Sunday, April 13, 2014

How does a speech from Hamlet target the Elizabethan audience socially, culturally, and economically?

Hamlet's monologue from act I, scene IV is a good representation of how Shakespeare can use these speeches to appeal to the Elizabethan audience culturally, economically, and socially.
The social aspect comes from the conversation about a "tradition" that this monologue is stemming from. The scene begins with Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus. It's just after midnight when the sounds of trumpets and cannons spark a discussion about the king's tradition of staying up all night drinking and dancing:

The king doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,
Keeps wassail and the swaggering upspring reels,
And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
The triumph of his pledge.

Horatio asks Hamlet if this is a tradition, to which Hamlet replies affirmatively and says that it's one he thinks should be ignored instead of practiced. Drinking is a very social activity, one that the Elizabethan audience likely partakes in quite often. So right here, they're already hooked by the discussion of alcohol and wondering why Hamlet thinks the King's tradition should be ignored.
Culturally they're inclined to listen to Hamlet because he states that he's a native of the area (Denmark), giving him grounds to talk about his disapproval (as opposed to being from a different country and theoretically having no business talking about the practices of a foreign one).

But to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honored in the breach than the observance.
This heavy-headed revel east and west
Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations.

Here, Hamlet's going on about how other countries criticize them for their drinking practices, which is likely to appeal to the audience and get a few nods of agreement. Although Hamlet is speaking about his country, Denmark, the parallels between the Denmark that Shakespeare (himself an Elizabethan author) depicts here and Elizabethan England would be obvious to the audience. They surely would see the judgment coming from other places and think that one of their own citizens is making a clever point about this tradition.
The economic aspect of this monologue can be found in Hamlet's reference to the insult of their noble titles:

They clepe us drunkards and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition. And indeed it takes
From our achievements, though performed at height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute.

This appeals to the audience's recognition of their economic status within their country and their pride. No one wants their name soiled with accusations of being a "drunkard"—though Hamlet does go on to say that even though the Danish court is being insulted, being considered drunkards does indeed detract from their achievements.

Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
Being nature’s livery or fortune’s star,
Their virtues else (be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo)
Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault.

Finally, he closes with the notion that even if the king were as wonderful as a king could be, the loud drinking and partying would still be the only thing people focus on, as it is a "defect," and those are observed more strongly than anything else.

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