Monday, November 18, 2019

Back to the Classics Challenge: Hamlet


Well, rather surprisingly to me, the Classic Play that I read for the Back to the Classics Challenge hosted by Karen at the blog Books and Chocolate was Hamlet.  I was initially considering reading more Oscar Wilde and then I though instead maybe some Sheridan based on Reese’s excellent review of School for Scandal at the blog Typings.  I was looking for, you know, something light and comedic. Instead I read Shakespeare’s longest play and a tragedy to boot. I have a very good friend who teaches English and she convinced me to read it with her so we could discuss it since she is considering teaching it in future. Her go-to for teaching Shakespeare is Macbeth, which she can quote, amazingly to me, by heart.

I think like many readers, I was familiar with the play prior to reading it. I may have read it in high school or we may have only read the famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy…the farther I get from my teen years, the more trouble I have remembering the details. But regardless, like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet has permeated the culture of the English speaking world by osmosis. Originally I wanted to listen to it on audio in tandem to reading the text, but since it is such a long play, I couldn’t find an audio book with the full four and half hour production.

Like I said, I knew the story (and am assuming you, dear reader, know it too), so what is my take away from the play? I was surprised that Hamlet is so morose. As I read, I pictured him as a tortured, goth teenager moaning about his parents and how unfair life is. I do understand that Hamlet does have legitimate cause for complaint; his father had been only dead for two months and no one seems to care or notice. However, I did find him particularly mopey-just my take. I understand from a little internet research that there are a multitude of ways to play and interpret Hamlet, so I may have been reading into it, since I was a pretty mopey teenager myself once upon a time. I also didn’t know that Polonius is supposed to be such a pompous windbag and I had assumed that Queen Gertrude was complicit in Hamlet Sr.’s death, but she appears to be innocent. Clearly there were many details I was unaware of and I am glad I read it and set the record straight. Maybe one of these days I will watch an adaptation or even see it live now that I am better acquainted with the play.

One other thing I really enjoyed was discovering a lot of phrases that I already knew but did not know came from this play. A few examples are below:
“…though I am native here and to the manner born, it is a custom more honored in the breach than the observance.”
 “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t”
 “The lady protests too much, methinks.”
My friend and I had an interesting discussion on what we felt was the ultimate message of Hamlet. I wasn’t expecting a moral but she was, since she feels that Macbeth makes a clear point about the dangers of ambition. We decided there really isn't any one moral conclusion to Hamlet. Which is probably in part why the play has endured since it is so open to interpretation.

12 comments:

  1. Yes. It's not Sheridan or Wilde, ha...but thanks for the shout-out! You can still read one of them as a chaser.

    I've seen it on stage twice, and both times Hamlet was played as a mope all dressed in black. There are a bunch of interpretations, I imagine, but depressed and indecisive is also one that's occurred to me, for reasons I don't think I want to look at too closely...

    I still remember very clearly the first production I saw (more so than the second) mostly though for the Fortinbras, who's played as a complete cynic in that final speech. They had him march in at the head of an army, and it's clear his intention is to take over from the start. So I often think of politics in relation to Hamlet.

    Fun review! Makes me think I should go back and read Hamlet again.

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    1. Thanks for the comment reese!

      I also assumed that Fortinbras also intended to take over from the get go and I never thought he intended to obey his father, even though he said he would... Hamlet just made everything that much easier for him by killing everyone beforehand.

      I know I read this somewhere else, so it is not an original thought of mine, but the play can also be interpreted through the lens of fathers and sons (Fortinbras Sr. and Jr., Hamlet Sr. and Jr. and Polonius and Laertes).

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  2. I love MacBeth, but Hamlet is better on each rereading. My first experience with Hamlet left me thinking about how wishy-washy he was. But on further reading in college, I found more and more that intrigued me. When teaching Hamlet years later, I'd stop and ask how students would feel about the quick remarriage ("A little month; or ere those shoes were old with which she followed my father's body"). The responses were always quick and ardent, and they prided themselves in finding lines that kept them on Team Hamlet. Each year, there were new comments and interpretations that kept me as engaged as the kids.

