The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0071 Sunday, 26 February 2006
[1] From: Steve Sohmer <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Feb 2006 11:45:09 EST
Subj: Re: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
[2] From: Jim Blackie <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Feb 2006 12:32:58 -0500
Subj: RE: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
[3] From: Larry Weiss <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Feb 2006 13:40:39 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
[4] From: David Bishop <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Feb 2006 16:53:28 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
[5] From: Joseph Egert <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Feb 2006 23:02:25 +0000
Subj: RE: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
[6] From: David Basch <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Feb 2006 21:21:41 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
[7] From: Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, February 26, 2006
Subj: Re: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Steve Sohmer <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Feb 2006 11:45:09 EST
Subject: 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
Dear Friends,
Frank Whigham raised a series of interesting questions about "Hamlet"
which I will, briefly, try to briefly answer.
(1) Was Gertrude adulterous?
Yes, both adulterous and incestuous. One can commit incest with a dead
brother's wife. But one can only commit adultery with her while the
brother is alive. A man's marriage to his wife ends at the moment of her
death; a woman's marriage to her husband ends only when he is buried.
(2) Do we believe that Claudius won her with gifts? What would that
mean? What kinds of gifts? (Like the ones that Bassanio buys
Portia?) Is
she stupid? Do we trust the Ghost's contemptuous language? Do we trust
his narcissism?
Gertrude is highly randy but certainly not dull; while Claudius and
Polonius speculate about the cause of Hamlet's "madness," Gertrude puts
her finger on it. The Ghost, a dead penitent, appears to be a reliable
reporter. Moreover, in his final appearance his sins seem to have been
burned away.
(3) What does (marrying) Gertrude have to do with the possession of the
crown? Did Claudius want her for some such reason?
Gertrude may have had some life interest in the crown. However, a queen
regnant was an historical anomaly when Mary Tudor came to the throne
(and Elizabeth after her). One would have to possess the woman with the
life interest in the crown in order to possess the crown.
(4) What did the ruling elite (or whoever is addressed in 1.2 as having
"better wisdoms") "go along" with, regarding Claudius's ascent to the
throne (or is it Gertrude's re-marriage)? Is it the swift choice of a
king to replace the dead one? Or is it the incest? Is the relevant
parallel (in their eyes, as it were) then with Prince Arthur, Henry
VIII, Katherine of Aragon, and the Pope's dispensation? It's worth
noting that in the interesting play A Looking Glass for London and
England (set in Nineveh, 1592?), which begins with a brother
(admittedly
Asiatic) taking his wife to wed, a courtier immediately says (not
waiting even as long as Kent), "What a terrible idea!"
I have argued elsewhere that Hamlet was conceived prior to the marriage
of Old Hamlet and Gertrude. Under prevailing law, that made him a
bastard eigne whose right to the succession could have been vacated had
Gertrude born Claudius a son in wedlock.
(5) Why do only the Hamlets father and son talk about incest?
Why did many English acquiesce when Henry Tudor married Catherine of
Aragon? To have spoken against the marriage could have been construed as
treason. Royal incest was not a topic upon which one wished to be seen
as outspoken. It's noteworthy that Polonius warns Ophelia that Hamlet is
a prince and, therefore, cannot marry her ... whereas Gertrude, who
certainly knows the facts of Hamlet's conception and birth, was hoping
that Hamlet would marry Ophelia.
(6) Why is Fortinbras's uncle "impotent and bedrid"?
Fortinbras' "bedrid" uncle is a peacemaker ... unlike Hamlet's
belligerent uncle. But this is only the beginning of the contrast
between the two uncles. The fact that Old Fortinbras is "impotent" may
remove doubt about Young Fortinbras' legitimacy. For those who are
interested in such things, FORTINABRAS is an anagram for A FIRST BORN.
(7) What has Poland to do with anything (such as Polonius's name)?
This is a very complex trope which centers on the Pole or de la Pole
family who had variegated fortune under the Tudors. When Henry VIII's
divorce hit the fan, Reginald Pole (1500-1558) begged permission to
continue his studies in Paris. Eventually, he returned to serve Queen
Mary. But Pole was stripped of his legatine powers and censured for
doctrinal unsoundness ... despite the fact that he was dogmatic to a T
(which may account for Polonius' lecture to Laertes, who is going to
study in Paris).
