Was old Hamlet a manipulative shit? Or do you mean Claudius?
Of course Hamlet is allowed to grieve, as he has been doing since his first appearance, though in this scene it doesn't make for great drama. (It's not quite true that he has no one to help him: he has Horatio, which is more than Laertes does.) Part of my problem is the way in which he and his 'insights' have been lauded over the centuries by critics, and that of course isn't really his fault, even if he is still a bore.
However, any sympathy I have for him on this score is more than wiped out by what he does to Laertes five minutes later. Laertes - who also has a father murdered, who also has not been allowed to grieve (remember how they hurried Polonius's funeral through 'hugger mugger'?), and now has a dead sister to boot, whom the priest is making nasty comments about - is allowed a total of thirteen lines to express his feelings before Hamlet leaps in, outraged at his excessive verbosity! There are gaping double standards at work here, both from Hamlet and his admirers over the years.
The quote I gave comes just a few lines after Hamlet kills Polonius: I didn't have to scour the play for it. Of course, we can say that Hamlet is not to be held responsible for any of his words or actions from the beginning of the play to the end, and that the play is a case study in psychosis rather than a tragedy as usually understood. I think we'd lose rather more than we'd gain through taking that view of it, but feel free to make the case!
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Of course Hamlet is allowed to grieve, as he has been doing since his first appearance, though in this scene it doesn't make for great drama. (It's not quite true that he has no one to help him: he has Horatio, which is more than Laertes does.) Part of my problem is the way in which he and his 'insights' have been lauded over the centuries by critics, and that of course isn't really his fault, even if he is still a bore.
However, any sympathy I have for him on this score is more than wiped out by what he does to Laertes five minutes later. Laertes - who also has a father murdered, who also has not been allowed to grieve (remember how they hurried Polonius's funeral through 'hugger mugger'?), and now has a dead sister to boot, whom the priest is making nasty comments about - is allowed a total of thirteen lines to express his feelings before Hamlet leaps in, outraged at his excessive verbosity! There are gaping double standards at work here, both from Hamlet and his admirers over the years.
The quote I gave comes just a few lines after Hamlet kills Polonius: I didn't have to scour the play for it. Of course, we can say that Hamlet is not to be held responsible for any of his words or actions from the beginning of the play to the end, and that the play is a case study in psychosis rather than a tragedy as usually understood. I think we'd lose rather more than we'd gain through taking that view of it, but feel free to make the case!