Sweets to the sweet

So Hamlet isn't mad, but was Ophelia?
As shrewd Claudius said "Madness in great ones must not unwatched go."
I had assumed before I read the play, that Ophelia "went dotty" after she found her lost love killed her father, and being a quite natural and sensitive girl took it rather harshly. However, after reading Act III scene ii when Hamlet sets up the play to trap Claudius, and banters a little too freely with the Royal couple and Ophelia, I began to suspect that A: he wasn't psychotic, broken or cold-hearted B: he planned to marry Ophelia (or he wasted considerate time on her) C: his awkward-family-blabbing was meant to tell Ophelia what was really happening and how he really felt and even suspected about Claudius. D: he got distracted and overdid it, making Claudius (and Gertrude) alarmed and suspicious.
Thus the question remains, WWOHD? (what would Ophelia have done?) after she finds out her dad mysteriously dead from hiding behind a curtain in the queen's room, and his murderer mysteriously shuffled off, whilst her brother is gone to France leaving her relatively abandoned and alone for her to ponder the many mysteries of the Royal couple?
If she is the unsuspecting clueless and highly sensitive type, as most movies/children's books portray, she obviously just couldn't handle whatever possibilities this meant, and decided to pine away in a really psycho fashion and drown herself to solve the problems. A solution which isn't relatively new to humanity, and is today's equivalent being classified "bi-polar", put on meds, and then suicide.
However, after reading her "madness" last night, I found it difficult to believe this for several reasons. 6 her character, which didn't seem unable from balancing her obedience and love without flaw previously or 5 that her despair of love for Hamlet would some how rule out her love for her brother Laertes (or her christian discretion) and 4 that all of Hamlet's loose tongue and reaction from the king that night would have gone to waste i.e. somehow knowing that Hamlet's sanity and suspicion, and very possible framing would prevent her from being unable to cope with familial tension, finally 3 that her madness was very suspicious in itself by subversive messages applying more to the queen and king than herself i.e. her carefully selected songs, flower symbols, and desire to meet the queen. And the queen's suspicious summary 2 which was a very odd accident, as well as the queen's guilt before, and the villagers rumor of suicide, making the whole of it rather suspicious, set-up and very 1 convenient: Laertes momentary distraction and grief paralysing him from further harm to Claudius and instead focused on Hamlet.

psalm 97

The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice
let the many coastlands be glad
2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him
and burns up his adversaries all around.
4 His lightnings light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all the peoples see his glory.
7 All worshipers of images are put to shame,
who make their boast in worthless idols;
worship him, all you gods
8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the daughters of Judah rejoice,
because of your judgments, O Lord.
9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
10 O you who love the Lord, hate evil
He preserves the lives of his saints;
he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light dawns for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name

though there is madness

I think a popular misconception is the stereotypical Romantic or Gothic interpretation of Shakespeare, often seen portrayed in Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet. However, the "mood" interpretations of creepy castles/churches and black skies, (with perhaps the exception of Macbeth) were not very popular till the 1780's, almost two centuries later. That is not to say that Hamlet's brooding black cape and pale moody face, or Ophelia's socially repressed, frail, and broken heart, were completely fabricated, but that though Hamlet may have worn black at a funeral and was obviously upset about his dad dying, that was no means his norm, and similarly Ophelia's brief loss of insanity may not have necessarily been her personality.
The lack of reality in "mood" stories or romantic/gothic paintings doesn't have to mean that it is unreal, but that "moods" are only a deceptive piece of reality.
In fact, reading Hamlet has me think that Hamlet did not go mad in a brooding anguished introversion whilst Ophelia pined away and eventually broke her heart.
Perhaps I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but I suspect that the whole of Hamlet is much more a strategical study than a moody tragedy. Then again, Julius Caesar was not a "tragedy" or "conspiracy" story as much as it was about morals, ulterior motives, and real people. In fact, Julius Caesar was more about Brutus than anyone else worth mentioning. In Romeo and Juliet, were the title characters half as interesting as any of the background characters? Or was it really about them anyway? At least Macbeth was sort of about Macbeth, and Hamlet was mostly about Hamlet.
I am not done with the play yet, but all the initial head-scratchers in the play are now making me dizzy with delight. Polonius' advice, Ophelia's obedience, Gertrude's guilt, and Claudius' and Hamlet's subtle swordplay throughout the entire, ending with both of their deaths. Hamlet mad? maybe, but their is a method in't.

matters touching the lord Hamlet

As some of you know already, I have been absorbing much of my time reading Hamlet, along with this past week's whirlwind of the music festival etc. This past May you probably already know that I went through a Robert Penn Warren obsession about my "bad book" that's supposed to be about corruption and politicians but really isn't. Anyway, now it's June and it's about Hamlet, starting with screening for the family fast-forwarded, and then to read the play itself.
The only other plays I read by Shakespeare was Othello and Macbeth and Julius Caesar, so I was impressed with why Shakespeare was so popular and how many popular interpretations weren't Shakespeare's.

Here are some good reasons why Shakespeare is fun to read:
1 It's really fun to fit many cliched lines into their original context. Reading Hamlet is almost like reading the Bible in respect to familiarity, and like reading the Bible, transforms empty cliches into real stories and real people, making them all the more worthwhile.

2 What's really neat about finding real people, is getting to understand all of them, if not all sympathetically, at least pathetically.
Including finding the background characters' reality and character. Of course it requires reading in between lines by looking at the negative images: asking what are they not saying/doing? why are they mentioned at all? (this is how I often read the Old Testament--esp. the woman figures: "what! why did you mention a woman?" vs. "why did they say so little?")

3 Gleaning as close to truth or history from his culture and what he observed of others (e.g. what's Elizabethan and what's medieval Dane/Scot etc.) by what's different from his and theirs (and yours and his). What remains true, and what is artificial constructs... Basically, the eternal task of a historian. (e.g. the remaining truth/similarity of love between father and daughter, son and father etc. and natural relationships with the responsibilities that their society constructs)

Of course this is true for any classic/epic : Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, Beowulf, the Song of Roland, Canterbury Tales, etc.
Is that truth shall remain true, people will be people, history will constantly be excavated and analyzed (and hidden and mythologized), and that our eternal searching and discovering and interpreting and translating through time and tongue will not have been in vain; For, like science--biology, physics, theology, and mathematics, truth shall reveal, and it will forever be unlocking its own mysteries as time unravels and puts all our masterful attempts and concealment to shame. Let the bright morning dawn! And light shall put away our pitiful creations of night.
(I shall post later on misconceptions...)