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William Shakespeare’s Hamlet

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The Renaissance updates tragedy. Standard Issues in Hamlet. Is Hamlet mad or is he feigning madness? Does Gertrude know that Claudius killed Old Hamlet? Have Hamlet and Ophelia had sex? When (if ever) does Hamlet decide to believe the ghost?

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William Shakespeare’s Hamlet

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  1. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet The Renaissance updates tragedy

  2. Standard Issues in Hamlet • Is Hamlet mad or is he feigning madness? • Does Gertrude know that Claudius killed Old Hamlet? • Have Hamlet and Ophelia had sex? • When (if ever) does Hamlet decide to believe the ghost? • Should Hamlet be compared to a Classical Aristotelian tragedy or a Renaissance revenge tragedy?

  3. Traditions of tragic drama inherited by Shakespeare • European drama before Hamlet • classical Greek and Latin tragedies, comedies, and farces. These lost in the Dark Ages. • medieval religious drama: lives of saints; re-enactments of Bible stories • Renaissance imitations of classical Latin drama, especially imitations of Seneca’s Latin revenge tragedies. • Hamlet first great drama after Euripides.

  4. Shakespeare plays around with received dramatic conventions • Opening scene • Rather than opening with highest ranked character or tragic hero, Shakespeare opens with soldiers and delays Hamlet’s entrance. • We first hear of Fortinbras and meet Laertes (Hamlet’s two rivals) • We meet Horatio (Hamlet’s friend) and Claudius (his enemy) • Not privileging plot over all other elements • Tragedy typically depends on plot; Shakes-peare instead focuses on character and ideas.

  5. Hamlet as first Renaissance drama; Hamlet as first Renaissance man. • Pre-Renaissance or pre-modern man • unitary, unified self • man’s social position entirely determined by birth or other outside forces (gods) • Renaissance man • psychologically complex and multi-layered; internally divided against self • self-made man--idea that man chooses his own experiences, determines his own values

  6. How does Hamlet show itsRenaissance character? • The internal complexity of modern man is reflected in the play’s doublings • Both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern • A play within a play (and then the play within the play is itself doubled into a dumb show and a play) • 2 mad persons: Ophelia and Hamlet • and triplings • 3 murdered dads: Fortinbras, Hamlet, Polonius • 3 avenging sons: Fortinbras, Hamlet, Laertes

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