Shakespeares Hamlet An Introduction A Brief Introduction to
Shakespeare’s Hamlet An Introduction
A Brief Introduction to Hamlet • Hamlet is a play that has fascinated audiences and readers since it was first written in around 1601 -1604 • The play centers around Hamlet’s decision whether or not to avenge the murder of his father, the King of Denmark. The weight of this decision drives all the other action and relationships in the play. • Hamlet is part of an old tradition of revenge plays, and is based on an old oral legend about Amleth, a prince whose father was killed by his uncle, who then married his mother. • Amleth pretends to be mad, while plotting how to avenge his father’s death, and eventually is able to kill his uncle.
Popularity of Hamlet • Over twenty film versions of Hamlet have been produced just since World War II. • More has been written about Hamlet than about any other literary character. • Many experts believe that Hamlet the most intelligent character in literature. • The only piece of literature quoted more than Hamlet is The Bible.
Dramatic Devices • Soliloquy • A monologue • Character is alone on stage • A device used by the playwright to give the audience insight into the character’s thoughts and emotions • WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Hamlet’s melancholy, his understanding of death, his desire to die, and the state of his sanity
Dramatic Devices, cont’d • Aside • Another device used to give the audience insight • Often spoken directly TO the audience • Sometimes character is speaking to himself
Dramatic Devices, cont’d • Allusion • Indirect reference to another historical event, myth, person, or literary work with which the writer assumes the audience is familiar • Shakespeare uses this technique for establishing character, building theme, and setting mood. • WHAT TO WATCH FOR: allusions to the Bible, Greek and Roman mythology, Roman history
Tragic Pattern • Hero • Superior in station • Neither wholly good nor wholly evil • Hero has a tragic fall • Generally due to a mistake in judgment, or • Hubris (excessive pride) • Hero suffers profoundly
Tragic Pattern, cont’d • Plot • Unified plot = Exposition, rising action, • • climax, falling action, resolution Single action = to avenge or not to avenge? Single protagonist = Hamlet Reversals of fortune Final recognition of truth
Tragic Pattern, cont’d • Audience • Experiences pity and fear • Catharsis – emotional cleansing
Revenge tragedy • Revenge • “If thou didst ever thy dear father love, Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. ” --The Ghost, I. 5. 23 -5 • Plays based on acts of personal revenge became very popular in Shakespeare’s day. This form came to be known as the revenge tragedy, a genre which most often included some or all of the following: • the ghost of a murdered family member who demands that the hero take revenge
Revenge Tragedy, cont’d • the one seeking revenge must take the law • • into his own hands and commit an evil act to get revenge, which • inevitably leads to his own death scenes involving real and/or pretended madness a play within a play a graveyard scene much violence and many deaths, (thus its alternate name “the tragedy of blood”!)
Motifs • Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. • Incest and Incestuous Desire • Ears and Hearing • Misogyny/weakness of women • Poison • Disease/body blemish
Themes • Appearance vs. reality (deception) • Madness • The impossibility of certainty • Revenge
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