HAMLET

1. HAMLET “= a grand poetical puzzle”; “It is easy to invent with plausibility almost any theory respecting [Hamlet], but very hard to make any theory comprehend the whole subject”

2. SOURCES • Saxo Grammaticus’s Historica Danica [12c. different plot – at the end, Hamlet gets all courtiers drunk and then sets fire to the palace killing the King] • Histories Tragique • Thomas Kyd “Ur-Hamlet” [play – lacks intellectual probing-ambiguity-complex characters-superior poetry]

3. VERSIONS • William Shakespeare and other authors of his time wrote their plays for acting companies whose primary purpose was to stage plays rather than publish them. To print and sell a play in book form was to give rival acting troupes and theater-goers access to the script, thereby diminishing its potential to profit from stage performances. • QUARTO: first publishing of the plays; paper divided into four • “BAD” QUARTOS: “ . . . texts are significantly different and often shorter than the "good" versions. Shakespeare does not seem to have taken any interest in the publication of his plays, and it has been suggested that these "bad" quartos were pirated by unscrupulous printers, though this is difficult to prove. One theory is that their texts are extremely corrupt as a result of their reconstruction from memory by a member, or members, of their cast. However, all texts of plays at this time contain errors.” [Wikipedia] • FOLIO: second set of publishings; paper divided into 2; there were 4 folio editions

4. SUBJECTS OF THE PLAY • Madness • Revenge • Morality • Innocence • Fate • Fathers + sons • Women + femininity • Corruption-disease-decay • Tragedy • Free will • Multiplicity of self • Power structure • State + government • Action v. thought • Memory • Death • Duplicity

5. QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PLAY • Why does Hamlet delay? • Is Hamlet’s madness real or feigned? • Is Claudius justified in his actions? • Is Gertrude justified in her actions? • Is Hamlet the central cause of the tragedy?

6. DRAMA TERMS Aside. A short speech that a character makes in a play. Only the audience hears the speech while the rest of the characters are deaf to the words. An aside is usually a way for the playwright to voice his or her character's thoughts and feelings. While disguised as a mad beggar, Edgar from Shakespeare's King Lear addresses the audience unbeknownst to the other characters on stage. Dramatic convention. "Any dramatic device which, though it departs from reality, is implicitly accepted by author and audience as a means of representing reality" (Perrine and Arp 1408). In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream the fairies are accepted as reality. Dramatic exposition. The explanation of an action of the play before it has been enacted, or the explanation of an action offstage, or even information about a character. In the opening of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the prologue is a dramatic exposition. Dramatic framework. The arrangement of the characters (unrealistic or realistic) to promote the theme of the work. Shakespeare's King Lear has an intricate dramatic framework in which the characters of the subplot and the main plot are connected to each other. Each plot has a father and his children in conflict with one another. The theme of the plot is directly emphasized by the relationship of the characters to one another.

7. DRAMA TERMS Hubris. One of the characteristics of a tragic hero--pride and arrogance. King Lear's hubris is what ultimately strips him of his power. Humors. "In medieval physiology, there are four liquids in the human body affecting behavior. Each humor associates with one of the four elements of nature" (University of Victoria Writer's Guide). a. Blood…air…hot and moist: sanguine, kindly, joyful, amorousb. Phlegm…water…cold and moist: phlegmatic, dull, pale, cowardlyc. Yellow bile…fire…hot and dry: choleric, angry, impatient, obstinate, vengefuld. Black Bile…earth…cold and dry: melancholy, gluttonous, backward, lazy, sentimental, contemplative (University of Victoria Writer's Guide). Lady Macbeth. "Yet who would have thought / the old man to have had so much blood in him" (V.1.44-45). The reference to blood can also imply Duncan's kind and joyful nature. Obstacle. Anything that hinders a character's desires. Lear wants to give up his kingdom but still retain the title of king in Shakespeare's King Lear. His obstacle is the greed of his two daughters, Goneril and Regan, who intend to take his kingdom for themselves. Soliloquy. A soliloquy is a speech in which a character, on stage alone, voices his or her thoughts or intentions aloud, revealing them to the audience while still hiding them from their fellow characters. The famous "To be or not to be" scene in Hamlet is a soliloquy.

8. DRAMA TERMS Tragedy. A type of drama, opposed to comedy, that depicts action that is serious and complete and leads to the downfall and suffering of the protagonist. The protagonist in a tragedy usually has outstanding abilities and unusual moral or intellectual stature. Shakespeare's King Lear Catharsis. Aristotle's term for the emotional experience the audience feels after a tragedy. After witnessing a production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the audience experiences catharsis. Elements of a tragic hero. a. "The tragic hero is a man of noble stature. He is not an ordinary man but a man with outstanding quality and greatness about him" (Perrine and Arp 1011).b. "The tragic hero is good, though not perfect" (Perrine and Arp 1011). His fall is a result of hamartia.c. "The hero's downfall, therefore, is his own fault, the result of his own free choice--not the result of pure accident or villainy or some overriding malignant fate" (Perrine and Arp 1012).d. "Nevertheless, the hero's misfortune is not wholly deserved. The punishment exceeds the crime. We do not come away from the tragedy with the feeling that 'He got what he had coming to him' but rather with the sad sense of a waste of human potential" (Perrine and Arp 1012).e. "Yet the tragic fall is not pure loss. Though it may result in the protagonist's death, it involves, before his death, some increase in awareness, some gain in self-knowledge" (Perrine and Arp 1012). Hamartia. Aristotle's word for the cause of a protagonist's misfortunes. These misfortunes are not caused by character deficiencies but from a "criminal act committed in ignorance of some material fact or even for the sake of a greater good" (Perrine and Arp 1010). Gloucester's hamartia in Shakespeare's King Lear is believing Edmund and therefore calling for Edgar's life.

