Symbolism

THE PIPE AS A SYMBOL FOR HAMLET

Within Act 3, Scene 2 of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet compares himself to a pipe - setting up this pipe as a symbol for himself as he is in this situation. First, we will examine the moment itself in which Hamlet speaks on a recorder, and then we will break this scene down to examine how the recorder functions not only as a musical instrument, but as a symbol for Hamlet himself.

SCENE 2

lines 372-402

Hamlet: Ay, sir, but "While the grass grows"--the proverb is something musty.

Enter the players with recorders.

O, the recorders! Let me see one. [He takes a recorder and turns to Guildenstern.] To withdraw with you: why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil?

Guildenstern: O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.

Hamlet: I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?

Guildenstern: My lord, I cannot.

Hamlet: I pray you.

Guildenstern: Believe me, I cannot.

Hamlet: I do beseech you.

Guildenstern: I know no touch of it, my lord.

Hamlet: It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.

Guildenstern: But these cannot I command to any utt'rance of harmony. I have not the skill.

Hamlet: Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery, you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.

line 387. Hamlet: “It is as easy as lying.”

Here, Hamlet calls playing the recorder as easy as telling a lie; to “play upon” this instrument takes no more effort than does speaking an untruth. However, after Hamlet makes this assertion to Guildenstern, he tells Hamlet he does not have the skill to play said pipe. This interaction mirrors all of Hamlet’s interactions with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern within the events of the play - as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have evidently believed that “playing”, or tricking, Hamlet himself is as easy as telling a lie, even though we have seen that the two of them are not particularly skilled liars. In the first scene of the act, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern speak to Claudius about Hamlet’s disposition, and during this conversation they constantly contradict one another’s stories. Rosencrantz says Hamlet accepted them “most like a gentleman” (line 12), and Guildenstern tacks on “but with much forcing of his disposition” (line 13) - how could Hamlet have acted like a gentleman while also acting forced? Rosencrantz asserts that Hamlet was “niggard of question, but of our demands most free in his reply” (lines 14-15) - in other words, Hamlet didn’t want to talk, but he also fully answered all their questions. The story they tell Claudius doesn’t add up; we, as the audience, understand that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not skilled liars - just as neither one of them has the skill to play upon the pipe. Yet, even though they are not good at lying, they still seem to believe that lying to Hamlet will allow them to trick him - so the pipe becomes a stand-in for Hamlet, as it seems like it would be easy to “play,” yet takes much more skill than Rosencrantz and Guildenstern possess to effectively do so.

line 392. Guildenstern: “I have not the skill.”

Guildenstern admits here that he does not know how to play the pipe; it is also evident, in his lack of deceptive skill, that he does not know how to “play,” or trick, Hamlet.

lines 393-394. Hamlet: “ . . . how unworthy a thing you make of me!”

Hamlet, here, shows that he believes himself something that would take time and skill to understand or to play a trick on; the pipe, as his symbol, takes time and practice to master. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are trying to break apart a complex person with simple and flawed stories, just as an unskilled player trying to create music on a pipe would fail to play a melody.

lines 401-402. Hamlet: “Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.”

Here, Hamlet sums up his argument concisely: just as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have no skill with a pipe, they do not have the skill at deception to play upon Hamlet.

THE PLAY AS A SYMBOL OF DECEPTION.

Also within Act 3, Scene 2 of this play, Shakespeare uses the play put on by Hamlet himself as a symbol for the deception within the royal court of Denmark.

SCENE 2

lines 149-151. “Anon comes in another man, takes off his crown, kisses it, pours poison in the sleeper’s ears, and leaves him.”

The poisoning of the king during the play takes place during dumb show; this is symbolic of the truth about Old Hamlet’s death, and its subsequent covering up, or “silencing” - just as the actors do not speak during dumb show, but their actions show the truth, the words of Claudius over his brother’s death mean nothing, but his heinous actions are at the truth of the matter.

lines 162-163. Hamlet: “We shall know by this fellow. The players cannot keep counsel; they’ll tell all.”

Acting would normally be thought of as deceptive in and of itself; the players are all acting as characters, and not as themselves. The entire point of the enterprise is to “deceive” their audience -- they want the people watching them to think of them as their characters, not separate people. However, within the context of the play, the actors of this play-within-a-play are being more honest than anyone else involved. Claudius murdered his own brother, and is now masquerading as a benevolent king. Gertrude took Claudius’s affection under the guise of their marriage being best for the state, when in reality it was likely a lustful relationship. Polonius and Claudius are using Ophelia to trick Hamlet; Hamlet himself has set up the entire play to attempt to discern Claudius’s guilt in the murder of his father. None of the main characters have completely clear and non-deceptive motivations -- making the actors, as they unwittingly act out the true events of Old Hamlet’s murder, the most honest characters in the entire situation. Hamlet, knowing this, points it out in his commentary to Ophelia, showing the play as a symbol of just how deep the deception in Denmark’s royal court runs.

line 255. Hamlet: “O, but she’ll keep her word.”

The woman in the play at first seems more honest - in this case, faithful - than Gertrude does; however, Hamlet knows that she will not keep her word, just as his own mother did not. Her dishonesty shows the truth of the situation, and of Gertrude and Claudius's relationship. The play itself represents that deception.