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The scene begins with Claudius tasking Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to take him to England. Then Claudius begins to pray over his “heavy burden.” As he is praying, Hamlet happens by and decides quickly to stab him to death, but then realizes that he is shriving and will go to heaven, unlike his father who was killed “unhousled…unaneled” (1.5.84) and has to burn off sins in hell. Hamlet will wait until he kills Claudius while “…drunk asleep, or in his rage…about some act that has no relish in it” so “his heels may kick at heaven”(3.4.94-99) as he plunges headfirst to hell.
Yes: Hamlet would drink hot blood right then, but decides to wait to assure not only revenge, but the justice of Claudius in hell.
Male heirs. Heathcliff has played the board masterfully: Hindley beat him as a child and Heathcliff indebted him, stole his son, broke him.
Edgar and Isabella made fun of the dirty, swearing servant boy; Edgar as adult thought Heathcliff still servant in station; Edgar lands a lucky punch to his throat; Heathcliff takes the sister, makes an heir, and crushes that family, and walks in as master: if your ethic is that revenge is justified, he is your man.
As students of history and social equality—what was that? What did you say, Boy?—you know that women can’t own property. Catherine is trapped. Nell, a servant, is no social equal: she speaks her mind and is tolerated—but the superior’s shut-up is backed by termination of at-pleasure employment. No labor board or lawyer to complain to.
A woman’s protest—regardless of station—could be met with abuse. No police, no CPS. Heathcliff established his level of physical control, and we understand that Linton, not strong enough physically, will work his as does the rat.
Heathcliff relays to Nell his bribery of the sexton to show his Cathy’s corpse, and to secure a spot next to her when his time comes. Then he tells of, some eighteen years ago, digging to her grave in a snowfall to die next to her. But then her ghost “appears”—and keeps appearing.
“Now since I’ve seen her, I’m pacified – a little. It was a strange way of killing, not by inches, but by fractions of a hair-breadths, to beguile me with the spectre of a hope, through eighteen years!” (230)
Nerves of catgut.
We suppose that Heathcliff would have killed himself at her death, but the hope that she would come back more substantially stops him, and he reckons that she has killed him by teasing her spectral presence.
Have you ever had a ghost lover? Let me tell you…
I’m using a site for one-way text messaging, Remind. (Formerly known as Remind101.) The address for AP lit 2015:
I will also communicate with you via the mailing list, and here. As it stands right now — although the schedule is not “set in stone” until day one — I have the Health and Medicine section on AP lit, and Ms. Sandoval has the other SLCs.
(The address for last year’s AP lit 2014 is https://www.remind.com/join/cb6ce83)
Again with “nightmare – grotesque”
Henry Gatz. “He told me I et like a hog once, and I beat him for it.” So much can be revealed about a person’s upbringing in a simple sentence.
And again, the owl- eyed man. (You will encounter people like this in your life, who, in a few words or a simple action, restore faith in humanity.)
“…and then the owl-eyed man said ‘Amen to that,’ in a brave voice.” Amen to what?
Timeshift to the Midwest of the past, as an explanation of Nick’s decision to leave the East and return to it.
May you never run into such careless people, but be warned that they may be rich or poor.