The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1415  Monday, 29 August 2005

From: 		John Reed <
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Date: 		Friday, 26 Aug 2005 16:19:36 +0000
Subject: 	Re: Joshua Logan and Hamlet

Someone mentions Hamlet: ok, I'll strike at that lure.  What Mr. Logan 
seems to be describing is the old anagnorisis.  That might be a good 
principle for some stories.  For instance, we find it in The Seven 
Samurai, when Kambei (Takashi Shimura) says, "We lost."  And also in The 
Bridge on the River Kwai, when Col. Nicholson (Alec Guinness) says -- at 
least I think he says -- "What have I done?"  This is leaving aside 
Oedipus or anything the Greek theoreticians had to say.

Hamlet: I've been over and over this text, and I don't see anywhere he 
has the same experience.  Claudius does (when he tries to pray), but not 
Hamlet.  Hamlet seems to me to be going in the opposite mental 
direction.  He becomes progressively incapable of seeing what he himself 
has done wrong, and there is plenty.  In a religious sense (if there's 
anybody here interested in that kind of thing), he might be said to 
exhibit a seared conscience.

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