Introduction to Hamlet - Clarington Central Secondary School
Download
Report
Transcript Introduction to Hamlet - Clarington Central Secondary School
Introduction to Hamlet
The Melancholy Prince
Hamlet is a long, complicated, and
demanding play
BUT, it speaks to teenagers
Hamlet’s dilemmas involve
indecision, powerlessness, and other
issues with which teenagers are quite
familiar
Plot Summary
For convenience, the play can be divided into 3
main movements:
1.
Discovery – Act I (The Ghost Story)
2.
Proof – Act II – Act IV, sc iv (The Detective Story)
3.
Revenge – Act IV, sc v – end (The Revenge
Story)
William Shakespeare
1564 – 1616
Stratford-upon-Avon
Anne Hathaway
3 children (Hamnet, Susanna,
Judith)
John Shakespeare (glovemaker)
Mary Arden (rich farmer’s
daughter)
38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two
narrative poems.
Comedies
Histories
Tragedies
Tragicomedy or romances
Simpson’s Version of Hamlet
http://paoloesquivel.multiply.com
/video/item/4
Enjoying Hamlet: historical
background
The Tragedy of Hamlet
What matters most at the end of
an important tragedy is not
success or failure, but what a
man is.
Tragedy moves into the realm of
the human spirit and at the
end we contemplate the
nature of man.
Tragedy of Hamlet
Horror and grief are used as
entertainment.
Tragedy uses them as truth.
We must face them and as we
face them, they lose their terror
and the tragedy passes beyond
them.
Tragedy of Hamlet
“It is not surprising, then, that
the greatest tragedies are those
involving the greatest horrors,
for facing a great horror
demands greatness of spirit.”
Tragedy of Hamlet
At the close of the tragedy we
are not so much concerned with
Hamlet as an individual as
with the spirit of man
triumphant in defeat.
(Introduction, Hamlet, p. xxiv)
Hamlet
Is Shakespeare’s best known
and most popular play.
Hamletology
Recite recordbreaking statistics
about the play
>45 movie versions
1st analysis written in 1736
“to be or not to be”
Inspired 26 ballets, 6 operas,
dozen of musicals
Takes 4 ½ - 5 hrs to perform
4000 lines (40% by Hamlet)
25% written in prose
Servants/lower class (proletariat)
Hamlet > commoners
Letters, documents
Scenes of comic relief and
madness
Blank verse
Noble birth (bourgeoisie)
Blank Verse
Iambic pentameter
5 feet (pentameter)
Each foot: unstressed/stressed
Da DA da DA da DA da DA da DA
~/ ~
/
~ / ~
/
A little more than kin, and less
~ /
than kind
English Renaissance
-occurred during the reign of Elizabeth I
(1558-1603)
And the early part of James I (1603-1625)
Renaissance means “rebirth”
A renewed interest in “classical” values
People moved away from ‘God” centred
society to a more ‘human’ centred
(humanistic) society, where earthly
pursuits were considered important for their
own sake.
Denmark
In the play, pictured as both
A martial and imperial nation
Today, Denmark is a peaceful,
civilized little state that minds
its own business
It doesn’t annoy its neighbours
It is largely stable, healthy, and
pacific
In 1700 Denmark joined
Poland & Russia vs Sweden)
The last time Denmark deliberately
entered a war of her own accord, in
the role of aggressor (King Frederick
IV)
In Shakespeare’s time
Hamlet was written in 1600 or 1601
King Christian IV was king (1588-1648)
Ruled over some German duchies, all of
Norway and portions of southern Sweden,
Iceland and Greenland.
It was still an
imperial nation
Nor is it the Denmark of
Shakespeare’s time
That appears in Hamlet
But a far older Denmark,
Even bloodier and more
threatening and aggressive
Hamlet, based on legendary
material
Reaches us in a book Historia
Danica written about 1200 by a
Danish historian
Saxo Grammaticus
It gives an account of some 60
legendary Danish kings (some
mythical Norse gods)
Included in Saxo
Grammaticus’ tales
A bloody one (fictional) concerning a prince
he called Amlethus (Shakespeare calls him
Hamlet)
It may have had its origin in dim tales of
Vicking feuds.
It includes
A dead father
A usurping uncle
Feigned madness
Revenge
Comparisons can be made
While Hamlet the play contains
not one clearly historical
character or event,
Comparisons can still be made
with actual events in the 11th
century
Setting
We might set the time of the
play Hamlet as 1050.
Kronborg Castle in Elsinore
The castle still stands and
Shakespeare’s play has made it
world-famous
In fact, Hamlet is played in its
courtyard occasionally.
Kronborg Castle
One Minute Shakespeare
One Minute Hamlet – famous
last nerds
Hamlet the music video (Sir
Laurence Olivier)
http://www.youtube.com/results?
search_query=hamlet+the+musi
c&search_type=&aq=f
Topics in Hamlet
Death/dead bodies
murder
Suicide
Disease
Graves
adultery
Incest
Sex
Madness
Spying/mystery/intrigue
Deception/betrayal
Enjoying Hamlet
Examines “the stupidity, falsity
and sham of everyday life”
without laughing and without
easy answers.
Appearance vs reality
Hamlet’s genuineness,
thoughtfulness, and sincerity
make him special
Hamlet is no saint
But unlike most of the other
characters in the play (and most
people today), Hamlet chooses
not to compromise with evil.
Dying,
Hamlet reaffirms the tragic
dignity of a basically decent
person in a bad world.
Life
Hamlet is the first work of
literature to show
an ordinary person looking at
the futility and wrongs in life,
asking the toughest questions
and
coming up with honest semianswers like most people in an
imperfect world.
While reading Hamlet
Watch how Hamlet—who starts
by wishing he was dead—
comes to terms with life, keeps
his integrity,
and strikes back successfully at
what’s wrong around him.
Discover your own
answers…
Discover your own answers to the
questions asked in Hamlet
To make personal connections with
Hamlet
What I ask of you is
a willingness to work hard on difficult
material and
a recognition of the need to risk in
order to succeed.
Your Journey through the
play: Notes/Reactions
A record of a journey
Enter comments on
Action
Character
language
Hamlet Notes/Good Website
http://www.pathguy.com/hamlet.
htm