Elizabethan Drama

The Tragedy of

Hamlet, Prince

of Denmark

by William

Shakespeare

Elizabethan Theater

Retains much of Greek Drama

– No female actresses--female parts

played by young boys

– Much dialogue poetry: blank verse,

unrhymed iambic/pentameter

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

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

Four Humors

Blood = Red

– passionate

– gluttonous

– impulsive

Four Humors

phlegm = white

–bookish

–sterile

Four Humors

bile = yellow

–waspish

–hot tempered

Four Humors

Black bile =

Black

– melancholy

– manic

depressive

Elizabethan

Universe

Universe is a

hierarchy

– Good = Up

– Bad = Down

Elizabethan

Universe

Heaven of God

– Perfect Good

& Salvation

– above Nature

(Physical

World)

Elizabethan Universe

Hell of Satan

– Perfect evil &

destruction

– often associated

with destructive

natural

phenomena

– below Nature

(Physical World)

Two Levels of Nature

Upper Level

– Man's natural

(original)

– Garden of Eden

– Now reached only

through religion,

education, social

institutions &

morals

Two Levels of Nature

Lower

Level

– Animal

world

– Survival of

the fittest

is natural

Astrology

Taken seriously by Elizabethans

– Stars were Angels

– Instructed by God to reward or punish Humanity for eating apple

More Alterations & Innovations

Theater no longer a religious

service

– pure entertainment

– actors considered in same class as

muggers, thieves prostitutes, etc.

– City of London frequently tried to

suppress acting companies for the

moral good

More Alterations & Innovations

Sex & Violence on stage

– Shakespeare strews stage with

corpses

Protagonist subject to actions of

others

Tragedy always ends in death of

hero

More Alterations & Innovations

Mingling of tragedy & comedy to

produce a "drama"

Plays not considered literature--TV

scripts

No Chorus--but sometimes a

chorus figure

Elizabethan Tragic Plot Terms

Formulated by Freytag, 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

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

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

Elizabethan Tragic Plot Terms

Mirror Speeches & Scenes

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 Revenge Play

Conventions

Accepts revenge

as self-justifying

Avenger, high

noble person

State too corrupt

to provide justice

Evildoers are

powerful figures

Elizabethan Revenge Play

Conventions

Avenger

obsessed with

loss

Difficult to

prove identity

of villain

Avenger must

find an

ingenious way

Elizabethan Revenge Play

Conventions

Avenger

becomes

clever,

remorseless

& menace to

public order

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

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

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?

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

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

Hamlet Play about

insoluble

problems &

questions

Creates

CLAUSTROPHBIC

atmosphere

Watch how the

movie reinforces

this with sets &

camera

Hamlet

Tragic Hero must

undergo

development

– toward a sense of

his/her role in

scheme of things

– Recognition of

his/her error

Hamlet

In classical theory, without

self-knowledge there is no

tragedy

Hamlet becomes a play that

debates Free Will & Determinism

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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,

Example

ANTIPHRASIS: trope involving 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.‟”

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.