As to Poland, it was and is a Catholic country. Norway was and is
Protestant. The war between them may well have religious underpinnings
... as has the text of Hamlet.
(8) "The Murder of Gonzago" and the king's reaction to it do not prove
that the ghost is not a devil, only that Claudius is guilty. What
happened to Hamlet's earlier concern about the former?
There are two factions seeking after perfect knowledge in Hamlet. One,
Claudius and Polonius, are seeking the cause of Hamlet's madness ...
which Gertrude readily identifies as his father's death and her
o'erhasty marriage. The other searcher is Hamlet ... who is seeking
certain knowledge of the truthfulness of the Ghost. Claudius horror and
rage at the play is, to Hamlet, sufficient evidence to tip the teetering
scales regarding both Claudius' guilt and the Ghost's honesty.
(9) Why doesn't Hamlet fret about the revenge prohibition "Vengeance is
mine" (in Deuteronomy, Romans, and Hebrews), when he worries about the
cognate prohibition on suicide? Has the omission anything to do with
Hieronymo's lengthy fretting about it in The Spanish Tragedy?
Suicide is never justified. Clearing an incestuous, adulterous murderer
from the Danish throne might be, provided there is proof of his crimes.
(10) How did Ophelia die?
If I'm not mistaken she drowned.
(11) How are we to understand Hamlet's weird apology to Laertes?
Hamlet, having committed himself to the hand of providence (the fall of
the sparrow), is cleansing his conscience (confessio) prior to mortal
combat. Many warriors did so.
(12) How old is Hamlet? 19 or 30? If the former, then why does the
gravedigger scene contain the apparent suggestion that he's 30? If the
latter, why bury the data?
This is a tactic Shakespeare used first in Julius Caesar ... dispensing
information on a subject in reverse order ... which requires those
auditors who are capable to integrate the information to grasp the
playwright's design. Hamlet is 30 (he's fat and he sweats). He was born
on the day Old Hamlet overcame Old Fortinbras. This was fewer than nine
months after the marriage of Hamlet's parents. The math is detailed in
the Player King's speech (the "dozen" lines which Hamlet wrote "thirty
dozen moons ... twelve [a dozen] times thirty"). Shakespeare buries the
data because a play about an illegitimate prince might not have gone
down well under Elizabeth (thrice declared a bastard: by her father,
parliament, and the pope), or under James who was suspected of illegitimacy.
(13) Why does Hamlet give his dying voice to Fortinbras?
Fortinbras is a legitimate royal, a first-born, and a hero. The royal
house of Denmark is about to become extinct. It was not unusual to
borrow a royal from another country when this occurred. Fortinbras'
arrival isn't coincidence but providential.
(14) Why does Horatio the true and more suicidal friend and skeptic use
the optative in the "flights of angels" speech? (This seems the only
survival of Kyd's post-mortem speech where Andrea and Revenge apportion
out rewards and punishments after the revenge is carried out, in richly
in favor of the revengers.)
Horatio and Hamlet have been at school at Wittenberg, where they were
taught that there is no purgatory and one went to heaven or hell
immediately on one's death.
Hope this helps.
Steve Sohmer
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jim Blackie <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Feb 2006 12:32:58 -0500
Subject: 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
Comment: RE: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
<Frank Whigham>While I share Jim Blackie's sense that Shakespeare was not a
"cheap"
trickster (at least most of the time), I do think that Hamlet is a play
with more than a usual dose of interpretive mystery. None of the
problems listed below strike me as arousing silly author's identity
questions, but the obscurities are puzzling. (Many of these are
questions that students regularly ask; perhaps the original audiences
might have done so too. That is, they're not just question from the study.)
This is followed by many good puzzles and mysteries that lead us in many
directions. I agree that the points are valid, maybe considered, and
contribute to our fascination with a complex play. Interpretation was
not at issue with my minor tantrum.
