1. Intro to Hamlet
Shakespeare’s most performed and most read play
 Mixes a traditional ghost story/revenge tragedy with psychological and philosophical mysteries
about the characters and life itself in ways that make it very rich and open for wildly diverging
interpretations
 Representation of tormented inwardness; a psychological drama
 Richness of its language and profound human insight make it a timeless work.
 Filled with contradictions, complexities and ambiguities that have given different ages and
cultures different ways of interpreting and finding relevance in it.
More than a play: A flexible common denominator that reveals each age.
 “There is something astonishing Hamlet’s capacity to accommodate the most bafflingly different
readings”
Background
 First appeared in written form in 1603; a number of subsequent revisions exist
 Shakespeare at the height of his powers and popularity as playwright
 Retells ancient Norse tale/Thomas Kidd version performed in Elizabethan England
 Scholars believe Shakespeare wrote an earlier version after death of his son Hamnet
 Written around the time of Shakespeare’s father’s death, with grave concerns about issues of the
afterlife, salvation, and damnation
1. Characters: Complexities and contradictions
Hamlet
∙ Tragic hero
∙ Existential hero fighting depression
∙ Thoughtful philosopher; intellectual
∙ Frustrated man of action
Famous Hamlets:
John Gielgud
Mel Gibson
Laurence Olivier
Kenneth Branaugh
Ethan Hawke
Derek Jacobi.
∙ Ruthless killer
∙ Misogynist, antagonistic to women
∙ Feigning madness or actually mad. Insane, or “idiotically sane with lucid intervals of madness”
∙ A Perturbéd spirit: Victim of depression, neurosis; psychological complexes
∙ Insufferable, self-indulgent martyr
Other characters
Crafty politician, loving (though overbearing) father
Polonius
Bumbling, foolish, obsequious, bombastic man; spy; exploits his own daughter
Innocent, virginal (or maybe not), victimized by men; driven truly mad
Ophelia
Involved with Hamlet, voice of abuse/exploitation/betrayal of women
Regal queen, mother, wife; loves her son; also victimized by men
Gertrude
Incest, guilt, complicity
Sinful king, ruthless authoritarian dictator
Claudius
Attempts to rule well; tortured by guilty conscience
Hamlet: Key Themes
Conflicting Value Systems
Medieval Norse Warrior Culture vs. Renaissance Christian Morality
“The time is out of joint. O cursed spite
That ever I was born to set it right.” (I, v, 210-11)
Vengeance, power, betrayal, assassination
The “murderous politics of vengeance”; ruthless authoritarian power
Spying and Surveillance; secrecy and deception (“Trust no one”)
Hamlet→Claudius
Claudius, Polonius→Hamlet (using Ophelia and Gertrude as pawns)
Polonius→Laertes and Ophelia
Ros & Guil→Hamlet
Madness, Neurosis, Inner Psychological Disturbance
“Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t” (II, ii, 223-224)
“How does Hamlet? Mad as the sea and the wind” (IV, I, 6-7)
Look beyond the oversimplified question of whether Hamlet is insane or not
Perturbéd spirits: Hamlet; Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia
Action vs. Intellectualism, Reflection, Internal Turmoil
Acting and deception: Seeming vs. Being
Deceivers (Hamlet, Claudius, Polonius) and victims (Ophelia, Gertrude, Ros & Guil)
Death: “The undiscovered country”
Hamlet’s paradoxical fascination with and fear of death and mortality
The metaphysical mysteries of death and what comes after (“the undiscovered country”)
Issues of salvation vs. damnation
The physical realities of death (decomposition, worms, skulls, “quintessence of dust”)
Death as the great leveler—renders all, kings and commoners, alike in mortality
The play is ominously death-haunted—like Beloved it is set in a middle ground between life and death
Fate and Providence
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough hew them how we will.” (V, ii, 11-12)
“The time is out of joint. O cursed spite
That ever I was born to set it right.” (I, v, 210-11)
Human nature: sublime, sublimely flawed
“What a piece of work is man. … Yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust” (II, ii, 327)
Misogyny and exploitation/abuse of women
Families
Unhealthy, dysfunctional parent/child relationships; Oedipal tendencies
Loyalty, love, duty, guilt, retribution