Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Hamlet

Just the other night I saw Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It was a wonderful two-act play, but over three hours long. So, not unexpectedly, my mind did wander. For those of you not familiar with Hamlet, it is a tragedy (just about everybody dies in the end), and it has a multitude of memorable lines. In the beginning I was sure that I would be able to equate Hamlet, the hero, to President Trump. However, in the second act, I accepted the fact that this was going to be difficult as Hamlet was very hesitant which does not appear to be Trump-ian trait at least as far as his tweeting is concerned. Also in the second act Hamlet feigns madness. I do not think that Trump is feigning anything – what you see, is what you get, and he does not fake anything!
Again for those of you not familiar with the play, the really bad guys are King Claudius and Queen Gertrude who did whatever dastardly deeds that were necessary to get power and are intent on keeping it – using just about any means possible. I had no trouble seeing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi as the king and the queen as they seem to have very similar character traits.
Certainly Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern could easily be Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, as they are supposed to be Hamlet’s friends, but sneakily turn into his enemies. They are convinced by King Schumer and Queen Nancy to turn on Hamlet and late in the second act they “sell him down the river”, when they are prime players in a plot to have Hamlet killed. From my way of thinking this fits as both McConnell and Ryan say that they want to help our hero (Trump) but instead only seem to hurt him.
In the end I did conclude that the play could well be a metaphor for the Republican Party as everyone kills each other, just as the Republicans are doing now.

As I listened to some of the lines in the three hour marathon, my mind did wander to the present day political scene. Listen to some of these famous lines, and let your mind wander . . .

“There is something rotten in Denmark”
This is certainly describing the Fake News and the Swamp.

“To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of a thousand..”
This certainly describes an unusual person in today’s Washington.

“To thine own self be true”
Advice from Republican voters who cannot understand why those that they elected are now changing their stripes.

“To be or not to be, that is the question!”
Either you are with our President or you are his enemy, and I am having trouble figuring out where both elected and non-elected conservatives stand.

“Brevity is the soul of wit.”
Hard to describe Trump’s tweets as anything else.

“Sweets to the sweet”
When one of his compadres is in trouble and appears to have been railroaded, Donald Trump stands by him . . . Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

“The lady doth protest too much, me thinks.”
Certainly seems to be describing Maxine Waters!

“If we are true to ourselves, we cannot be false to anyone.”
If Trump continues to keep his campaign promises, how can anyone who is honest be critical.

Before going into the play, I was talking to a woman who was originally from St. Louis Park, Minnesota. She proudly stated that both Al Franken (uber liberal Senator from Minnesota) and Thomas Friedman ( far left columnist of the New York Times) were both from St. Louis Park. Since Hamlet is a tragedy, I could not find a way to get either of these jokers into this essay. As this encounter was before the play, I was then thinking to myself, “Was there something toxic in the St. Louis Park water?”
If it had been after the play, I would have been smart enough to have said to her (just as Hamlet said to Polonius), “Get thee to a nunnery!”

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