HAMLET –More Sundry Questions

       1. Big ticket items:

a.  Why does Hamlet delay acting against Claudius? Political/external, Psychological/internal, Moral/internal other reasons? Does this delay unfold in a manner that somehow makes sense? How do we situate the peripety of him killing Polonius in the delay? The peripety of his outfoxing R&G/C and his return? The transformation of attitude he brings to Act V? Is his delay, or his movement toward action, the critical center/axis of the play? Or is really much more about revenge?

b.  Does Hamlet “play” the madman, or does his mind actually start to unravel by the end of the play? This is related to the questions about the Ghost = demon from hell, messenger from heaven, or something else, and whether the call to revenge does lead Hamlet into at least a kind of moral madness. What do we find in Hamlet’s relations to Ophelia, to Gertrude, to Claudius when he is praying, his killing of Polonius, his outrageous behavior at Ophelia’s funeral, that suggests yes? Can this evidence be convincingly answered by his defenders, who see “method” in his madness? How do we make sense of the gravedigger scene, and its strange opposition to his “readiness is all” and comments about “providence” in Act V? If we perceive in him occasional moments of emotional instability, is this a mark against him?

c.  This question is also ultimately related to whether Hamlet’s vision of life is distorted or truthful, his conception of seeming and being in persons, state (Denmark) and the universe on the mark, despite its radicalness, or off it? Is Hamlet condemned for his ‘flaw’, whatever that is—perhaps the passion for vengeance, whether its motives are psychological, political, or moral—or are we meant in the end to see Hamlet’s vision and even his actions as right and noble (and how is his nobility different from that of others but seemingly noble)? How does the play present a “mysterious” world, but nonetheless a world of “thought”? What is its answer to the question, what is man?

d.  Reflect on the theme of "play" in the drama. When is Hamlet playing and when not? What is the relationship between "conscience" and play, considered not only in relation to Hamlet and his roles, but to the other characters, and their roles. How does the idea of seeing human conduct under the category of "play" and acting out of roles, function in the work, including Hamlet's transformation from IV to V? If all the world is a stage, and we are its players, is there an author, whose script we are to follow, or is our theater more Pirandelesque? How does the theme of "play" both undercut, and enhance the element of "meaning" in this drama?

e. How do we understand Hamlet’s relations/attitudes to women, i.e. Ophelia and Gertrude, and what is that “message” in the play? How does that feed its status as tragedy? Why does the Ghost injure Hamlet not to harm Gertrude, but let heaven deal with her? What is the play’s answer to the question, what is woman? (and is she different from ‘man’?)

f.  What do you make of the role of suicide, and Hamlet’s seeming obsession with it and with death, particularly in the earlier parts of the drama? What would you indentify as the “critical turning points” in the development of Hamlet’s character, as the drama unfolds? Does Ophelia’s rejecting him change the man, or merely the appearance? Killing Polonius? Out-scheming Claudius/R&G? Ophelia’s death?

g.  What is the meaning of Hamlet, or should we conclude with Bloom that Hamlet himself is its meaning—that the character is bigger than the story, and somehow presents us with a person who is more fully realized even than the people we know (including ourselves)? Related to this, what is the relation of the drama to Christianity and its vision of life? Is it a “Christian tragedy” b/c Hamlet gets drawn into a revenge-mentality, and this is his (and everyone else’s) destruction? Does he even take revenge, in the final scene? Not unrelated to this, is tragedy even compatible with Christianity? Doesn’t tragedy bespeak a more complex world? Or does it merely bespeak a more complex world than is dreamt of in philosophy? What do you make of the religious them in V? Of the bloody ending and ironic ascent of Fortinbras to the throne?

h. Analyze the play in terms of the Aristotelian categories and concepts: who is its hero/heroines? what is the plot's goal? its "pollution"? what are its agons? peripeties? recognitions? scenes of suffering? final epiphany and revelation? catharsis? consider its characters and the units of characters, e.g. H-C-G, L-P-O, H with Hor,F,L; H/L, KH/P, O and G, H and O. Consider too its "thought"--honor ethic, Christian ethic, reason and its orders vs. the mysterious supernatural. Does the play 'justify' Hamlet's transformation from hero into -- scapegoat?

i.  What is the portrayal of “mind” or “reason” and its relation to “passion” in Hamlet? How does this get tied in to the concept of the three orders of the cosmos, of the state, and of the individual soul? To the concept of “human nature” and its relation to corruption, individual and social, on the one hand, and to supernature, on the other?

j. What is Hamlet’s relationship to love? What are the many objects of his love? Subjects of his love? How does his love for them show itself in action? (or not). Do you accept his declaration of love for Ophelia in V? Or is he somehow too absorbed in his own thoughts and intentions, to be genuinely open to love? (What are the different concepts of love? (e.g. romantic, sexual, friendship, divine/unconditional)

k.  Hamlet is also a play of various "dualities": how do comedy and tragedy interact in the play? Words and actions? Seeming/pretense and being/authenticity? Knowledge, ignorance and delusion? Morality and immorality?

l.  Compare Hamlet and other ‘greats’ of human history/literature: Oedipus; Hamlet and Christ; Hamlet and Socrates; Hamlet and Falstaff. (The latter is paired with Prince Hal, who if not his human equal, and ultimately his betrayer, is at least in some important ways comparable. But Claudius is much less to Hamlet than Hal/Henry is to Falstaff, even if their agon occupies much of the play.

m. Consider parallelisms of ritual/court scenes and 'entertainments' in I.i,ii; II.ii; III.ii; IV.v; and V.ii; and scenes in I w/P, II w/RG, P; III w/O, IV w/H, V gravediggers (where Yorick echoes the helmeted Ghost).

n. Does Hamlet grow in the drama, in response to the various challenges/obstacles he has to overcome? Does he succeed or fail? Is his a story of triumph or of tragedy?