I'd therefore like to clarify that my point was that Will wasn't
purposefully withholding information from a play to get what is called
in today's movie parlance an "AhHa!" (please excuse my use of technical
terminology here.) I can't think of any "red herrings" or similar
trickery to keep the audience's attention or interest although there are
plenty of opportunities, such as Titus' dinner party menu - we know up
front what the main course will be.
I was responding to a point made by another that there is much
"sub-plot" or "behind the scenes" actions that we can deduce as being
true and obvious although it does not exist in the text or stage
directions. I can't come up with anything that is not made out of whole
cloth by the person who discovered their bit of Shakespearean
obviousness. If someone can show we the error of my ways, I will relent
and admit that I was, once again, dead wrong.
Sorry if I was unclear, but I will always risk not making my point if I
can possibly get a cheap laugh out of a bad pun, myself...
Jim Blackie
Bardoholic
[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Larry Weiss <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Feb 2006 13:40:39 -0500
Subject: 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
An interesting collection of questions, Here are my responses, some more
tentative than others:
>(1) Was Gertrude adulterous?
I am largely persuaded by John Dover Wilson's analysis that she was, but
it is by no means a closed question.
>(2) Do we believe that Claudius won her with gifts? What would that
mean? What kinds of gifts? (Like the ones that Bassanio buys Portia?) Is
she stupid? Do we trust the Ghost's contemptuous language? Do we trust
his narcissism?
I have always understood this to mean natural gifts, or personal charm:
"With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts --/ O wicked wits
and gifts that have the power/ So to seduce!" If this is the correct
reading it highlights that Hamlet's perception of Claudius's appearance
and demeanor -- e.g., "batten on this moor"; "satyr"; "king of shreds
and patches" -- is far off the mark, and it raises questions of the
extent to which we can trust Hamlet's judgment. As for the ghost's
"narcissism," I don't see it. It would not be unreasonable for him to
be peeved by the use he received at his brother's hand, and it would be
natural for his speech to reflect that.
Gertrude is not stupid (vide "The lady doth protest too much"); but she
is an alcoholic.
>(3) What does (marrying) Gertrude have to do with the possession of
the crown? Did Claudius want her for some such reason?
Tony Burton has written a lengthy and erudite answer to this question,
which was published in two parts in The Shakespeare Newsletter. In
brief, Tony suggests that (under English law) Gertrude, as widow, had a
temporary possessory interest in the late king's estate which could be
vested into joint title if she married within a specified period of
time; hence the hasty marriage. Tony's analysis, while tight, does not
entirely persuade me, as it assumes that the audience would have a more
precise understanding of a technical point of law than is reasonable to
assume.
>(4) What did the ruling elite (or whoever is addressed in 1.2 as
having "better wisdoms") "go along" with, regarding Claudius's ascent to
the throne (or is it Gertrude's re-marriage)? Is it the swift choice of
a king to replace the dead one? Or is it the incest?
The immediate antecedent is the marriage, not the assumption of the
crown; and that makes the most sense as the election to the throne
preceded the wedding.
>Is the relevant parallel (in their eyes, as it were) then with Prince
Arthur, Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon, and the Pope's dispensation?
It most likely would have resonated with the Elizabethan audience.
>(5) Why do only the Hamlets father and son talk about incest?
Do you think it would have been prudent for Polonius, Osric, Voltimand,
et al. to make this a subject for casual banter?
>(6) Why is Fortinbras's uncle "impotent and bedrid"?
Probably for no reason other than to explain why he did not squelch his
nephew's expedition sooner.
>(7) What has Poland to do with anything (such as Polonius's name)?
There are two references that suggest that Poland was a traditional
enemy of Denmark -- Hamlet pere "slew the sledded Polacks on the ice"
and Claudius gives leave to Fortinbras to traverse his dominions for an
expedition against Poland. The chief minister's name is evocative, as I
have commented here before (see the archives). It seems to me that this
is a wonderful little grace note, telling the audience not to
underestimate the doddering old man, who in palmier days was
sufficiently astute or courageous to earn the agnomen. Remember, the
character was Corambis in Q1.
>(8) "The Murder of Gonzago" and the king's reaction to it do not prove
that the ghost is not a devil, only that Claudius is guilty. What
happened to Hamlet's earlier concern about the former?
