2. The Tragedy of Hamlet Shakespeare’s Danish Revenge Drama

3. Background z First performed in 1600 yMidpoint of his career z Shakespeare himself played the Ghost in the original production z Anglo-Saxon “Amleth” legend likely the source

4. Elizabethan Beliefs z Helpful to remember Elizabethans had different understandings than we do about: z Ghosts z Depression/Melancholy z Revenge Edwin Booth (19th Century)

5. Ghosts and Apparitions z There were serious books about the etiquette of dealing with ghosts and apparitions z Lewes Lavater states: y“Melancholic persons and mad men imagine may things which in very deed are not.” y“What those things are which men see and hear: and first, that good angels do sometimes appear.” y“That sometimes, yea and for the most part, evil angels do appear.”

6. Melancholy z Elizabethans considered melancholy a physical response (ailment, illness) to events. It was not simply a “mood.” z Symptoms included being: wary, circumspect, sad, jealous, paranoid, doubtful, suspicious, insomnia, nightmares

7. Revenge z Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which, the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. z This view, indicative of Elizabethan thought, runs counter to the Ghost and Hamlet’s seeming need for revenge.

8. Revenge z Francis Bacon’s essay on revenge provides insights into Elizabethan values about revenge y“Nay rather, vindictive persons live the lives of witches; who as they live mischievously, so their ends are unfortunate.” yThe most tolerable sort of revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to remedy [...]

9. What’s it all about? z Tragedy – mystery – revenge story – ghost story – political thriller zHuman nature y Characters are both good and evil y No easy answers

10. Hamlet – so brooding z Brilliant, brave, charismatic, funny z Thinks in complex, ironic ways z Likes to ask difficult questions y “To be, or not to be”

11. Literary Criticism in a Nutshell z Literary criticism studies literature and attempts to evaluate its literary merit as a standalone and in comparison to others z Criticism tries to provide a greater understanding and appreciation of the work. Harold Bloom

12. Literary Criticism in a Nutshell z Some schools include: z Historical z Biographical z Social z Psychological z Archetypal z New z Structuralism z Post Structuralism z Reader Response z Feminist Northrop Frye

13. Schools of Criticism in a Nutshell z Plato and Aristotle are classical critics and theorists who examine art’s direction and impact on life. z 17th-19th Century: neoclassical and Renaissance: revival of the works of Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, and Horace (the “classical critics” but began to rebel a bit.) z Romantic Post-romantic Plato

14. Hamlet’s Literary Critics z John Dryden 1631-1700 z Thought Shakespeare corrupted the language with false wit, puns, and ambiguity. yThe very thing later scholars praised Laurence Olivier 20th Century

15. Hamlet’s Literary Critics z Schlegel 1772-1829 z A founder of German Romanticism z Saw Shakespeare as a romantic

16. Hamlet’s Literary Critics z Goethe 1749-1832 z Hamlet’s masculinity

17. Hamlet’s Literary Critics z Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772-1834 z Concerned with Hamlet’s perceptions versus the reality

18. Hamlet’s Literary Critics z Ernest Jones 1879- 1958 z Freudian Analysis z Oedipus Complex

19. Hamlet’s Literary Critics z T.S. Eliot 1888-1965 z Viewed play as “artistic failure”

20. Hamlet’s Literary Critics z G. Wilson Knight: y The Wheel of Fire 1949 z Perhaps the characters are neither good nor evil

21. Sources z“Famous Hamlets” http://www.d.umn.edu/~kmaurer/hamlet/famoushamlets.html (8/30/03) zDepartment of Theatre, School of Fine Arts, University of Minnesota Duluth zLane, Steve. “Romantics Portrait Gallery”: William Hazlit thttp://www.mala.bc.ca/~lanes/english/engl201/stc1795.htm zDelaney, Ian. "Short Course on Shakespeare's Hamlet". Teacher Created Materials. March 16, 1999. http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~iandel/essays.html (08/31/03) zColumbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, Copyright (c) 2003. Hamlet Images http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/hamlet/hamletimages/branagh.htm (08/31/03) zSculpture Gallery “Plato” http://www.sculpturegallery.com/sculpture/plato.html (0/901/03) zCompanions of the Order of Canada Gallery E-H “Northrop Frye” (09/01/03 zStanford Presidential Lectures and Symposia in the Humanties and Arts, “Harold Bloom” http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/bloom/index.html (09/01/03)