Primary sources
Tale of Amleth in ‘Gesta Danorum’
- similarity in plot?
- Story of Amleth, a young prince whose uncle kills his father to seize the throne. Amleth feigns madness to protect himself and plots revenge
Primary sources
Histoires Tragiques by François de Belleforest’s (1570)
- link to story of Amleth
- retold the story of Amleth more adding psychological depth and moral dilemmas
- Amleth was a more reflective and conflicted character
Primary sources
Ur-Hamlet
- where?
- who?
- similiarity
- Lost
- probs by Thomas Kidd
- included ghost urging revenge
- Shakespeare may have drawn on plot
Secondary sources
The spanish tragedy
- similarities
- how different?
- Including ghosts, delayed revenge, feigned madness, and soliloquies exploring moral conflicts.
- It also uses a ghost to blur lines with reality (3.3)
- Shakespeare took it deeper psychologically and philosophically tho
Theatrical contexts
Shakespeare’s audience
- who?
- what for them?
- what resonated?
- wide range of classes
- classical allusions and intellectual depth for upper class
- dark humour, fights and ghosts for ‘groundlings’
- Also Hamlet may have resonated with an audience attuned to Elizabethan anxieties about succession and the stability of the monarchy.
Theatrical contexts
Shakespeare’s theatre
- sets?
- vibe?
- tricks of stage?
- sets weren’t elaborate (open air stage) so need detailed, rich dialogue
- intimate for soliloquys
- trapdoors for ghost’s appearances
Theatrical contexts
Costume
- style?
- symbolism?
- female roles?
- historical accuracy
- borrowed from elizabethan fashion
- symbolise status eg. kings were gowns and crowns (inky cloak symbolise Hamlet’s grief
- performed by men
- costumes weren’t historically accurate and was used as short hand for status etc.
Religion
The afterlife
- Beliefs about the afterlife reflect?
- Why is purgatory (Catholic) important to Ghost’s appearance?
- When is Hamlet’s protestant scepticism?
- Blending Catholic and Protestant ideas reflect the religious and philosophical tensions of the Elizabethan era
- King Hamlet claims to be suffering in purgatorial flames until his murder is avenged reflecting the Catholic belief in the possibility of posthumous redemption through divine justice
- Hamlet expresses Protestant scepticism in 4th soliloquy, where he grapples with the fear of the unknown after death, contemplating whether it leads to peace or eternal suffering
Religion
The GCOB
- What is it GCOB?
- Claudius’s regicide and usurpation of the throne symbolizes…
- implication of actions that disturb the GCOB?
- Hierarchical structure that placed God at the top, followed by angels, humans, animals, plants, and inanimate objects
- Claudius’s regicide and usurpation of the throne not only corrupts the political order but also symbolizes a moral and spiritual disorder that extends throughout Denmark
- Actions that disturb the Great Chain—like murder, incest, and betrayal—have profound and destructive effects, not only on individuals but on the entire social and cosmic order, leading to inevitable suffering and decay
Religion
7 deadly sins
- name them
- role in Hamlet
- Claudius =
- Hamlet =
- pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth
- He uses them as moral markers to critique characters action and explain downfall of the Danish court.
- Claudius = greed, envy and pride
- Hamlet = wrath and sloth
social and historical contexts
The body politic
- what does killing OH symbolise
- what does moral rot spreading throughout royal family represent
- killing OH symbolises a wound to the body politic and Claudius’ usurpation of the throne is not just a personal crime but a political crime that corrupts the whole state (state as diseased)
- the moral rot spreading throughout royal family mirrors the decay of denmark itself
social and historical contexts
Machiavelli
- He advocates for what?
- Claudius?
- Hamlet =
- Machiavelli advocates for for rulers to be shrewd, calculating, and willing to engage in morally questionable actions if they serve to secure and maintain power
- Embodies machiavellian traits (eg. ends justify means in retaining authority)
- Hamlet embodies a more idealistic view of leadership contrasting Machiavellian pragmatism
- Elizabeth I banned Machaeivelli’s book ‘the Prince’ worried about it’s impact on her courtiers
Philosophy
Humanism and Wittenburg Uni
- Wittenburg
- How did humanism influence Hamlet
- How does emerging protestant ideas in wittenburg link to hamlet
- centre of learning and associated with humanism
- Humanism emphasized the importance of individual thought, reason, and a return to classical texts for moral and philosophical guidance influencing Hamlet as he was a student there
- As the centre of new protestant ideas encouraging personal conscience and direct relationship with god, Wittenburg can be seen as the cause of Hamlet’s intellectual, questioning nature
Gender
Masculinity
- expectations?
- Expectation are being decisive, strong, and action-oriented, yet Hamlet’s introspective nature and moral dilemmas make him a figure who defies the typical masculine traits of the time
Gender
Femininity
- How is Gertrude constrained by societal expectations?
- How is Ophelia constrained by societal expectations?
- what does O’s descent into madness highlight?
- Gertrude, as queen and widow, is criticised by Hamlet for her remarriage to Claudius, seen by him as an act of sexual betrayal, despite her possible motivations of survival and security.
- Ophelia, portrayed as obedient, passive is easily manipulated by the men around her, first by Polonius and then by Hamlet.
- Her eventual descent into madness and death highlights the limited agency afforded to women in the play’s patriarchal society.
Biographical context
Biographical dimensions
- Loss?
- The mousetrap?
- shakespeare own son, Hamnet, died young (maybe influenced plays theme of grief)
- The metatheatricality of the mousetrap reflects shakespeares own awareness of the power of drama to reflect and manipulate reality
