Elizabethan Drama

1. Elizabethan Drama The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare

2. Elizabethan Theater • Retains much of Greek Drama • Tragic heroes are persons of high noble station • Tragic Heroes partly brought to tragic end by hamartia or tragic flaw

3. Hamartia & Elizabethan Physiology • Hamartia may be physical • Four humors • blood = red = passionate, gluttonous • phlegm = white = bookish, sterile • bile = yellow = waspish, hot tempered • black bile = black = melancholy

4. Four Humors • Blood = Red • passionate • gluttonous • impulsive

5. Four Humors • phlegm = white • bookish • sterile

6. Four Humors • bile = yellow • waspish • hot tempered

7. Four Humors • Black bile = Black • melancholy • manic depressive

8. Elizabethan Tragic Plot Terms • Formulated by Freytaq, not Elizabethans • Crisis • decision by Hero that seals his/her doom • usually found in Act III, Scenes 1 or 2 • Climax • decisive event, greatest tension/suspense • Moment of final suspense • only in Shakespeare

9. Elizabethan Tragic Plot Terms • Soliloquy • distinct aura of interior monologue • inner workings of character's mind • reveals his true thoughts & emotions Solo Speech • up front stage directional speech • cues audience to character's plans

10. Elizabethan Tragic Plot Terms • Umbrella speech • often out of character • provides necessary information • for both audience & play characters • Mirror Speeches & Scenes • mimics words or actions • dramatic irony • often thematic

11. Claudius: O my offense is rank, it smells to heaven,/ It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,/ A brother’s murder. Pray I cannot,/ Though inclination be as sharp as will/ My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,/ Hamlet: Now might I do it pat, now a’ is a-praying,/ And now I’ll do’t it, and so a’ goes to heaven,/ And so I am revenged: that would be scanned: A villain kills my father, and for that,/ I his sole son, do this same villain send / to heaven./ Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge./ Elizabethan Tragic Plot TermsMirror Speeches & Scenes

12. Elizabethan Revenge Play Conventions • Accepts revenge as self-justifying • Avenger, high noble person • State too corrupt to provide justice • Evildoers are powerful figures

13. Elizabethan Revenge Play Conventions • Avenger obsessed with loss • Difficult to prove identity of villain • Avenger must find an ingenious way

14. Elizabethan Revenge Play Conventions • Avenger becomes clever, remorseless& menace to public order

15. Elizabethan Revenge Play Conventions • Avenger utters enigmatic threats & pontificates about injustices of state • Avenger verges on true madness • Avenger employs madness as a cloak for his schemes

16. Elizabethan Revenge Play Conventions • Play-within-the-play • Revenge play accepts revenge as self-justifying Shakespeare will use these conventions to challenge their underlying values

17. Concentric Circles of Revenge • Denmark and Norway • Fortinbras seeks revenge for father’s death • Hamlet and Claudius • Hamlet seeks revenge for father’s death • Laertes and Hamlet • Laertes seeks revenge for father and sister’s death • Claudius and Hamlet • Claudius seeks revenge for Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern • Ophelia & Hamlet? • Does Ophelia seek revenge for father’s death?

18. Christian Stoicism • All life on earth doomed to pain, suffering & death • Therefore to fight against injustice & suffering is foolish • Individual should look to afterlife for happiness

19. Christian Stoicism • To act(“to take arms against a sea of troubles”) will only bring them on sooner • Better to endure (“to suffer the slings & arrows of outrageous fortune”) & not to let one's passions affect one

20. Hamlet • Play about insoluble problems & questions Creates CLAUSTROPHBIC atmosphere Watch how the movie reinforces this with sets & camera

21. Hamlet • Tragic Hero must undergo development • toward a sense of his/her role in scheme of things • Recognition of his/her error

22. Hamlet • In classical theory, without self-knowledge there is no tragedy • Hamlet becomes a play that debatesFree Will & Determinism

23. Shakespeare’s Unique Tragedy Conventions Hyperbolic Hero Effusive and sophisticated use of language Impassioned, articulate, verbose hero never shuts up Hyperbole dramatizes hero’s spiritual anguish at difference between reality & the way things ought to be

24. Shakespeare’s Unique Tragedy Conventions Voice of Reason Character Pragmatic Counter Voice character Usually, a commoner Speaks for practical, common sense Concerned with being reasonable getting along, surviving, making best of the way things are

25. Shakespeare’s Unique Tragedy Conventions Insanity of Tragic Hero At some point during play, tragic hero goes insane for at least a short while When does this happen to Hamlet?

26. Shakespeare’s Unique Tragedy Conventions Obligatory Absence of Tragic Hero At some point hero makes a journey Takes him away from central setting of play Hero returns from journey with changed attitude or direction

27. Shakespeare’s Unique Tragedy Conventions • Obligatory Debate between Hero & Commoner Otherworldly focus of Hyperbolic Tragic Hero Counter pointed with pragmatic, real-world focus of Commoner

28. Classical Figures of Speech • Definition:a use of language that departs from customary construction, order, or significance in order to achieve special effects or meanings

29. Classical Figures of Speech • Rhetorical Figure achieves special effects without a radical change in the meaning of words • Trope causes a basic change or reversal of the meaning of words

30. Example • ANAPHORA:repetitive rhetorical figure that repeats same expression (word or words) at start of two or more lines, clauses or sentences And shall I couple hell?--O, fie!--Hold, my heart; And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,

31. Example • ANTIPHRASIS:tropeinvolving irony to use a word or phrase satirically or humorously to convey an idea exactly opposite to its literal significance. • Gertrude: “Why seems it so particular with thee?” • Hamlet: “Seems, Madam? Nay, it is. I know not ‘seems.’”

32. Example • EPISTROPHE:rhetorical figure involving repetition of closing word or phrase at end of several clauses, sentences, or lines • Hamlet:You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willing part withal,except my life, except my life,--except my life.