Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

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Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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Verse/Prose

• Averaging out all of Shakespeares plays, they
  were made up of about 70 blank verse, 5 rhymed
  verse, and 25 prose.

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Shakespeares Writing Style

• Poetry vs. Prose
• Prose - Ordinary speech or writing, without
  metrical structure
• Hamlet displaying madness
• Hamlet talking to the Players
• Hamlets letter to Horatio
• Prose used for several reasons
• To demonstrate a familiar relationship (often for
  relaxed or informal conversation)
• To signify a characters (typically lower) status
• When the rational is contrasted with the
  emotional
• The character of Hamlet tends to use prose both
  when he is being very rational and when he is
  very irrational (but the passionate Hamlet speaks
  in verse)

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Iambic Pentameter

• The poetic form used by Shakespeare is Iambic
  Pentameter
• Iambic Pentameter is a rhythmical pattern of
  syllables
• Iambic rhythm goes from unstressed syllable to a
  stressed one. Rhythmic examples divine
  caress bizarre
• Like a heartbeat daDUM daDUM
• Each iamb is called a foot
• There are other rhythms. I.e., trochaic DUMda
• Pentameter the rhythm is repeated 5 times
  each line is 10 syllables
• daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM

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Iambic Pentameter

• Pentameter the rhythm is repeated 5 times
• daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM
• The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step
• On which I must fall down, or else oer-leap,
• For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires!
• Let not light see my black and deep desires.
• Shakespeare, will sometimes end iambic pentameter
  on an unstressed syllable, so that the last foot
  sounds like this daDUMda.
• To be, or not to be, that is the question.
• Is this a dagger which I see before me

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Elizabethan Theatres

• Flowering of theatre. The Renaissance (rebirth)
  grew from Englands medieval theatre of mystery
  and morality plays with some stylistic infusion
  from educated mens common reading of the Roman
  playwrights (Terence, Plautus, Seneca).
• City authorities would often ban theatrical
  productions gatherings encouraged crime.
• Theatres The Theatre and The Curtain in North
  London The Rose, the Swan, and The Globe (1599)
  in South London.
• Christopher Marlow (1564-1593) Tamburlane the
  Great, Faustus, Edward II
• Ben Jonson (1572-1637) Volpone, The Fox
• Shakespeare (1564-1616)

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Elizabethan Theatres

• Wooden, circular structure, open to the sun
• The pit (groundlings) vs. the galleries
• Audience close to the actors
• Women not allowed on stage (teenage boys)
• No scenery, few props, but elaborate costumes

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Shakespeares Life

• Baptized on April 26, 1564 in Stratford-Upon-Avon.
  
• Died April 23, 1616
• Married at the age of 18 to Anne Hathaway.
• A daughter, named Susanna, was baptized on May
  26, 1583.
• On February 2, 1585, twins were baptized, Hamnet
  and Judith. (The boy Hamnet, Shakespeare's only
  son, died 11 years later.)
• Shakespeare leaves (around 1590?)
• family in Stratford to pursue acting in
• London.

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Origins of Theatrical Career

• Between 1585 and 1593not much known
• It is not clear how his career in the theatre
  began but from about 1594 onward he was an
  important member of the company of players known
  as the Lord Chamberlain's Men (called the King's
  Men after the accession of James I in 1603).
• They had the best actor, Richard Burbage they
  had the best theatre, the Globe they had the
  best dramatist, Shakespeare.

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Stratford to London
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Shakespeares Plays

• 37 plays
• Comedies
• Tragedies
• Histories
• Romances

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Chronology of Plays

• 1589-92 Henry VI, Part 1 Henry VI, Part 2
  Henry VI, Part 3
• 1592-93 Richard III, The Comedy of Errors
• 1593-94 Titus Andronicus, The Taming of the
  Shrew
• 1594-95 The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's
  Labour's Lost, Romeo and Juliet
• 1595-96 Richard II, A Midsummer Night's Dream
• 1596-97 King John, The Merchant of Venice
• 1597-98 Henry IV, Part 1 Henry IV, Part 2
• 1598-99 Much Ado About Nothing
• c. 1599 Henry V
• 1599-1600 Julius Caesar, As You Like It
• 1600-01 Hamlet, The Merry Wives of Windsor
• 1601-02 Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida
• 1602-03 All's Well That Ends Well
• 1604-05 Measure For Measure, Othello
• 1605-06 King Lear, Macbeth
• 1606-07 Antony and Cleopatra
• 1607-08 Coriolanus, Timon of Athens
• 1608-09 Pericles
• 1609-10 Cymbeline

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Shakespeares Effect on the English Language

• 12,000 words entered the language between 1500
  and 1650 (about ½ of them still in use today)
• Shakespeare coined 2,035 words (Hamlet alone has
  600 new words). A small sampling
• Bloody, hurry, generous, impartial, obsene,
  magestic, road, critical, frugal, dwindle,
  extract, horrid, vast, excellent, eventful,
  assassination, lonely, suspicious,
  indistinguishable, well-read, zany, countless

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Language

• Shakespeares phrases are now our clichés
• One fell swoop, into thin air, fast and loose, in
  a pickle, budge an inch, cold comfort, flesh and
  blood, foul play, tower of strength, cruel to be
  kind, bated breath, pomp and circumstance, catch
  a cold, heart of gold, live long day, method in
  his madness, strange bedfellows, too much of a
  good thing, foregone conclusion, break the ice,
  dead as a doornail, fool's paradise, good
  riddance, love is blind, not slept one wink, wear
  my heart upon my sleeve, wild-goose chase, the
  world's my oyster, for goodness' sake

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Act I, scene i

1. What time is it? Where are we? Whats the
   weather like?
2. Who do we meet in this scene and what is their
   status?
3. Write down any descriptions of Denmark
4. What does Horatio tell us about Fortinbras?
5. What effect does the ghost have on the
   characters? On the audience?

