Hamlet 

Curator: Oh, my stars, talk about a theatrical storm brewing on paper! This piece has me instantly transported to a darkened stage. Editor: Indeed. This is an ink and pen drawing entitled "Hamlet" by John Austen. It's an evocative piece that clearly draws upon traditions of academic art while also embracing a stark, linear aesthetic. Curator: Stark is spot on. It's all angles and anxious energy, isn't it? The artist’s focus on line work really exaggerates the emotion—the sharp terror on the queen's face! Hamlet’s mid-lunge—it’s like a frozen explosion. Did something go horribly, terribly wrong? Oh, of course it did, it's Hamlet. Editor: Well, let's delve into that ‘something’. The scene depicts Hamlet confronting his mother, Queen Gertrude, and during the confrontation, he mistakenly kills Polonius, thinking it was Claudius hiding behind the arras. That action set in motion the ultimate tragedy, correct? Curator: Bingo. And look at the detail Austen uses in Gertrude’s costume! All those hypnotic patterns that manage to both define and almost smother her. It speaks volumes about the gilded cage she inhabits and probably how the poor thing has lost sight of the right course to chart in this nightmare. Editor: The pattern certainly contrasts with Hamlet’s simpler, darker attire. And consider his posture—sword drawn, yet almost… hesitant? It underscores his internal conflict, the agonizing 'to be or not to be' of it all made visual. We could consider his mental distress, his indecisiveness, as forms of protest or resistance against the patriarchal expectations laid upon him. His ‘madness’ gives him power. Curator: Oh, he is stuck between the sword and a very hard place! This scene gets me every time. Editor: The starkness, as you say, coupled with Austen's choice of ink as a medium enhances the somber and high stakes, underscoring themes of revenge, madness, and moral corruption, each resonating with different contemporary issues still, to be honest. Curator: Exactly! Gosh, it’s all just masterfully captured in simple ink. What a story… What a world! Austen teases it all from a simple medium and it still feels vibrantly, painfully relevant. Editor: The play invites enduring questions about power and the individual versus society. This drawing is proof of that power, don’t you think?