WEEK 5

2. WEEK 5 • 1. HISTORICAL AND BIOLOGICAL APPROACHES • 2. HAMLET • 3. HUCKLEBERRY FINN

3. Historical and Biographical Approaches in Practice: Hamlet • Author: William Shakespeare (1564-1616) • Script dated around 1599-1600 • An immediate success in its time and one of the most staged plays in history

4. Historical and Biographical Approaches in Practice: Hamlet • Queen Elizabeth’s advanced age and poor health leads to the precarious state of the succession to the British crown. Queen Elizabeth by Nicholas Hilliard (1585)Hatfield House

5. Hence, Shakespeare’s decision to mount a production of Hamlet, with its usurped throne and internally disordered state, comes as no surprise.

6. Shakespeare's "Hamlet" was a remake of an already popular play, based in turn on an episode from the Dark Ages, the lawless, might-makes-right era that followed the collapse of Roman-era civilization. Ophelia

7. In the original legend, the prince was still a child when his father was murdered. And he learned of the murder from the beginning. • Therefore he had to act insane in order to survive and wait for his revenge. • The prince in this version was not a melancholic youth but a model of heroes. The Spanish Tragedy, a predecessor of Hamlet

8. There is some ground for thinking that Ophelia’s characterization of Hamlet may be intended to suggest the Earl of Essex. The portrait of Earl of Essex

9. Another contemporary historical figure, the Lord Treasurer, Burghley, has been seen by some in the character of Polonius. The Lord Treasurer, Burghley

10. Knowing about eleventh-century Danish court life or about Elizabethan England is particularly germane to analysis of Hamlet.

11. In Hamlet’s day the Danish throne was an elective one. The royal council, composed of the most powerful nobles in the land, named the next king. The third quarto of Hamlet (1605); a straight reprint of the 2nd quarto (1604)

12. The custom of the throne’s descending to the oldest son of the late monarch had not yet crystallized into law. Hamlet, Gertrude and the ghost

13. The charge of incest against the Queen • Although her second marriage to the brother of her deceased husband would not be considered incestuous today by many civil and religious codes, it was so to considered in Shakespeare’s day. Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard, 1839

14. Hamlet’s role in revenge • Modern readers/playgoers may think that one of Hamlet’s flaws is that he took revenge into his own hands and not resort to law. • However, in Shakespeare’s time, Hamlet, the son of a murdered father, and more importantly, the son of an usurped king, was not only the legitimate revenger, it was his duty to take revenge and restore order to Denmark.

15. What is “melancholy” to Elizabethans? • Nervous instability. • Rapid and extreme changes of feeling and mood. • The disposition to be for the time absorbed in a dominant feeling or mood, whether joyous or depressed. Hamlet and the Gravediggers by Jean Dagnan-Bouverte

16. If we examine Hamlet’s actions and speeches closely through Elizabethan’s eyes, we will realize that at least part of Hamlet’s problem is that he is a victim of extreme melancholy. Ophelia drowned

17. Different versions of Hamlet Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet Hamlet in German The Raj Hamlet Shakespeare set in India Hamlet in German

18. Many Hamlets Mel Gibson, with Glenn Close as Gertrude Laurence Olivier Kenneth Branagh Richard Burton

19. Ethan Hawke, with Julia Stiles as Ophelia Campbell Scott Kevin Kline, with Dana Ivey as Gertrude Ethan Hawke as Hamlet

20. Shamlet! 莎姆雷特劇照 莎姆雷特官網 「莎姆雷特」彩排，水晶燈掉落

21. Related links and resources about Shakespeare and Hamlet • The life of Queen Elizabeth– http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizabio.htm • BBC- Drama- 60 seconds Shakespearehttp://0rz.net/e61U6 • 屏風表演班 <<莎姆雷特>> http://www.pingfong.com.tw/shamlet2006/shamlet_02.htm • Kakiseni.com– our Hamlet http://www.kakiseni.com/articles/features/MDYyNA.html • Hamlet in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet

22. Huckleberry Finn • Author: Mark Twain (1835 -1910) • “Huck Finn” is regarded as Twain’s masterpiece and one of the first great American novels • Set in the mid 1800s (pre-Civil War) • Themes: family, Mississippi river, slavery, race, human realities (both good and bad)

23. Original Title • Original Title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) • Tom Sawyer is the hero of Twain’s another novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer • Writer Philip Young: the missing definite article “the” in the title suggested a sense of unfinishedness in Huck’s adventures Cover of the first New York Edition

24. publication • Similar to the literary blockbuster of our time, Harry Potter, Huck Finn was first published in 2 editions (US & UK) • Such measure protected Twain from pirate copies of his novel, as his was already a hugely famous author at that time. • Huck Finn, however, was originally banned by some states because of its controversial themes and coarse language Cover of the first London Edition

25. Settings • Frontier America in the 1840 and 1850s • A bloody and violent time; a place of roughness, cruelty and lawlessness

26. Actual Events inspired plots and persons • The shooting of Old Boggs by Colonel Sherburn => (actual events) killing in Hannibal, Missouri • The attempted lynching of Sherburn => something the author witnessed as a boy • Brother of the prototype Huck, Benson Blankenship aided a slave to escape in 1847 • Benson’s refusal to turn in the slave for reward is reflected in Huck’s loyalty to Jim in defiance of law, society and religion Huck’s first appearance in the novel

27. Historical plots • Jim’s escape to freedom by handing south was reasonable at the time as his distination Cairo, Illinois, is south of St. Petersburg, Missouri (Fictional relevant of Hannibal, MO). • If Jim were to escape to any free states, he could have just cross the river at St. Petersburg to Illinois. Yet, although Illinois was a free state, slaves escaped to Illinois would be returned. • Cairo, Illinois, was a junction of underground railway system. Jim could travel east and north via railway.

28. Class and Racism • Huckleberry Finn can be seen as a critcism to the British and American Southern aristocracy. • Instead of being the paragons of true gentleness, graciousness, courtliness, and selflessness; the hypocritical aristocracts are trigger-happy, proud and hard to stand. • Another important criticism in the novel is on the idea of racial superiority, which the aristocracts used to justify their cruel treatment to the blacks. • Moreover, it was not only the aristocracts who were subscribed to such idea, common white people (such as pap Finn) also did.

29. Human Realities vs. Romananticism • The author also blamed the romanticism of novels such as Sir Walter Scott’s due to their idealization of a feudal society. • In real life such idealization becomes the blood feud of the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons on the adult level. • On juvenile level, it becomes the imaginative high jinks of Tom Sawyer and his “robber gang” and his “rescue” of Jim.

30. Biographical Sources • The author’s years as steamboat pilot educated him about the lives on the Mississipi River and the technical aspects of navigation • He learned the knowledges of Negro superstitions from slaves in Hannibal, MO. • Huck in real life, Tom Blankenship, was the author’s childhood friend.