🌹The Rose & Skull ☠️
Hamlet
In this section, I’ll look at romance, manipulation, conflict, and death in Hamlet. I’ll compare Hamlet with a clip from Friends, a poem by T.S. Eliot, an excerpt from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a short play by August Strindberg (The Stronger), and a short story by Edith Wharton (“Roman Fever”). For help in understanding the plot, see Background to Hamlet.
Video 1
In the following video I introduce literary concepts of romance and then contrast the positive take on love found in Romeo & Juliet (in Romance) with the negative take on love found in Hamlet — in particular, in the following scenes: Laertes’ advice to Ophelia (1.3. 5-50), Polonius’ advice to Ophelia (1.3. 87-135), the fight between Ophelia and Hamlet in Where’s your father? (3.1.91-160), and Ophelia’s death in There is a willow (4.4. 165-182). The Hamlet excerpts I examine can be found in Passages 1. Please note that this video was made for an online class in Summer 2020, so its title and some of its details are not applicable now.
Student Paragraph Responses
During the Covid pandemic online course, students sent in brief paragraph responses. The leaf sign — ❧ — separates different topics.
Response 1A ❧ Compare images of sensuality and beauty used by Romeo in “Love at First Sight” (in Romance) and Polonius in 1.3. 87-135. ❧ Compare the use of nature imagery (that is, imagery drawn from the natural world of lakes, trees, sky, animals, etc.) in Laertes’ advice (1.3. 6-54) and There is a willow (4.4. 164-82).
1B ❧ Compare the use of indirect or metaphoric communication in the dialogues found in the Friends excerpt (here) and in Hamlet 1.2.64-86 (from “But now, my cousin Hamlet” to “suits of woe”). Try to be specific about what metaphors are being used and what you think they mean. For the use of metaphor and conceit in dialogue, see the Romeo & Juliet part of this week’s video, the analysis of metaphor in 6. Style, and the video “Sight & Sound” in Moulin Rouge!. For essay-length analysis of image and metaphor, see States of Mind, Paint it Black, and Sonnet 116.
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Video 2
In the following video I focus on the theme of meaning in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (by T.S. Eliot), quintessence of dust (Hamlet 2.2. 255-278), to be or not to be (3.1. 57-89), and Alas, poor Yorick! (5.1. 165-194). These texts can be found in Passages 2 (they can also be found in a slightly simplified and coloured version in a Word file here). Before viewing the video, please read “J. Alfred” at least twice, and look at several of these Youtube videos: this animation covers important parts of the poem, as does this fast-paced general introduction to themes and characters. Youtube also has a reading with the text by Eliot himself, as well a reading by Tom Hiddleston, and an especially good reading by Anthony Hopkins.
In the video above I look at some fairly complex literary history: I examine Prufrock’s timid response to the grand meanings found in epic poetry, which I define and explain in Structural Analysis 6. Style: The Epic. I suggest that you look at the opening definitions there, and at the brief section on Dante’s Divine Comedy. To help you understand more complex perspectives on Eliot’s poem, take a look at the videos by Amy Green, Rebecca Balcarcel, and Katie Bickham.
Responses
2A ❧ Compare the mermaids at the end of “Prufrock” (text with notes here) to the “sea creature” in There is a willow (clips and colour-coded text version here). Make sure to compare a particular aspect, and get at the comparative significance of the nautical figures. Comparison is a skill that requires careful attention. Avoid giving detail about one text and then giving detail about the next text without showing how the two texts are related.
2B ❧ Prufrock says he isn’t Prince Hamlet, yet is he right? ❧ Compare the character of Prufrock and Hamlet in terms of uncertainty or psychological crisis. ❧ Who is more depressed, Prufrock or Hamlet? ❧ To what degree does humour alleviate the pessimism of the characters? ❧ How do allusions to Hamlet and Polonius help to delineate Prufrock’s character? ❧ Creative option: using imagery, metaphor or allusion that comes directly from one or more of this week’s texts, write a depiction of your state of mind during COVID-19.
2C ❧ Compare the imagery used to explore idealism vs. reality in Prufrock to the imagery used in to be or not to be OR quintessence of dust. You can explore an image that’s common to both texts, two images that are different or similar, or any number of images. Don’t forget, however, to make a point about how imagery works in the texts.
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Video 3
In the following video I focus on the manipulations of Polonius in we of wisdom (2.1. 1-70) and I’ll loose my daughter to him (2.2. 132-214) — both in Passages 3. I made two errors in the video: I said “a cunning scheme” but should have said “a cunning plan” (I misquoted from the TV show Black Adder); I also said that everyone Hamlet knows dies at the end, but of course his best friend Horatio is one of those still living.
