The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

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The Tragedy ofHamlet,Prince of Denmark

• By William Shakespeare

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• Hamlet
• You are the only child of a mother and father who
  are married. They have been married your whole
  life.
• Your mother is a queen, and you are next in line
  for the throne.
• Your father dies. Your mother remarries in only
  2 months.
• Your new step-dad is your uncle, your fathers
  brother.
• You are the only person who is not celebrating.
• Your best friend tells you that he has seen your
  fathers ghost ... it wants to see you...
• Your fathers ghost tells you that he was
  MURDERED by his brother, your uncle, your
  mothers new husband ... the man who is THE NEW
  KING.

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Historical Context

• Age characterised by turmoil and uncertainty.
• A time of religious doubt.
• Threat of foreign invasion.
• People did not know who to trust.
• Problems of succession, Queen Elizabeth had ruled
  Briton for 45 years but she was getting old, who
  would lead the country? (James 1 1603)

Elizabethan England was a police state. Spies
recorded everthing. The national religion changed
from Catholicism to Protestantism, a religious
revolution started by Henry the Eighth. (Three
changes within 12 years)
1588 Shakespeare was 24. Spanish Arnarda is on
the way. The coast is heavily watched. Victory
helps create the myth of Queen Elizabeth.
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The Poisoned State

• The Elizabethans believed that the ruler was the
  life giving center of the kingdom, with power
  bestowed by God. The sickness of the leader is a
  national calamity. Hamlet is the story of a
  ruined kingdom.

Claudius reign looks impressive but is hollow.
Discrepancy between appearance and reality.
Polonius, Leartes, Ophelia Everything is rotten
sickness, madness, poison (both literal and
figurative).
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Questions

• Questions are about the limits of our perception
  what we can and cannot see.

A play about doubt, about being unsure, about
ambiguity. Whos there reverberates though the
entire play. Huw Griffiths
Act 1 scene 1 sets the atmosphere for the play.
Doubt, limited perception, who can see who?
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See stick figure summary of Act 1 .1

• MARCELLUS Horatio says tis but our fantasy
• And will not let belief take hold of him
• Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us.
• Therefore I have entreated him along
• With us to watch the minutes of this night,
• That if again this apparition come
• He may approve our eyes and speak to it.

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• HAMLET Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not
  seems.
• 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
• Nor customary suits of solemn black,
• Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
• No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
• Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
• Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
• That can denote me truly. These indeed seem,
• For they are actions that a man might play.
• But I have that within which passeth show,
• These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

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Paragraph One (lines 1-129)How are we
introduced to Hamlet? How are we introduced to
Claudius? 7 minutes

• Ambiguity surrounding Claudiuss intentions? His
  tone, attitude treatment of Hamlet? Is he
• warm supportive hard uncompromising
  rebuking Hamlet reasonable sincere addressing
  the court rather than Hamlet personally?
• Significance of introduction to Hamlet through an
  aside?
• Characterisation of Hamlet emotional,
  melancholy, grief-stricken?
• Masculinity? (unmanly grief)

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Allusions and analysis of Hamletsfirst soliloquy

• Hyperion- one of the Titans (Greek)- a sun-god
• Satyr- half human but with the legs of a goat..
• synonymous with lechery.
• Niobe- the mythical mother whose fourteen
  children were slain by the godsshe wept until
  she was turned to stone-and still the tears
  flowed.

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Paragraph 2 explore Hamlets soliloquy. Allow 7
minutes

• What does he feel about the world right now?
• What does Hamlet think of Gertrude?

O creates an air of heaviness, depression and
woe. Notice the use of commas before and after
thaw slow the language down. Repetition is used
to indicate Hamlets desperation and
incomprehension at the speed at which his mother
remarried? Explain the metaphor of the unweeded
garden. Hamlets problems are seen as titanic
and this impossible to overcome. Notice the tone
of fury and disbelief.
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A meditation on suicide (a sin and a
crime) Hamlet established as a man with a fine
mind, his world seems increasingly
meaningless. long drawn out vowel sounds a tone
of exhaustion, despondency and bitternesssynecdoc
he- part represents the whole- flesh to represent
his physical life metaphor of an unweeded garden
indicating corruption Allusions to compare his
father to Claudius rhetorical devices
repetition, rhetorical questions,
exclamation Hamlets attitude towards woman
moves from the personal to the general...relations
hips with woman continually disappoint incestuous
sheets Marriage to a brothers wife was
explicitly forbidden by the Church drawn out
vowels, sharp, rhythmic consonantsimagery
organic, kinesthetic, tactile, visual...personal
pronounsstrong adjectives and verbsrapid
sentence breaks

• Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
• Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
• Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
• His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!
• How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
• Seem to me all the uses of this world!
• Fie on t, ah fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden
• That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in
  nature
• Possess it merely. That it should come to this.
• But two months deadnay, not so much, not two.
• So excellent a king, that was to this
• Hyperion to a satyr. So loving to my mother
• That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
• Visit her face too roughly.Heaven and earth,
• Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
• As if increase of appetite had grown
• By what it fed on, and yet, within a month
• Let me not think on t. Frailty, thy name is
  woman!
• A little month, or ere those shoes were old

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Act 1 scene 3characterisation of Polonius

• Give thy thoughts no tongue,
• Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
• Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar.
• Those friends thou hast, and their adoption
  tried,
• Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,
• But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
• Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware
• Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
• Bear t that th' opposèd may beware of thee.
• Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.

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Paragraph Three allow 7 minutes

• Characterisation of Polonius? Is he
• a pompous bureaucrat a loving father an
  authoritarian guardian?
• Poloniuss 8 sentences of advice? On speech,
  friendship, quarrelling, judgement, dress, money
  consistency?
• Ophelia lock/key analogy but doesnt hold
  tongue? Why?
• Poloniuss treatment of Ophelia view of Hamlet
  young love?

