Prince Hamlet is the main character in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew to the usurping Claudius and son of the previous King of Denmark, called Old Hamlet. Throughout the play he struggles with whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and struggles with his own sanity along the way.
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Views of Hamlet
Perhaps the most straightforward view sees Hamlet as seeking truth in order to be certain that he is justified in carrying out the revenge called for by a ghost that claims to be the spirit of his father. The most standard view is that Hamlet is highly indecisive, which is the view as proposed by Coleridge, and a number of other critics. "Shakespeare wished to impress upon us the truth, that action is the chief end to existence". The 1948 movie with Laurence Olivier in the title role is introduced by a voiceover: "This is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind." T.S. Eliot offers a similar view of Hamlet's character in his critical essay, "Hamlet and His Problems" (The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism). He states, "We find Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' not in the action, not in any quotations that we might select, so much as in an unmistakable tone...". Others see Hamlet as a person charged with a duty that he both knows and feels is right, yet is unwilling to carry out. In this view, all of his efforts to satisfy himself of King Claudius' guilt, or his failure to act when he can, are evidence of this unwillingness, and Hamlet berates himself for his inability to carry out his task. After observing a play-actor performing a scene, he notes that the actor was moved to tears in the passion of the story and compares this passion for an ancient Greek character, Hecuba, in light of his own situation:
- "O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
- Is it not monstrous that this player here,
- But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
- Could force his soul so to his own conceit
- That from her working all his visage wan'd;
- Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
- A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
- With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!
- For Hecuba?
- What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
- That he should weep for her?" […]
Etymology of Hamlet
Hamlet’s name is one filled with meaning and controversy. The name Hamlet occurs as early as the tenth century. His name is easily derived in form from Belleforest and the lost play from Amlethus of Saxo, and remaining in this form is then derived from its Latin form of the old Jutish Amlethoe. From this point the name can be divided into sections with common meanings. In terms of etymology the root name of Hamlet is an Icelandic noun, Amlooi, meaning ‘fool.’ However this name is derived from the way that Hamlet acts in the play and is not in all actuality the true Etymology of the name since the meaning is found through the actions of Hamlet. The second way of translating the name is by analyzing the noun aml-ooi into ‘raving mad’ and the second half, amla into ‘routine’. Later these names were incorporated into Irish dialect as Amlodhe. As phonetic laws took their course the name’s spelling changed eventually leaving it as Amlaidhe. This Irish name was given to a hero in a common folk story. The root of this name is ‘furious, raging, wild.’ These are all meanings Shakespeare would have been aware of when deciding on the name for his longest play.[1]
Asimov
Another view of Hamlet, advanced by Isaac Asimov in his Guide to Shakespeare, holds that his actions are attributable not to indecision, but to multiple motivations: his desire to avenge the wrong done to his father, coupled with his own ambition to succeed to the throne. The tragic error committed by Hamlet, in Asimov's view, is his overreaching wish to see Claudius damned, and not merely dead, which prevents him from killing Claudius at the opportune moment.
Influence of the Reformation
It has also been suggested that Hamlet's hesitations may also be rooted in the religious beliefs of Shakespeare's time. The Reformation had generated debate about the existence of purgatory (where King Hamlet claims he currently resides). The concept of purgatory is a Catholic one, and was frowned on in Protestant England. It is possible that Hamlet's own logic ought to be taken seriously. Hamlet says that he will not kill his uncle because death would send him straight to heaven, while his father (having died without foreknowledge of his death) is in purgatory doing penance for his. Hamlet's opportunity to kill his uncle comes just after the uncle has supposedly made his peace with God. Hamlet says that he would much rather take a stab at the murderer while he is frolicking in the "incestuous sheets", or gambling and drinking, so he could be sure of his going straight to Hell.
Freudian interpretation
Ernest Jones, following the work of Freud, held that Hamlet suffered from the 'Oedipus complex'. He said in his essay "The Oedipus-Complex as An Explanation of Hamlet's Mystery: A Study in Motive":
- His moral fate is bound up with his uncle's for good or ill. The call of duty to slay his uncle cannot be obeyed because it links itself with the call of his nature to slay his mother's husband, whether this is the first or the second; the latter call is strongly "repressed," and therefore necessarily the former also.[2]
Interestingly, Harold Bloom did a "Shakespearean Criticism" of Freud's work in response.
As a mirror of the audience
It has also been suggested that Hamlet, who is described by Ophelia as "th’ expectancy and rose of the fair state, / The glass of fashion and the mould of form" (Act III, Scene i, lines 148-9), is ultimately a reflection of all of the interpretations possessed by other characters in the play—and perhaps also by the members of an audience watching him. Polonius, most obviously, has a habit of misreading his own expectations into Hamlet’s actions ("Still harping on my daughter!"), though many other characters in the play participate in analogous behaviour. Gertrude has a similar tendency to interpret all of her son’s activities as the result of her "o’erhasty marriage" alone. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tend to find the stalled ambitions of a courtier in their former schoolmate’s behaviour, whereas Claudius seems to be concerned with Hamlet’s motivation only so far as it reveals the degree to which his nephew is a potential threat. Ophelia, like her father, waits in vain for Hamlet to give her signs of affection, and Horatio would have little reason to think that Hamlet was concerned with anything more pressing than the commandment of the ghost. And the First Gravedigger seems to think that Prince Hamlet, like that "whoreson mad fellow” Yorick, is simply insane without any need for explanation. Several critics, including Stephen Booth and William Empson have further investigated the analogous relationship between Hamlet, the play, and its audience. Nevertheless, over the last four centuries Prince Hamlet has become an icon in the entire western consciousness: the definition of what it means to be intelligent, and perhaps, fully human.
