‘Discretion fought with nature’ (1.1.5): eulogy and jointure in Hamlet
The article studies the formal aspects of Claudius’ inaugural speeches in Hamlet, which mimics sermons on the inevitability of death and the holy nature of patrilinear bonds linking the dead and the living. It compares this with the suggestion that his ‘state [is] disjoint and out of frame’ (1.2.20)...
Enregistré dans:
| Dans: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/asf, |
|---|---|
| Auteur principal: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Anglais |
| Publié: |
Arrêt sur scène / Scene Focus
2024
|
| Sujets: | |
| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | The article studies the formal aspects of Claudius’ inaugural speeches in Hamlet, which mimics sermons on the inevitability of death and the holy nature of patrilinear bonds linking the dead and the living. It compares this with the suggestion that his ‘state [is] disjoint and out of frame’ (1.2.20), which recalls early modern discussions on jointure, a legal provision allowing wives to take possession of their late husbands’ lands and tenements, thereby (momentarily) dispossessing the natural heirs. Claudius’ speeches contrast the topos of the ‘natural’ cycle of life and death, and the ‘discretion’ afforded Gertrude by law to symbolically dispossess her own son in favour of a new husband and king. As Claudius makes short shrift of his eulogy for his ‘dear brother’, he paves the way for his own unceremonious death in act 5, when Hamlet chastises the infamous nature of the king’s ‘union’ or ‘jointure’ with Gertrude. Contrariwise, Hamlet succeeds in being remembered following the rules of epideictic rhetoric. |
|---|