Weeding the Garden

Shakespeare: The name I cringe at because we all know reading anything from this time period is not exactly easy. I mean I don't exactly remember much of Romeo and Juliet other than watching the old version and the Leonardo DiCaprio one. I vaguely remember reading a few lines, and stopping to translate it to modern English, and then starting again. But as we've gone on reading and gotten farther into Hamlet and I'm having a much easier time understanding what is going on. It's like Spanish class. You just have to try to flip the switch to change what you think like normally. But also watching it and reading it at the same time has helped a lot too. I can hear how each of the characters sounds which helps me to understand the tone a heck of a lot better.

Skipping over the ghost and Claudius address to the Royal court, I want to talk about Hamlet. First of all, I feel terrible for Hamlet. Absolutely terrible. I mean it can't get much worse than your uncle becoming your dad and taking over the throne. He just sounds completely heartbroken. He says, "'tis an unweeded garden/ that grows to seed: things rank and gross in nature" (135-136). He is seeing nothing but death and evil overgrowing in what used to be a beautiful garden. When I think of  garden, I think of my grandmother's garden that is always full of the most beautiful flowers in the spring and butterflies are all around. But I also think of my grandfather's vegetable garden that's just a skip and a jump down from my grandmother's. His garden always is growing something. Whether it be tomatoes, or eggplant, or raspberries which just happen to be my favorite. It's always providing. If we go off of the providing idea, while the King was alive, he was the garden that supplied his kingdom with goodness and nutrients. He was the reason they were able to live so happily and enjoy the butterflies. But now that Claudius has come into the picture, he has taken over that garden that was once able to provide for everyone and all it is now is dead. The evilness has not been taken away from the garden. But who tends the garden?? Is it Gertrude?? Hamlet's mother that has betrayed her late husband and married his brother? Why yes it must be! Behind every happy man is a happy wife! As some say: "Happy wife, happy life!" And this might just be me, but I feel the woman secretly has control over her husband most of the time. Flashback: Nora controlled Torvald with ease. She was manipulative by the way she danced for him or put on shows. She tempted him. Gertrude can be the same way! Hamlet remembers that Gertrude would "hang on him/ As is increase of appetite had grown" (143-144). Gertrude was probably the mastermind behind the thrown. And while we are comparing the two, if Nora had others that she flirted with, Gertrude probably did as well. Claudius perhaps. It's all one big loop between the garden and who tends the garden. But if this little tangent is right, what will become of the kingdom? Will Hamlet take over Gertrude's role of tending the garden since she can't see what has grown right under her nose? Or will he let it collapse as he still mourns the death of his godly father?