Hamlet
A Comprehensive Commentary on Shakespeare’s Greatest Tragedy
This project is dedicated to the legacy of William Shakespeare, the most versatile mind the world has ever produced, and to those people who want to take the time and the effort to meaningfully read his greatest work, Hamlet.
Although I left the classroom in June of 2006 after a teaching career of 30 years, this project has its genesis in something I suspect many retired teachers experience: a recurring dream, more like a nightmare, in which I have only two or three weeks left in the semester, and I still haven’t taught the Shakepearean component, usually either Hamlet or Macbeth. In the dream, as in real life, I tell my students that I left it to the end because otherwise I would have spent far too long on it throughout the semester. The problems I confront in the nightmare are: a) three weeks are not nearly enough time to do justice to Hamlet, and b) I can’t seem to find a sufficient number of copies of the play to meet my students’ needs.
Until recently, I viewed this recurring nocturnal experience as simply a form of anxiety dream, its particulars no doubt attributable to the crucible of the classroom that was my life for so long. Then another interpretation occurred to me. Perhaps the dream is an indication of unfinished business, the suggestion that “some work of noble note” might yet be accomplished. So here’s my plan: to set down in as much detail as is practical what I know about Hamlet, informed by my experiences both as a teacher and a student of Shakespeare, as well as my experience simply as a human being, the latter especially important since the Bard speaks to all of us, as long as we are willing to listen and learn from him. The one area in which I have deliberately curbed my analysis is the language of the play, which might seem an odd choice given the Bard’s mastery of style. I made this decision for two reasons: a good text with well-developed side notes will be of tremendous help in decoding the figurative language of the play, plus the sophistication of the play’s language is such that I would have had to comment on most lines, which would have resulted in a commentary of interminable length. Rest assured, however, that when there is special language significance, I do address it.
While I conceive of this project as being potentially useful to teachers of the play, especially those early in their careers who perhaps lack confidence in tackling what many consider to be Shakespeare’s most complex work, it is not intended as a manual on how to teach the play. That I leave to the increasingly imaginative and energetic ranks of new instructors. It is, however, based on two components that I think are essential in any teaching situation: a deep knowledge and understanding of the material, and informed choices as to what to emphasize in one’s teaching. Just as in my dream, in the classroom there is never enough time to do complete justice to a great piece of literature, so one has to compromise and make the best choices possible. Those choices, of course, will very much depend upon one’s knowledge of the work, coupled with professional judgment and instincts. Therefore, while this work will render as complete an analysis and commentary that I am capable of, I do expect that teachers will make their own choices as to what to emphasize.
But my other intended audience is anyone who wants to read the play and engage with the issues, themes, language and characters that Shakespeare so wonderfully develops. Not all of us may have had the benefit of a good English education, but I am convinced that anyone with a keen interest in the human condition who wants to know and understand some of the Bard’s insights will benefit from this project, using it, hopefully, as a kind of guide while reading the play. Speaking of which …. There really is no substitute for a close and careful reading of the play. My suggestion is that you read a scene slowly, making full use of the sidenotes or endnotes, and then read it a second time, supplemented by my commentary.
My intention here is not to produce another version of Cliff or Coles Notes, with its typical breakdown into plot, character, themes, imagery, etc. Yes, I will deal with each of those, and more, but the bulk of the commentary will be done within the play’s specific context, which is pretty much as it would unfold in a classroom with some dynamic discussion going on. There will, of course, be additional notes at the end of scenes and acts, either to reinforce points made within the commentary, or to provide a broader view of issues that have arisen throughout the act.
Just one final note before I embark on what I anticipate will be a long journey: I make no claim to any special insights or degree of scholarship in what I am offering here. What I learned over the years in teaching Hamlet came from extensive reading, extensive reflection, and the dynamic exchange of ideas with my students. When the latter were fully engaged, the play was both a joy to teach and a learning opportunity for me, as they often made observations that hadn’t even occurred to me. So my gratitude rests with those students, the myriad scholars and critics of the play, and to Shakespeare himself who, in Hamlet, created the most fully-realized human being that I have ever encountered in literature.
Lorne Warwick
Dramatis Personae
Claudius, King of Denmark
Hamlet, son to the late, and nephew to the present king
Polonius, Lord Chamberlain
Horatio, friend to Hamlet
Laertes, son to Polonius
Voltimand, Cornelius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Orsic, A Gentleman, courtiers
A Priest
Marcellus, Barnardo, officers
Francisco, a soldier
Reynaldo, servant to Polonius
Players
Two Clowns, grave-diggers
Fortinbras, Prince of Norway
A Captain
English Ambassadors
Gertrude, Queen of Denmark and mother to Hamlet
Ophelia, daughter to Polonius
Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, and other Attendants
Ghost of Hamlet's Father
Scene: Denmark
Act 1, Scene 1 – The play begins on a castle platform, and it is immediately apparent that there is a great deal of tension in the atmosphere:
SCENE I. Elsinore. A platform before the castle.
FRANCISCO at his post. Enter to him BERNARDO
BERNARDO
Who's there?
FRANCISCO
Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.
BERNARDO
Long live the king!
