How Important to the Play Is the Friendship between Hamlet and Horatio?
Summary:
The friendship between Hamlet and Horatio is important to the play, as it is this relationship that gives the audience an insight into Hamlet's character through the entire play.
How important to the play is the friendship between Hamlet and Horatio"
The friendship between Hamlet and Horatio is important to the play, as it is this relationship that gives the audience an insight into Hamlet's character through the entire play. Shakespeare uses this friendship between Hamlet and Horatio as device to let the audience see that Hamlet in reality was a good person. When Hamlet talks to Horatio there usually is a momentary glimpse of the young Hamlet prior to his father's death. In this way the vast difference of their own characters is shown as well. Like when the ghost appeared, armed, at the start of the play, the guard Marcellus said that Horatio should be the one to speak to it as, "[Horatio] art a scholar." Although he was brave, in a calm and measured tone Horatio replied that he was filled with "fear and wonder." He goes to Hamlet straight away, as he knew that Hamlet had a right to know that a ghost had appeared in the shape of his father, the late king.
Horatio's insight into young Hamlet says that he is a young man that everybody else was trying to imitate. Hamlet was told that in his "impious stubbornness" it showed that his "unmanly grief" for the death of his father was not becoming. His moods and feelings towards the other characters kept changing throughout the play. But his interaction with Horatio was unwavering throughout. He was mostly petulantly quiet, reticent and wary of all around him except Horatio. From the tone in his soliloquy it could be said that Hamlet was shocked and filled with disgust for a mother he once loved. But all through it he knew that he "must hold [his] tongue" even though in this way his heart would "break."
There is a difference in the way Hamlet interacted with Horatio (his friend) and his behaviour with his mother, step-father (uncle) and all the other people. He was more willing to let Horatio see his inner turmoil. Shakespeare has used Hamlet's soliloquies because this was one way in which the audience would haven see his fears and felt his emotions. Another way for the audience to get a better grasp was when Hamlet voiced his thoughts aloud to Horatio. Every time Hamlet talked or joked with Horatio there was certain softness in his tone and expression. It was just about a kind of dark humour present in "Thrift, thrift Horatio" which could probably only be understood by him-Horatio-as he should have deduced the meaning from Hamlet's choice of words and tone.
Now this is where there is a difference of how Hamlet reacted when he was told about the ghost; he is intrigued about it and wants to know more. He then feels that if it is the ghost appeared armed in the form of his late father then "all [was] not well." Hamlet has a feeling that some "foul play" was involved. On seeing the ghost Hamlet was overwhelmed and he went to follow it when it "waves [him] forth again." Hamlet did not care anymore because he was sure that the ghost wanted Hamlet to follow it no matter what Horatio and the other guards present there with him said. He said that he would "make a ghost of one that [hindered] him." While in this situation Horatio was calm, he now revealed that Hamlet was "desperate with imagination."
Hamlet has been acting a bit strange ever since his meeting with the ghost of his father, the late king Hamlet. He has certain mood swings. One minute he will be sarcastic and mocking and the next he will start talking with a certain passion that betrays his real feelings towards his mother and uncle. But whatever the ghost said was only told in confidence by Hamlet to Horatio. Hamlet now knew for sure that his uncle was the "villain" who had poisoned his father and took all that was dear to the late king Hamlet. Hamlet also knew that he would have to avenge his father's murder.
When Hamlet saw the players before the play within the play scene, he asked one of the players to act out a scene from one of their previous plays that Hamlet had seen. After the player did this and showed a true passion "For Hecuba!" who was a fictional character, Hamlet compared it to his own passiveness in both word and deed for not yet taking revenge on his uncle. At the end of the soliloquy, even though he thinks the ghost is telling the truth, he needed to be sure that this (the ghost) was not a demonic deception. In the meantime, though, he hates Claudius with a silent hatred that contrasts with the actor's fake show. Hamlet calls himself "gutless." This is simply a human response to being unable to do his deed. Especially, as Hamlet was upset that he needed to make compromises with the world in which he found himself, since Hamlet still didn't know for sure that the king was guilty. Hamlet felt ashamed for having procrastinated on taking revenge. He also felt that he was a "coward" who was "pigeon-liver'd and [lacked] gall." He had previously asked if the players were willing to play The Murder of Gonzago, (with a short speech added by Hamlet himself). His plan was to "catch the conscience of the king." Also in the event of this scene Shakespeare has shown the depth of Hamlet and Horatio's friendship because on Hamlet's asking, Horatio would have also been watching the king during the play. There is trust here because if the king found out about this he could put Hamlet away, claiming the reason as treason.