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Act 1 scene 4-

• Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
• Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,
• Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from
  hell,
• Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
• Thou comest in such a questionable shape
• That I will speak to thee. Ill call thee
  Hamlet,
• King, Father, royal Dane. O, answer me!

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Act 1 .4

• HORATIO
• What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
• Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
• That beetles o'er his base into the sea,
• And there assume some other horrible form,
• Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
• And draw you into madness? Think of it.

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Paragraph 4- write for 7 minutes

• Hamlets reaction to the Ghost? Is he more
• amazed questioning fearful pleading?
• Hamlets steely determination will to follow
  Ghost? Ironic decisiveness?
• Talk of courage madness?
• Rotting/corruption motif?

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Act 15-

• I am thy fathers spirit,
• Doomed for a certain term to walk the night
• And for the day confined to fast in fires,
• Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
• Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
• To tell the secrets of my prison house,
• I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
• Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
• Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their
  spheres,
• Thy knotted and combinèd locks to part

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Elizabeth 1 1558-1603
Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe.
Spanish Armada defeated.
First American settlement.
cusp of medieval and modern world
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Context 2

• Renaissance-growth of liberal ideas that focused
  on the value of the individual.
• This milieu valued intellect, ideas, philosophy
  and moral speculation.

• Structured and ordered society with a stricty
  hierarchy of class and position.
• The disrupted state is restored to social and
  political stability at the end of the play

Elizabethan values a belief in Christianity and
faith- reinforcing the notions of sin, virtue,
fixed moral laws, punishment and redemption.
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Elizabethan revenge tragedy

• Exposition Act 1

• Anticipation Act 2

• Confrontation Act 3

• Delay Act 4

• Completion Act 5

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Use of apostrophe, exclamation and negative
adjectives to berate himself and incite himself
to action. Self loathing (criticism)- indicative
of his grief.

• O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
• What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
• That he should weep for her? What would he do
• Had he the motive and the cue for passion
• That I have?...
• Hamlet breaks iambic pentameter- lack of control
• Rhetorical questions put emphasis on Hamlets
  motivation and lack of resolve.

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• Ha? 'Swounds, I should take it for it cannot be
• But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall
• Bloody, bawdy villain!
• Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless
  villain!

Hamlet berates himself as a coward? Is he? What
is holding him back from taking revenge.
The alliteration and exclamations break the
rhythm and conveys Hamlets disgust at Claudius.
He appears to work himself up into a frenzy with
the four linked adjectives and the repetition of
villain
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• O, vengeance!
• Why, what an ass am I? Ay, sure, this is most
  brave,
• That I, the son of the dear murderèd,
• Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
• Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words
• The spirit that I have seen
• May be the devil, and the devil hath power
• T' assume a pleasing shape.... I'll have grounds
• More relative than this. The play's the thing
• Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.

How important is catching the conscience of the
King? Rhyming couplet drives his idea home and
reinforces his resolve. Use of monosyllabic words
and confident tone emphasise the importance of
the plan to test the ghosts words.
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12 cases of espionage. People watching others,
people being watched.

• Night watch
• Polonius employs Reynaldo to spy on Laertes
• Ros and Guil asked to spy on Hamlet
• Polonius loose his daughter to Hamlet
• To be or not to be.. watched
• The Mousetrap
• Ros and Guil sent to England with Hamlet
• Hamlet watches Claudius at prayer
• Polonius behind the arras in Gertrudes chamber
• The ghost invisible to Gertrude
• Ophelia to be followed and watched
• Hamlet and Horatio watch Ophelias funeral

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• The following slides are for after the play has
  been studied.

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Personal engagement Engage with the text and its
ideas confronts aspects of the text Almost
everyone in Hamlet is crippled by grief. Act
3.1 presents a meditation of the paralysing
impact that grief has on the human
psyche. Hamlet will remain ineffective until he
has grieved and forced some sign of remorse from
his mother. closet scene of Act 3.4, Leave
wringing of your handsAnd let me wring your
heart.
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Development of knowledge and understanding of the
prescribed text exploration of the ideas
detailed and close analysis of its construction,
content and languagehow particular features of
the text contribute to textual integrity. Most
famous soliloquy-centre of the play-imagery and
preoccupations resonate through the play as a
whole. Death, deception, disillusionment,
procrastinationtextual integrity Pivot, hinge,
labyrinths of thought Schlegel Romantic critics
prince of philosophical speculators Hazlitt
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• Human condition-audience can connect
• The Hamlet of Goethe Hamlet sinks beneath a
  burden which it cannot bear
• To be, or not to be that is the question
  antithesis, unusual syntax-
• Metonymy- sleep death
• Metaphor of the undiscover'd country Religious
  connotations, problematic nature of the ghost
• Imagery of isolation and battle- help reinforce
  the heavy ponderous tone

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• Development of an informed response
• others perspectives of the text are explored and
  tested against students own understanding,
  informed by notions of context.
• Grief-Validated by Zefferelli- claustrophobic
  space of the tomb, the soliloquy delivered over
  the effigy of his father.

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• Articulation of an informed personal response and
  understanding
• deep individual understanding of the text through
  thoughtful exploration of questions of textual
  integrity and significance, with a heightened
  sense of the complex processes by which meaning
  is made.
• Character and the preoccupations echo throughout
  the seven soliloquies
• Gertrude says it best His fathers death, and
  our oerhasty marriage.
• Uses his skills in rhetoric to maintain control
  and come to terms with death and fate
• Forcing his mother to grieve and coming to terms
  with death- willing to act the readiness is
  all.