Awakening
“Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
This quote by Ophelia in Act IV, Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is one of my favorites because it speaks of the unlimited potential of the human experience.
Pretty amazing that it was written more than 400 years ago, in 1602, at a time when England was suffering through a plague not unlike the one we’re going through in 2020-2021. The plague struck England in 1348, and because there was no effective way to counter the pestilence known at the time, it continued to wreak havoc until the Great Fire of London in 1666.
There is a pervasive theme of madness in Hamlet (to wit, Ophelia, who spoke the inspirational words above, went mad and drowned after falling from a tree branch overhanging a brook), but many scholars have opined that the play’s deep dive into madness and grief was Shakespeare’s way of turning torment into art following the death of his son, Hamnet, at the age of 11.
Author Maggie O’Farrell has taken this theme to a new level in her novel, Hamnet.
In the notes preceding the novel, O’Farrell writes that the names “Hamnet” and “Hamlet” were often used interchangeably at the time, and the play Hamlet was both a way for Shakespeare to express his deep anguish and helplessness and a means to keep his son alive in some form on the Elizabethan stage.
Michael Benz (Hamlet), Hamlet, directed by Dominic Dromgoole and Bill Buckhurst, Shakespeare's Globe, presented by Folger Theatre, 2012. Fiona Moorhead.
But back to Ophelia and her quote.
Some have read the quote to be a warning, along the lines of “you might think you know where you are, but watch out, because the future is full of scary things waiting to ruin your best-laid plans.” I agree that is a possible interpretation, but adoring Shakespeare as I do, and knowing that the majority of his plays and sonnets avow more of a “love conquers all” theme, I ascribe to a different interpretation.
What if Ophelia is observing that all our lives people have been telling us things about ourselves (i.e., you don’t work hard enough, you’re too quiet, you’re too loud, you’re not made that way, our family doesn’t do that, you got that from your father/mother, etc.)? And what if she’s giving us the inspirational message that we are not bound by what we’ve been told or what we think we are today?
“What if we are not bound by what we’ve been told or what we think today?”
I find that to be a much more freeing and uplifting message, and one that helps create positive changes. Haven’t you ever been told that you can’t do something or it won’t work because “that’s just the way it is,” only to find that when you tried it, it was something you wished you had done sooner? It could be anything from tasting a new food to taking a class to telling someone how you feel about them.
Shakespeare is telling us not to accept our circumstances because someone tells us it is so.
At the time Shakespeare was writing Hamlet, his son, Hamnet, had already been buried for several years.
Mourning the death of a child was the state of things until Shakespeare poured his heartache onto the pages of a folio that allowed his son to live again.
Through his pain, Shakespeare awakened to his potential as a playwright and artist who has touched the lives of readers and playgoers for over four centuries. His words call us to awaken to our own potential.
“What if we are not bound by what we’ve been told or what we think today?”
#awakening #potential #hamlet #hamnet #williamshakespeare
