Holden and Romeo are very similar in the sense that they both make decisions using their emotions. Caulfield also invokes Hamlet in referring sarcastically to Ackley, one of his prep school floor mates, as "a gentleman and a scholar," a phrase used by Hamlet to describe Horatio. Holden resents betrayal, even accidental betrayal, and he dislikes Romeo after the hero inadvertently causes Tybalt to kill Mercutio. When he says "there's the rub," he means "there's the drawback." Holden Caulfield is dealing with his own mortality and decisions including whether or not grow up and deal with or to hide away in his fantasies. Holden and Hamlet are both grieving loved ones that have been lost. He gets quite depressed, reacting almost as I did years ago during my second psychotic break, when I thought the newspapers were sending me subliminal messages just to torment me.
When he picks up a magazine in Grand Central Station, he reads an article in which he seems to resemble the man in the piece who has "lousy hormones"; then, he reads an article about sores in your mouth possibly leading to cancer. Indeed, it may be impossible to find a single page where he is not drinking (or attempting to drink) alcohol, smoking, spending money or swearing, behavior characteristic of someone in the thralls of mania.Even more intriguing to me are his psychotic symptoms. Hamlet and Holden Clinton W. Trowbridge Department of English Adelphi Suffolk College Oakdale, New York TO some, I fear, what I am about to argue will seem the most blatant form of mistruth, horrendous, even, in its lack of taste, a kind of literary sacrilege, in fact. Things will change. Everything is depressing and he is in a spiral of sadness. He enjoyed the smallest part of the play were Ophelia was “horsening around with her brother and teasing him” but the larger meaning of the play was lost to him because he kept “worrying about whether he's going to do something phony every minute”. In William Shakespeare's Hamlet the “ to be or not to be” speech is all about Hamlet dealing with his problems. Then there is the contempt that Hamlet heaps on Osric, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, and Polonius, which is not unlike the contempt Caulfield displays toward all the phonies like his girlfriend, "old Sally.
He appears on the album cover for I Love You. When Hamlet is considering his own death and suicide he says “to die; to sleep; no more; and by a sleep to say we end” in this passage he has decided it s easier to just die. He starts fearing that he won't be able to get across street intersections, and to help him he talks to his deceased brother, Allie, whom he adored.Some have cited the parallels between Caulfield and Hamlet, both of whom are grieving a loved one. Holden starts getting sick of Mr. Antaloni's witty … Sally says she will get home on her own. Add your voice! When he doesn't immediately throw her down and go at it, she gets irritated. Hamlet believes that death is empowering and killing yourself is a way to take action by “defeating the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”. In the quote “boy, I felt miserable.
He believes everything is other people's fault because he is so immature and cannot take ownership of his own deeds. And while Caulfield gets into two fights in the book, he does not start them.
... Who does Holden say is the worst slob in The Catcher in the Rye? That is the power you give up to other people.
Hamlet’s madness, which if acted, would have been put under two different categories in the era it was written. Holden Caulfield even mentions Hamlet. Holden Caulfield will always be known for decrying phoniness, but perhaps he should also be remembered for his myriad acts of kindness throughout the book, filling the donation box of two nuns, balancing a see-saw so a kid won't fall off, generously tipping a woman at the coat-check, giving his turtleneck sweater to a boy who later commits suicide, and buying his kid sister, Phoebe, a record, though it slips from his hand and breaks.
What does holden say about hamlet catcher in the rye? "It is ironic to me that killers like Mark David Chapman or wannabe killers like John Hinckley have allegedly hailed A true psychotic, like Caulfield, is much more likely to be a pacifist, than a murderer. After making a date with Sally he started obsessing about money saying “it always ends up making you blue as hell”. You can feel Holden's manic frenzy to connect with someone, even if he has to connect with somebody who has died, like his brother Allie.