Vision, Perception, and Belief in Act I, scenes i and ii of Hamlet (Week of 3/23/09)

As a teacher, I've always had an interest in the role that sight, vision, and perspective seem to play as themes in Hamlet especially where issues of truth and validity are concerned. In the first two scenes of the play alone, a number of characters make reference to sight, to eyes, to perception and perspective. When he introduces the ghost of old King Hamlet, Shakespeare seems to call into question the limits even of our own beliefs about what is able to be seen or in what what we think is probable for others to see.

Horatio, for instance, is brought to the battlements in scene one to verify the appearance of the king's apparition. (Note that the very position of these men is as 'watchers'. This in itself seems to establish a theme of perception!) Marcellus explains that Horatio has attributed the sighting of the Ghost to mere "fantasy" (line 23), and Marcellus has called him to the watch post to judge the verity of it's existence. Horatio's perspective is valued based on his position as a "scholar" (line 42). This is interesting, I think, because in doing so, these watchers (and Marcellus, in particular) have drawn a correlation between perceptual judgment and scholarly intelligence. What does it mean, then, when Horatio confirms the truth of the appearance of the Ghost? (On lines 56-58 he exclaims, "Before my God, I might not believe | Without sensible and true avouch | Of mine own eyes.") To what limits can his (or any human's) perception be trusted? How does this affect the ways that we as readers/watchers of the play will judge what is 'true' in the rest of the play? How do we (or can we) determine whose perception of truth we can/should trust? What might it mean for Shakespeare to evoke these questions from his audience at the opening of his play?

Some other lines in scenes i and ii that might support a discussion about sight, perception, truth, and validity that resonate with me as re-read this play that stick out to me include:

"As it doth well appear unto our state" (line 101)

Horatio explains how the Danish court perceives the actions of young Fortinbras who has raised an army to reclaim the lands his father lost. How might Fortinbras perceive his own actions?

"A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye" (line 112)

Horatio comments on the auspicious nature of the Ghost's appearance. What is the mind's eye? Reason? Intelligence? The sane mind? What kind of a mind frame must one possess in order to view the supernatural or to interpret auspicious occurrences?

"Good Hamlet, cast they nighted color off, | And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. | Do not for ever with thy vailed lids | Seek for they noble father in the dust." (lines 68-71)

Gertrude directs Hamlet to lift his gaze from the ground where he seems to search for some semblance of the father he has lost. She urges him to "look like a friend on Denmark." I read her comment in at least two ways:

1) This might be an attempt to change Hamlet's perception of the death of his father rather than as encouragement to find a way to cope with his grief. We will soon find out through the Ghost's testimony to Hamlet that his father was murdered by Claudius, his brother. When I read these lines this way, Gertrude's words seem to foreshadow her own complicity in the death of his father. She wants to force a change of perspective in her son, to convince him that any suspicions he might have are invalid and that his perception of his uncle is skewed.

2) I might also read the words "And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark" as cautionary words to Hamlet. If Gertrude knows or suspects that Claudius murdered her husband but was not an accomplice to the crime, she might fear Claudius. (For this reading to work, she would have had to have married him as a function of the norms of Danish society during this period. This is probable, since often the brother of a dead king might take the widowed queen as his wife along with the abdicated throne.) If this is the case here, then asking Hamlet to "look like a friend" might be a call for him to 'put on' the appearance of friend so as not to arouse suspicion in Claudius that he (Hamlet) suspects foul play.

Both these readings call to mind just how heavily my own perception as a reader affects how I understand the perspectives and motives of the play's characters and of Shakespeare as it's author.