Blog #22: Hamlet Act 2 Blog

"M: You don’t trust anyone anymore, do you Bond?
Bond: No.
M: Then you’ve learned your lesson.”

Casino Royale was the first Bond Film from Daniel Craig, it looks how the real world of spying is a cruel and disgusting business underneath the flash and wealth. In the end, Bond succeeds in his mission but ends up killing the one woman he ever loved. In that sense, it mirrors Hamlet's superficially pleasant court but deeper problems. Spying is a symbol for amorality.

Note: I say M is a good person in the writing, she is actually amoral.

As Polonious, who would like a popular action, spy thriller:

Sometimes, I feel like M from Casino Royale. Heaven knows this isn't the first time that the royal court has been host to spywork and scandal, but there seems to be far more of it of late. I feel like I'm running a great game, the only one around here who actually knows whats going on. The good king seems unsure of Hamlet, "What it should be, // More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him // So much from th' understanding of himself, // I cannot dream of" (2.2.10), but I certainly know what's going on. I've sent Reynaldo out to make sure my son behaves while he's in France, and now it seems I'll need to send Ophelia out too. I'm the great chess-master moving pieces for the good of Denmark.

Also like M, I may have misstepped, in the same place too it seems. Love, like how it turned out poorly for Bond and Vesper, may have ruined Hamlet. If I had been a little cleverer, I may have been able to salvage the situation. "But beshrew my jealousy" (2.1.113-114)! M is a good person, but she miscalculated in the end, I shall not fail so.

But what to do about it all? "This is the very ecstasy of love, // Whose violent property fordoes itself // And leads the will to desperate undertakings // As oft as any passion under heaven // That does afflict our natures" (2.1.102-106). I have a plan, "And I believe it is a fetch of wit" (2.1.39), I'll send my daughter to him, and from his reaction the King and Queen will know that he is love and my reputation will grow with it.


I am quite proud of thinking out it. #Clever
I don't understand why Hamlet's all weird except for maybe his Dad dying. #Mydaddiedtookid
On top of all the spying, let him do what he actually set out to do. #Laertesbegood
Love make him cra-cra. #chillout
Maybe this whole thing could have been avoided if I were a little more humble. #Oldpeopleproblems