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Start identifying patterns/motifs

• Motif recurring imagery and/or symbolism, a
  recurrent thematic element
• Rottenness, decay, sickness
• Perception vs. Reality It was like the king
• Playacting, theatre, pretending to be someone
  youre not
• Cosmetics
• Ears
• Following
• Memory

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Foil definition

• One that by contrast underscores or enhances the
  distinctive characteristics of another a
  character whose qualities or actions serve to
  emphasize those of the protagonist (or of some
  other character) by providing a strong contrast
  with them.

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The Origins of Hamlet

• The Ur-Hamlet 1560
• Political Drama, not same character names,
  clearly different lines of dialogue
• King usurped by brother
• Shakespeares Hamlet less political, more
  domestic

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The Soliloquies

• Soliloquy a character alone on stage expressing
  his/her innermost thoughts and feelings directly
  to the audience.
• The soliloquies are as deep as the soul of man
  can goand as sincere as the Holy Spirit itself
  in their essence.
• Each represent the stages of Hamlets
  psychological progress. Exploration of
  conscience.

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Hamlet

• The first truly modern man
• What is Hamlets tragedy?
• The tragedy of a man ___________.

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Horatio

• Horatio is omnipresent.
• We are Horatio.
• Hamlets perpetual audience.
• Without Horatio, we are too distanced from the
  bewildering Hamlet for Shakespeare to work his
  guile upon us.

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Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

• Throughout the play, the ongoing border disputes
  and political machinations amongst Denmark,
  Norway, and Poland serve as a backdrop for the
  action in the Danish court (I.ii II.ii IV.iv
  V.ii). Prince Fortinbras, whose father was killed
  by Hamlets father, is a man of action, and his
  character serves as a foil to the contemplative
  Prince Hamlet.

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Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

• Most of the action of play occurs in and around
  the castle at Elsinore in Denmark. King Hamlet is
  dead, and Prince Hamlet has returned to Denmark
  from school in Wittenberg, Germany, only to
  discover that Queen Gertrude, his mother, has
  married his Uncle Claudius. Claudius has had
  himself crowned king.

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Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

• Hamlet is informed that what is apparently the
  ghost of his dead father has appeared to the
  palace guards (I, ii). When he later confronts
  the ghost, Hamlet learns that Claudius murdered
  his father and hastily married Queen Gertrude (I,
  v).

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Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

• Polonius (Lord Chamberlain), his son Laertes and
  daughter Ophelia are also important characters in
  this drama. Polonius and Laertes are concerned
  about Ophelias romantic involvement with Prince
  Hamlet and caution her against such a
  relationship. Polonius also provides fatherly
  advice to Laertes as he leaves for Paris (I, iii).

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Soliloquies / Monologues

• Analyze the imagery, structure, word choices and
  rhetorical devices. How does Shakespeare write
  it? Divide up the speech beat by beat.
• How does this speech relate to a theme of the
  play?
• Why does Shakespeare include this speech?
• What can we learn about ourselves/humanity?
• Perform speech in your own wordsbe creative!

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Nunnery

• Hamlet consigns Ophelia to a life of pious
  chastity.
• Yet, in effect, he is murdering Ophelia, and
  starting her on the path to suicide.
• Hamlets lack of sympathy shown here (and in
  Poloniuss murder, and his killing of RG).
• Hamlet is violent with them, especially
  OpheliaHamlets failure to love? He does not
  want or need lovelonely life.

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the plays the thing

• It is a play about playing, about acting out
  rather than avenging.
• Notice how many references there are to acting,
  actors, plays, theatre, pretending to be someone
  else, tricksters deceit, plays within plays,
  etc.
• No other drama is so overtly audience-aware.
• Shakespeare himself played the Ghost and the
  Player King
• Hamlet practically raised until the age of 7 by
  Yorick (V.i.185-189), the royal trickster (hence
  great wit, very theatrical)

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To be, or not to be (III.i.56)

• Not merely a meditation seriously contemplating
  suicide.
• The question is, what is the power of Hamlets
  mind over a universe of death, or a sea of
  troubles?
• The sea of death must end consciousness
  (conscience).
• Consciousness (or being) is given the choice
• Suffer stoically, or
• Take arms against the sea, and thus end sooner.
• 2 grand metaphors
• The shuffled-off mortal coil (everything we shall
  lose)
• The undiscovered country (the land of death from
  which no traveler returnsexcept for King Hamlet)
• Thus, its about Hamlets will. He cant will
  himself to action, but perhaps the true nature of
  action is in the mind.

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The Grave-digger

• One of the great clowns (drunken Porter from
  Macbeth, Cleopatras asp salesman)
• The Gravedigger is the reality principle,
  mortality, while Hamlet is deaths scholar.

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Hamlet

• A meditation upon human fragility in
  confrontation with death (Bloom 3)
• Central question How did Hamlet develop into so
  extraordinarily ambivalent a consciousness?

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Themes

• What is Shakespeares message?
• A meditation on death and how we react to the
  inevitable
• When playing becomes deceit, the theatricality
  of life, and how theatre holds the mirror up to
  ourselves.
• Thought vs. Action