Blog #24: Hamlet Act 4 Social Media Post

This is a selfie taken by Claudius, showing his flaws as it is taken at his brother's funeral. He stands arm in arm with Gertrude as they take a selfie announcing their engagement on Instagram that they will soon be married. This reinforces the fact that Claudius took the throne as well as his brother's wife so soon after his death, as they're advertising it at his funeral, as in the play, Hamlet says, "The funeral bak'd meats/Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables," (1.2.180), meaning not only was their marriage incestuous, but way too soon. In the background, people of Denmark are attending the King's funeral and Hamlet can bee seen kneeling on the ground in despair and dressed in all black as he mourn's his father's death. Not only does this selfie flaunt Claudius' vanity of his new power, but it also shows his sin of lust for Gertrude as his eyes are heart emojis. It also portrays the sin of pride, as he wears his new crown and brags to his Instagram followers of his soon to be wife, despite his dead brother's funeral going on in the background, definitely reinforcing the idea that, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,"(1.2.90), but all Claudius sees is how many likes his engagement photo is getting. Claudius uses an iPhone with a Hamlet case that reads, "To Be or Not to Be" which is actually Hamlet's phone, and the fact that Claudius is using Hamlet's phone to take the disgraceful selfie reiterates that Claudius could care less what Hamlet thinks of the situation and is not sensitive to his feelings as he mourns the loss of his father.