SHAKESPEARE,
HAMLET
COMMENT: A single question — issued as a challenge in the opening words of Shakespeare's
Hamlet — plays itself out in a multiplicity of ways throughout
the remainder of the drama: Who's there? The question first
spoken by Bernardo, officer of the watch, has a double
significance even in that opening scene. Bernardo asks the
question when he hears his relief approaching in the darkness.
Soon, however, when the watchmen discuss the mysterious
apparition that has been troubling the midnight hour for the last
several nights, we realize that the answer to Who’s there? will
have both natural and supernatural dimensions. And
eventually, Who’s there? becomes the essence if not thewords
of each different character who poses the question seeks to
discover an answer. "Who's there?"
a question arising from the
uncertainty of knowledge; from the
unbelievable reports of our senses;
from the incredibility of testimony;
and from the deceptiveness of
appearances — these questions are
Hamlet —the character and the
play. They open the plot and they
provide the substance of Hamlet's
self-referential soliloquies.
It is, however, not only the answer to this question variously posed
which must concern us. We must also consider how are the fixations
of the title character. “Who's there?” “Who am I?” “What must I do?”
“What is man?” These are the questions young Hamlet continually
asks himself. A prominent academic literary critic and scholar — Harold Bloom — has recently
asserted that Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with its title character’s introspective questioning and
skepticism concerning the certainty of human knowledge, stands as the creation of the modern
individual. No doubt, Hamlet stands as a crucial work in the western Cultural Tradition. But is
this the first time we have heard such questions? Have we not encountered these questions
before? Are not these concerns at the heart of Montaigne's attempts to assay himself?
A CONVERGENCE:
Montaigne, The Essays, English translation 1603.
Shakespeare, Hamlet, 2nd Quarto version – on which modern editions are based – 1604.
FOR DISCUSSION — an exercise in close reading or viewing:
Does Hamlet deserve his end? Why or why not? There are at least two different ways to answer
this question: one hangs on a specific “transgression” of Hamlet's! While another answer to this
question depends on his general nature or character.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND/OR A READING ESSAY: Consider the following –
if you choose to write do so only on one (approx. 300 words).
1. Discuss any two forms, sources, or incidents of uncertainty, indecision, or
misapprehension in Hamlet.
2. Discuss the play of appearance and reality in Hamlet.
3. Can Montaigne's Essays provide any insight into Shakespeare's Hamlet — either the
character of the prince or the play as a whole?
CONSIDER THIS: What role(s) do the big soliloquies (Eg. "To be or not to be . . .”) play in
our understanding of Hamlet? And incidentally, which are the great soliloquies?
OR THIS: How do the different film adaptations differ? And what do we learn — if anything —
about the original from those adaptations.