Isn't there enough in the play without adding this question?
>(9) Why doesn't Hamlet fret about the revenge prohibition "Vengeance
is mine" (in Deuteronomy, Romans, and Hebrews), when he worries about
the cognate prohibition on suicide? Has the omission anything to do with
Hieronymo's lengthy fretting about it in The Spanish Tragedy?
I refer my friend to the answer I gave a few moments ago.
>(10) How did Ophelia die?
She drowned. Of that there is no possible doubt, no probable, possible
shadow of doubt, no possible doubt whatever. The only question is
whether it was suicide or accident.
>(11) How are we to understand Hamlet's weird apology to Laertes?
He anticipates the McNaghten rules. But, seriously, Dover Wilson
provides a fairly persuasive answer to this one too.
>(12) How old is Hamlet? 19 or 30? If the former, then why does the
gravedigger scene contain the apparent suggestion that he's 30? If the
latter, why bury the data?
I don't understand the last part of the question. In V.i WS twice tells
us that Hamlet is thirty -- once by precise reckoning from the date the
gravedigger became sexton and then again from the fact that Hamlet
remembers Yorick, who died 23 years earlier. I agree that WS probably
had a younger character in mind originally, but a character is as old as
the actor who plays him appears to be, and Burbage was over 30. I
suspect that the V.i speeches were added to tell the audience that this
wasn't miscasting. (Burbage is also said to have weighed 17 stn; and
Gertrude says Hamlet is "fat and scant of breath.")
>(13) Why does Hamlet give his dying voice to Fortinbras?
Who else was left? A more thematic answer is that Hamlet saw in
Fortinbras's cause (as in Laertes's) the image of his own.
>(14) Why does Horatio the true and more suicidal friend and skeptic
use the optative in the "flights of angels" speech?
Horatio is a questioner, not a doubter. After all, he "in part
believe[s]" the arrant nonsense about spooks not being manifest at
Christmas. There is no reason to think that Horatio does not believe in
angels.
[4]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Bishop <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Feb 2006 16:53:28 -0500
Subject: 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
If SHAKSPER is wading back into Hamlet criticism, I guess I can start
tediously rehearsing my pet theories, which can be found in more detail
at clashingideals.com.
Some of Frank Whigham's questions are very complex, but I think most of
them do occur to attentive readers and viewers of the play.
1) "Adulterate" and "incestuous" were often used, I believe, as general
terms of abuse when they weren't literally true. We don't take the
marriage as literally incestuous, which doesn't mean that we are
supposed to be entirely comfortable with it, or to go along with it,
like the court. On the other hand, Hamlet, like the ghost, seems to
overdo it a bit, and I think this is part of Shakespeare's plan. The
young Hamlet shares with the ghost a fanatical puritanism. This is
suggested most, perhaps, by the failure to provide more specific
evidence of adultery, and by the effective identification of these
charges with the horrible sins of a) second marriage and b) marrying
Claudius.
I would suggest that if Gertrude had literally committed adultery Hamlet
would not remain so fond of her as to envision a reconciliation, and
especially would not be treating her so respectfully in the last act.
She would also not have to look into her "very soul" to find the source
of her guilt, which seems to me to be a feeling that she preferred the
witty and gift-giving Claudius to her rather icy first husband.
6) Fortinbras's uncle is impotent and bedrid, I think, for two reasons.
1) To explain why Claudius had to reveal the truth to him (incidentally
showing his competence as a king) and 2) to indicate that the strong
young Fortinbras could have simply overthrown his aged uncle if he chose
to. That instead he bows to his uncle and swears not to pursue his
revenge on Denmark shows that he has sincerely converted to lawfulness
and leaves him the best available choice to succeed at the end. The
sincerity of his conversion is shown both in his speech as he passes
through Denmark and in his judicious claiming of the throne.
7) I have a pet theory that Shakespeare gave Polonius his name, at least
partly, because Poland functions as a substitute target for Fortinbras
as Polonius does for Hamlet. Or maybe he liked the speech prefix Pol.
for him better than Cor. In the play Poland is also a kind of wild east,
where wars can be fought without worrying too much about legal issues.
