When used to describe an inanimate object or creation, “piece of work” is an admiring or at least neutral phrase: the thing described is complex, of note, of value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.whatapieceof.work\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/thor-is-a-thunderous-piece-of-work.gif\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When used to describe a person, “piece of work” carries an air of exasperation and can be either complimentary or derogatory: the person described is complex, of note, difficult<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both of those are compelling. Either creating or being a piece of work <\/em>is a meaningful and willful act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hamlet <\/em>is a deeply humanist play that cares enormously about what people think and feel, but a little less about what they actually do<\/em>. Most of the major action in the play happens off-stage, or is thwarted almost immediately:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Potential<\/em> is weightier than action<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We know what we are, but know not what we may<\/em> be. <\/p>Ophelia (Hamlet 4.5)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In Act 2, Scene 2, Hamlet is approached by two of his oldest friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They’ve been sent by King Claudius to spy on Hamlet, an incredible betrayal, and Hamlet asks only that they admit it and explain why: “If you love me, hold not off.”<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n When R & G are unwilling or unable to explain, Hamlet offers plausible motivations for both Claudius’s behavior and his own: Claudius is worried about Hamlet’s state of mind, and Hamlet is depressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hamlet starts: “I have of late\u2014but wherefore I know not\u2014lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises…”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This speech, like many of Hamlet’s big moments, is beautifully ambiguous, and I think it works best when it begins as a performance and ends as an outpouring of accidental honesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The wherefore<\/em> is obvious to the audience: Hamlet lost his father, and his father’s ghost claims that he was murdered by Claudius and Hamlet must revenge him. Later Hamlet claims that he had been in “continual practice” of sword fighting during this period, so he isn’t forgoing exercise, either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hamlet goes into more detail on his depression, and how “indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory<\/em>.“<\/em> The world, he claims, is flat and lifeless, and so too are the people in it: mankind may be “the beauty of the world, the paragon of<\/em> animals,”<\/em> but Hamlet declares that “Man delights not me.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Honestly, “Man delights not me” would be a perfectly good way to end a speech explaining why Hamlet has been antisocial and rude at court, but there’s an final tacked-on line that I always find hilarious: “No, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The speech ends as strangely as it began; Hamlet, preemptively annoyed at the joke he thinks his friends might<\/em> make, doubles down on his insistence that he doesn’t enjoy anyone’s<\/em> company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/blog.whatapieceof.work\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/good-place-piece-of-work.gif\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\nHamlet on Humanity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The Speech<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/443e4009098b411fdac2453370b153ff\/tumblr_pnaitbck3J1svpozyo5_500.gif\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Man](\"https:\/\/blog.whatapieceof.work\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/no-nor-woman-neither.gif\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.ifunny.co\/images\/ca5c168c4a4700df9d30736633f4da1272bc6f02b466934a50606cb8e8c2f02b_1.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/0f8da8b6083d3c7951227457ec79da1b\/tumblr_p8r4myCw781w6rviko1_1280.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n