2. Other characters in the play:

a.  Why doesn’t Claudius kill Hamlet right away, or as soon as he realizes he is a threat? (there are a number of good answers, including self-interest and political reasons) Other considerations of Claudius: how should we understand his ‘development’ in the play? Is he tortured by conscience? What does conscience mean to him? What do his actions in the prayer scene reveal of him? In the final scene betray of his character? In what ways does he exhibit “Machiavellian” intelligence and statecraft? How would you play Claudius—as himself delaying killing Hamlet out of guilt at his deed, or as a ruthless figure, or as someone who develops and if so how/where/why? What are the "4 problems" Claudius has to resolve, to establish and retain his kingship?

b.  Do have to accept Hamlet’s interpretation of Gertrude as “morally frail”? How should her character be portrayed? Questions of fact: did she have adultery with Claudius (text strongly hints yes)? Did she know Claudius killed her husband? (probably not). Other issues: how sexual is she, not only in relation to Claudius but in relation to Hamlet? How eroticized should the chamber scene be? How should we interpret her ‘loyalty’ to Hamlet in the closing acts/her ‘disloyalty’ to Claudius?

c.  Not dissimilar questions with Ophelia. Did she have sexual relations with Bill Clinton, I mean with Hamlet? (I would argue probably not, and if she had, it would detract from her role as an ‘innocent’; but the 'madness scene' may suggest otherwise). How does one or the other change our view of her? Hamlet? How passionately in love with Hamlet was she? What do we make of her deftness in relation to her brother’s advice and Hamlet’s barnyard language in the play scene? How does that counter off to her obedience to Polonius? Does she betray her love for Hamlet? Are his harsh comments in the nunnery scene justified, or does that scene provide evidence for an interpretation of him as someone whose sexual repression expresses itself in violent denunciation of the female sex (kind of the “lacerating voice” directed at the Other). Is she a fully realized and ‘real’ character in the drama? Is she - like Cordelia in King Lear - a "christ figure"?

d.  Should Polonius be played as a buffoon, or as a serious advisor to the King? How do we understand this character and his relation to words—as opposed to actions? Is he a genuine victim of Hamlet, or is Hamlet’s seemingly harsh gloss on him Shakespeare’s own judgment? which of the characters in HAMLET are “true” to themselves and in what way? Is Hamlet true to himself? Claudius? Gertrude? Ophelia? Laertes? Which cannot be? How does Polonius’ relation to his son, and vice-versa, counterpoint with Hamlet and his father?

e.  Does Hamlet admire Fortinbras, or does/should he regard him with contempt? Is Fortinbras’ election to the kingship an indication of the moral bleakness of the world, after Hamlet is gone? Contrariwise, what do we make of Hamlet’s friendship to Horatio? (cf. esp. III.ii. 53f) Hamlet bears comparison to Fortinbras, Horatio, and Laertes. How does he in some way transcend all of them, yet at the same time how is his greatness more dangerous than any of them?

f. For each character: What is the most important, or what are the most important questions concerning them? How is the story seen, what is its meaning, from their eyes?

3. Scenes and speeches:

a.  Does Hamlet overhear Polonius and Claudius in II.ii (cf. 158-65 & f.)? (This would explain some of what follows.)

b.  Is Hamlet aware that he is being observed in Act III.i, during the “To be or not to be” monologue? And what exactly is that monologue about? Suicide or something else? Is he aware he is being observed/overheard in the nunnery scene? (cf. 146-7)?

c.  Why does Hamlet seem to shift from something almost like gentleness toward Ophelia in the nunnery scene to something more harsh? What do you make of the counterpoint of the nunnery scene with the court/play scene with Ophelia? (Why would he act that way there?)

d.  In the scene in his mother’s chambers, does Hamlet hallucinate the Ghost, or is he real? Supposing he is real, why does he show up then? How would you play the relation between Hamlet and his mother? What does Gertrude have in common with Polonius?

e.  Reflect on Hamlet’s major soliloquies at I.ii.129 f., I.v. 92f. II.ii. 532 f. III.i. 56 f. III.2, 371 f., III.iii. 73f. IV.iv. 32 f. [cf. also the progression of soliloquies in the drama]

f.  Reflect on his exchanges of wit with various characters, including Polonius, Ophelia, R & G, the players, the gravedigger, Orsic, even Claudius and Gertrude.

g.  Reflect on Hamlet's meditations on the political world and human nature, and those of Claudius.

4. Lines and quotes to explicate/reflect on

a.  “to thine own self be true”

b.  “frailty, thy name is woman”

c.  “a little more than kin, and less than kind”/”I must be cruel to be kind”

d.  “I have within that which passeth show”

e.  “there are more things in heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”

f.  “brevity is the soul of wit”

g.  “there is nothing good or bad, but that thinking makes it so”

h.  “what a piece of work is man”

i.  “what’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, that he should weep for her?”

j.  “to be or not to be, that is the question”

k.  “conscience doth make cowards of us all”

l.  “oh, what a noble mind is o’erthrown”

m.  “now is the very witching time of night”

n.  “words without thoughts never to heaven go”

o.  “the King is a thing”

p.  “what is a man?”

q.  “thought and affliction, hell itself, she turns to favor and to prettiness”

r.  “alas poor Yorick, I knew him well”

s.  “the readiness is all . . . let be."

t.  “Oh, I could tell you—but let it be.”