HAMLET
Module B Critical Study of Text Requirements
The Module requires students to:
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• 1. Explore and evaluate a specific text and its reception in a range of contexts.
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• 2. Develop students understanding of textual integrity.
• 3. Students explore the ideas expressed in the text through analysing its construction, content and language.
• 4. Explore the question of textual integrity and significance and g y
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value in historical and other contexts.
Textual Integrity
• Textual integrity – the unity of a text; its coherent use of form and language to produce an integrated whole in terms of meaning and value.
• Textual integrity & History Textual integrity & History – Understanding the Understanding the
text in its historical context is essential to understanding textual integrity as values and
understanding textual integrity as values and beliefs differ over time.
• Students are expected to have some S d
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understanding of the Renaissance.
Renaissance
The Time Period
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The Renaissance refers to – the revival of the classical culture of i l f th l i l lt
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ancient Greece and Rome. It was about new direction in culture and civilisation that accompanied
and civilisation that accompanied the revival of pagan civilisation.
It was a period and culture based i Ch i ti it seen in terms of in Christianity –
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divine creation, the Fall, sin, virtue, moral laws, heaven and hell Christ and redemption and
hell, Christ and redemption and the Final Judgement.
Michelangelo ‐ temptation
Renaissance cont
Renaissance cont.
Great Chain of Being
The Time Period
• Political and social system based mainly on monarchy and local princedoms – strict class order of inherited status
class order of inherited status.
• A revival of the classics – A recovery in philosophy, Greek & Roman sculpture and architecture.
• Rise of Renaissance Humanism Ri
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– focus on the value of the world and the individual.
Renaissance cont
Renaissance cont.
The Time Period
• A new court culture –
education valued, learning, literature and the Arts.
• A radical direction in belief A radical direction in belief
and values towards materialism, individualism and challenges to traditional religion.
• A period of crisis between A period of crisis between
radical change and conservatism.
Ophelia
Shakespeare
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Shakespeare’s plays are a combination of verse and prose. bi ti
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There was an interest at the time in poetic speech, eloquence and wit.
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Stories are combined with an interest in ideas.
Shakespeare developed his plays in the direction of realism and complexity of character through the use of soliloquy that allows for the representation of inner states of mind.
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His plays are filled with radical ambiguity and multiple meaning
ambiguity and multiple meaning about the main character and themes.
His plays are a dramatic debate
His plays are a dramatic debate about the nature of humanity and explore and represent issues of the time.
Shakespeare’s tragedies are complex and ambiguous public explorations of the key themes of the Renaissance and the crisis in
the Renaissance and the crisis in belief & politics in London at the end of the reign of Elizabeth 1
Hamlet the play
Hamlet the play
Hamlet
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The purpose of Hamlet is to examine the human condition – to face our the human condition to face our
mortality, inaction and its consequences.
Shakespeare’s complex construction of Hamlet is what confronts the audience
Hamlet is what confronts the audience, forcing them to consider their own mortality and inaction and it is the universality of the dilemmas that haunt Hamlet that engages the audience as
Hamlet that engages the audience as they face cathises. The entire play hinges on Hamlet’s inaction, through the inversion of the revenge tragedy genre – a deliberate revenge tragedy genre a deliberate
ploy by Shakespeare to allow for exploration of human fragility, in the allegorical figure – Hamlet.
Revenge Tragedy
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The revenge tragedy genre of English literature generally refers to a body of dramatic works written from the mid‐1580s to the early 1640 T i ll th
1640s. Typically, these works feature such themes and devices as a k f t
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wronged revenge‐seeker, ghosts, madness, delay, sinister intrigue, a play‐within‐the‐play, torture, multiple murders, and the realistic depiction of bloody violence onstage. •
Nearly all of the major playwrights of the time contributed to this Nearly
all of the major playwrights of the time contributed to this
class of drama, including Thomas Kyd and William Shakespeare. Most literary scholars have credited Kyd with initiating the dramatic archetype with his The Spanish Tragedy . While critics have credited Shakespeare with bringing the genre to its artistic maturity with Hamlet (c. 1600‐01). •
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Critics have maintained that revenge tragedy was a markedly dynamic genre, observing that while Kyd invented the basic formula, his successors added ingenious new layers of dramatic suspense, characterization, symbolism, and ideological representation to the theatrical form.
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Many literary scholars have argued that the principal theatrical influence on Elizabethan revenge tragedy came from Seneca, a Roman statesman, philosopher, orator, and dramatist who flourished in the first century all of which dramatize murder and
flourished in the first century . all of which dramatize murder and betrayal and the subsequent quest to exact blood revenge on the villain or villains. These theatrical spectacles display hate, jealousy, and love; they also contain sensational elements, such as supernatural phenomena, cruel torture, and bloody violence. Conventions of The Revenge Tragedy g
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Found in Hamlet
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There are several aspects that all conventional revenge tragedies should contain. Firstly, a crime (against either law or morality) is committed, which for some reason goes unpunished by standard methods of justice. In Hamlet the crime is the murder of Hamlet’s father, this offence is compounded by Claudius’ swift marriage to Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. Of course, this crime goes unpunished by law and justice, because nobody, but Hamlet is aware of the truth
Hamlet, is aware of the truth.
Subsequently, it is the hero, or revenger, in these plays that is prompted to exact vengeance. In almost all revenge tragedies, the crime is violent or sexual in nature. In addition, the victim of the crime is a direct relation to the protagonist. These aspects can all be found in Hamlet. For example, the murder of Hamlet’ss can all be found in Hamlet. For example, the murder of Hamlet
father is violent, while the marriage to Gertrude, which at the time would have been deemed incestuous, is a sexual crime.
Further facets of revenge tragedies include a period of doubt for the revenger, which, in the case of Hamlet, dominates the play. pp
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The appearance of a ghost is a popular convention, which serves to spur the protagonist on his quest. Often, revengers have an intimate relationship with the audience, this manifests itself in soliloquies of which there are many in Hamlet (the most famous being ‘To be or not to be’)
However, what makes a revenge tragedy tragic is that the revenger destroys himself immediately after exacting revenge or in his attempt to achieve it. After destroying those whom he loved, Ophelia and Gertrude, Hamlet eventually succeeds in killing Claudius, but is also murdered in the bloodbath of the final scene.
How Hamlet
How
Hamlet Differs From Differs From
Conventional Revenge Tragedies
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In many revenge tragedies, the revenger will adopt a disguise in ill d
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order to stalk the intended victim without detection. Hamlet does not use a disguise per se but it could be
use a disguise per se, but it could be argued that his feigned madness is a tactic to conceal his desire for vengeance However this ultimately
vengeance. However, this ultimately causes his isolation, which aids the theatrical portrayal of a tragic hero, but places the character at a
but places the character at a disadvantage in terms of achieving his goal.
Ophelia