Hamlet Plan of lectures

1
HamletPlan of lectures

1. Revenge and the ghost
2. Just how crazy is Hamlet?
3. The theme of mortality
4. Meta-theatricality

2
Preliminaries first, the strange text of Hamlet

• Our edition (Pelican), edited from the second
  quarto (Q2), is approximately 3,674 lines long.
• Far too long to play (four hours if played).
  (Elizabethan plays took two to two and a half
  hours to play.)
• Probably Q2 is Shakespeares early draft of the
  play.
• The Folio version (F) is 3,535 lines long, still
  far to long to play.
• Probably F is a revised version of the play it
  lacks much of IV.4, including Hs soliloquy
  there.
• Some scholars think F is a clearer version of the
  play, suggesting revision.
• The first quarto (Q1) is much shorter, 2,154, and
  looks like a playing version of the play.
• Some scenes are in a different (maybe better)
  order.
• But Q1 gives us a weird version of the text,
  certainly not Shakespeares actual language.
• Q1 derives from an actors version of the play
  from memory only Marcellus lines are accurate.
  

3
The puzzling text (continued)

• So a modern production needs to decide which
  text, Q2 or F, to use, then how to cut about a
  third of the text.
• Earlier editions gave us a Hamlet that was
  conflated from Q2 and F an even longer play.
• Branaghs film of the uncut Hamlet is
  interesting, but something that was almost
  certainly never played in Shakespeares time.
• But what was played?
• What were reading in the Pelican text is
  probably Shakespeares early complete draft.
• Which he had to cut for playing.
• Look for extra F passages on pp. li-lv of Pelican
  if youre missing some familiar passages.

4
Second, five open questions in Hamlet

• Is Hamlet mad or not? He says he will play mad
  (put on an antic disposition, 1.5.171-72), but
  then later tells Laertes that it was his
  madness that killed Polonius, not Hamlet
  (5.2.231-240).
• Does Gertrude know about the murder of Hamlets
  father? Hamlet thinks she does, but she seems
  shocked at his accusation (3.4.29-31).
• Did Ophelia really commit suicide? Gertrudes
  account indicates it was an accident
  (4.7.166-184). The coroner rules it Christian
  burial. But the gravediggers have their doubts
  (5.1.1-30), and the priest says the death was
  doubtful, and the funeral rites are truncated
  (5.1.228-236).
• Why did she go mad? The death of her father? Or
  Hamlets rejection of her?
• Does the play-within-the-play evoke Claudius
  guilt? Or is it Hamlets commentary (3.2.267-70).

5
Third, R.I. P. tragic flaw

• Aristotle invented the tragic flaw hamartia.
• But was it part of current discourse in 1590s?
• Heres what Olivier did with tragic flaw in his
  1948 film (clip).
• Admittedly Shakespeare seems to bring up the
  issue at I, 4, 23ff.
• But how much does tragic flaw ever tell us?
  Othello is jealous, Macbeth is ambitious, Lear is
  old and losing his mind, Romeo loves too rashly?
• And Hamlet does make up his mind at III, 3, 73ff
  maybe thats the problem.

6
Now, the lecture that damned ghost or is he?

• Hamlet a revenge play, a popular dramatic genre.
• Thomas Kyds The Spanish Tragedy (1592),
  Marstons Antonios Revenge (1600), Middletons
  Revengers Tragedy (p. 1607), Chapmans Bussy
  DAmbois (1604), Shakespeares own earlyTitus
  Andronicus (p. 1594).
• Elements of revenge plays ghost demanding
  vengeance, real or feigned madness,
  plays-within-plays, scenes of carnage and
  mutilation, ingenious ways to accomplish
  vengeance.

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Hamlet as revenge play

• Horatios conclusion V, 2, 380-87 So shall you
  hear of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts . . .
• But atypical in its psychological complexity
  and length.
• Ghost kept off stage for four scenes a half
  hour of playing time?
• Issue of revenge kept in suspense.
• The strange character of this ghost where from?
  What to make of him?

8
Film clip of ghosts appearance
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The ghost of Hamlet Sr.

• The ghost is real on stage this must be a very
  solid, opaque ghost, no see-though or imaginary
  figure.
• Is the ghost from Purgatory?
• Purgatory a hot-button issue in Elizabethan
  England.
• Ghost asserts Purgatory as its origin I.5, 3-4,
  9-13.
• This puts it among the saved, a spirit of
  health, as H. says (I, 4, 40).
• But can it then ask for vengeance?

