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The Tragedy of Hamlet Shakespeare’s Danish Revenge Drama Background First performed in 1600 Midpoint of his career Shakespeare himself played the Ghost in the original production Anglo-Saxon “Amleth” legend likely the source Elizabethan Beliefs Helpful to remember Elizabethans had different understandings than we do about: Ghosts Depression/Melancholy Revenge Edwin Booth (19th Century) Ghosts and Apparitions There were serious books about the etiquette of dealing with ghosts and apparitions Lewes Lavater states: “Melancholic persons and mad men imagine may things which in very deed are not.” “What those things are which men see and hear: and first, that good angels do sometimes appear.” “That sometimes, yea and for the most part, evil angels do appear.” Melancholy Elizabethans considered melancholy a physical response (ailment, illness) to events. It was not simply a “mood.” Symptoms included being: wary, circumspect, sad, jealous, paranoid, doubtful, suspicious, insomnia, nightmares Revenge Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which, the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. This view, indicative of Elizabethan thought, runs counter to the Ghost and Hamlet’s seeming need for revenge. Revenge Francis Bacon’s essay on revenge provides insights into Elizabethan values about revenge “Nay rather, vindictive persons live the lives of witches; who as they live mischievously, so their ends are unfortunate.” The most tolerable sort of revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to remedy [. . .] What’s it all about? Tragedy – mystery – revenge story – ghost story – political thriller Human nature Characters are both good and evil No easy answers Hamlet – so brooding Brilliant, brave, charismatic, funny Thinks in complex, ironic ways Likes to ask difficult questions “To be, or not to be” Literary Criticism in a Nutshell Literary criticism studies literature and attempts to evaluate its literary merit as a standalone and in comparison to others Criticism tries to provide a greater understanding and appreciation of the work. Harold Bloom Literary Criticism in a Nutshell Northrop Frye Some schools include: Historical Biographical Social Psychological Archetypal New Structuralism Post Structuralism Reader Response Feminist Schools of Criticism in a Nutshell Plato and Aristotle are classical critics and theorists who examine art’s direction and impact on life. 17th-19th Century: neoclassical and Renaissance: revival of the works of Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, and Horace (the “classical critics” but began to rebel a bit.) Romantic Post-romantic Plato Hamlet’s Literary Critics John Dryden 1631-1700 Thought Shakespeare corrupted the language with false wit, puns, and ambiguity. The very thing later scholars praised Laurence Olivier 20th Century Hamlet’s Literary Critics Schlegel 1772-1829 A founder of German Romanticism Saw Shakespeare as a romantic Hamlet’s Literary Critics Goethe 1749-1832 Hamlet’s masculinity Hamlet’s Literary Critics Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772-1834 Concerned with Hamlet’s perceptions versus the reality Hamlet’s Literary Critics Ernest Jones 18791958 Freudian Analysis Oedipus Complex Hamlet’s Literary Critics T.S. Eliot 1888-1965 Viewed play as “artistic failure” Hamlet’s Literary Critics G. Wilson Knight: The Wheel of Fire 1949 Perhaps the characters are neither good nor evil Sources “Famous Hamlets” http://www.d.umn.edu/~kmaurer/hamlet/famoushamlets.html (8/30/03) Department of Theatre, School of Fine Arts, University of Minnesota Duluth Lane, Steve. “Romantics Portrait Gallery”: William Hazlit thttp://www.mala.bc.ca/~lanes/english/engl201/stc1795.htm Delaney, Ian. "Short Course on Shakespeare's Hamlet". Teacher Created Materials. March 16, 1999. http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~iandel/essays.html (08/31/03) Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, Copyright (c) 2003. Hamlet Images http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/hamlet/hamletimages/branagh.htm (08/31/03) Sculpture Gallery “Plato” http://www.sculpturegallery.com/sculpture/plato.html (0/901/03) Companions of the Order of Canada Gallery E-H “Northrop Frye” (09/01/03 Stanford Presidential Lectures and Symposia in the Humanties and Arts, “Harold Bloom” http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/bloom/index.html (09/01/03)
