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Transcript

The Madman

  • Feigns insanity to distract from his true intentions of exposing his uncle for the murder of his father
  • Seems to step very easily into the role of a madman
  • To Gertrude:

"I essentially am not in madness,

But mad in craft."

  • "Mad" behavior starts out as an "antic disposition" but his mental state deteriorates -> he ends up legitimately insane
  • Is madness is a form of theatricality?
  • Is he driven mad by his own portrayal of madness?

David Tennant as Hamlet

The Revenger

The Wordsmith

  • From the moment Hamlet is visited by his father's ghost he devotes himself to avenging his father's death
  • Gives up all hope of a future: nothing left in his life but revenge, gives up all relationships, respect, his image
  • Although he fails to act on this desire for revenge until the end of the play, it is constantly present in his thoughts and take over his life
  • Method in his revenge and madness: plans but does not act
  • His love for Ophelia is overshadowed by his appetite for revenge

Introduction

Conclusion

  • Hamlet is a thinker, not a doer; he is a wordsmith rather than a swordsmith
  • He is skilled at using his words to trick people and mock them --> Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Polonius
  • There is always logic in his words; Polonius :

'Though this be madness yet there is method in't'.

  • Are words his gift or his downfall? Hamlet's in depth analysis of every situation causes his indecisiveness

Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet

The Tragic Hero

  • Hamlet is enigmatic - we get the sense that we don't know everything there is to know about his character
  • He is a man of radical contradictions
  • e.g : he uses Ophelia in his plan to feign madness yet is oblivious to the fact that he plays a part in her downfall

The Man of Action

  • Hamlet as the 'every man'
  • Hamlet is our hero - he asks himself endless, unanswerable questions that come from being human
  • He feels grief and is indecisive
  • Unlike some of Shakespeare's protagonists, he has character traits that we can relate to
  • "half a dozen characters rolled into one"?
  • A very three-dimensional character
  • We see many sides to him: he takes on each role
  • Some aspects of his personality are consistent: revenger, wordsmith, philosopher
  • Complex emotions, conflicting motives
  • A vivid character: passionate and ambitious
  • The quintessential tragic hero
  • Noble motivations (to punish his father’s murderer)
  • Situation by the end of the play = dire, ends in death
  • Does not survive to see the full outcome of his actions
  • Possesses a tragic flaw
  • Hamlet’s possible tragic flaws:
  • His madness/that he believes he is pretending to be mad
  • Words: bases his perceptions of reality on his interpretation of words, becomes overwrought with creating meaning
  • Hubris (he thinks he can decide who should live and who should die)
  • Even though he is thoughtful to the point of obsession, Hamlet also behaves rashly and impulsively. When he does act it is spontaneous and with little or no premeditation.
  • e.g. stabbing Polonius through a curtain without checking who it was
  • e.g. in the duel scene he kills Claudius by stabbing him and forcing him to drink from the poison cup

Defying the Stereotype

A Tragic Hero?

Playing a Part

  • Aristotle: the tragic hero
  • must be noble/occupy a high-status position
  • should have a tragic flaw that eventually leads to his downfall (error of judgement and/or character flaw)
  • must inspire pity and fear in the audience
  • Shakespeare modified Aristotle's definition for his own age -> a tragic hero who can appeal to a larger, more enduring part of the population
  • In several ways Hamlet is the exception to the definition of a typical Shakespearean tragic hero:
  • He is royal yet has the common touch (irony, perceptive, intelligent)
  • The original hamartia was not his but Claudius’: dies because of an accident of fate
  • Can hardly be said to fall from high to low: starts off melancholy, burdened and disillusioned by the world in general
  • Each time he appears in the play, he shows a different side to himself/plays a different role
  • He seems to take on these roles so completely and give himself entirely over the mind-set and thoughts typical of each ‘character’
  • We could say he not only displays these traits but becomes the different characters
  • This uncertainty of character reflects the uncertain behaviour that Hamlet has when it comes to acting and making a decision.

The Philosopher

  • Hamlet draws himself to philosophical questions that are difficult to answer, particularly concerning suicide and the afterlife
  • He takes a rationalist approach to his plan of revenge on Claudius
  • Is it nobler to live miserably or end one's sorrows? --> 'The dread of something after death'
  • Decisive Hamlet - after Act V, Hamlet returns from exile in acceptance of the act of revenge that he must commit

Simon Keenlyside as Hamlet

The Misogynist

  • Hamlet’ misogynistic behaviour is defined and demonstrated through his attitude towards Gertrude and Ophelia
  • He is disgusted and angry with Gertrude for marrying Claudius. His attitude towards women is influenced greatly by his relationship with his mother: from her behaviour he concludes that a women’s love is fickle.
  • Although Hamlet may appear to love Ophelia at the beginning, he turns against her: he verbally abuses her using sexual innuendo and derision, and her encourages her to get to a nunnery. This behaviour shows his lack of respect towards women.
  • His words often indicate his disgust with and distrust of women in general.

The Griever

  • Our first impression of Hamlet = grieving
  • Has completely given himself over to mourning his father
  • Gertrude notices his outward appearance of mourning, but Hamlet makes it clear that this does not convey his internal sorrow

"For they are the actions that a man might play,

But I have that within which passes show,

These but the trappings and the suits of woe."

  • Cannot forget his father, even when all those around him have resumed their lives (Gertrude, Claudius)
  • Intense grief over Ophelia's death
  • Echoes the theme of death in the play

Edwin Booth as Hamlet

The Many Faces of Hamlet

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