Hamlet experienced a sort of annoyance to make his one and only ally truly understand what he felt. This is shown very clearly nearer the end of the play when Hamlet admitted to foreboding to Horatio, when both suspected foul play was looming, after Osric brings forth Laertes' challenge. But Hamlet had decided that "We defy augury." He also tells Horatio that there was only " [fate] in the fall of a sparrow." Hamlet is not going to let his apprehensions interfere with his showing courage and doing what he must.
"Though wouldst not think how ill alls here about my heart; but it is no matter."
Horatio's expression shows what Hamlet was feeling and thinking. He knows that Hamlet thinks that the life he leading was now of no consequence and there just was no point in living and Horatio's statement that "[Hamlet] will lose", emphasizes as much.
"I will forestall their repair hither and say that you are not fit",
Horatio's words imply that he knows that Hamlet is willing to die if that is what this duel comes to. "The readiness is all" is the answer that Hamlet will find for death. Hamlet points out that nobody really knows what death is, so why be afraid to die young? In the Shakespearian times the audience would believe that when God watches over us He will let no harm come to us. This scene also represents the closeness of these two men and the confidence in their friendship and in each other too. It provides the audience with an insight to the emotional climax that is about to take place.
Horatio is beside himself with grief because of Hamlet who is near death's door after the duel. He knows that Hamlet is dying and he doesn't want to let go, so he took the cup that was laced with poison and tried to drink it saying that he was more of an "antique Roman than a Dane" but Hamlet wrenched the cup away and told him that he had to live so that in the "harsh world" in which Horatio lived, he must "draw a breath in pain" so that he could "tell [Hamlet's] story." "Now cracks a noble heart" carries a wealth of emotion on its own. And when it was said by Horatio, it showed how deep his friendship to Hamlet was and vice versa and it also showed the amount of love and respect he had for Hamlet.
There is a counter-balance in this friendship. Shakespeare has Hamlet and Horatio portrayed as two halves of a whole in a true and honest friendship. There is quite a contrast in this friendship and it also supports the theory of opposites attracting. On the one hand, Hamlet is quite a bit impulsive - like when he went into the forest after being beckoned by the ghost to do so and when he kills Polonius - and wouldn't think twice before he says something - his promise to late Hamlet's ghost that he would avenge his father's death. He then starts to procrastinate about his decision. Whereas on the other hand, Horatio was very cautious and he always thought of the odds and nearly weighed every option he had. Just before the duel he was sure that there was some hidden agenda from the opposing party. His calmness often brought Hamlet out of his depression. Horatio's caution was what made him tell Hamlet that he saw the late king's ghost to Hamlet. And it was Hamlet's impulsiveness that made the men hold him back.
Shakespeare used Horatio as a nonentity if not for his help to verify any vagueness in the play and also for his interaction with Hamlet. In the whole of the play Hamlet, Horatio is the only character that is free of deceit and revenge. In a way he could be called the 'pure' character. And Hamlet himself is an ambiguity. In the play Hamlet is shown as a very resentful person who finds pleasure in making fun and taunting the people around him. But seeing as Hamlet is supposed to be righteous and just as opposed to vengeful and bitter there is an apparent confusion among the members of the audience. But in the environment he was in, deceit and counter plots caused a whole lot of other problems for Hamlet. That was how he was the cause of Polonius' death. Hamlet killed him in his mother's closet after the play within the play scene. Polonius was listening to the conversation between mother and son while hiding behind the arras. Hamlet was also the cause of Ophelia's madness. Even in this it was his friendship to Horatio that brought the fact to light that Hamlet was a 'good' guy. The only thing that kept Hamlet nearly sane was the friendship he had with Horatio. The emotional conversation with Horatio just before the duel with Laertes puts a big emphasis to the fact that Hamlet is a 'good' guy.
So in conclusion to the question "How important to the play is the friendship between Hamlet and Horatio", it could be said that it is very important as in this friendship there is purity and honesty that contradicts the other themes in the play: dishonesty, revenge. But it is also important to the play as a whole because Shakespeare has set a deceitful environment in which the play is carried out. This is shown above and also throughout the whole of Hamlet and the friendship. Horatio's loyalty shows a brighter and manageable environment that Hamlet could handle. Shakespeare has also used the friendship as a dramatic device nearer the end of the play, when Hamlet sent a letter to Horatio informing him of his return to Denmark. The dramatic device being their friendship, the Shakespearian audience can gain a proper understanding with the bits of very useful information that can be obtained when the scenes between Hamlet and Horatio are read. This makes the friendship very helpful and precious.
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