Hamlet, the Seventh Commandment, Adultery and Whoring (series)
HAMLET, THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT, and WHORING (series)
“Whoring” has long been used figuratively to describe political corruption, like the unfaithfulness of adultery of which some kings and leaders have been found guilty. Hamlet Haven summarizes Kay Stanton’s hermeneutic of deep suspicion in “Hamlet’s Whores” [2]:
This interpretation explores all the variations of whore-dom in Hamlet. The women are not the only ones prostituted. Like Ophelia, Hamlet is “‘whored’ by the father”: “The older generation incestuously prostitutes [...] the younger” (169). Further examples include Polonius prostituting Laertes and Reynaldo with plans of spying and Claudius, the “symbolic father,” similarly misusing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (169). But the victims are not entirely innocent either. Hamlet “whores” the theater and its actors [...] by perverting artistic purpose and integrity (173), and the play-within-the-play “whores him as he has whored it, making him [...] one of the ‘guilty creatures’ at and in the play” (185). Laertes misuses his favorite pastime, fencing, to destroy his perceived enemy (180). The duel, “a gruesome perversion of the sex act” complete with phalluses and pudendum (181), leaves a dying Hamlet to whore Horatio, Fortinbras to whore Hamlet’s story, and a new “bawd” to reestablish the patriarchy (182). Because these males insist on a binary opposition between genders, ever fearing womanly characteristics within themselves, they project their “whorishness” onto female targets, covering over masculine violence (178). The closet scene exemplifies this technique: after Hamlet murders Polonius, Gertrude’s “supposed sin is made to overshadow his actual sin and somehow to justify it” (179). Only in death does Ophelia escape the whore image, but she becomes the “worshipped Madonna as Hamlet and Laertes can then safely whore their own self-constructed images of pure love for her as rationale for violence against each other” (179). The whoring consumes the play, as Hamlet “‘whores’ Hamlet the prince to be the organ for its art” (183).
INDEX to this series on Hamlet and the Ten Commandments:
NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu
[1] Hamlet accuses Claudius of turning his mother into a “whore,” and similarly questions whether Ophelia is an “honest” woman, when she is being used as a tool by her father to serve his ambitions. In the Bible, prophets described the chosen people as going astray, claiming they were “whoring” after other gods, other priorities than their religious faith and the values it taught.
- Technically, if Hamlet had relations with Ophelia, Elizabethans would call it a sin of fornication, but if Gertrude and Claudius began an affair before King Hamlet’s death, that would be adultery. In the bible, Jephthah’s father was Gideon, who fornicated by having relations with a prostitute or harlot who was Jephthah’s biological mother, but the harlot committed adultery because Gideon was a married man. Hair-splitting.
[2] Stanton, Kay. “Hamlet’s Whores.” New Essays on Hamlet. Ed. Mark Thornton Burnett and John Manning. Hamlet Collection 1. New York: AMS, 1994. 167-88. https://www.hamlethaven.com/enjoyablereads.html#jenkins
[3] Stanton interestingly articulates many possibilities, but it is figurative and hyperbole. I don't agree with all of her claims, but her perspective sheds light.
[3] Stanton interestingly articulates many possibilities, but it is figurative and hyperbole. I don't agree with all of her claims, but her perspective sheds light.
IMAGE(s):
Kay Stanton, Cal State Fullerton professor of English, comparative literature and linguistics
https://news.fullerton.edu/2017/04/shakespeare-scholar-lecture/
https://news.fullerton.edu/app/uploads/2020/11/Kay-Stanton.jpg