Hamlet's parallels with other characters
One aspect of Hamlet's character is the way in which he reflects other characters, including the play's primary antagonist, Claudius. In the play within a play, for instance, Gonzago, the king, is murdered in the garden by his nephew, Lucianus; although King Hamlet is murdered by his brother, in the Mousetrap , the regicide is a nephew, like Prince Hamlet. However, it is also worth noting that each of the characters in the play-within-a-play maps to two major characters in Hamlet, an instance of the play's many doubles:
- Lucianus, like Hamlet, is both a regicide and a nephew to the king; like Claudius, he is a regicide that operates by pouring poison into ears.
- The Player King, like Hamlet, is an erratic melancholic; like King Hamlet, he is poisoned via his ear while reclining in his orchard.
- The Player Queen, like Ophelia, attends to a character that is "so far from cheer and from [a] former state"; like Gertrude, she remarries a regicide.
Hamlet is also, in some form, a reflection of most other characters in the play (or perhaps vice versa):
- Hamlet, Laertes, Fortinbras and Pyrrhus are all avenging sons. Hamlet and Laertes both blame Claudius for the death of their fathers. Hamlet and Pyrrhus are both seized by inaction at some point in their respective narratives and each avenges his father. Hamlet and Fortinbras both have plans that are thwarted by uncles that are also kings.
- Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Osric and Polonius are all courtiers.
- Hamlet, his father, Bernardo, Marcellus, Francisco, Fortinbras and several other characters are all soldiers.
- Hamlet and his father share a name (as do Fortinbras and his father).
- Hamlet, Horatio, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Laertes are all students.
- Hamlet, his father, Gertrude and Claudius are all members of the Royal Family. Each of them is also killed by poison -- poison that Claudius is responsible for.
- Hamlet and Ophelia are each rebuked by their surviving parent in subsequent scenes; the surviving parent of each happens to be of the opposite gender. Both also enter scenes reading books and there is a contrast between the (possibly) pretend madness of Hamlet and the very real insanity of Ophelia.
- Hamlet, Horatio, Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Claudius are each "lawful espials" at some point in the play.
Hamlet's Age
Hamlet has generally been played as a thirty-year old. In Act V of the play, the grave-digger mentions that his first day on the job was the day that Hamlet was born: "I have bin sixeteene heere, man and Boy thirty yeares." There is a strong implication that the character is 30 years old upon his return from England, but it is also possible to read "sixeteene" as "sixteen" rather than as "sexton", which would make Hamlet only sixteen years old, but few editors render it so.[3] Later, the first grave-digger provides another clue by fixing the time of Yorick's death, saying "This skull hath lien you i' th' earth three-and-twenty years." This would seem to lend credence to Hamlet being approximately 30 years of age as, in his subsequent monologue, Hamlet expresses vivid memories of Yorick. In the first act, it is made clear that Hamlet is a student at Wittenberg and is hoping to return there; it would be unusual for a thirty-year-old to still be a student. One theory is that at the beginning of the play Hamlet is younger, and that he spends many years in England.
Performers
Taking on the role of Hamlet is often considered the pinnacle of an actor's career. Many actors have taken on the role, on stage and later on screen. This list shows just a few of the notable performers that have played the role.
- Stage
- Richard Burbage originated the role of Hamlet at the Globe Theatre.
- Edwin Booth was famous for the role in New York in the 1860s and 1870s.
- Sir John Gielgud played Hamlet over 500 times between 1930 and 1945.
- Christopher Walken played the role for the American Shakespeare Theatre in 1982.
- Toby Stephens played the role for Royal Shakespeare Company in 2004.
- Film
- Danish actress Asta Nielsen portrayed Hamlet in a loose 1921 adaptation which reimagines Hamlet as a woman.
- Sir Laurence Olivier directed himself as Hamlet in the 1948 film.
- Richard Burton portrayed Hamlet in a 1964 filmed version of the stage play.
- Mel Gibson played Hamlet in Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 version.
- Kenneth Branagh directed himself as Hamlet in the 1996 movie, which is the only full length version of the play on film.
- Ethan Hawke played Hamlet in a contemporary adaptation released in 2000.
- Television
- Derek Jacobi played Hamlet in the 1980 BBC Television Shakespeare production.
Notes
- ^ Kemp Malone The Review of English Studies, Vol. 3, No. 11 (Jul.,1927),pp.257-271 <http://www.jstor.org/view/00346551/ap020014/02a00000/0>
- ^ The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 21, No. 1. (Jan., 1910), pp. 72-113.[1]
- ^ Roth, Stephen: Hamlet: The Undiscovered Country. 2
References
- Jenkins, Harold. Hamlet. Ed. Methuen, 1982. (The Arden Shakespeare)
- Wilson, J. Dover, What Happens in Hamlet. Cambridge University Press; 3rd edition, 1951. (First published in 1935)
External links
- "The Women Who Have Played Hamlet" - Interview with Tony Howard on research into female Hamlets
