WEEK 3

1
WEEK 3

• 1. HISTORICAL AND BIOLOGICAL APPROACHES
• 2. HAMLET
• 3. HUCKLEBERRY FINN

2
Historical and Biographical Approaches in
Practice Hamlet

• Author William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
• Script dated around 1599-1600
• An immediate success in its time and one of the
  most staged plays in history

3
Historical and Biographical Approaches in
Practice Hamlet

• Queen Elizabeths advanced age and poor health
  leads to the precarious state of the succession
  to the British crown.

Queen Elizabeth by Nicholas Hilliard
(1585)Hatfield House
4

• Hence, Shakespeares decision to mount a
  production of Hamlet, with its usurped throne and
  internally disordered state, comes as no
  surprise.

5

• Shakespeare's "Hamlet" was a remake of an already
  popular play, based in turn on an episode from
  the Dark Ages, the lawless, might-makes-right era
  that followed the collapse of Roman-era
  civilization.

Ophelia
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• In the original legend, the prince was still a
  child when his father was murdered. And he
  learned of the murder from the beginning.
• Therefore he had to act insane in order to
  survive and wait for his revenge.
• The prince in this version was not a melancholic
  youth but a model of heroes.

The Spanish Tragedy, a predecessor of Hamlet
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• There is some ground for thinking that Ophelias
  characterization of Hamlet may be intended to
  suggest the Earl of Essex.

The portrait of Earl of Essex
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• Another contemporary historical figure, the Lord
  Treasurer, Burghley, has been seen by some in the
  character of Polonius.

The Lord Treasurer, Burghley
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Knowing about eleventh-century Danish court life
or about Elizabethan England is particularly
germane to analysis of Hamlet.
10

• In Hamlets day the Danish throne was an elective
  one. The royal council, composed of the most
  powerful nobles in the land, named the next king.

The third quarto of Hamlet (1605) a straight
reprint of the 2nd quarto (1604)
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Hamlet, Gertrude and the ghost

• The custom of the thrones descending to the
  oldest son of the late monarch had not yet
  crystallized into law.

12
The charge of incest against the Queen

• Although her second marriage to the brother of
  her deceased husband would not be considered
  incestuous today by many civil and religious
  codes, it was so to considered in Shakespeares
  day.

Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard, 1839
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Hamlets role in revenge

• Modern readers/playgoers may think that one of
  Hamlets flaws is that he took revenge into his
  own hands and not resort to law.
• However, in Shakespeares time, Hamlet, the son
  of a murdered father, and more importantly, the
  son of an usurped king, was not only the
  legitimate revenger, it was his duty to take
  revenge and restore order to Denmark.

14
What is melancholy to Elizabethans?

• Nervous instability.
• Rapid and extreme changes of feeling and mood.
• The disposition to be for the time absorbed in a
  dominant feeling or mood, whether joyous or
  depressed.

Hamlet and the Gravediggers by Jean
Dagnan-Bouverte
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• If we examine Hamlets actions and speeches
  closely through Elizabethans eyes, we will
  realize that at least part of Hamlets problem is
  that he is a victim of extreme melancholy.

Ophelia drowned
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Different versions of Hamlet
Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet
Hamlet in German
The Raj Hamlet Shakespeare set in India
Hamlet in German
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Many Hamlets
Mel Gibson, with Glenn Close as Gertrude
Laurence Olivier
Kenneth Branagh
Richard Burton
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Ethan Hawke, with Julia Stiles as Ophelia
Campbell Scott
Kevin Kline, with Dana Ivey as Gertrude
Ethan Hawke as Hamlet
19
Shamlet! ??????
??????
????????,?????
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Related links and resources about Shakespeare and
Hamlet

• The life of Queen Elizabeth http//www.luminarium
  .org/renlit/elizabio.htm
• BBC- Drama- 60 seconds Shakespeare
  http//0rz.net/e61U6  
• ????? ltlt????gtgt http//www.pingfong.com.tw/shamlet2
  006/shamlet_02.htm
• Kakiseni.com our Hamlet http//www.kakiseni.com/a
  rticles/features/MDYyNA.html
• Hamlet in Wikipedia http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H
  amlet

21
Huckleberry Finn

• Author Mark Twain (1835 -1910)
• Huck Finn is regarded as Twains masterpiece
  and one of the first great American novels
• Set in the mid 1800s (pre-Civil War)
• Themes family, Mississippi river, slavery, race,
  human realities (both good and bad)

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Original Title

• Original Title Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  (Tom Sawyers Comrade)
• Tom Sawyer is the hero of Twains another novel
  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• Writer Philip Young the missing definite article
  the in the title suggested a sense of
  unfinishedness in Hucks adventures

Cover of the first New York Edition
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publication

• Similar to the literary blockbuster of our time,
  Harry Potter, Huck Finn was first published in 2
  editions (US UK)
• Such measure protected Twain from pirate copies
  of his novel, as his was already a hugely famous
  author at that time.
• Huck Finn, however, was originally banned by some
  states because of its controversial themes and
  coarse language

Cover of the first London Edition
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Settings

• Frontier America in the 1840s and 1850s
• A bloody and violent time a place of
  roughness, cruelty and lawlessness

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Actual Events inspired plots and persons

• The shooting of Old Boggs by Colonel Sherburn gt
  (actual event) killing in Hannibal, Missouri
• The attempted lynching of Sherburn gt something
  the author witnessed as a boy
• Brother of the prototype Huck, Benson Blankenship
  aided a slave to escape in 1847
• Bensons refusal to turn in the slave for reward
  is reflected in Hucks loyalty to Jim in defiance
  of law, society and religion

Hucks first appearance in the novel
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Historical plots

• Jims escape to freedom by heading south was
  reasonable at the time as his distination Cairo,
  Illinois, was south of St. Petersburg, Missouri
  (Fictional relevant of Hannibal, MO).
• If Jim were to escape to any free states, he
  could have just crossed the river at St.
  Petersburg to Illinois. Yet, although Illinois
  was a free state, slaves escaped to Illinois
  would be returned.
• Cairo, Illinois, was a junction of underground
  railway system. Jim could travel east and north
  via railway.

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Class and Racism

• Huckleberry Finn can be seen as a critcism to the
  British and American Southern aristocracy.
• Instead of being the paragons of true gentleness,
  graciousness, courtliness, and selflessness the
  hypocritical aristocracts are trigger-happy,
  proud and hard to stand.
• Another important criticism in the novel is on
  the idea of racial superiority, which the
  aristocracts used to justify their cruel
  treatment to the blacks.
• Moreover, it was not only the aristocracts who
  were subscribed to such idea, common white people
  (such as pap Finn) also did.

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Human Realities vs. Romananticism

• The author also blamed the romanticism of novels
  such as Sir Walter Scotts due to their
  idealization of a feudal society.
• In real life such idealization becomes the blood
  feud of the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons on the
  adult level.
• On juvenile level, it becomes the imaginative
  high jinks of Tom Sawyer and his robber gang
  and his rescue of Jim.

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Biographical Sources

• The authors years as steamboat pilot educated
  him about the lives on the Mississipi River and
  the technical aspects of navigation
• He learned the knowledges of Negro superstitions
  from slaves in Hannibal, MO.
• Huck in real life, Tom Blankenship, was the
  authors childhood friend.