Despite my experience of things said to me
As violent,
It is striking to hear Hamlet
Speak of having violence done to his ear
With something so small as a polite misleading.
It is hyperbolic surely.
Surely much more serious violence has been done to Hamlet’s ears
Than to hear his friend called a “Truant.”
Surely much more is about to be done in this play.
But he is ready to prevent Horatio’s enemy
From calling him names.
What will he do to the man who murdered his father?
Are we primed to think of Hamlet as a great defender?
Next to me in the café
A boss is reading the riot act to his employees over cupcakes.
He’s not talking to me
But hearing him reprimand his employees
As if they were children
Does my ears violence too.
The Hamlet Project 