Hamlet's Nietzschean madness, via M. Grenke - Hamlet & the Odyssey - Part 5

Perhaps one way to view the corruption in Denmark in Shakespeare's Hamlet, and to view Hamlet's madness as well, is that it has to do with slavery to time and to impatience. As I mentioned in my previous post, Hamlet makes some of his worst mistakes (killing Polonius), not because he delays, but because he is impatient. Claudius kills his brother, not only because he wants the throne, and wants Gertrude for his wife, but because he is impatient.

Michael Grenke's Fall 2016 essay, “Penelope: The Odyssey’s Creative Thinker,” includes rich reflections on the character of Penelope from Homer's Odyssey, and about Nietzsche and the madness of impatience, or slavery to time.

I would suggest that Hamlet feels a similar pressure and impatience about revenge due to images of masculinity that he has learned from his father and his culture, and which he has internalized.

Grenke writes:
~~~
Human beings become slaves to the clock mostly because other human beings put them on the clock. In one of his notebooks from 1882, Nietzsche writes “Madness is rare with individuals—but with groups, parties, peoples, times it is the rule.” [...] What Nietzsche seems to have in mind is that our intercourse with other human beings pressures us to adopt illegitimate modes of thinking. We must agree or, more accurately, pretend to agree about many matters regardless of whether we have the resources and have utilized those resources to come to a well-founded conclusion.[...]

It is bad thinking to declare a matter resolved before it is resolved. It is a mental defect to think one knows what one does not know. Yet it seems that social life pushes our thinking into this premature and self-deceiving form. Not only that, the matters that society demands we resolve are matters that move our passions deeply. [...] We very often do not know, but when another human being disagrees with us, we act as if we do know and as if they ought to know. We would never demand that a human being give a solution to an equation before they had actually worked it out, but in many matters of much greater concern to us we demand something like that from our fellow human beings. We put them on the clock. [...]

Her suitors have put Penelope on the clock. They are aggressive and avaricious. [...] They are perhaps the result of a generation of young Greek men who have come up, thanks to the war, without the benefit of the guidance of the previous generation. They are perhaps just a flaring up of unfiltered human nature, opportunistic predators that see something desirable (authority in Ithaka, wealth, a beautiful woman) undefended and are not sufficiently inhibited by conventions that have no force to back them up. It is unsafe not to come to some kind of agreement with such suitors.

~~~
Hamlet’s false sense of masculinity similarly puts him on the clock, as perhaps we do Hamlet, when we question his delay.

~~~~~~~
NOTES:
[1] “Penelope: The Odyssey’s Creative Thinker,” by Michael Grenke Fall 2016, The College https://www.sjc.edu/news/penelope-odysseys-creative-thinker

IMAGES:
Left: Penelope awaiting Odysseus, circa 1900. By Heva Coomans (1860-1939), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Heva_Coomans_-_Penelope_awaiting_Odysseus.jpg

Center: Penelope Unraveling Her Web, by Joseph Wright of Derby. Exhibited 1785. Getty Center. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Wright_of_Derby._Penelope_Unravelling_Her_Web_by_Lamp_Light._exhibited_1785.jpg

Right: Penelope, circa 1514, by Domenico di Pace Beccafumi (–1551). Seminario Patriarcale, Venice. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Domenico_Beccafumi_-_Penelope_-_WGA01540.jpg


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
POSTS IN THIS SERIES:

1. Laertes in Hamlet & the Odyssey - Part 1: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/08/laertes-in-hamlet-odyssey-part-1.html

2. Laertes in Hamlet & the Odyssey - Part 2: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/08/laertes-in-hamlet-odyssey-part-2.html

3. Seeking Penelope in Ophelia & Hamlet: Laertes & The Odyssey - Part 3: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/08/seeking-penelope-in-ophelia-hamlet.html

4. Hamlet's Delay, Penelope's Weaving, via M. Grenke - Hamlet & the Odyssey - Part 4: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/08/hamlets-delay-penelopes-weaving-via.html

5. Hamlet's Nietzschean madness, via M. Grenke - Hamlet & the Odyssey - Part 5: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/08/hamlets-nietzschean-madness-via-m.html

6. Hyperion & Lazarus: Rich Men & Pitiless Gods - Hamlet & The Odyssey part 6: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/08/hyperion-lazarus-kings-rich-men.html

7. Sixteen Ways of Looking at Hamlet & Odysseus - part 7: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/08/sixteen-ways-of-looking-at-hamlet.html

8. Hamlet and Homer (Louden, Aguirre, Hornback) - part 8: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/08/hamlet-and-homer-part-8-louden-aguirre.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.
To find the subscribe button, see the = drop-down menu with three lines in the upper left.