FDWLD 201

1. FDWLD 201 Renaissance Humanism: Shakespeare’s Hamlet

2. “The play’s the thing!” • On Shakespearean language • How to insult like a Shakespearean • UpdatingShakespeare

3. You are quoting Shakespeare if . . . • If you cannot understand my argument, and declare “It's Greek to me,’’ you are quoting Shakespeare; • If you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; • If you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; • If you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is farther to the thought; if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare;

4. You are quoting Shakespeare if . . . • If you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise -why, be that as it may, the more fool you , for it is a foregone conclusion that (as good luck would have it)you are quoting Shakespeare;

5. You are quoting Shakespeare if . . . • If you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare;

6. You are quoting Shakespeare if . . . • Even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut tut! For goodness' sake! What the dickens! But me no buts! - it is all one to me, foryou are quoting Shakespeare.

7. Quotable lines: Before reading/watching Hamlet, had you heard any of these? • "Sweets to the sweet." • "Good night, sweet Prince." • "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark.” • “The apparel oft proclaims the man.” • "To be or not to be--that is the question." • "To thine own self be true and thou can'st not then be false to any man." • "Neither a borrower nor a lender be." • "Brevity is the soul of wit." • "Frailty, thy name is Woman!" • "Get thee to a nunnery.” • “More matter, less art!” • "The readiness is all.” • "The play's the thing." • "The lady doth protest too much.” • "Alas, poor Yorick." • "When sorrows come, they come not as single spies, but in battalions." • "The dog will have his day.” • “Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.”

8. So, why all the fuss? • Is Hamlet worth studying? Why or why not? What is there of value? Or not?

9. Does Hamlet resonate at all with you? Perhaps you have been in (or been close to) a situation like one (or more) of the following: • Death of a parent • A non-nuclear family, especially one with interfamilial tension • Mental illness • You or other people “wearing masks” to hide real intentions and personalities • Trying to determine “the real you” • Roommates, family, or friends spying on, or nosing into, other people’s private lives • Procrastination or action-paralysis • Obsessive behavior • Tension between older and younger generations • Violence or illicit sex • Where appearance and reality are called into question, not knowing what is true or real • As a young person, being forced into the role of an adult • Not being able to trust family or friends; paranoia • Love, unrequited love, the victim of a “play-ah” • Going away to college or on a mission and having things fall apart at home • Not knowing what to do in a critical situation • Feeling bereft of all support, family and friends • Going through the process of education only to find that the more you learn the less you know and the harder it is to determine the right course of action

10. Redemption & The Long Journey • In what ways is Hamlet an archetypal story? Does it represent a long journey? Does it reflect ancient redemptive themes, like the Oedipal story? Can you think of any other stories or dramatic productions that depict the Hamlet story line? If you were to update Hamlet, how would you do it? • Is Hamlet redeemed by the end? Does his weak-willed, melancholic, over-intellectualized procrastination help or hinder him? Is he a healthy, young prince; a depraved egomaniac; or a noble, tragic hero? Is Hamlet insane? If he is insane, how is the story redemptive?

11. Redemption & Love • How is the play about the quest for love (of oneself or another)? Does that make the story redemptive? Is love real? Is friendship? What elements of the story make these questionable? Are these elements realistic? How do you ever know whether love or friendship is real? • Is Shakespeare unequivocal or ambiguous on these subjects? Is that a problem?

12. Moral Revelation & Ways of Knowing • As with the rest of his plays, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet at what we might call the dawn of the modern world, represented particularly by the ascent of the modern scientific world view and its ways of knowing (from the Latin scire “to know”). • How is Hamlet in particular a play about what we know, how we know it, and whether we can trust that knowledge? (Think particularly about how the characters “gather intelligence.”) How do we know things today? Are we very different or very much like Hamlet in that way? How does the play represent those who think versus those who act? • How is Hamlet a story about whether one should trust authority figures or oneself? Examples and judgments? • How is the play about disordered loves? How does that knowledge make the play about moral revelation?

13. Moral Revelation & What We Know • Is there such a thing as virtue or honor? What elements of the story raise questions about these? Are those elements realistic? How do you know whether there is real virtue or honor in the world? • Just what is real, anyway? What constitutes metaphysical reality? Is the afterlife, for example, real? What elements in the play might make us wonder? If the afterlife is the real thing, what do we make of this life? Which is more real? With which should we be more concerned? Does our choice reflect more medieval or renaissance/modern views? What are the implications of that? What elements in the play “must give us pause,” to quote Hamlet? • Is Shakespeare unequivocal or ambiguous on these subjects? Is that a problem?

14. Just Society, Justice, & Vengeance • How is this play an example of a coming-of-age story? Can we mature without "getting our hands dirty"? Did Hamlet act responsibly? What would you think of Hamlet if he had not carried out his vengeance? Did Hamlet have any other recourse? • How is Hamlet a revenge play? Was justice meted out? If justice were to be done, how should it have been done? Could it have been done that way? • How is justice done by Laertes? By Fortinbras?

15. Just Society, Forgiveness, & Atonement • How is the play about love for others, i.e., our “neighbor”? How does that knowledge make it a play about justice and the just society? • A great Latter-day saint intellect and professor at BYUP, the late Eugene England, said that Shakespeare understood the atonement perhaps better than most people of his day, and Hamlet is the evidence of that. Do you agree or disagree and why? Is Hamlet a moral or immoral play? • Is Shakespeare unequivocal or ambiguous on these subjects? Is that a problem?

16. “The rest is silence.” • So, what is the last word on Hamlet? What are the take-aways?