The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1389  Thursday, 25 August 2005

From: 		L. Swilley <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: 		Wednesday, 24 Aug 2005 20:54:48 -0500
Subject: 16.1366 Joshua Logan and "Hamlet"
Comment: 	Re: SHK 16.1366 Joshua Logan and "Hamlet"

Larry Weiss <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

 >My nominee for the moment of self-realization is the 23/24 word
 >monosyllabic clause following and preceding caesurae in "How
 >all occasions ...".  Of course, this doesn't apply to the folio version.

[Hamlet's treatment of R & G expresses his new determination (inspired 
by Fortinbras?) to act rather than to react?  And that determination 
arises from Hamlet's awareness of what he has been lacking all along?]

[L. Swilley]

Kenneth Chan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

 >With all due respect to Logan, Shakespeare
 >does not appear to convey his message the way Logan suggests.
 >
 >Shakespeare's message actually does not reside in what his
 >protagonist learns about himself. The message resides in the
 >audience's emotional experience of the play in its entirety.

  [Isn't the "message" of the play the plot thereof? Isn't the action of 
the play one dimension, the audience reaction entirely a distinct other?]

 >Shakespeare conveys his message
 >by making us live through it. It is akin to an initiation where
 >one learns because one has experienced it directly. This is
 >what makes Shakespeare's plays so valuable.
 >
 >A good example of how Shakespeare conveys his meaning is
 >found in Hamlet. Here, Shakespeare relentlessly repeats his
 >message throughout the play via dramatic portrayals of its
 >meaning so that we can experience it directly.

  [If the "message" is everything, how many times must it be repeated 
before the audience gets it? Might not the play end with the third 
dramatic form of the "message" just to be sure that even the more obtuse 
among us get the point?  If not, what is the developing pattern of the 
dramatic incidents that presents  more than the "message"?  In any case, 
what is "message" more than what is commonly called "theme"? Does your 
idea of "message" (or theme) preclude the description of the play as the 
action of the main character? ]

[L. Swilley]

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