Wilson on Hamlet

The book What Happens in Hamlet by J. Dover Wilson was recommended to me as a future read.  While the book itself has joined a rather lengthy "to do" list, an excerpt from it appears in Hamlet:  Enter Critic (see 7/29/13 post).  That allowed me to get a taste and to move the parent work a bit further up among future reads.

The excerpt discusses the deteriorating relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia.  Specifically, it deals with the puzzle of Hamlet's language toward her in the "nunnery" scene (III, i).  Why should Hamlet subject her to such "inexcusable" treatment?  The answer, Wilson posits, is simple.  Hamlet must have overheard Polonius' previous comment to Claudius:  "At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him" (II, ii).  Wilson describes how a simple stage direction might include Hamlet entering in time to hear the lines before he is noticed and engages in conversation with Polonius.

Making this assumption, Wilson continues, eases the general working of the plot.  It becomes the "mainspring" of acts 2 and 3.  It adds intelligibility to the nunnery scene.  Also, it adds "fresh light and shade" to the play scene.

If this is the case, then what might be the reason for Hamlet's appearance and conduct in his earlier interview with Ophelia (II, i)?  When last we left him, he was hearing from the ghost of his father and vowing to put an "antic disposition" on.  Wilson believes, though, that Hamlet's conduct towards Ophelia at this stage is not part of that guise.  He ascribes it to some sort of "terrible dream or overpowering delirium" resulting from Hamlet's melancholia and his recent visit with the ghost.  We see that his mental instability has grown more intense since that previous scene.  He seeks Ophelia for consolation, gets nothing and realizes that their relationship is over.  Once Hamlet overhears Polonius' scheme in a subsequent scene, he is "consumed with savage anger" and decides to use Ophelia as the cause of his "antic disposition" to fool Polonius.

It is an interesting and sensible hypothesis and one that will now be an item to consider whenever the opportunity to see a performance of Hamlet arises.