Absolutely love Hamlet Act 4 Scene 5 where Horatio enters the room along with the Queen and the Gentleman who explains about Ophelias madness, stands there for a while without saying anything, then leaves right after Ophelia. Horatio, why are you even there? What’s going through your mind? Why does everyone who isn’t named Hamlet literally ignore you in every scene? Why didn’t you mention Ophelia’s madness to Hamlet when you guys met up in Act 5? I have so many questions.
What I find so fascinating about Horatio is how he seems to act merely as Hamlet’s shadow for most of the play. There’s one line in Act 5 where Claudius addresses Horatio directly*, but other than that, all the major characters except Hamlet act as though he doesn’t exist. He’s present when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern speak to Hamlet after the play-within-a-play, but his presence isn’t acknowledged by either of them. He is present in the above mentioned scene with Ophelia, but nobody acknowledges the fact that he’s there. In the gravedigger scene, there is no actual dialogue between him and the Gravedigger. It’s the same with the Osric scene, where Osric only ever seems to acknowledge and reply to Hamlet’s remarks, and during the duel where nobody except Hamlet talks to him.
Then there’s the dialogue between Horatio and Fortinbras at the end. Now that Hamlet is dead, it’s Horatios turn to step out of the shadows and finally take the centre stage.
—
* «I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him»
I’m not saying it’s possible to do a staging of Hamlet where Horatio is Hamlet’s imaginary friend, but I’m also not saying it isn’t possible.
… there is an idea of a Horatio, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.
