While watching a 1948 movie version of Hamlet, certain words hit home from my experience for the past few years:
" 'tis an unweeded garden, that grows to seed, things rank and gross in nature possess it merely."
--> I could not help but laugh out loud and remembered a few people who perfectly fall into this category. As such, this truth has remained unchanged for over four centuries. The good news is that leaders like Hamlet's father also exist.
"To be, or not to be, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the world to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them?"
--> I did both and left an unweeded garden. In fact, with no metaphor at all, even now I cannot weed my own garden under this scorching weather...
"The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely...the insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes."
--> It's comforting to know that my agony was timeless.
This classic play dissects the ugly human ego through the eye of Hamlet, who represents an upstanding character. It was disappointing that he was killed in the end, but right before that the entire truth was revealed.
As this is literature, the author might have intentionally included a component that makes the audience somewhat hopeful so that William Shakespeare could encourage them to come back and enjoy his other work. In reality, secretiveness plagues leadership and it is often covered with an ostensibly perfect story.
At the same time, there are so many really nice people out there. But that may not make very intriguing theatre.
