The Shakespearean Theater and Hamlet

Hamlet is exalted above all of Shakespeare's other plays not only for its quotable lines ("to be or not to be--that is the question), for its memorable plot (young Danish prince finds out his mom and uncle plotted to kill his dad so that dad's brother can ascend to the throne--follow?); or for the impressive list of actors who have played the Greatest Dane of all: such greats as Sir Ian McKellen, Ralph Fiennes, Sir Laurence Olivier, Sarah Bernhardt (yes, a woman played Hamlet), Mel Gibson, Kenneth Branagh, Jude Law and Ethan Hawke have had turns at interpreting the role. For five centuries, Hamlet has loomed large on the literary--and theatrical list of greats. So, there's the rub: why we should care...

The common practice of interpreting a famous story from the folk archives of Scandinavian bards didn't stop with Beowulf. Hamlet, not unlike Oedipus Rex, is taken from folklore--even though its focus is the royal class. In fact, it is widely accepted that most of Shakespeare's plots were not original to Shakespeare--but that's not the point: it's the execution of the action that makes it his own. Shakespeare's Hamlet explores for the first time the inner conflicts of the individual--as well as the external conflicts of individuals within a society. The play blends humor, treachery, betrayal, a ghost story, madness, bawdiness, unrequited love, disappointment, and revenge in a way that no other work of art can match. But first let's discuss where Shakespeare staged his plays.

The Globe Theater (doublebarreledtravel.com)

The Globe theater was built in 1599 by a company of actors associated with Shakespeare--the Lord Chamberlain's men. The original Globe Theater burned in 1613 and a new Globe Theater was build in 1614 but closed in 1642. The third rendition, Shakespeare's Globe, has survived since 1997 (1).

Our text observes that "[T]he Globe was open to all social classes: anyone who wished could enter the theater by paying a penny, and at the cost of another, get a bench, cushion, and protection (in the boxes) from inclement weather. This mixing of social classes in his audience was echoed in Shakespeare's plays: rather than submitting to the stricter forms of classical drama, Shakespeare mixed comic routines with tragic soliloquies, the speech of common soldiers and bawds with the elegant language of the court. The Globe used almost no scenery and few stage props, so Shakespeare had to evoke the scene through language and deploy stage props sparingly. Only the costumes were lavish and constituted one of the most valuable possessions in the company. Shakespeare knew the theater inside out and his plays used its resources to the fullest, including sudden entrances and concealed eavesdroppers, brutal sword-fights and touching love scenes, witty asides and striking double entendres"(2). 

Hamlet

Sir Laurence Olivier as Hamlet (1948)

Hamlet builds on an ongoing tradition of great canonical dramas--and epics in two ways. As in many of the prominent selections we have studied, this tragedy occupies two distinct time periods: drawn from medieval Scandinavian folklore, the narrative of Hamlet is displaced to the Renaissance period (16th-17th centuries). In much the way Oedipus Rex examines the lives and torments of the ruling class, Hamlet focuses on the vicissitudes of life within the Danish court. However, in this Shakespearean masterpiece, we observe, at closer range, the torments and inner conflicts of a hero outraged at the treachery of his uncle, the passivity of an enabling queen, and the limitations of his own conscience. Hamlet's pantomime of madness mirrors the madness he confronts among the court he is to inherit. As the text points out "Hamlet has struck many later readers as a representative modern, someone forced to make his way in a world no longer ordered by traditional institutions" (656).

Themes: 

Nature of Power
Role/Nature of Women
Fortune
Suicide

Treachery

Vanity

Omen

Societal Breakdown

Juxtaposition between Courtly Manners and Corruption

Play-within-the-play

Helena Bohham Carter as Ophelia

Setting: Elsinore Castle, Denmark

Characters:

Claudius: King of Denmark

Hamlet: Prince of Denmark

Polonius: Lord Chamberlain

Horatio: Friend of Hamlet

Laertes: Son of Polonius

Priest

Marcellus, Bernardo: Officers

Reynaldo: Servant to Polonius

Players

Two Clowns, grave-diggers

Fortinbras: Prince of Norway

Captain

Voltimand, Cornelius, Rosencrantz, Gildenstern, Osric, Gentlemen: Courtiers

English Ambassadors

Gertrude: Queen of Denmark

Ophelia: Daughter of Polonius

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, and other attendants

Ghost