Hamlet #5: The Role of Art

When speaking with the actor in Act III scene ii about how he wants the play to be acted, Hamlet makes a statement about the purpose of acting. He says, "the pur- / pose of playing, whose end, both at the first and / now, was and is to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to / nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her / own image, and the very age and body of time / his form and pressure" (III. ii. 21-26). Hamlet believes the purpose of acting is to portray real life and to criticize that which needs criticizing. This idea relates to another text we read this year, The Picture of Dorian Gray. In The Picture of Dorian Gray the portrait of Dorian serves to contrast Dorian's beauty with his personality flaws. In comparing The Picture of Dorian Gray to Hamlet's statement about the purpose of art, we can equate the portrait in The Picture of Dorian Gray to "playing" in Hamlet because both are examples of an art form that reflects aspects of life.