The Hamlet Project

It occurs to me that the editors
May have put this exclamation mark here.
Or the printers (I’ll have to check the folio, huh?)
Perhaps it’s a dash –
Perhaps Hamlet is about to swear.
Perhaps there is more.
A sort of “O God, I swear that my love for my father is such – etc”
I’m not sure what that possibility gives us but it occurred to me
Because I can’t think of another instance
In the plays in which a character exclaims this way.
It feels like a very contemporary exclamation –
And an oddly brief and direct response from Hamlet.
It’s also curious that he says this, not after all the terrible descriptions of the hell
That his father has been condemned to, but at the mention of love.
If it’s a gasp, as it’s often played –
It’s interesting that it happens when the focus shifts to fatherly love.
I’m also amused that Hamlet has been quiet all this while
Until a line after he’s been told to “List, list, O list” and then he starts talking.
This happens in classrooms too. As soon as a group of people have been told
To listen carefully, that’s when they start talking.