Tunasoma "Hamlet"

Muhula huu nina mwanafunzi mwingine aliyeamua kujitungia kozi yake mwenyewe na kuifanya chini ya usimamizi wangu. Utaratibu huu uko hapa chuoni St. Olaf, kama nilivyowahi kuelezea katika blogu hii.

Kwa kushauriana nami, mwanafunzi alijitungia kozi juu ya "The Living and the Dead: Folklore and Tragedy." Tulikubaliana kusoma Agamemnon (Aeschylus), Beowulf (translated by Seamus Heaney), Inferno (Dante Alighieri), Hamlet (William Shakespeare), Othello (William Shakespeare), Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Marcia Marquez), na As I Lay Dying (William Faulkner). Tumeshasoma Beowulf, na sasa tuna soma Hamlet.Napenda kusema neno kuhusu Hamlet katika mkabala wa kozi yetu hii.
Kwanza napenda kusema kuwa niliwahi kuongelea Hamlet katika blogu hii. Nilifanya hivyo kwa kujikumbusha tamthilia hii maarufu. Lakini sasa tunaisoma tukiwa na lengo la kuihusisha na mada ya kozi "The Living and the Dead: Folklore and Tragedy."

Hamlet ni tamthilia ya tanzia ("tragedy.") Hilo halina utata. Hamlet ana masononeko akikabiliwa na maamuzi magumu kufuatia kifo cha baba take katika mazingira ya kutatanisha. Katika tamthilia hii tunakutana na watu walio hai na pia mzimu wa baba yake Hamlet. Ujumbe wa mzimu ni kuwa aliuawa na mdogo wake, ambaye ni mfalme aliyeko madarakani. Baada ya mauaji hayo, mdogo huyu alimwoa mama yake Hamlet. Kuwepo kwa mzimu kunatupa fursa ya kujionea mfu aliye hai. Katika mazungumzo, wahusika wanaongelea masuala ya kifo na uhusiano wake na uhai. Mama yake anajaribu kumtuliza:

Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust.
Thou know't 'tis common, all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.
                                                       Act 1. Sc II

Hamlet mwenyewe anaonekana akijiuliza iwapo ni bora kuendelea kuishi na kukabiliana na magnum ya maisha au kujiua ili kuyamaliza. Tunamsikia akitafakari suala hilo katika hotuba yake maarufu "To be or not to be" ambayo ni moja kati ya hotuba maarufu kabisa katika tamthilia za Shakespeare:

Ham. To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die--to sleep--
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die--to sleep.
To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub!
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.... 
                                              Act. III. Sc. I

Ninapenda kusema kuwa mwanafunzi wangu na mimi tumeanza vizuri kuiitafakari mada ya "The Living and the Dead.: Folklore and Tragedy." Kila kitabu kina mchango wake katika kuilezea mada hii. Haya tutayadhihirisha kadiri kozi inavyoendelea.