Thursday, May 10, 2007

Splash du Jour: Thursday

Hamlet is about bad parenting. You know, every single parent in Hamlet is rotten, including the ghost. If he’d been a good father he wouldn’t have appeared to Hamlet at all. And even so, when he does appear, he doesn’t say a thing about Hamlet. He doesn’t say, You’re my son. I love you, I feel very proud of you. He says, What about me? Take care of me. It’s your job to get revenge for me. He doesn’t think of Hamlet at all; therefore, should we feel sympathetic towards the ghost? We do when we see the play. You know, often we feel sympathetic towards people not because they are models of character whom we should all emulate, but because they aren’t.
-- Margaret Atwood –

Have a great Thursday!

3 comments:

  1. That's just an utterly good perspective! No wonder Hamlet procrastinates this way.

    Thanks!

    BlueRectangle Books

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  2. Will I haunt my kids when I'm gone? God, I hope not - for their sakes. I'd probably still nag...

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your words!