Hamlet
Reading Schedule
Act IAct II
Act III
Act IV
Act V
Introduction to the Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy
For the purpose of judging and examining plays, understanding genre enables clarity. In the Poetics, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) defines tragedy as an imitation of a single, unified, action that is serious, complete, and has a certain magnitude. Tragedy deals with the fall of someone whose character is good, believable, and consistent; importantly, the fall is caused by an error or frailty (hamartia – tragic flaw) rather than a vice or depravity. Philosophies about fate, fortune, and circumstances may intersect with the misfortunes of the hero, but the ups and downs of life are related to the issue of free will (not destiny) in the settling of plot. It is at the point of free will that revenge tragedy takes a distinct generic turn.
Inspired by Seneca and made popular on the Elizabethan stage by Thomas Kyd’sSpanish Tragedy (1586), revenge tragedy depicts a son’s revenge for a father’s murder (or vice versa). The murder is revealed and directed to the protagonist by the murdered man’s ghost, as in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1601). Revenge results from conscious and focused action.
Play plot may include, although not all aspects in every play (Please journal with these in mind.)
- the hero’s hesitation
- the hero’s insanity (either real or pretended)
- the hero’s contemplation of suicide
- multiple levels of intrigue
- an able scheming villain
- an abundance of philosophic soliloquies
- sensationalized murder on stage or the exhibition of dead bodies.
Managing the dynamics of revenge, audiences encounter, (Please journal with these in mind.)
- the offense, which can be maximized by the multiplication of injuries and the adding of insult
- the antagonist, most effectively some really formidable (but still vulnerable) person or force
- clarification of strategy and marshalling of resources
- a series of delays, obstacles, diversions, mistakes, reservations, — anything to retard the momentum
- some unforeseen development that almost thwarts the scheme, but not quite
- the showdown, with the revenge carried out in some answerable style.
Titus Andronicus (1591), also written by Shakespeare, and John Marston’s Antonio’s Revenge (1602) are exemplary plays of this type; Cyril Tourneur’s Atheist’s Tragedy (1611) is a Jacobean example.
Revenge tragedy also existed in an intensified form known as the tragedy of blood. It works out the theme of revenge and retribution (borrowed from Seneca) through murder, assassination, mutilation, and carnage. Horrors in the Senecan plays described in Latin are placed on stage to satisfy the craving for morbid excitement displayed by an Elizabethan audience brought up on bear-baiting spectacles and public executions. The revenge motif and audience expectations led to later horrific tragedies such as John Webster’s The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi(1614).
In Your Notes: Do you have the answers? Write them in your journal.
Shakespeare: An Overview (pgs. vii-lxi)
How many literary references to Shakespeare exist in the work of his contemporaries?
After his baptism, what is the next official documentation of Shakespeare’s existence?
What is the most outstanding argument for those who doubt Shakespeare’s authorship?
What counterargument does the author of the Overview make in defense against this position?
What is a philologist?
In what context can Shakespeare’s English be considered modern?
What is the conjecture as to the sound of Elizabethan English when it was spoken?
How does the author define pun?
What is the significance of Hamlet’s first words in the play? What do they tell us about him?
When is thou, thy, thee used? What are some of the reasons Shakespeare makes purposeful use of them?
How many people could an Elizabethan theater typically hold?
Before Shakespeare’s use of prose in drama, when and where was it used most often in drama?
What techniques did Shakespeare use to give his blank verse the variance of speech?
In what forms were Shakespeare’s plays published?
What does the author mean when he refers to the play’s text as “unstable”?
In what way are we, as readers, collaborators in re-creating Shakespeare’s plays?
Introduction (pgs. lxiii-xcii)
What is believed to be Hamlet’s tragic flaw?
Renaissance means “rebirth”. What did the Elizabethans believe was being reborn?
What elements characterized Senecan tragedy for Elizabethans?
What arguments are made to support Hamlet’s conclusion that the ghost he encounters is an “honest ghost”?
What is the Elizabethan attitude on revenge?
When, according to the arguments of the author, is revenge acceptable? Unacceptable?
What principle arguments are presented for the explication of Hamlet’s hesitancy?
What does the author mean by his statement: “We are, it is sometimes said today, not unified selves, not “characters” or “personalities,” but rather we are mere sites traversed by the discourse to which we are exposed”?
Explain the author’s moral delineation between premeditated revenge and spontaneous revenge. What is its effect to the genre of revenge drama?
Literary Elements:
Pun – a play on words that capitalizes on the similarity of spelling or pronunciation, usually for comic effect
Hyperbole – an over-exaggeration used to make a point.
Understatement – the opposite of hyperbole, the deliberate misinterpretation of something by stating something in a way that is less than it truly is. Meiosis and litotes are two forms of understatement.
Litotes – a form of understatement typically achieved by negating an affirmation. For example, “A fact of no small importance.”
Meiosis- a form of understatement usually achieved by referring to something in terms of less importance than it actually deserves. For examples: Mercutio refers to his fatal wound as a “scratch.”
Don’t forget! The terms we use to talk about drama which we have already learned are listed below.
Act – a major division of play or drama
Scene - the subdivision of an act in a drama
Dialogue – the conversation between two ore more characters in a literary text
Monologue – an extended narrative delivered by a single speaker, though it may be heard or witnessed by other characters
Interior monologue – a stream-of-consciousness technique in which the subjective thoughts of a character are revealed to the reader. This technique exists in both novels and poems.
Soliloquy – when a character in a drama is alone on stage, speaking his or her innermost thoughts
Aside – a dramatic convention where a character onstage addresses the audience, presumably not being heard by the other characters
Epigraph – refers to the writing at the beginning of a narrative (or beginning of each section of a narrative) that tends to establish either tone or theme. An epigraph is typically a single passage or quotation whereas a prologue is a monologue (at the beginning of a play) or complete scene or introduction to a novel.
Epilogue – the final section of a text that occurs after the conclusion of the main plot. In a play, the epilogue is typically a final soliloquy. Sometimes authors use an epilogue to tie up loose ends or flesh out the future lives of their characters.