HAMLET CRASH COURSE

HAMLET CRASH COURSE

Syllabus:

Read and understand the text
Evaluate how text is perceived in various contexts
Questions of textual integrity – what is this text that gives it value
Analyse its construction – look at all the details of how the text is put together
Research others perspectives of the text – test these against your own understanding of the text
Develop a range of imaginative, interpretive and analytical compositions that relate to the study of their specific text.
Engage with and develop an informed personal understanding of the text

Reading Texts:

As you read, consider three things – essentially:

Context of the writing
Context of the text
Context of the reader
Identify the values, attitudes, opinions, experiences and/or behaviours
The relevance and endurance of a text comes out of the extent of which that text communicates ideas and values about our society and ourselves. It addresses ontological and sociological concerns.

Understanding Texts:

Texts do three things – essentially:

Represent or show, expose flaws and invite questioning or reassessment of values, attitudes, opinions, experiences and/or behaviours of a context

How do composers do this in their texts?

Choice of text type: GENRE – at the core of revenge tragedy is an overload of emotional engagement
The world of the text: CHARACTERS, SETTINGS – embody the emotions of the text
Stylistic Choices: LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES – Soliloquys are mostly used

Character Analysis:

Hamlet is:

Angry, dejected
Depressed, and
Brooding;
He is manic,
Elated,
Enthusiastic, and
Energetic,
He is dark and suicidal,
A man who loathes himself and his fate

Key Idea:

Hamlet ‘s major theme is the existential anguish or dread, the anguish of being, the anguish of death, the anguish of here-and-now, and the anguish of freedom (human beings are free and this causes hesitation). The idea of Self, as a central existential idea, is derived from the view that there is no fixed essence within man and man is to create himself (their self) through ceaseless choosing of actions.
Jacques Lacan proposes: “The unconscious is structured like a language and through language” Ecrits (1982)

Responding to an essay needs:

Genre = The Nature of Tragedy – “Tragedy is the imitation of an action; and an action implies personal agents who necessarily posses certain qualities both of character and thought…these – thought and character – are the two natural causes from which actions spring; on these causes, again, all success or failure depends.” When thought and character clash, tragedy occurs. There needs to be a balance to avoid tragic outcomes. Genre shapes the plotline. This is the point of it. And with it, it shapes the kind of characters we are going to deal with. We know what to expect, as a result of the choice make by the author.

In most tragedies, everything moves to a destined end, an end determined by the beginning, by the passions involved in the situation at the start.

Shakespearean tragedy is essentially the story of one person

The story leads to and includes the death of the “hero.”

The story depicts the troubled part of the hero’s life that precedes and produces his death.

The suffering and calamity are exceptional:
a) They befall a conspicuous person
b) They are all striking
c) They are contrasted with and arise out of previous success, happiness, security and glory
d) They usually extend beyond the hero and affect a large number of people

The catastrophe is not something, which merely happens to the people concerned by rather something, which are caused by them. The actions issue manly by character. Other factors:
a) Abnormal state of mind – insanity, sleepwalking, hallucinations – they are rarely the origins of deeds of dramatic importance.
b) The supernatural - ghosts and witches – is often an essential part of the action. Always closely related to character, expressing outwardly what is within the character.
c) Chance and accident – often allowed considerable influence but never originate the series of events or determine their nature.

The tragic hero – a person of public importance but recognisable as a human being. For Shakespeare, man is not contemptible. The tragic mystery he sees in life is so much power, glory, and intelligence perishing and destroying itself, often with dreadful pain.

The fatal flaw – in each of the main characters of Shakespeare’s tragedies we can see a marked one-sidedness, one trait which disturbs the balance, a fatal tendency to subordinate the whole man to one interest, passion or habit of mind. What do you consider the fatal flaw to be in Hamlet’s character? His sensitivity? His speculative thoughtful nature?

Conflict – torn by his own conflicting desires and struggling against the web of circumstances, which entangles him, the hero goes to his death. Conflict may be external or internal
a) External – the physical struggle between two persons or two groups. In Hamlet, the hero is opposed to Claudius and his supporters.
b) Internal – within the hero’s mind or soul. The battle that is seen to go on within a man who is fighting against himself provides a much more intense emotional experience (than the external conflict)

Characters -
Language that constructs the characters

(Essay Question) “For moral order to occur, there has to be a balance between reason and emotion. To what extent is this shown in Hamlet?”

Writing Analytically involves:

Identify the technique - name it and quote it (use the name of it at beginning of sentence – genre, characterisation, language of character, soliloquys which are constructed in verse)
Impact on text – how does the technique enrich the text? (How does it create meaning) (genre shapes the plot)
Impact on the reader – how am I drawn into the text by the technique? (thoughts/feelings) (emotional overload expectation)

Writing Extended Responses:

Clear – intro, topic sentences
Coherent – evidence that is relevant for the topic
Concise – avoid repetition

Genre:

The choice of genre in revenge tragedy shapes the choice of character namely the tragic hero.
It intimates the key problem, namely the moral dilemma. Out of this moral dilemma, we get intimations about the conflicts the characters have to deal with. That conflict is the nature of being, which leads to a conflict of social responsibilities. (they live in a Christian society, they must have Christian values, the conflict is a result of the contradiction of Christian values.
The characters embody that moral dilemma.

Renaissance – questioning everything.
Hamlet is the embodiment of a HUMANIST attitude.
Hamlet is not mad. He is feigning madness. He has an internal conflict about thought and character. Emotion and reason.

Possible Themes:

Revenge vs. Justice: the play follows the conventions of Elizabethan revenge plays but Shakespeare subverts significant aspects of these conventions, maybe to raise the issue of Justice (divine or otherwise) as a significant consideration.
“Frailty thy name is woman”: expressed in the story of the Queen and Ophelia.
The natural order: the universe is a place in which everything had its duly appointed place. The universe showed order. If anything forcibly occupied the position of another, higher or lower in the scale, then disorder resulted. Shakespeare also dealt with disordered people. Each part of the man occupied its own position in the scale of his being. If any one part got out of its true relation to the others then a disordered personality resulted. Such disordered produced disorder in his environment.

(Essay Question) “How would you say, this Order – Disorder idea is a theme of Hamlet? Justify your answer.”

The nature of personhood: as evident through Hamlet’s existentialist journey. Reason vs. Emotion – “to thine own self be true.”