Posted by
Mike on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 11:04:19 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
In the play
Hamlet, the
protagonist appears to have lived at the dawn of Christianity in
Denmark, as we may gather from Shakespeare's use of the Roman name
Claudius for Hamlet's ill-fated uncle. This would put him in the early
to mid-9th century, about the time of the first missionary activity in
Denmark and Sweden of the Frankish St. Ansgar, not a bad guess for
Shakespeare in placing the legendary Amleth over three centuries before
his first surviving written account by Saxo in the late 12th century,
although Amleth was probably a pagan prince whose grandfather lived in
the 7th century.
Hamlet is then a transitional figure between
two worlds, paganism and Christianity. His moral judgment can be
expected to encompass both.
Comparisons to Obama apparently originate with Sam Schulman's article in the
Weekly Standard of March 9, 2009. This represents the neo-conservative point of view.
There
is some validity in that both Hamlet and Obama were still young
when they experienced a meteoric rise to power. Axelrod and Plouffe are
readily substituted for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Both Hamlet and
Obama are transitional in fully accepting the teachings of Christ, one
can assume, as both of Obama's parents were atheists, his father having
roots in Islam, Christianity and animism in Kenya. The comparison is
valid then in shedding some light on Obama's controversial appearance
at the Notre Dame University graduation ceremony. Hamlet's actions were
motivated by a desire to avenge his father's death. It is hard to see
how this fits in with Obama's life. One would have to dissect
Dreams from My Father allegedly ghost written by Bill Ayers to find the answer to this question.
Regarding
Obama's ambivalent style which WPR's Judah Grunstein characterizes as
"weak and vacillating" particulary with respect to foreign policy decisions last
month, also in reference to Hamlet, my view is that both personalities
act cautiously and wait for a propitious time to act as fate would
allow. Some of this criticism is obviously exaggerated, as for example, in regards to
Anita Dunn's use of a quotation from Mao. This particular trait,
according to some, is what led ultimately to Hamlet's tragic demise.