Hamlet

1
Hamlet

• William Shakespeare

2
Shakespeare and His Times

• Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born when Queen
  Elizabeth I was monarch
• Time of national strength and wealth
• Age of exploration of the world, of mans
  nature, and of the English language
• This time period was considered the English
  Renaissance of 1500-1650

3
Renaissance Ideas found in Hamlet

• Humans had potential for development
• Medieval Christian idea that mortality is merely
  preparation for afterlife is questioned people
  began to see importance of everyday life
• Ideal Elizabethan man was a talented courtier,
  adventurer, fencer, poet, and conversationalist
• Arranged marriage (usually for wealth)
• Low social status for women
• Rulers were agents of God
• Proper order of things creates harmony

4
Origin of Hamlet

• Written sometime between 1599-1601, probably
  first performed in 1602
• Based, in part, on book 3 of a Danish tale
  written in the 12th century, which tells of
  Amleth (fool or one who feigns madness) as he
  avenges the murder of his father, Horwendil, at
  the hands of Feng which, in turn, was probably
  based on an Icelandic tale called Amloi
• Possibly also drawn from Thomas Kyds lost play
  referred to as Ur-Hamlet which some scholars
  insist was written by Shakespeare as an early
  draft

5
Setting

• Main setting is Elsinore Castle in eastern
  Denmark in the late medieval period.
• Other settings include a ship bound for England,
  a plain in Denmark, and a churchyard near
  Elsinore.

6
Themes

• Hesitancy
• Hamlet is conflicted by obligation to avenge his
  fathers murder and obligation to follow moral
  law, so he hesitates
• Revenge
• Hamlet for old Hamlet, Fortinbras for old
  Fortinbras, and Laertes for Polonius
• Madness
• Hamlet feigns madness to prove Claudius guilt
  (and is perhaps mad) and Ophelia drowns due to
  madness
• Appearance vs. Reality
• Is Hamlet mad? Who are his friends? The play
  within a play
• Ambition and Loyalty
• Claudius ambition drives him to murder Hamlet
  has friends and family who are loyal and others
  who are not

7
Themes, cont.

• Inherited sin and corruption
• Allusions to Adam and the Garden of Eden
• Certainty
• How can we know for certain the facts about a
  crime that has no witnesses? Can Hamlet know the
  state of Claudius's soul by watching his
  behavior? If so, can he know the facts of what
  Claudius did by observing the state of his soul?
  Can Claudius (or the audience) know the state of
  Hamlet's mind by observing his behavior and
  listening to his speech? Can we know whether our
  actions will have the consequences we want them
  to have? Can we know anything about the
  afterlife?

8
Theme of Death

• In the aftermath of his father's murder, Hamlet
  is obsessed with the idea of death, and over the
  course of the play he considers death from a
  great many perspectives.
• Death may bring the answers to Hamlet's deepest
  questions, ending once and for all the problem of
  trying to determine truth in an ambiguous world

9
To be or not to be and Suicide

• In his famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy,
  Hamlet concludes that no one would choose to
  endure the pain of life if he or she were not
  afraid of what comes after death
• This fear causes complex moral considerations to
  interfere with the capacity for action.

10
Motifs

• Disease and decay
• Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
• Hamlet refers to the decay of the human body
• Garden
• Hamlets father died in the garden, Hamlet calls
  the world an unweeded garden, Ophelia
  distributes flowers in her madness
• Misogyny
• Hamlet sees a connection between female sexuality
  and moral corruption, inhibiting his
  relationships with Gertrude and Ophelia

11
Motif of Ears and Hearing

• Language is slippery. Words are used to
  communicate ideas, but they can also be used to
  distort the truth, manipulate other people and
  serve as tools in corrupt quests for power.
• Claudius is a man who manipulates words to
  enhance his own power.
• The poison that killed old Hamlet was poured into
  his ear
• The ghost says the whole ear of Denmark is
  abused by the false words of Claudius

12
Symbolism

• Yoricks Skull - discovered by Hamlet in the
  graveyard
• As Hamlet speaks to and about the skull of the
  king's former jester, it becomes a symbol of
  several different aspects of death

13
Hamlet

• The Prince of Denmark, the title character, and
  the protagonist. About nineteen years old at the
  start of the play (or 30, due to an editing
  mistake), Hamlet is the son of Queen Gertrude and
  the late King Hamlet, and the nephew of the
  present king, Claudius.

14
Hamlet

• Hamlet returns to Denmark from university to
  attend his fathers funeral
• His uncle has claimed the throne on which
  Hamlet has claim being the dead kings son
• His mother has married the new king (Hamlets
  uncle, Claudius) a little more than a month after
  old Hamlet died.
• Eventually his girlfriend will spurn him for no
  apparent reason
• And now he is seeing ghosts
• Tracing his soliloquies reveals the deterioration
  of his mental state

15
Claudius

• The King of Denmark, Hamlet's uncle
• calculating, ambitious politician
• driven by his sexual appetites and his lust for
  power
• occasionally shows signs of guilt and human
  feelinghis love for Gertrude, for instance,
  seems sincere.

16
Gertrude

• The Queen of Denmark, Hamlet's mother
• a shallow, weak woman who seeks affection and
  status more urgently than moral rectitude or
  truth.

17
Polonius

• The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius's court
• a pompous, conniving old man
• father of Laertes and Ophelia.

18
Horatio

• Hamlet's close friend
• studied with the prince at Wittenberg
• loyal and helpful to Hamlet
• Remains alive to tell Hamlet's story.

19
Ophelia

• Polonius's daughter
• a beautiful young woman
• Hamlets love
• sweet and innocent young girl
• obeys her father and her brother, Laertes.

20
Laertes

• Polonius's son and Ophelia's brother
• spends much of the play in France.
• Passionate and quick to action
• clearly a foil for the reflective Hamlet.

21
Fortinbras

• Young Prince of Norway, whose father the king
  (also named Fortinbras) was killed by Hamlet's
  father (also named Hamlet)
• Fortinbras wishes to attack Denmark to avenge his
  father's honor, making him another foil for
  Prince Hamlet.

22
The Ghost

• The specter of Hamlet's recently deceased father.
  The ghost, who claims to have been murdered by
  Claudius, calls upon Hamlet to avenge him.
• It is never certain whether the ghost is what it
  appears to be

23
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

• Former friends of Hamlet from Wittenberg
• summoned by Claudius and Gertrude to discover the
  cause of Hamlet's strange behavior