The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0092 Wednesday, 1 March 2006
[1] From: Larry Weiss <
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Date: Sunday, 26 Feb 2006 16:02:10 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 17.0071 Hamlet Puzzles
[2] From: David Bishop <
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Date: Sunday, 26 Feb 2006 16:03:24 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 17.0071 Hamlet Puzzles
[3] From: Kenneth Chan <
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Date: Monday, 27 Feb 2006 10:46:57 +0800
Subj: Re: SHK 17.0071 Hamlet Puzzles
[4] From: Joseph Egert <
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Date: Tuesday, 28 Feb 2006 19:22:52 +0000
Subj: RE: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Larry Weiss <
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Date: Sunday, 26 Feb 2006 16:02:10 -0500
Subject: 17.0071 Hamlet Puzzles
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0071 Hamlet Puzzles
Steve Sohmer says:
>Fortinbras' "bedrid" uncle is a peacemaker ... unlike Hamlet's
>belligerent uncle. But this is only the beginning of the contrast
>between the two uncles.
Claudius is very much a peacemaker. He makes peace by preparing for war
and then offering a diplomatic solution. Statesmen do the same thing today.
>For those who are interested in such things, FORTINABRAS is
>an anagram for A FIRST BORN.
"Fortinbras" is simply a Latinization of "Strong Arms," a Norse-sounding
name.
>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.
O c'mon! "Polonius" is a Latin agnomen for someone who overcame Poland.
And this from Basch:
>Polonius's name has nothing to do with the Polak.
How else does Basch translate the Latin? Or is it really Hebrew?
> (Q10) How did Ophelia die?
>
>She accidentally drowns in her delirium.
I thought it was in a stream.
Of course, Hardy is right that
>Isn't the point the puzzles and NOT the answers?
But a puzzle is no fun if we don't try to find an answer.
[Editor's Note: I was reacting as much to the apparent fact that some
here seem to have discovered the absolute, irrefutable ONE, true
interpretation of <I>Hamlet</I>.]
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Bishop <
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Date: Sunday, 26 Feb 2006 16:03:24 -0500
Subject: 17.0071 Hamlet Puzzles
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0071 Hamlet Puzzles
To respond to Hardy, no, the point is not simply the puzzles and not the
answers. What are "the puzzles" and how and why do they become so? Many
false problems are proposed, as are many wrong answers and wrong
interpretations. That doesn't mean that everything falls easily into the
categories of right and wrong. It's just a place to start weeding.
If the play creates a puzzle the point may certainly be to make the
audience wonder about it. There may even be hints at an answer. But an
"answer" which does not recognize how the play creates ambiguity would
be a wrong answer. The problem is to see the play, as far as is humanly
possible, as it is: to hold the mirror up to the play. If you're just
interested in the psychology of critics and performers, then maybe all
puzzles, answers, or interpretations are created equal. Otherwise not.
Best wishes,
David Bishop
[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Kenneth Chan <
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Date: Monday, 27 Feb 2006 10:46:57 +0800
Subject: 17.0071 Hamlet Puzzles
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0071 Hamlet Puzzles
David Bishop writes:
>"Perhaps the greatest source of mystery in the play is Hamlet's failure
>to speak explicitly about the moral drawbacks of revenge."
Good point. Why does Hamlet conspicuously not contemplate the question
of morality in revenge? It is almost out of character for him not to do
so. Interestingly, Hamlet's failure to debate this morality issue may be
explained in a way that also resolves two other crucial mysteries in Hamlet:
1) Why does Hamlet delay his revenge?
2) Why does Shakespeare not make clear the reason for the delay?
All these three questions may be resolved concurrently in the following way:
Hamlet is delaying his revenge because of his inner conscience. Since
Hamlet himself is not aware of the reason for the delay, it is not
conscience taken in its usual form that we are considering. It is,
instead, a more deep seated inner voice that causes him to hesitate, a
voice that Hamlet fails to bring explicitly to the surface of his
consciousness.
Shakespeare gives prominence to the delay because he wants to emphasize
that Hamlet's course of action is morally dubious. Shakespeare actually
does not try to conceal this meaning until the end; he took great pains
to suggest it, right from the beginning of the play. What Shakespeare
could not do, however, was to allow Hamlet to state it explicitly - for
a very good reason. If Hamlet had recognized the cause of his delay, it
would have altered the course of the action and defeated Shakespeare's
main purpose in the play.
Shakespeare's aim is not to have Hamlet intellectually argue out the
question of whether or not it is immoral to wreak vengeance. His
intention is to have the audience find the answer to this question in
the experience of the entire play, in its totality. This is
Shakespeare's method of conveying his message, and it is the most
effective way to do so. Shakespeare makes us live through it so that we
learn through our emotional involvement and our experience of it.
If Hamlet had recognized intellectually that a moral issue was causing
his delay, he would certainly have argued it out with himself. It would
have been completely out of character for him not to do so. But to have
him conduct an intellectual debate on the issue would have totally
defeated Shakespeare's purpose, which was to show and not merely tell,
why seeking revenge is a moral disaster.
To do that, Shakespeare needs Hamlet to follow the course of action in
the play. If Hamlet had debated the moral issue with himself, he would
either conclude that it is morally acceptable, which would contradict
what Shakespeare wanted to convey, or he would conclude that it is
morally wrong and abandon his course of vengeance. Since neither
alternative is conducive to Shakespeare's plan, he allows Hamlet to
delay without explicitly debating the moral issue.
And so, Shakespeare has Hamlet make the same mistake that Brutus makes
in Julius Caesar; this is the reason Julius Caesar is mentioned on three
separate occasions in Hamlet. Like Brutus, Hamlet fails to align himself
with the divine and does not flow with the Tao. Hamlet ignores his inner
voice, his deep conscience telling him that his course of action is
wrong, that seeking vengeance amounts to taking the dark path to moral
destruction. His inner promptings do cause him to delay, but he does not
recognize why, so he tragically follows the route to spiritual desecration.
Now Shakespeare is able to achieve his purpose. By the dramatic
portrayal of Hamlet's transformation along this terrible path of
vengeance, Shakespeare forces his audience to experience why revenge is
wrong.
Those interested in a more detailed discussion on this point can find it
at http://homepage.mac.com/sapphirestudios/qod/excerpt.html
With best wishes,
Kenneth Chan
[4]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Joseph Egert <
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Date: Tuesday, 28 Feb 2006 19:22:52 +0000
Subject: 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
Comment: RE: SHK 17.0063 Hamlet Puzzles
>(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.)
Hamlet's "optative" Ascension raises the hoary question: will Hamlet's
soul be saved, damned, or refined in Purgatory's pit?
Cut to the scene from the classic noir OUT OF THE PAST between Kathy
(Jane Greer) and Jeff (Robert Mitchum):
KATHY: I don't wanna die!
JEFF: Neither do I, baby. But if I have to, I'm gonna die
last.
Flash back to HAMLET's Denmark. If we posit the Ghost, demanding lethal
retribution, as the true conduit of God's Will, then Hamlet has acceded
to that Will at the cost of his own life by executing the murderer
Claudius. Hamlet has in effect born witness to the Faith and suffered
martyrdom for it. Such martyrdom constitutes in Christian doctrine a
baptism of blood, or BAPTISMUS SANGUINIS, where ALL prior sins are
forgiven and ALL penalties are remitted.
And so, the martyred Hamlet races directly up to Heaven (no pit stops
along the way!) to the swingin' trumpets of Hawkes' Louis
Fortinbras---one more Saint come marchin' in!
Hamlet, after all, has died last.
Joe Egert
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