Read Strindberg’s The Stronger and Wharton’s “Roman Fever” (in Passages 4). Because the text of Hamlet is more challenging, I focus on it in the videos. My idea is for you to read the two short pieces and come up with your own ideas about them. They’re very accessible, and they’re also very intriguing in terms of manipulation and mind games. They will, I hope, make for an interesting comparison with the scheming of Polonius, Claudius, and Hamlet.
Responses
3A ❧ Write a short maximum 100 word dialogue for The Stronger OR Roman Fever, but place it in a different setting. Adapt the language and details to that new setting, and try to make an insight into setting, character, relationship, theme, or style. You can re-write a portion of the original dialogue (in which case you must rework it substantially) or write an entirely new one (which must in large part be in keeping with the original in terms of the general context of the characters and situation). The setting can be anywhere, as long as that setting helps you get at something insightful about the original text. Give your dialogue a title as well as character and setting indications (don’t include these in your word count), as in the following sample opening:
Release the Hounds
Mrs. Y. [sitting alone in an East End London café. A sign above her reads, “Blood Pudding — 20p.”]. Ah, here she comes, the little Swedish doll with her blue eyes. Or, rather, a mother hen, with her rooster and chicks, happy in their fluffy little world. [pauses] Let’s see how she likes my English friends.
Mrs. Y. Millie! …
3B ❧ Among the four women in The Stronger and Roman Fever, who is the most clever, the most devious, or the strongest? ❧ If you were to situate the women on a spectrum from self-knowing to self-deluded, where would you put them, and why? ❧ Creative option: Change or add an element to one of the pieces so as to make a point about trust, friendship, power, self-knowledge, or some other theme.
3C ❧ Compare how Strindberg and Wharton use the closed settings of café and restaurant versus the open settings of the cities around them. You might want to explore the question, What links the closed to the open settings? Try to focus on a particular aspect, such as the way the closed and open spaces affect the use of metaphor, the psychological states of the characters, the relation of the characters to their family members or spouses, the theme of secrecy, etc. The more specific you can be, the more likely you are to make a convincing argument within the 100 words.
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Video 4
In the following video I focus on the manipulations of Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet in free visitation (2.2. 219-255), my wit’s diseased (3.2. 277-354), adders fang’d (3.4. 201-220), and mighty opposites (5.2. 29-66) — all in Passages 4. In the video I use a coloured version of the passages, which you can find in a Word document here.
Responses
4A ❧ Write a dialogue, speech, or soliloquy from the perspective of a character in The Stronger or Roman Fever to one or more of the characters in Hamlet. For instance: Mrs. Slade [to Ophelia, on a river bank]: Don’t let them get you down, dear… ; Bob [to Polonius and Claudius]: You’re both snakes, though only one of you is clever enough to hide your fangs!
4B ❧ Compare Hamlet’s play-acting to that of one or more of the characters in The Stronger and Roman Fever. ❧ In 3.4. 205-13, Hamlet uses the phrases adder’s fang’d, hung with his own petard, delve one yard below their mines, and in one line two crafts directly meet. Take one of these phrases (or a different phrase from 205-13) and apply it to The Stronger and/or Roman Fever.
4C ❧ Write Hamlet or Claudius into The Stronger or Roman Fever in order to make a point about the way Hamlet or Claudius operate. You can write this response in a straightforward or analytical way or you can create an original scene or scenario. ❧ Write a comic scenario in which Hamlet, Claudius, or R&G try to manipulate others while observing COVID-19 protocols such as social distancing and hand-washing. (For a bit of comic relief, try this, this, this or this video.)
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Video 5
In the following video I focus on the manipulations of Hamlet and Claudius in antic disposition (1.5. 171-197), the play’s the thing (2.2. 446-526), the mirror up to nature (3.2. 1-31), it touches us not (3.2. 216-252), ‘tis not so above (3.3. 36-72), sorrows in battalions (4.2. 74-95), thou vile king (4.2. 116-182), and was your father dear to you? (4.4. 1-138) — all in Passages 5. In the video I use this coloured Word text (the web layout view will probably work best).
If you want to try your hand at writing a comparative essay, you can do the following: Compare Hamlet and “The Tell-Tale Heart” in terms of one of the following six topics: 1) the protagonist’s approach to the old man’s bed (in Poe) and Hamlet’s approach to Claudius while he’s praying in the chapel (in Shakespeare); 2) the way buildings (apartment and castle) are related to fantastic or imaginary worlds outside the buildings; 3) the role of bedrooms; 4) the resting place of violence and/or guilt (under the floorboards, behind the arras, in the grave, etc.); 5) the accusation of guilt in the spectacle of the vulture eye and the play-within-the play; 6) the natural world evoked by the protagonist in Poe (beetles, etc.) and by any of the characters in Hamlet.
This Word text contains a plain and colour-coded version of Poe’s story, which I analyze in the video below. Structural Analysis 3. Character: Insanity also contains a brief introduction and several possible ways of looking at Poe’s text.