Fortinbras goes to war there to show his strength (necessary for a
prospective king) and also his discipline, in shifting his target from a
lawless to a more or less lawful one.
8) We may question the deep sincerity of Hamlet's expressed doubts about
the ghost. Also, if the ghost were a devil would that be because the
story was false or because he commanded revenge? Hamlet's problem, of
publicly proving Claudius's guilt, is not, as it happens, solved by the
Mousetrap, since Claudius does not, as Hamlet partly hoped, proclaim his
malefactions. Also because no one suspects this is anything but a play
and because Hamlet's behavior provides an adequate explanation for
Claudius's walkout.
9) Perhaps the greatest source of mystery in the play is Hamlet's
failure to speak explicitly about the moral drawbacks of revenge.
Laertes' explicit summary of all the qualms he would cast aside for the
sake of "daring damnation" suggests, I think, some of what's going on in
Hamlet's mind. The play develops this theme in intriguing and subtle
ways, possibly, in part, reacting against the lack of subtlety in the
revenge play tradition. He does at least say that one obstacle to
revenge might be the (oxymoronic) craven scruple. This paradoxical note
resounds in "conscience does make cowards of us all", in "daring
damnation" and in his "Christian" revenge fantasy in the prayer scene:
using the Christian God to take revenge (circumventing God). These are
oxymoronic because a true scruple cannot be craven. Is it cowardly to
fear God? Hamlet is caught between the duty, and the sin, of revenge.
His deepest ideals, it turns out, clash. They can't fully be reconciled,
unless by doing what Shakespeare does in the end: transforming Hamlet's
revenge, more or less, into justice.
11) This is getting too long, so I'll just add that in apologizing to
Laertes Hamlet expends the alibi he has established for killing the
king: that he was crazy, but now he's sorry, it wasn't really him, so
can't we all get along? It wouldn't really have worked with the king,
but in a deep part of his mind I think he grasped at that hope.
Shakespeare has created a character with some unconscious, or
semi-conscious, motives, and the alibi of insanity is one of them.
Best wishes,
David Bishop
[5]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Joseph Egert <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Feb 2006 23:02:25 +0000
Subject: 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
Comment: RE: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
I believe that Frank Whigham's recitation of HAMLET puzzles barely
scratches the surface. I'd be most interested to hear Frank's own
solutions, tentative as they may be.
Joe Egert
[6]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Basch <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Feb 2006 21:21:41 -0500
Subject: 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
Frank Whigham raises many questions about Hamlet, some of which have
straightforward answers. While audiences of Shakespeare's play may
puzzle over its meaning, no one should suppose that Shakespeare was in
doubt about the play's meaning. Shakespeare did not write from the hip
but took care with the tiniest detail of his words. He has a point to
make and makes it in a complex play, as complex as life, and leaves his
audience to ponder this meaning.
Nevertheless, Shakespeare gives clues about his meaning in that he
reveals by the many parallels in the play that it is a dramatization of
the Bible's Book of Ecclesiastes. There are dozens of parallels in
Hamlet to Ecclesiastes so that the greatest puzzle is why critics have
failed to take full account of these parallels or to ponder the meaning
of the play as revealed by this key fact.
Frank Whigham went on to raise 14 questions. I would like to try to
answer those about which I think I have something to say. I will repeat
each of his questions and follow with my answer.
(Q1) Was Gertrude adulterous?
The play is indefinite about this. But Gertrude must have certainly
flirted with Claudius and given him reason to think that by killing King
Hamlet he would reap a harvest. She had been the "snare," the woman that
Ecclesiastes mentions, "whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as
bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be
taken by her." Claudius was indeed "taken."
(Q2) Do we believe that Claudius won her with gifts? What
would that mean? What kinds of gifts? (Like the ones that
Bassanio buys Portia?) Is she stupid? Do we trust the Ghost's
contemptuous language? Do we trust his narcissism?
It is apparent that Gertrude loves Claudius. She is not stupid but is
pretty much wrapped up in herself and does not think about the
consequences of her flirting and encouragement of Claudius. As far as
the ghost is concerned, apparently he speaks from "the world of truth,"
the afterlife, with an anguished heart that recognizes that he has been
betrayed and that his wife had joined the betrayer, though not
necessarily having deliberately colluded with Claudius.
