Hamlet's Monologue: Women And The World

I found Hamlet’s monologue (lines 129-159) interesting. The lines that captured my attention were “Fie on’t! Ah fie! ‘Tis an unweeded garden,/That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature/Possess it merely. That it should come to this!” I like how these lines present the way experiences shape people’s view of the world. Hamlet endures this hardship of coming home from college and discovering that his father has died. To make it worse, he learns that his uncle, his father’s brother, has married his mother. This monologue demonstrates the effect this has on Hamlet and his view of women and the world. As a result of all that’s occurred, Hamlet views women as frail creatures who lack emotional attachment and believes that only immoral people
become successful in this world. This monologue exhibits the integral part experiences play in shaping worldviews. On another note, the other lines in the monologue demonstrate how our perceptions of people and their relationships with others are simply perceptions, not the truth. Hamlet describes the dear love between his father and mother as thoughtful and kind, yet his mother married another man less than two months after her husband died. It’s a possibility that Hamlet’s parents’ love wasn’t as deep as Hamlet thought it was. This is intriguing because this concept of perceptions being misleading is something that can be seen in real life also, especially in celebrity relationships. People constantly view celebrities’ relationships and friendships as something to aspire for without knowing the true nature of these relationships. Sometimes, the people in those relationships and friendships turn out to be bad influences despite how great they seem. Hamlet’s lamentations over his parents’ relationship bring to light the misleading nature of people’s own perceptions, and how viewing one’s perception as the truth is detrimental.