true love

[the afflicted attempts to impose order through reasoning accepted wholly from one intriguing source and sketchily affirmed through experience - a side-effect of the syndrome.]

Here is a study in opposites: Horatio and Hamlet. Their relationship is highly intriguing, and seems to be the one of greatest mutual affection in the entire play. One of my very favorite speeches in the play is essentially a declaration of Hamlet's love to Horatio, in Act III, scene 2:

"Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath seal'd thee for herself. For thou has been
As one, in suff'ring all, that suffers nothing;
A man that fortune’s buffets and rewards
Hath ta'en with equal thanks; and bless'd are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well co-mingled
That they are not a pipe for Fortune’s finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee."

I don't propose that there’s some manner of romantic or sexual tension between these two, but there is obviously a very strong bond of brotherhood, such as is shared, for example, by Frodo and Sam in The Lord of the Rings. If anyone decides to make cracks about Frodo and Sam, or Hamlet and Horatio, being gay, that is entirely their own decision, and I wash my hands of any responsibility which might be placed with me for putting ideas into their heads.

It is clear to me that the two get along so well because they are at once completely and totally different and completely and totally accepting of the other's self, possibly because they see so much virtue that they themselves lack. This is David Keirsey's definition of perfect love and understanding, as extrapolated from Carl Jung's temperament theory. This theory encapsulates four personality dichotomies, which combine to discuss many more opposing traits and issues with which Hamlet wrestles throughout the play. These include, but are by no means limited to: order and chaos, thought and action, masculinity and femininity, duty and impulse, sanity and insanity, and especially the Cartesian mind and body.

A brief rundown on the last: the Cartesian mind and body are accounted for by Jung and Keirsey by dividing the world into groups: Earthlings, or sensible, observant, "down-to-earth" people, and Martians, or abstract, nonlinear, introspective thinkers, are the two groups resulting from the first divide in the overall population. The next divide, interestingly, splits each group by a different characteristic. The Earthlings are split by their degree of respect for tradition into guardians (traditional) and artisans (exploratory); the Martians, on the other hand, are split by the essential Cartesian element, the third of the four personality variables. Martians who make decisions based on reason are called rationals, whereas those who act according to emotions are called idealists. Rationals, the epitome of the Cartesian mind, are the rarest of the four groups mentioned here. Reasonable Earthlings (dubbed operators and administrators) also fall on this side. Idealists and emotional Martians (conservators and entertainers) tend to be more ruled by the Cartesian body.

In my opinion, the psychologists probably decided not to divide Earthlings by the Cartesian element because Earthlings don’t care whether they're ruled by the mind or the body. Such metaphysical balderdash generally matters to them not in the least.

If I had to guess, I'd peg Hamlet as an ENFP (extravert intuitive feeling perceiving) type and Horatio as an ISTJ (introvert sensing thinking judging) type –– that is to say, Hamlet is loud, a nonlinear thinker, irrational, and constantly reexamines his beliefs, whereas Horatio is quiet, a linear thinker, sensible, and unerringly loyal to traditional institutions and old friends. The two are polar opposites; each of the four characteristics has only two options (introverted/extraverted, intuitive/sensing, thinking/feeling, judging/perceiving) and Hamlet and Horatio share no characteristic. This makes them strong candidates for mutual fascination and love –– provided neither tries to change the other into a copy of himself, a phenomena of human relations which has an obnoxious tendency to destroy initially loving and happy relationships. The problem is further described in Dr. Stephen Montgomery's book The Pygmalion Project.

To allow for easier understanding of type compatibility, Keirsey tagged each of the sixteen types with an occupation, a job that the average individual of that type would be inclined toward. Hamlet's type (which I share) is sometimes called "the journalist" or, more often,"the champion" –– a natural choice for the tragic hero. He, being an idealist, leans on the side of the Cartesian body. Horatio's type, I was amused to find, has been nicknamed "the inspector." This is too appropriate for words, since Horatio is counted upon time and time again to make use of his senses to confirm the hunches of other characters; he literally looks into or inspects issues about which there is some controversy, and his word is counted as trustworthy above all others. Who do we trust so well? Why, levelheaded thinking men, of course - Cartesian minds.

The first instance of dependence upon Horatio for inspection occurs in Act I, in both the first and fourth scenes. In the first, the night watchmen ask him, a man of learning, to confirm their sighting of a ghost, which he does; in the fourth, he is the first to see the ghost, after which the other characters also acknowledge its presence. Hamlet makes similar use of him in Act III, scene 2, during which he asks Horatio to watch his uncle for any signs of discomfort resulting from the play.

Whether or not his eyes are more reliable than anyone else's is a matter of debate, but Horatio himself is trustworthy to a fault. In spite of his clear impression that Hamlet is not possessed of all his marbles ("These are but wild and whirling words, my lord"), he respects and serves him as part of the monarchy, and as a friend. When Horatio receives a letter from Hamlet, whom he must by now realize is in bad favor with the court, requesting that he come meet him, the inspector leaves immediately, without question. In the end, he is entrusted with Hamlet's legacy, because, frankly, he can be.

So why does Horatio like Hamlet so much? There's the loyalty issue, but what initially attracted the pair to one another? It was probably Hamlet's quirky, poetic, outspoken intellect, and the implication of his mere presence that there is something spectacular and irrational to the world which will forever be a fascinating mystery to a staid mind such as Horatio's. A fantastic encapsulating line of their relationship is spoken by Hamlet near the end of Act I:

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Such a line, and such a disposition, simultaneously enthralls and frustrates Horatio, since it is beyond his otherwise keen comprehension. Horatio never says this aloud during the play because, unlike Hamlet, he's not inclined to make whimsical, poetical professions of emotion; he is both too quiet and too reasonable for it.

Usually, "morals" in Shakespeare are ambiguous, but here a lesson is clear. The implication of such a psychological phenomenon, and especially of this relationship, is that the Cartesian mind and body desperately need one another and work best in unison –– a rather romantic notion for such an angsty play.

(Interestingly, in Zeffirelli's Hamlet, Horatio is wholly stripped of his INTJ personality and, indeed, seems to have no personality at all; he, much as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the same film, is just a plot device.)