(Q3) What does (marrying) Gertrude have to do with the
possession of the crown? Did Claudius want her for some such
reason?
Apparently, the marriage of Claudius to Queen Gertrude cemented his
acceptance by the Danish ruling authorities as the new King. It was a
neat package: an attractive Queen and that he became King, passing over
young Hamlet as the heir to the throne.
(Q5) Why do only the Hamlets father and son talk about incest?
Do they talk about "incest" or Gertrude's treachery in going on to marry
the man who killed Hamlet? No one else suspects what has happened behind
the scenes. They think King Hamlet died by the bite of some insect.
(6) Why is Fortinbras's uncle "impotent and bedrid"?
He is an old man.
(Q7) What has Poland to do with anything (such as Polonius's
name)?
King Hamlet fought the "Polak" as does Fortinbras in the play.
Polonius's name has nothing to do with the Polak.
(Q8) "The Murder of Gonzago" and the king's reaction to it do
not prove that the ghost is not a devil, only that Claudius is
guilty. What happened to Hamlet's earlier concern about the
former?
The play, by showing Claudius is guilty, verifies the testimony of the
ghost. The ghost spoke truth, hence was not a devil that came merely to
tempt Hamlet to commit a crime and to Hell.
(Q9) Why doesn't Hamlet fret about the revenge prohibition
"Vengeance is mine" (in Deuteronomy, Romans, and Hebrews),
when he worries about the cognate prohibition on suicide? Has
the omission anything to do with Hieronymo's lengthy fretting
about it in The Spanish Tragedy?
Revenge was acceptable at the time as we see by Laertes' conduct and was
even acceptable in the Bible, which accepted the concept of the "blood
avenger" (but provided "cities of refuge" for the accidental man
slayer). Hamlet contemplates suicide as a way to get out of
responsibility but his fear of what might follow him after his death in
the other world makes "a coward" of him. Murder was forbidden in the
Bible and this prohibition included self murder as all religious people
agree.
(Q10) How did Ophelia die?
She accidentally drowns in her delirium.
(Q11) How are we to understand Hamlet's weird apology to
Laertes?
The apology is not weird. Hamlet sincerely begs forgiveness. As Hamlet
says right after killing Polonius, he will have to "answer for this
deed." In this apology is Hamlet's answer for his deed. Hamlet knows
that killing Claudius was unintentional in his pursuit of Claudius.
(Q12) How old is Hamlet? 19 or 30? If the former, then why
does the gravedigger scene contain the apparent suggestion
that he's 30? If the latter, why bury the data?
Hamlet is both "young Hamlet" and the Hamlet of 30. Shakespeare has this
inconsistency in his story since he wants to make the point that the
Hamlet after his return from his aborted trip to England is a matured
person.
(Q13) Why does Hamlet give his dying voice to Fortinbras?
Hamlet recognizes Fortinbras's claims to kingship in Denmark and wants
his people to end strife by accepting the new ruler with his blessing.
(Q14) Why does Horatio the true and more suicidal friend and
skeptic use the optative in the "flights of angels" speech?
(This seems the only survival of Kyd's post-mortem speech
where Andrea and Revenge apportion out rewards and punishments
after the revenge is carried out, in richly in favor of the
revengers.)
After what the skeptical Laertes has seen: a ghost, the murder of his
friend, the murderers having their crimes brought down upon their own
heads, the Queen's accidental death, the retribution visited upon those
who had acted willfully in hurting others, the many turns of events,
etc', he is persuaded of a more complex world with more things than he
had dreamed of, as he lives to go off to tell Hamlet's story to the world.
David Basch
[7]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, February 26, 2006
Subject: 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
Isn't the point the puzzles and NOT the answers? Maynard Mack observed
some time ago that this play is distinctly in the interrogative mode? It
seems to me that Hamlet is more about the questions and puzzles than the
answers to them and that we could go on for ages arguing one side or
another.
What is interesting is how choices in performances of the play are
realized and how each performance creates a reading of the text.
_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>
DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the
opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the
editor assumes no responsibility for them.