Newspapers / Fayetteville State University Student … / Oct. 1, 1967, edition 1 / Page 3
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October, 1967 THE VOICE Page Three jr fine arts • annie mccullough • roosevelt mcpherson • barbara myrick • elizabeth whitley • floyd woodard Hamlet's Great Grief: His Father's Murder or His Mother's Marriage? “Hamlet” is the Shakespearian play with which most people are familiar. I have heard the story discussed at many different times and one question seemed to have arisen each time the play was talk ed about: was Hamlet driven on his course of action mainly becuase of the murder of his father, or mainly because his mother married his uncle? I would like to approach the question by singling out two or three key statements made by the prince and then attempt to weigh the intensity of the statements in relation to the two events, noting if at all, how they rcflect Hamlet’s view point and consequently influence his action or inaction. This approach may reveal something of Ham let’s driving force, but because of his complex make-up, none of the reasoning process can in any way be considered conclusive. To get under way though, it is important to remember that when we first see Hamlet in act I, Scene II, he is in no pleasant mood be cause of the death of his father — he has not yet got the notion that his father was murdered —so the first of the two griefs, chronological ly, is that of his mother, Gertrude’s marriage to his uncle, Claudius. When Claudius addresses Hamlet as cousin, Hamlet says aside, “A little more than kin and less than kind.” This is the initial infer ence that the king’s marriage to his brother’s wife is an unholy one, and that Hamlet thinks very little of the king’s total make up. There is the undertone also, that the Prince has a suspicion of Claudius that goes beyond the marriage itself. This, taken from the initial inference, can be placed to fit later in Hamlet’s exclamation of his prophetic soul. His reply to his mother’s remark that “Tis common that all that lives must die,” shows us that Hamlet is equally disgusted with her in her new marriage. Hamlet’s, “Ay, Madam, it is common,” refers more to her and her marriage than to his mother’s statement. Thus the method is set in which Hamlet, in answering the comment of others, tells them what he really means in a disguised cloak of words. He then already has his suit of woe, but of it orally comes first a crack at his mother's marriage, not his father’s death. The soliloquy unveils another side of Hamlet’s character, in which he does not infer, but states outright his views. All that was inferred in conversation about his mother’s marriage is uttered out right in the first soliloquy, lines 128-158. The method also tells us that one who talks so much to himself is not a man of decisive action and accounts in part for much of what seems hesitation and indecision in fulfilling his vow of revenge, and for reproaching himself for the same inert ness. Five items support this view: (1) the fact that Hamlet’s revenge is delayed to the very end of the play; (2) his self-accusations and doubts heard in the great soliloquies; (3) a decisive character would hardly talk to himself so much; (4) his inability to believe the ghost and his need to test its words; (5) his refusal to kill Claudius when he has the opportunity. When the ghost of Hamlet’s father relates to him the real man ner in which Claudius poured poison in his ears to kill him, Hamlet knows the time is out of joint and that he has to set it right. He vows revenge as he proclaims, “O my prophetic soul: My uncle” The utter ance gives credence to the notion that Hamlet perhaps figured even before his talk with the ghost that some foul play had been done by his uncle, reasoning that if his uncle was base enough to form an incestuous bond with his mother, then he’d be quite capable of any venomous deed. It is at this point of the sifting of ideas that the original question, of which of the two events was more foreceful in driving Hamlet to his course of action, no longer remains a question. The murder of his father by the man who married his mother puts the core of Hamlet’s agony solely into one shell—his uncle. This is realized in Gertrude’s remark when Claudius tried to ex plain to her Hamlet’s melancholy on the basis of Hamlet’s love for Orphelia; “I doubt it is no other but the main; his father’s death and our o’er hasty marriage,” Gertrude replies. Hamlet’s feigned madness, consequently, merely provides him a cloak in which to better think of a way to make his revenge, while not being taken seriously by his uncle. The idea of the play within the play was a good one, but Hamlet’s indecision, rather than bringing immediate poetic justice in eliminaton of his uncle, brought grave tragedy to all eight of the principal characters. It seems from analy sis of the two factors that they merge as one since the villian was at the core of both, giving a single thread that put Hamlet on a course of revenge. Miss Emme Kemp totally captured jammed-packed Seabrook Auditor^ ium on Oct. 11. Seen above with her bassist, she received a standing ovation. ART EXHIBIT The present art exhibit of Fay etteville State College is the first in a series of eight for this aca demic year. It is composed of pos ters and photographs by students of the college. The posters are valuable for elementary school teachers. The photography shows that people may use it as hobbies, vocational and avocational. The ex hibit will last for a period of three weeks. I noticed that most of the pos ters were strictly educational, Some of the topics were as follows: Are you a Citizen Balance Your Reading Reading Can Be Fun Keep your City Clean Sharing Books The Search For Knowledge is Universal Rest Is Important The Alphabet Express It’s Fall Again The posters are sure to serve the purpose of stimulating ele