BLOG #12: HAMLET SOCIAL MEDIA BLOG POST

"Why did you come here?" 

"To bring those who have wronged me to justice."

This is the mission of the honorable Prince Oberyn Martell in Season 4 Episode 8 of Game of Thrones, and in many ways the same mission has bestowed itself upon thine own prince. You see, the Viper, as Prince Martell is known, didn't make the long journey from Dorne to King's Landing without reason, no. He was seeking out the Mountain, responsible for the death of his sister, Princess Elia Martell, as well as the murder of her children. Likewise, I seek to appease my lord father’s soul in “his foul and most unnatural murder,”(1.5.25). Aye, to avenge the unjust deaths of one's pure kin is a noble quest indeed.

You see, like the Mountain, the inadequate Claudius is no true nobleman and has no place upon the court. They each hath no honorable bone in their bodies. They are the seeds of corruption, the roots of the reason for why “something is rotten in the state[s] of [their nations],” (1.4.90). Though King's Landing is admittedly in a state of greater disrepair. While the rest of the royal court carries on with their lives with what appears to be grace and virtuosity, these beasts walk among them, presenting only false facades to hide their transgressions. In passing they are called “knight” and “king”, but in reality they are no more than knaves. And Elia's children, oh, the children. Such purity and innocence has been lost. Though King Hamlet was no child, he was a pious and noble ruler, most fit to be king. Compared to their victims, Claudius and the Mountain are “like a mildewed ear blasting [their] wholesome [victims],”(3.4.65-66). And not to mention the brutish means of their murders! King Hamlet was merely “sleeping in [his] orchard [when] the serpent stung [him]”(1.5.35-36). The Mountain, after slaughtering Elia’s darling babes, did rape her with their blood upon his hands. Like mine father, their murders be most “foul and unnatural,” (1.5.25), too. Such cowardice, striking the innocent in their defenseless states!

Thus, I must conclude, to slay a beast like the Mountain who can commit such heinous crimes is a privilege and honor for Prince Oberyn. But what of I then? What of the false king, Claudius, who sits upon the throne, that which is rightfully mine? "What would [Prince Oberyn] do, had he the motive and the cue for passion that I have?" (2.2.481-483).