
Works Cited
Asimov, Isaac. Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare. Avenel. Vol. II. New York: Avenel Books, 1978. II vols. Print. 30 October 2012.
Dickenson, Emily. "620 [435]." Norton Anthology American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. Eighth. Vol. II. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2012. V vols. 1687. Print. 17 December 2012.
Machiavelli, Niccolo. "The Prince." Sources of the Western Tradition. Ed. Marvin Perry, Joseph R Peden and Theodore H Von Laue. Trans. George W Bock. Seventh. Vol. I: From Ancient Times to the Enlightenment. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. II vols. Print. 16 December 2012.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Cask of Amontillado." Norton Anthology American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. Eighth. Vol. II. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. V vols. 714-718. Print. 17 December 2012.
Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." Norton Anthology Western Literature. Ed. Sarah Lewall. Eighth. Vol. I. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2012. II vols. 2409-2499. Print. 5 December 2012.
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