Dominant Voice in Hamlet

李丹

The Tragedy of Hamlet dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet，Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father，and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude，the old king's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother.This paper will discuss something about dominant voice in the play.

Dominant voice is the major voice in the country，the society，or the whole world.Those people who have the power or are wealth usually possess the dominant voice，that is to say，they rule the world.The dominant voice of the play is revenge，for the person who wants to revenge is a prince，who has both power and money.So the love，the friendship etc.will be the subdominant voice.From the moment when Hamlet was told that his father was murdered by his uncle-Claudius，his fate was changed，and he fell into the problem of contradiction，the problem of pain and the problem of revenge.All he wanted to do was figure out the reason of his fathers death，revenge or not，and how to revenge.As for Hamlet，revenge is the dominant voice in his mind，and he did a lot for his revenge.To revenge，he abandoned Ophelia and told her to go to nunnery； he made a plan to kill his two friends-Rosencrantz and Guildenstern only for they did a little thing for Claudius； and he killed Ophelias father-Polonius and broke with his mother.All these made no difference to him，for revenge was the dominant voice.However，this dominant voice-revenge is evil，for it destroyed Hamletand everything related to him，even the whole country.

The second dominant voice in this play is the voice of Hamlet，the voice of Claudius，the voice of Polonius，and the voice of Laertes.They are all men.Like any other countries at that age，Denmark is a typical feudal state.And the ruler of the country，even the world，is man.So the dominant voice is the voice of men，and the voice of women is not taken seriously.I think both the two female characters are so poor.

As for the beautiful queen-Gertrude，she was the old kings queen，and she married to the present king-Claudius，who is the old kings brother，after the old king was murdered by Claudius.Gertrude and what she did were not understood and reviled by his son-Hamlet，but I think that was unfair.As a female，Gertrude did not have the right of speech in a world which was controlled by male.In my view，there were only two roads for Gertrude，one is to be Claudiuss queen，and the other is to be killed.Humanism proposed people-oriented，and I think Gertrude had the right to choose her way and live a life.Everyone eagers for a life that he （she）wants and gains respect at the same time，and so does Gertrude.If women ruled the world，or Gertrude had the supreme power like Claudius，or she was strong enough to fight with the evil，the end will be totally different.Maybe Hamlet will be a comedy.

Ophelia is one of the poorest role in the play.Ophelia was abandoned by her lover，and her father was killed by her lover-Hamlet，and at the same time，her brother was not stand by her，and she finally became insane and died alone.Ophelia was pathetic； she did not have any right to speak，or to show her opinions，and she always be told what to do.We can see that from the play.

Ophelia and Hamlet：

HamletIf thou dost marry，Ill thee this plague for thy doery：be thouas chaste as ice，as pure as snow，thou shalt not escape calumny.Get thee to a nunnery，go； farewell.Or，if thou wilt needs marry，marry a fool； for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them.To a nunnery，go； and quickly too.Farewell.[Act 3，Scene 1，line]

Ophelia and Laertes：

Laertes For hamlet，and the trifling of his favour，

Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood，

A violet in the youth of primy nature，

Forward，not permanent，sweet，not lasting，

The perfume and suppliance of a minute；

No more.[Act 1，Scene 3，line]

Those dialogues show that Ophelia did not have the rights of speech； her voice was ignored by those powerful men whose voice was the dominant voice.Ophelia spoke out what she thought after she went mad.Ophelia，I think，may pretend to be insane to show her true feelings.And she would not kill herself if she had power or she was rich.What will happen in the play if we have a male Ophelia？

After reading this play，I learned that we must remain rational mind and do everything with love no matter what happened，and that we must make ourselves strong and powerful if we want to speak for us or be heard by the whole world.

References：

[1]http：//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet.

[2]Shakespeare，William.The Tragedy of Hamlet.Beijing：China Radio and Television Publishing House.2001.