Course
readings
Introduction and organization:
read: Shakespeare, Hamlet, Bedford/Saint Martin's Press
Enter Ghost:
What is a ghost?
Is the ghost demonic or divine? Or a walking spirit of the dead?
Should Hamlet be guided by the ghost?
read: John Dover Wilson, What Happens in Hamlet, ch.III, pp.51-86
Eleanor Prosser, Hamlet and Revenge, part II, ch IV-V, pp.95-142
O, vengeance!
Is revenge ethically or morally justified?
What does Hamlet say about revenge?
read: Prosser,Hamlet and Revenge, part I, pp.1-94
Samuel Johnson, “Notes on the Plays,” online at http://www.online-literature.com/samuel-johnson/shakespeare-tragedies/11/ (read notes on III,iii and V.ii 346 to the end)
The Mousetrap:
What is going on in the mousetrap scene?
Does the play within the play provide Hamlet with any sure proof of Claudius’ guilt?
What is there to be learned from the history of Elizabethan theatrical troops?
read:
J. Dover Wilson, ch.V, pp.137-197 and appendix C, pp.301-304
The Women
in Hamlet:
Is it possible to generalize from the play about the role of women in society?
Does the play reveal any attitudes about women?
read: J.Dover. Wilson -- pp. 39-50
Ross C. Murfin, “Feminist Criticism and Hamlet”, in the Bedford/Saint Martin's edition.
Elaine Showalter, “Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism", in the Bedford/Saint Martin's edition.
Hamlet on the Couch -- Hamlet's Melancholy:
How does Hamlet relate to the theories of mental illness that were held in Elizabethan England?
How would Hamlet's condition have been diagnosed in the time?
What is your diagnosis now?
read: Wilson, ch IV, pp.87-136, ch VI and VII -- pp. 199-290
Hamlet on the Couch -- Does Hamlet Delay?
Discuss the arguments for and against the Schlegel-Coleridge theory of Hamlet.
read: . Jonathan Bate(ed.), The Romantics on Shakespeare,, pp. 303-352
Charles and Mary Lamb, Tales from Shakespeare, “Hamlet,” online at http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/cml/tfshamlet.html
A.C.Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy, lecture 1 -- pp.15-40, lectures 3&4 -- pp.71-143
Hamlet
on the Couch -- Dr. Freud's Hamlet:
Consider the pros and cons of Dr. Ernest Jones' Hamlet and Oedipus.
What are the advantages and limitations of a Freudian critique of Hamlet?
What
are other grounds for the comparison of Hamlet and Oedipus?
read: Ernest Jones, Hamlet and Oedipus, pp. 20-100
Ophelia's Burial:
Why
the fuss over Ophelia's burial?
The Political
Structure of Hamlet:
What were the applicable laws of succession at the time of the writing of Hamlet?
How do they apply to the play?
By what logic does Fortinbras get to assume the throne after Hamlet and Claudius' deaths?
read: Wilson, ch II, pp 26-38,
On Good and Evil:
"Religious" interpretations of Hamlet. The forms of evil.
read: Francis Fergusson, The Idea of a Theater, ch.IV, pp. 109-154
H.D.F.
Kitto, Form and Meaning in Drama, pp. 246-337 online at http://www.archive.org/details/formandmeaningin030407mbp
Jan Kott, Shakespeare, Our Contemporary, pp. 57-73
Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, ch.23, pp.383-431
and 714-745