Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have proved most royally;
Shakespeare, “Hamlet”
“There were many unusual things going on in the world at the time, but very few were turning to God and repenting”. When reading these kinds of lines to medieval Armenian historians, it would be hard to imagine the unusual things that were going on at the time and what kind of person could not turn to God and repent?
Nowadays, there are many unusual things going on too and it seems as though nobody wants to turn to God and repent-not because they don’t see the unusual things going on, but because they don’t see God. They don’t see God because they don’t see themselves and they don’t see themselves because they don’t exist. After all, it is said that the word of mouth is nothing without actions.
For example, can you imagine Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” with the same context, same plot, but without the victims? If I am not mistaken, “Hamlet” was taken out of the school libraries during the years when Reagan was president because the administration feared that the book spread ideas of bloody revolutions. Well, Americans were not afraid of a bloody revolution, but rather they considered the sequence of events in the book as anti-esthetic for the students who were learning and becoming more developed. But what was going on in the book?
Hamlet came and saw that his uncle had killed his own brother and married his mother. This is a case which, according to the rules of Medieval European tragedies, needs to end in bloody scenes. According to those rules, Hamlet could not just come to the scene of the crime, see what had happened and then wave his hand around saying “this is inhuman” or “mother, how could you?” and leave. This is something done by the people disgusted with Armenian political figures of all fields.
Hamlet also couldn’t say a monologue about death, but rather, he could say that he considers the marriage between Gertrude and Claudius as illegal and gets ready to appeal to the European court. Let’s agree that the play would not be successful in the first and second acts. Let’s also agree that we are not talking about the play. Hamlet was not a naïve man and he knew that his father’s kingdom’s decline was horrible; that is why he was mumbling to himself when saying the monologue. “To live in these conditions, or go against the sea of trouble and death?”
Hamlet also couldn’t give his uncle and mother seventy two hours to consider their matrimony as invalid and eventually separate from one another. In this case, the play would not last seventy two hours (although plays lasted long when Shakespeare was writing plays), but rather it would not end at all. Imagine Claudius coming on stage at 45:71 and saying yes. You can’t imagine that, right? But I imagine something else. When Hamlet gives his uncle and mother seventy two hours, the “DanNews” news program reports from the opposite side of the Freedom Square of Ellsinore and says ironically that “the oppositionist leader announced that time is against us and that bad luck has taken on the responsibility of making time go by at a normal pace.” Then, “DanNews” broadcasts a cartoon showing the horrible scenes of Hamlet meeting his ghost father. At the end of the cartoon, the ghost says: “Hamlet, is seventy two hours short?”
Hamlet also couldn’t hint Claudius that he was going to come with four columns and that the fifth one is in his palace. He could not do that because each Claudius knows that there are bears roaming around without hinting and that their skin changes just like that of the snake. Each Claudius raises those bears and cherishes them in order to do away with any sudden changes (also constitutional) in a short time. Hamlet could not hint this because he was pretty smart. He understood that “to be or not to be, to die or to sleep” was not for him, that the scum of society comes, joins the columns and corrupts the so-called revolution.
No, Hamlet was not naïve, but if we look at things morally, he was a fool. What do you want by holding a sword and making a big fuss, brother? Live your life. You can hold conferences once a week, be invited to the “Azdak” club, fight against Laert at the “Hayeli” club, you will sometimes go to the sauna with Ofelia instead of sending her to the convent and this is how your life will go by. People will see you every time and, when hearing your speech, they will know that there is some ghost and suppose that that is the ghost of the revolution.