To Be A Brute Or Not Be

A Brute Essay, Research Paper

~To be a Brute, or not to be a Brute~

William S. Burroughs once said, “Nothing exists until or unless it is observed. An artist is making something exist by observing it. And his hope for other people is that they will also make it exist by observing it. I call it ‘creative observation.’ Creative viewing.” This quote lends a great ideal, an ideal that inhabits the essence of this paper. Perception is just how you see something! Perception is an individual process in which you take a look at an object or a situation and based on your level of being, culture, and/or education you do what is called “creative viewing.” Something that is trash to one man, is art to another. Something that is ugly to most may be the most beautiful object in someone else’s eyes. Human nature entails passing judgment or perceiving things quickly, it is an instinct, but another part of human nature allows a negative or a positive reaction to it. Being very educated on his situation and his power in his life young Hamlet has quite a big chunk to take in all at once. Popov too has a brute that changes her was of life, and she quicker than Hamlet must make life decisions. They both had much to perceive, and they did it very creatively.

The first pattern between the two characters is the loneliness they are faced with. Mrs. Popov is a widow who was the textbook perfect wife. Her husband gone only a short while, she discovered love letters from the other women that her husband was sleeping with. Mr. Popov left her alone for weeks while wooing other women and squandering away her money. While sweet innocent Mrs. Popov, a very beautiful lady, waited in trust. Even after her husband’s death she remains faithful to prove that she is the most faithful and she will see no one and buries herself in her house and waits for her death. Hamlet is in the same situation, only twisted slightly. His father was killed and a very short time later his dear mother married the murderer. He is the only one that knows for sure, because the ghost of his father told him. In his return home from school he is given an opportunity to make justice of the murder but in this great deed he questions his own existence and to what extreme must he go to stay faithful to his father.

Hamlet acts as a madman perhaps to make his job easier. If he is a madman no one will wonder why he is rambling on or asking too many questions. Madness is his cloak from the world. Mrs. Popov acts as a crazed widow. It may not be as extreme but she is left alone to do as she pleases. Both are haunted or hunted by the dead person in question. Hamlet of course his father, and Popov her husband. Hamlet has been given a great mission to save the state and have revenge for his father’s death. Mrs. Popov is emotionally assaulted by a man who claims to be owed a great deal of money. Both characters seriously have to take into consideration if what they are encountering is really real. Old Hamlet could possibly be a demon in disguise, or some other evil form that could make big trouble for young Hamlet. Mrs. Popov has to deal with the fact that maybe this man did not even know her husband. Perhaps the notes he has are forged by himself, and the only reason he is there is to steal her money and in the process finds her incredibly attractive so he refuses to leave. The possibilities are there for interpretation.

Because this great literature it all comes out fine in the end, but the reader is taken through their process of getting there. Hamlet could have simply returned to school and left his state to the mercy of his father’s killer and never looked back upon it. Mrs. Popov could have never fought with the brute and could have let him sit there until the money arrived from town. But both persons in question took initiative had to have a process in their minds of how they were to deal with the situation. Hamlet of course being very long winded told us every thought he had in that process. Mrs. Popov did not tell us of her think, but showed us that she was thinking and in her mind there had to be some reason why she was fighting with this man. Somewhere in Popov’s mind she was attracted to this brute that was crude and rude and forced himself into her life. Hamlet had to restrain himself from seeking immediate revenge and to be patient and catch the evil ones with sins on their souls.

The formats of each of the plays were uniquely different. One very short, one very long made the actual physical connection between the plays near impossible. But when they are looked at on an intangible level and go on sheer discovery and emotion one can see that Popov and Hamlet are in the same boat. Both did the right thing. One of course ended up dead, but that was the noble thing to have done. The other found love again and basically spat on the memory of her dead husband, but he was a scumbag it just took this rude man in her life to realize that she did not have to lock herself up until she died. It is all in how you look at it, perceive it and creatively view it.