mentary school children; the ar tists were very creative in their thinking. On display are a number of photos by Mr. Floyd Woodward, Jr., who is our free-lance photo grapher. He has taken many photo graphs of several familiar young ladies enrolled here at Fayette ville State College. I particularly liked the wedding scene. There are also photographs of various activities that are preval ent on the college campus. — whitley ARTISTS' WORLD Paul Gaughin was one of the most significant French artists of the late 1800’s. He was born Eu gene Henri Paul Gaughin in Paris in 1848. As a painter and a wood carver, he was one of the pioneers of Post Impressionism, which emphasized reduced forms and figures to the simplest geometrical designs Gaughin was a master of color composition and his paintings show heavy contours, moderate distor tion of nature, and broad areas of striking shades of flat colors. His sense of color and its effective combination eventually brought him a reputation as one of the leading masters of the last 100 years. A restless man, Gaughin in 1891, left France for a primitive location where he could live and paint un disturbed by narrow conventions of European society. He went to Tahiti and moved inland with the natives. Gaughin painted exotic landscapes in brillant hues such as greens, yellows, cerise and rose. Some of his finest pictures were painted during the last years of his life. In The Moon and The Earth, the artist used form and color to create a decorative pattern and to carry out the symbolism of title. Other painting by Gaughin that can be seen today are “The Yellow Christ,” “We Hail thee, Mary,” and ‘Ta Matate,” Gaughin, “the savage” among the painters of his day, was buried in the Marquesas Islands among the natives he immortalized in his colorful canvases in 1903. — mccullough F HOTO EATURE By FLOYD WOODARD t WRITERS SEEK STATE AWARDS More than 50 books have been entered in contests for awards to be presented during North Carolina’s annual Cul ture Week in December, Dr. Christopher Crittenden, sec retary of the North Carolina Historical Association, an nounced recently. The four awards are the Mayflower Cup for nonfiction, the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for fiction, the American As sociation of University Women award for juvenile literature, and the Roanoke - Chowan award for poetry. Crittenden said books entered in the poe try and juvenile literature ca tegories also are eligible for the Sir Walter Raleigh contest. He pointed out that to be eligible for the competitions, a book must have been pub lished between July 1, 1966 and June 30, 1967, and the author must have maintained legal or actual residence in North Carolina for three pre- ceeding years. F.S.C. JOURNAL or EASY RELEASE THE AMERICAN DREAM I woke up and went into the kitchen and found mother standing there with a gun in her hands. Since I love her very much I grieved to hear her say that she intended to kill herself, but because I’m her only daughter, I reasoned to help her. First, I placed pillows on the floor so that when she fell down dead she wouldn’t injure herself. Then I made an appointment for her with our family coroner. Finally, I placed an advertisement in the Wanted Mother’s section of the paper. With all this accomplished, I then tried to persuade other mem bers of my family to join Mother in her new pastime. My father said he would join her but for the fact that he died yesterday. My oldest brother (who’s two years old) said he’d like to join her, but he and his girlfriend were planning to elope and move to Africa after their honeymoon. My youngest brother (who’s 100 years older than my oldest brother) offered as an excuse the fact that he’s “too young to die.” Besides, he died tomorrow. As for me, I’m writing the story and I’ve never heard of anyone writing an autobiography after death. Now things are really beginning to settle down. Mother raises the gun to her temple. She pulls the trigger. Blam! What a blast! As she lies there writhing in ecstasy she beckons me to join her. I pick up the gun. I look at it. I put it to my temple. I wake up. We were walking alone in the park. It was strange that the owls were not howling. Everything was shaking with awareness of what was happening but we were too happy to realize the spirit in the air. Suddenly as we approached a bench we saw it. IT was about eight feet tall, five feet wide and six inches thick, standing there in front of us with its fiery eyes blazing. We started to step slowly backward, but for every back step we made, it would make two forward. We ran and there IT was in front of us. There are two of them! It started to reach out at us with its warm, hairy hands. We were running but it was still there. We came to a stream but just as we jumped off the bank w'e saw THE THING already in the water and all around IT was a burning ring of fire. The warm hands reached greedily for us as the water went over our heads We looked up and saw such a pretty sight. How surprised she seemed when we told her that from then on we would always be good little boys. O PEOPLE USE THE CIVIL TOOLS (to stay a people) 0 poor ebony family Take the civil tools so polished And use and use and use And build and build and build A house for thee of strength and wealth! 0 proud family of Shabazz Take the civil tools of new And use and use and use and Be free and stay so free a man! 0 show our face in this land. GREAT RAP BROWN Hail to thee, great soulful leader. Hold on. I’m comin’, your news reader. I’m on. I'm comin’, great Rap Brown. Practice it, preach it. tell them again! What we need is black power, my friend. Practice it, preach it in every town. Hold on, I’m comin’, great Rap Brown. mcpherson
Fayetteville State University Student Newspaper
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Oct. 1, 1967, edition 1
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