10
If the ghost simply wants justice. . .

• . . . how should it ask for vengeance?
• Can Hamlet be simply an instrument of Gods
  justice?
• If he can, how should the crime and the
  punishment be presented?
• At the end of the speech But howsomever thou
  pursues this act,/ Taint not thy mind, nor let
  thy soul contrive/ Against thy mother aught.
  Leave her to heaven/ And to those thorns that in
  her bosom lodge/ To prick and sting her. (I, 5,
  84-88).
• Hamlet must become like the executioner, who is
  disengaged from the act of taking life.

11
But the rhetoric of the ghosts speech cuts
against this

• The horror of his prison house I, 5, 12ff.
• Rhetoric of bitterness I, 5, 42ff.
• Rhetoric of betrayal.
• Highly physiological description of crime.
• Everything in the speech seems designed to elicit
  an extreme emotional reaction from Hamlet.
• Line 80 O, horrible, O horrible, most
  horrible!
• Then the strange coda dont taint your mind or
  harm your mother.

12
Can one take a life without tainting his mind?

• The public executioner.
• Anonymous, hooded.
• Asked forgiveness of his client.
• Acted simply on behalf of the state.
• Maintained his own disinvolvement with the act of
  taking life.
• Can Hamlet attain this state of moral neutrality?

13
The nature of the ghosts charge to Hamlet

• Kill your uncle, your fathers cold-blooded
  killer . . .
• . . . who led your mother to adulterous betrayal
  of your father . . .
• . . . who killed me in a particularly horrible
  way . . .
• . . . and left your father no time for a proper
  death (confession, communion) . . .
• BUT dont taint your mind, or harm your mother
  (while killing her current husband).
• Can any of this be done?

14
The effect on Hamlet?

• His invocation of heaven and earth (I.5.92ff)
  and what else, hell? Oh fie! seems to reject
  hell.
• Hell forget everything except the ghosts
  command.
• Is Hamlet a bit mad when he rejoins his
  companions?
• Horatio These are but wild and whirling words,
  my lord.
• Hamlet driven to extremity by the ghost?

15
Hamlet tests the ghost

• II.2.537ff. Admits the ghost may be a devil sent
  to trick him to damnation.
• So the plays the thing/ Wherein Ill catch the
  conscience of the king!
• The Mousetrap indeed appears to catch the
  kings conscience.
• Horatio seems to agree that Claudiuss guilt is
  apparent.
• Having tested the ghost, Hamlet now morally bound
  to act?
• But see the divided rhetoric of III, 2, 381ff. I
  will speak daggers, but use none.

16
The scene that indicates Hamlets seeming
readiness to act

• The time and place of III, 3, 36ff Claudius
  appears to be praying.
• The perfect moment for execution?
• Enter Hamlet ready to act the executioner.
• But he decides not to execute Claudius. Why?
• How does he now conceive of his revenge?
• Does he taint his mind in this redefining of
  vengeance?
• Given this motivation, is not acting worse than
  acting at this point?

17
The closet scene with Gertrude

• The decisive moment when Hamlet, previously agent
  of vengeance, turns murderer himself.
• Line 21 indicates Hamlet seems to threaten
  violence to Gertrude.
• Accuses her of murder of Hamlet Sr.
• Insists on the comparison of her two husbands,
  ll. 53ff.
• His insistence on her corruption, 91ff, 96ff.

18
Return of the ghost To whet thy almost blunted
purpose

• Hamlet seems to admit his having failed to act at
  the right moment ll. 106ff.
• Amazement on thy mother sits./ O step between
  her and her fighting soul!
• The second part of the ghosts command nor let
  thy soul contrive against thy mother aught.
• Has he offended against this too?
• His seeming obsession with his mothers
  corruption ll. 181ff.

19
The impossibility of Hamlets position

• The ghost whips him to an emotional fury against
  both Claudius and Gertrude.
• Then tells him not to taint his mind or harm his
  mother.
• Hes to kill his uncle, who has killed his father
  in cold blood, but not taint his mind with
  passion or anger.
• Hes to murder his mothers husband, but not
  contrive against her.
• These two scenes the turning point of the play?
• Now the Polonius family have precisely the same
  motive of vengeance against Hamlet as he has
  against Claudius.