Hamlets Dresser, by Bob Smith, explores the theme of human loneliness with eloquence and offers a passionate appeal that the arts can be used as a healing tool to overcome the emotional ravages of loneliness. From reading Smiths book, one comes to understand that loneliness is many things, but learns that above all it is a feeling of despair that one is isolated and all alone in the world. This mistaken perspective is destructive, for it instills a profound sense of alienation and increases the suffering of lonely people.
Loneliness is a feeling of helpless vulnerability shaped by rejection from authority figures and society. Loneliness can have terrible consequences, for as a young, vulnerable boy, Smith felt profound rejection when he discovered that his teacher, Miss Shumaker, didn't like him. His reaction was understandable but tragic, for, "it was right after I stopped pleasing everybody." (Smith 139) .
This reaction shows how loneliness is self-defeating, for its emergence becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sadly, many people who are lonely come to believe that they deserve to be lonely and that they are isolated because they are inferior in some way. They feel that no one else shares their interests and become alienated from others, despite the reality that many people do in fact share their interests. Loneliness is also contagious, for when people become lonely as a result of rejection, many of them instinctively respond by rejecting others, which increases the level of loneliness in society instead of reducing it.
In exploring what it means in Hamlets Dresser when Smith begins to hear, " . . . the language of my incredible loneliness," (Smith 143) it becomes evident that he discovers that he can ease his alienation and loneliness by involving himself in Shakespeare plays. He joins the American Shakespeare Theater as the character Hamlets dresser, and then dresser other characters, performs in minor roles, and teaches Shakespeare-appreciation courses to senior citizens.
Elizabeth I was born on September 7, 1533 at Greenwich Palace near London. Her father was England's King Henry VIII; her mother was the king's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth had an older half-sister, Mary, who was the daughter of the King's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. As H...
Psychological Critical Theory's definition is a work of literature has done something valuable if it shed light upon the human mind, for example: Hamlet, Crime and Punishment, The Fall. ... Another poem that addresses wartime is The Wound Dresser'. ...
