The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1853 Thursday, 10 November 2005
[1] From: William Babula <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 09 Nov 2005 10:50:14 -0800
Subj: Re: SHK 16.1840 Gertrude-Ophelia
[2] From: David Evett <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 9 Nov 2005 23:18:46 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 16.1840 Gertrude-Ophelia
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: William Babula <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 09 Nov 2005 10:50:14 -0800
Subject: 16.1840 Gertrude-Ophelia
Comment: Re: SHK 16.1840 Gertrude-Ophelia
I read about a production in which Gertrude pushes Ophelia into the
water because she suspects she knows too much. I can't recall who staged it.
WB
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Evett <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 9 Nov 2005 23:18:46 -0500
Subject: 16.1840 Gertrude-Ophelia
Comment: Re: SHK 16.1840 Gertrude-Ophelia
I do not know whether it has been suggested elsewhere that Gertrude's
speech describing Ophelia's drowning makes part of a kind of de facto
on-stage representation of the coroner's inquest to which the Second
Clown refers at the beginning of 5.1. A detailed account of the *locus*
of a crime was a standard part of Roman juridical practice and the
medieval and early modern customs modeled on it, which explains the
significant place accorded *descriptio loci* in the rhetorical curriculum.
Here, of course, Gertrude's description of the river bank with its
overhanging willow gives way to the *narratio* of the death itself. She
might usefully be regarded as a kind of advocate, able to argue for
enough ambiguity in the circumstances to draw a "Not proven" from
Claudius, serving as super-coroner, and perhaps from the audience,
serving as the coroner's jury, as regards the charge of suicide. The
priest, of course, and the gravediggers (none of whom gets to hear her
speech) are skeptical, and Ophelia's rites are maimed not only in that
she gets far less pomp and ceremony than her rank would normally have
entailed but also in that they are disfigured by the intrusion of Hamlet
and his ensuing scuffle with Laertes.
David Evett
_______________________________________________________________
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.
