Blog #14: Revenge and Espionage

"People who really love each other don't have secrets" (The Good Shepherd).  Despite Miriam's double life as an undercover Soviet Operative and her affair with Edward Wilson, she is one of the most moral characters in the movie, The Good Shepherd.  After graduating form Yale, Edward Wilson, is recruited by the CIA.  As the grows more loyal to the organization, his training as a spy takes over, leading him to distrust everyone, drive apart his marriage, and overlook his ideals. 


Maybe fate pushed me to watch this movie after recruiting Hamlet's friends "...to draw him on to pleasures, and to gather,/ so much as from occasion [they] may gleam,/ whether aught to [them] unknown, afflicts him thus..." (2.1.15-17).  Like Edward Wilson, they seemed so eager to start their espionage-esque work. And I, believing that I had once again done right by my son, thanked "...Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz:/ [beseeching them] to visit/ My too much changed son" (2.1.34-36).  Like Miriam said, "People who really love each other don't have secrets" (The Good Shepherd).  So why was I so willing to go behind my son's back to find the root of his madness?  "But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading" (2.2.168).  He paces around these halls like a caged animal, yet he won't say one word to me.  I know he's watching too.  Was I so obsessed with my job as his mother that I deciding it was okay to throw away his right to privacy?  I don't want to be Edward Wilson, giving up his ideals to keep his job.

I went to the balcony to get some fresh air, but I overheard my "spies" talking with Hamlet.  "My lord, we were sent for" (2.2.269), said Guildenstern.  Hamlet said, "I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery,/ and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no feather" (2.2.270-271).  I can't believe my cover was blown so easily! What will Hamlet think of me?  It's for the best, that he knows the truth; no more secrets have to run in our family. But now I'll never know what's been bugging my son.

My secrets were revealed, but what about his? I pray that all the other mothers out there never have to endure what I have today,
Queen Gertrude