    I've seen many adaptations on stage and screen and used Mel Gibson's Hamlet and Kenneth Brannagh's Hamlet as contrast. The stage versions have varied from traditional to one that had Hamlet in the largest codpiece imaginable and studded in Goth style. :)

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    1. Thanks for the comment jenclair!

      I am sure that re-readings of this play will bring new interpretations. One thing that caught me (and I can't quote it) is where Hamlet basically tells his mother that she is too old to feel any passion so why remarry? Had I read this as a teen, I would have probably just agreed! Now as a woman of a certain age, I wanted to slap Hamlet!

      I really do need to see the play performed live at some point. Maybe next summer. There is always a Shakespeare play going on somewhere I think.

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  3. Hamlet has always been one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. Maybe because I first read it in high school and could relate to Hamlet's teenage angst. ;D

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    1. Thanks for the comment Lark!

      I think I would have felt the same as a teenager. I am pretty sure we only read the soliloquy in high school the more I think about it and we discussed it as regards suicide and whether or not that is what Hamlet meant.

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  4. Hamlet is a remarkable play—as you say, there is a reason that it is such a touchstone in our culture. I went through a phase when my older daughter first discovered Hamlet in high school, and together we watch multiple adaptations and I’ve seen many productions on the stage courtesy of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

    If you can devote the time to it, the Kenneth Branagh version is incredible—I watched it over 5 nights, one act per night, and it is uncut and incredible. My other favorite is Kevin Kline as Hamlet.


    I find it so ironic that Polonius’s speech to Laertes is quoted almost as much as To Be on Not to Be, and he is such a windbag!

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    1. Thanks for the comment Jane! Agree on the irony of Polonius' speech being so widely quoted and out of context! It is actually played for humor in the play!

      I definitely will have to watch the Kenneth Branagh movie - in particular because it is the only film version (I think) which gives the play in its full length. Can you imagine the Elizabethan Londoners having to watch for 4 & 1/2 hours, some standing all that time?

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  5. Hi Ruthiella, I think its great that you chose Hamlet for the Back to the Classics Challenge. I chose Shakespeare too, Julius Caesar for the classic play category. He's possibly the greatest writer who ever lived but he scares me because he writes in a poetic kind of old English style that I've never been able to master.

    Interesting when you talk about the preconceptions you had about what Hamlet would be like. Isn't that so true with many of the classics. We hear things about what the book will be like but nothing beats actually reading the novel or play. Great review.

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    1. Thanks for the comment Cathy! My high school freshman English class read Julius Cesar and we watched the Marc Anthony speech (Friends, Romans) from the movie with Marlon Brando.

      I am one of those people who also have trouble with Shakespearean English which is why I was hoping to find an audio format of it. It is better for me when I hear it to pick up on the meaning...even better if I see it performed.

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  6. If this is not my favourite Shakespeare play, it's close. You can see throughout the play the emphasis on action vs. inaction, words vs. action, thoughts vs. action, etc. It's quite fascinating. While the cultural precepts of the Danish society in Hamlet seem to support the desire for revenge, Shakespeare’s Elizabethan audience would have viewed the thirst for vengeance as primitive, and perhaps rather shocking. There is evidence throughout the play that revenge brings only suffering and death to those involved. C.S. Lewis has a wonderful essay, Hamlet: The Prince or the Poem which gives such valuable insight into the play (I have a review on my blog). If you can find the essay, it is more than worth reading. Great review and I love your thoughts!

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    1. Thanks for the comment Cleo and for the tip on the C.S. Lewis essay. I will for sure look that up and also pass it on to my friend. I agree that one of the conclusions can be that revenge only brings suffering...almost no one survives!

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