¡Descarga William Shakespeare, Hamlet y más Ejercicios en PDF de Idioma Inglés solo en Docsity! Katie Rose De Jesus Carmen Lara 15 de enero de 2018 Hamlet Introduction Composed around 1600. Beginning of Shakespeare's great tragic period. Considered to be the first of those great tragedies. He had already written 2 tetralogies, some of his best comedies and other tragedies, for example Romeo and Juliet. This is Shakespeare´s longest play. Runs for more than 4 hours when performed. There are common ingredients and characteristics: • The context of war or conflict. In this case between Denmark and Norway. • ACT III. It contains a key moment for the development of the play. The play within the play. The Mouse Trap, because this is Hamlets plan to prove that Claudius is guilty for killing his father. • We have a mixture of the sublime and the grotesque. In ACT V, we have The Great Diggers scene. They make fun of the skulls. • We have a shared feature. Macbeth and King Lear, Shakespeare includes a hero that is a royal character. Hamlet is the prince of Denmark. • Hamlet and Macbeth, both tragedies include the topic of revenge. Hamlet is a revenge tragedy. Both plays include supernatural elements. Hamlet opens with the meeting of the ghost and Macbeth with witches and his faith. • In King Lear, we have a subplot that mirrors the main plot. Laertes is a sort of Hamlet, because both want to take revenge on the death of their fathers. Laertes´s father, Polonius, will be killed by Hamlet. Laertes will want to kill Hamlet just like Hamlet wants to kill Claudius. • Shakespeare´s longest play. Runs for more than 4 hours, and is the most influential on modern adaptations. Most influential works of world literature. • About performance, both Hamlet and Merchant are the most frequently preformed. They have the longest history of performance. !1 • The role of Hamlet has been played by highly acclaimed actors. Richard Burbage, for example, played Hamlet. We also have Lawrence Olivier, he won an Oscar for this. He also played Shylock. Kenneth Branagh, played Prince Hamlet in 1996. Sources We have two narratives sources and one dramatic. We have three texts, two in prose and one in dramatic form: • Historiae Danicae, by Saxo Grammaticus. A danish historian. He includes the story of Amleth. The prince of Jutland. His uncle kills his father and marries his mother. Influenced by the Roman legend of Lucius Junius Brutus. He also escapes death, by pretending he is mad. We find this in Hamlet. • Histoires Tragiques, by Belleforest. Published in several editions since 1559. Shakespeare could have read it in French or in an English translation. The history of Hamlet, a retelling of Saxo´s tale. Hamblets mother is an adulterous character. • We have a play called, the Ur-Hamlet. (Ur- means it existed but was lost). An Elizabethan Play from the 1580s. Most critics believed it was written by Thomas Kyd, and some other believe it was Shakespeare at the beginning of his career. Elements present in all versions of the story of Hamlet: • We have a powerful man who kills his brother and marries his widow. Saxo´s, first they are a governor and later a king. • The setting is always Denmark. • Hamlet is the son of the man who has been killed. He needs revenge. He is the protagonist. He wants to take revenge on his fathers murderer. In order to achieve this he pretends to be mad. Hamlet as a character: • His Psychological complexity as a character. “Hamlet´s Inwardness”. Thanks to the soliloquies we have access to this inwardness. His inner life. Two elements becomes clear in his soliloquies: His tendency to procrastination. He never feels ready to commit revenge. Another element is his problematic relationship with women. Constantly attacking his mother. He will attack Gertrude calling her an incestious woman. Critics have !2
