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Week Two
1. Three literary works
2. Historical and Biographical Approaches
3. Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Historical and Biographical Approaches
I. General Observations
II. Historical and Biographical Approaches
in Practice
A. “To His Coy Mistress”
D. “Young Goodman Brown”
E. “Everyday Use”
“To His Coy Mistress”
Poet: Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
Poem
Theme: carpe diem
“To His Coy Mistress”
As in courtly love, the “coy mistress” was
treated like a goddess.
Yet later in the poem she was also
reminded that she was in fact human with
no Greek god’s or Biblical figure’s power
to stop time. Therefore she should not
waste time and should seize the day.
Marvell was a well educated man and a
Puritan. That explains the numerous
allusions on Greek mythology, courtly love
and the Bible.
Allusions in “To His Coy Mistress”
Bible: 4th BC to conversion of Jews to
Christianity / the Flood
Greek mythology: “Time’s winged
chariot”/ “slow-chapped power”
(cannibalism of Kronos)
Metaphysical conceits: “vegetable love” /
lovers roll up into “one ball”/ comparison
of worms will violate the mistress’s
chastity.
“Young Goodman Brown”
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
A short story
Hawthorne’s famous novel: The Scarlet
Letter
Film: The scarlet letter “A” stands for
adultery
Religion, Calvinism and Witches
“Young Goodman Brown”
Story took place at the days of King
William (reigned 1688-1702)
It was written in a Puritan New England
(Calvinism) background
Calvinism includes the doctrine of elective
salvation; that means people are chosen
for heaven or hell even before birth.
Therefore appearance is misleading, an
outwardly righteous person can be a
damned soul. (As in the story)
Puritan beliefs in “Young Goodman Brown”
Although modern readers may
consider the witchcraft and Devil
in the story as mere imaginations,
Puritans in that time believed
them to be real.
“Young Goodman Brown” may be
read as an example of Satanism.
Although there is no credible
record of Satanism killing, many
believed Satanism still exists.
“Everyday Use: for your grandmamma”
Author: Alice Walker (1944- )
A short story
Received the Pulitzer Prize for 1982 novel
The Color Purple
Film: The Color Purple
Racism, Sexism, Lesbians, Sisterhood
“Everyday Use: for your grandmamma”
Set in the 1970s in racially segregated
American South.
The narrator of the story was like Alice
Walker’s mother: a hardworking and
strong woman.
Maggie resembled young Alice Walker: the
scar, the shyness and lack of self-esteem.
“Everyday Use” took place at a time and
place when
dramatic
changes
of racial
“Everyday
Use:
for your
grandmamma”
relationships was happening. (The famous
Brown vs. Board of Education case)
Alice Walker is herself a strong civil right
activist.
Unlike Alice Walker, the narrator and
Maggie in the story didn’t rebel against
discrimination and oppression, but tried to
find their peace and satisfaction in the
status quo.
“Every Use” can be seen as Walker’s tribe
Historical and Biographical Approaches in
Practice: Hamlet
Author: William Shakespeare(15641616)
Script dated around 1599-1600
An immediate success in its time and
one of the most staged plays in history
Historical and Biographical Approaches
in Practice: Hamlet
Queen Elizabeth’s
advanced age
and poor health
leads to the
precarious state
of the succession
to the British
crown.
Queen Elizabeth by Nicholas Hilliard (1585)
Hatfield House
Hence,
Shakespeare’s
decision to mount
a production of
Hamlet, with its
usurped throne
and internally
disordered state,
comes as no
surprise.
Shakespeare's
"Hamlet" was a
remake of an already
popular play, based
in turn on an episode
from the Dark Ages,
the lawless, mightmakes-right era that
followed the collapse
of Roman-era
civilization.
Ophelia
In the original legend, the
prince was still a child when
his father was murdered. And
he learned of the murder
from the beginning.
Therefore he had to act
insane in order to survive
and wait for his revenge.
The prince in this version
was not a melancholic youth
but a model of heroes.
The Spanish Tragedy, a
predecessor of Hamlet
There is some
ground for
thinking that
Ophelia’s
characterization
of Hamlet may
be intended to
suggest the Earl
The
portrait
of
Earl
of
Essex
of Essex.
The Lord Treasurer,
Burghley
Another
contemporary
historical figure,
the Lord
Treasurer,
Burghley, has
been seen by
some in the
character of
Polonius.
Knowing about eleventh-century
Danish court life or about
Elizabethan England is particularly
germane to analysis of Hamlet.
The third quarto of Hamlet
(1605); a straight reprint of the
2nd quarto (1604)
In Hamlet’s day
the Danish throne
was an elective
one. The royal
council,
composed of the
most powerful
nobles in the land,
named the next
king.
Hamlet, Gertrude and the ghost
•
The custom of the throne’s
descending to the oldest son of the
late monarch had not yet crystallized
into law.
The charge of incest against the Queen
Hamlet and Horatio
in the Graveyard, 1839
Although her second
marriage to the
brother of her
deceased husband
would not be
considered
incestuous today by
many civil and
religious codes, it
was so to considered
in Shakespeare’s day.
Hamlet’s role in revenge
Modern readers/playgoers may think that
one of Hamlet’s flaws is that he took
revenge into his own hands and not resort
to law.
However, in Shakespeare’s time, Hamlet,
the son of a murdered father, and more
importantly, the son of an usurped king,
was not only the legitimate revenger, it
was his duty to take revenge and restore
order to Denmark.
What is “melancholy” to Elizabethans?
Nervous instability.
Rapid and extreme
changes of feeling and
mood.
The disposition to be
for the time absorbed
in a dominant feeling
or mood, whether
joyous or depressed.
Hamlet and the
Gravediggers by Jean
Dagnan-Bouverte
If we examine
Hamlet’s actions
and speeches
closely through
Elizabethan’s eyes,
we will realize that
at least part of
Hamlet’s problem
is that he is a
victim of extreme
melancholy.
Ophelia drowned
Different versions of Hamlet
Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet Hamlet in German
The Raj Hamlet
Shakespeare set in India
Hamlet in German
Many Hamlets
Mel Gibson,
with Glenn
Close as
Gertrude
Laurence Olivier
Kenneth
Branagh
Richard Burton
Ethan Hawke, with Julia Stiles as
Ophelia
Campbell Scott
Kevin Kline, with Dana Ivey
Ethan Hawke as Hamlet
as Gertrude
Shamlet! 莎姆雷特劇照
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Related links and resources about Shakespeare and Hamlet
The life of Queen Elizabeth–
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizabio.htm
BBC- Drama- 60 seconds Shakespeare
http://0rz.net/e61U6
屏風表演班 <<莎姆雷特>>
http://www.pingfong.com.tw/shamlet2006/shamlet_0
2.htm
Kakiseni.com– our Hamlet
http://www.kakiseni.com/articles/features/MDYyNA.
html
Hamlet in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet