Saturday, December 20, 2014

Explain Hamlet's state of mind. Consider the following quote:"o that this too solid flesh would melt thaw and resolve itself into a dew"

Hamlet is talking about the unbearable nature of existence and the feeling of being trapped in a imperfect, physical body (in an imperfect physical world) 

He wants to escape his body and the dirty, bloody mess of life. So he wishes that his body would melt and thaw like ice and become pure and clean like fresh morning dew.

There is an on-going argument about the text for this quote. Some early versions of Hamlet are,

"O that this too too sullied flesh would melt"

and some are

"O that this too too solid flesh would melt"

('sullied' means dirty and corrupt.) Either way, Hamlet wants to leave the dirty physical world and become pure spirit.

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