FRANCISCO
Bernardo?
BERNARDO
He.
FRANCISCO
You come most carefully upon your hour.
BERNARDO
'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.
FRANCISCO
For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,
And I am sick at heart.
BERNARDO
Have you had quiet guard?
FRANCISCO
Not a mouse stirring.
BERNARDO
Well, good night.
If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
FRANCISCO
I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who's there?
If we remember that in Shakespeare’s time this play would have been enacted during the daylight hours, it is essential that he establish very quickly an atmosphere of gloom, tension and menace through some well-considered language. Through the dialogue, we know that it is the ‘witching hour’ of midnight and very cold, yet those two facts do not explain the clipped challenge that Bernardo, the relief guard, issues to Francisco, who is about to end his watch. As well, we should be struck by the fact that it is Francisco’s relief who initiates the challenge, not Francisco himself, which would be the normal and expected protocol, thereby subtly introducing the notion that things are anything but normal this night. As well, the departing guard reveals that he is “sick at heart” despite ‘not a mouse stirring’ under his watch. So in about a dozen lines, the playwright has set his hook into his audience, with much more to come.
Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS
HORATIO
Friends to this ground.
MARCELLUS
And liegemen to the Dane.
FRANCISCO
Give you good night.
MARCELLUS
O, farewell, honest soldier:
Who hath relieved you?
FRANCISCO
Bernardo has my place.
Give you good night.
Exit
MARCELLUS
Holla! Bernardo!
BERNARDO
Say,
What, is Horatio there?
HORATIO
A piece of him.
BERNARDO
Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus.
MARCELLUS
What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?
BERNARDO
I have seen nothing.
MARCELLUS
Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,
And will not let belief take hold of him
Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us:
Therefore I have entreated him along
With us to watch the minutes of this night;
That if again this apparition come,
He may approve our eyes and speak to it.
HORATIO
Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.
BERNARDO
Sit down awhile;
And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story
What we have two nights seen.
HORATIO
Well, sit we down,
And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
BERNARDO
Last night of all,
When yond same star that's westward from the pole
Had made his course to illume that part of heaven
Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
The bell then beating one,--
This dialogue, still for the most part very brief and tense, serves to deepen the menace and establish something important about Horatio. Shakespeare’s diction, including reference to “this thing,” “this dreaded sight,” and “this apparition” builds suspense, as we still have no idea what terrible thing is being alluded to, and Horatio’s dismissive “Tush, tush, 'twill not appear,” serves to establish him as a skeptic, clearly set apart from the others. It is a skepticism that is about to be severely challenged.
Enter Ghost
MARCELLUS
Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!
BERNARDO
In the same figure, like the king that's dead.
MARCELLUS
Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
BERNARDO
Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.
HORATIO
Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder.
Horatio’s response tells us that this thing is nothing to be trifled with.
BERNARDO
It would be spoke to.
MARCELLUS
Question it, Horatio.
HORATIO
What art thou that usurp'st this time of night,
Together with that fair and warlike form
In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak!
MARCELLUS
It is offended.
BERNARDO
See, it stalks away!
HORATIO
Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!
Exit Ghost
MARCELLUS
'Tis gone, and will not answer.
Horatio is established as a scholar in his first encounter with the ghost, as Marcellus looks to him for leadership in the situation; presumably Horatio knows Latin, something that would be instrumental in any kind of exorcism. As well, we learn that it has the appearance of the late King of Denmark, but as will soon become apparent, that appearance doesn’t prove its identity.
BERNARDO
How now, Horatio! you tremble and look pale:
Is not this something more than fantasy?
What think you on't?
HORATIO
Before my God, I might not this believe
Without the sensible and true avouch
Of mine own eyes.
MARCELLUS
Is it not like the king?
HORATIO
As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armour he had on
When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.
'Tis strange.
MARCELLUS
Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,
With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
HORATIO
In what particular thought to work I know not;
But in the gross and scope of my opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
The above conversation illustrates the impact this apparition has had on Horatio, whose witness is intended to leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that this thing is real and not the product of overactive imaginations. As well, the military prowess of the late King is established as Horatio reflects on how the ghost’s appearance mirrors his image. Whatever it is, Horatio concludes, “This bodes some strange eruption to our state.” In other words, its appearance must be an indication of something of grave importance to the country.
What follows next is exposition, information of events that occurred before the play’s beginning that will become very important as events progress.
MARCELLUS
Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,
Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land,
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war;
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
Does not divide the Sunday from the week;
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day:
Who is't that can inform me?
HORATIO
That can I;
At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,
Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet--
For so this side of our known world esteem'd him--
Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal'd compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,
Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror:
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant,
And carriage of the article design'd,
His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there
Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprise
That hath a stomach in't; which is no other--
As it doth well appear unto our state--
But to recover of us, by strong hand
And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
So by his father lost: and this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations,
The source of this our watch and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage in the land.
BERNARDO
I think it be no other but e'en so:
Well may it sort that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch; so like the king
That was and is the question of these wars.
HORATIO
A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:
As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:
And even the like precurse of fierce events,
As harbingers preceding still the fates
And prologue to the omen coming on,
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
Unto our climatures and countrymen.--
But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!