What have we learned about how
language works in literature, Elizabethan theatre, Shakespeare’s writing, and Hamlet itself?
I.
Hamlet’s
sound
A.
Rhyming couplets provide memorable closure and summation
B.
Iambic Pentameter/Blank verse
1.
provides structure, unity
2.
provides potential for emphasis by way of variation:
“to be or not to be; THAT is the question.”
II.
Hamlet’s
language
A.
Word play
1.
5.1 “lie”: lie down & tell lies
2.
4.7 “too much of water”: tears & drowning [&,
obliquely, Hamlet’s wish to melt (1.2)]
B.
paradoxes: “more than kin less than kind”
C.
figurative language/metaphors: king > worm > fish
> beggar is a metaphor for Hamlet’s questioning of the Elizabethan social
structure
III.
Some Hamlet performance
A. Acting Choices (interpretations)
Ex. See student blog posts on 1.2, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 4.4: Olivier, Zeffirelli (Gibson), Branagh, Almereyda (Hawke), Doran (Tennant)
B.
Visual Choices (interpretations)
Ex. “to be or not
to be”
1.
Branagh’s mirror= deceit, also outward action v.
self-directed action
2.
Zeffirelli’s catacombs= death “the undiscovered
country”
3.
Almereyda’s Blockbuster= “Action” / “Go Home Happy”
(irony)
IV. Some Hamlet patterns
A.
Characters
1.
Hamlet’s foils: Laertes and Fortinbras
2.
Hamlet (acts/is mad, wishes to die 1.2, 3.1), Ophelia
(is/acts mad, allows herself to do die 4.5, 4.7)
3.
Polonius uses Reynaldo to spy on Laertes (2.1);
Claudius uses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet (2.2)
4.
Ophelia, Gertrude, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern follow
and obey
A.
Plot & Meaning
1.
Dramatic Irony
a.
Hamlet believes Claudius is confessing for his sins and
so does not kill him.
b.
The reader/audience knows that Claudius has failed to
confess.
c.
Mel Gibson claims that Hamlet’s failure to kill
Claudius here triggers all the other deaths in the play (triggers the tragedy
as such).
2.
Fitting deaths
a.
Polonius dies spying
b.
Ophelia dies passively (& in water)
c.
Gertrude dies drinking to Hamlet (Her death triggers
Hamlet to action vs. Claudius, no?)
d.
Laertes (“I am justly killed by my own treachery.”)
e.
Claudius (by sword and drink)
f.
Hamlet (“the rest is silence”)
g.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die as servants
3.
Is Fortinbras rewarded for
a.
Deception?
b.
Action?
B. Some Themes
1. Responding to a flawed and fallen world filled with flawed and fallen men and women
a.
Hamlet sees the world as corrupt.
aa.
“How weary, flat, stale, and unprofitable seem to me
all the uses of this world.”
bb.
“tis an unweeded garden”
cc.
“Man delights not me nor woman neither”
b.
This view is triggered – it seems – by his mother’s
overhasty marriage (and later by Ophelia’s lying).
aa.
“Frailty thy name is woman” 1.2
bb.
“Get thee to a nunnery.” 3.1
2.
Revenge: the dueling necessities of thought and action
a.
Hamlet 2.2, 3.1, 4.4
b.
Laertes 4.7
c.
Fortinbras 1.2, 4.4, 5.2
3.
Deception: exploiting the gap between appearances and reality, seems and is
a.
Secret murders (and attempts)
b.
Spying
c.
Lying
d.
Acting
C. Some Threads
1. appearance and truth
2. corruption and honesty
3. madness and normalcy
4. playing and acting
5. words and speaking
6. women and womanliness: mothers, daughters, lovers,
“strumpets”
7. men and manliness: fathers, uncles, friends, rivals
8. action and inaction
9. water and other fluids
10. responses to authority: mocking, obeying, flattering, etc.
11. life and death (and the afterlife)
12. ghosts and spirits
13. sleep and dreams
14. flora (flowers, plans) and fauna (animals)
15. fortune and fate
16. I and eye (the self and seeing)
D. Big questions
What happens when you encounter trauma, loss, and the corrupted nature of humanity?
What
do you do — what do you say, what do you feel, what
do you think — when you encounter trauma, loss, and/or determine
that the world — mankind, human nature, human civilization — is corrupt
(dishonest, debauched, defiled): “an unweeded garden / That grows to seed.
Things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely”?
No comments:
Post a Comment