9. DRAMA TERMS DRAMATIC STRUCTURE Climax. The point of highest emotional involvement in the play where it seems as if the action reverses direction. In Romeo and Juliet, the climax occurs when Juliet stabs herself. Denouement. The point at which tension slackens after the climax at the end of the play. It can also be the that portion at the end of the plot that reveals the final outcome of its conflicts or the solution of its mysteries. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Capulet and Montague realize that they shouldn't have forbidden Romeo and Juliet to be together. They conclude that they were the cause of the deaths of their children. This scene exemplifies denouement. Freytag's Pyramid. Aristotle's concept of unity of action, depicted in this diagram. (To see, click on http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/freytag.html.) In Freytag's scheme, there are: Rising Action. A series of events in a cause-and-effect relationship that may hold the protagonist in an inferior position where his success is doubtful. It might involve multiple conflicts such as internal, external, intellectual, and ethical. (In King Lear and other Shakespearean tragedies, the rising action occurs in Acts 1 and 2.) Climax. In this scheme, the climax occurs when events confirm the tragic fall of the hero. (In King Lear, Lear's madness on the heath and Gloucester's blinding represent the climaxes of Act 3.) Falling Action. Less intense events and untying of complications. (In King Lear, the events of Act 4 and 5.) Catastrophe. The tragic denouement or unraveling of a play or story--the heap of bodies on the stage at the end of the play (as in King Lear in Act 5).

10. DRAMA TERMS Intrusion. "Something that upsets the status quo, causing or releasing forces that compose the play's conflict and progress. When the forces no longer conflict, new statis is achieved and the play ends" (Ball 24). In every play someone or something comes along to destroy the statis. In King Lear, Cordelia refuses to profess her undying love for Lear whereas Goneril and Regan swear they love him more than any creature in the universe. The intrusion is the starting bell for the play. Stasis. "The status quo that has existed in the play's world through its beginning" (Ball 24). In Macbeth, the setting is Scotland, a long time ago. An aristocratic and faithful thane has fortuitously served his king and is on his way to be rewarded. The situation is one of safe, cautious stasis. Unities. Derived by French neoclassicists from Aristotle's Poetics, this is a theory that a drama should have but one plot, which should be performed in one day, and confined to one locale, as in Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.

11. SHAKESPEAREAN LANGUAGE Language use today is linear, flat, mechanical, media oriented, particularly regarding computers, no longer primarily interpersonal. In Shakespeare’s time, language was the opposite. Full of symbolism, metaphor and very much set in the art of rhetoric by which your worth was assessed. This type of rhetoric appears in many of today’s advertising campaigns.

12. SHAKESPEAREAN LANGUAGE • Diction: some words no longer in use [exs. parle = discussion-meeting, soft = an exclamation meaning “hold-enough-wait for minute,” marry = an oath by the Virgin Mary]. Some words are still in use but hold different meanings [exs. rivals = friends, still = always, “I doubt some foul play”]. • Sentence arrangement: shifts from “normal” arrangements to create rhythm, emphasize words, and give a character speech patterns • Subject-verb placement: verb often positioned before the subject [ex. “He goes”-“Goes he”] • Object-subject-verb placement: object often positioned before the subject-verb [ex. “I hit him”-“Him I hit”] • Separation of words: words separated that would normally appear together in order to create rhythm or stress a particular word [ex. “When he the ambitious Norway combated” (I.i.72)] • Delayed construction: rather than separating basic sentence elements, they are held back until much subordinate material has been given [ex. Hamlet’s first soliloquy] • Elision: omission of words [ex. “Therefore I have entreated him long/With us (I.i.31-32)] • Pun: play on words based on the similarity of sound between tow words with different meanings [ex. “Nay, I am too much in the sun”]

13. SHAKESPEAREAN LANGUAGE Poetic forms: • Accent or stress: a prominence of utterance given to a particular syllable • Rhythm: recurrence of accent • Meter: pattern-rhythm of accented-unaccented syllables in a line of poetry • Foot: rhythmic unit into which a line of metrical verse is divided • Iambic pentameter: main form of Shakespearean language • 5 feet-10 syllables • Follows the pattern “TA-DUM” • Unstressed followed by stressed syllables

14. SHAKESPEAREAN LANGUAGE Literary devices: • Motif • Metaphor • Allusion • Foreshadow • Irony • Double entendre • Simile • Alliteration • Parallel construction • Paradox • Synechdoche

15. LENSES: HAMLET DRAMATIC: Central question: how does Shakespeare use the tools of drama to achieve his central purposes & communicate his central ideas? • Structure: arrangement of events-images-ideas • Language: connotation-metaphors-ironies • Poetry: rhythm-meter-rhyme • Meta-theater: actor as human being • play within play • play about plays

16. LENSES : HAMLET EMOTIONAL: Central question: how do the various emotional states of the characters communicate the central ideas of the play & illuminate the human experience? • Characters’ emotional expressions: • madness • melancholy • sensitivity • guilt • passion-lust-love • fear • filial bonds • anger • revenge • 4 humours

17. LENSES: HAMLET PHILOSOPHICAL: Central question: how does Shakespeare (and his character creations) explore philosophical theories and truths, and how do these explorations communicate the central ideas of the play & illuminate the human experience? • Free will • Truth v. truth • Nature v. nurture • Morality: good v. evil • Social v. individual responsibility • Ambiguity + multiplicity of meaning • Fate + fortune • Existentialism: a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one’s acts. • Humanism: A system of thought that centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth; the doctrine that people’s duty is to promote human welfare; the doctrine emphasizing a person’s capacity for self-realization through reason