Hamlet's glass

Post 30 Speaking out from a sense of justice

William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, has this famous dialogue where Prince Hamlet chastised his unfaithful mother, Gertrude:

Hamlet: Come, Come, and sit you down; you shall not budge.
You go not until I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you. (Act III, scene iv)

A glass is a mirror here. Prince Hamlet wanted to avenge on behalf of his father who was murdered by his uncle who then married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. The mirror Hamlet forces his mother to see reflects, "such black and grained spots as will not leave their tinct" (Act III, scene iv). Hamlet wanted his mother to look in the glass to see how she had betrayed her husband, his father.

The ‘Hamlet mirror’ enabled Gertrude to see how sinful and cruel she had been. In this case it was Prince Hamlet who listed out the sins of his mother. He did not harbour her mother, an evildoer and cover up her evil deeds.

Hamlet was speaking out from a sense of justice and to his mother who seemed to have no compunction (remorse, guilt or regret) about betraying her husband.

26 January 2010