Origins and Evolution

• Travelling companies of actors – portable performances – market

places, guildhalls, inns and inn-yards, church halls of great houses =
before playhouses
• Performed under the conditions (sp. Weather conditions) that they
found that day
• Staging had to be minimal, indoor venues usually lack a stage → the
design of the innyards influences the design of first playhouses

Renaissance English Theatre

The building
Buildings and evolution
• The theatre was open and the plays were performed in daylight
• People sat around the stage, in what is called the gallery • PLAYHOUSES: inns converted in
• Groundlings = the cheapest place in theatres, in front of the stage stages, sp. the centre of London
• Female characters interpreted by male actors • THEATRES:
• typical Elizabethan stage: • 1st build in 1567 by John Brayne in
• Platform = 40 feet square in the middle of the yard, sheltered by a foot (“the Stepney and called RED LION
shadow”) • THEATRE built and opened in 1576
• Round, square or octogonal • Others: THE CURTAIN and THE
ROSE
 Buildings and evolution Drama Genres
THE GLOBE HISTORY PLAYS:
• Opened in 1599 in Southwark • Based on a historical narrative → often about the Middle Ages or the
• Owned by Burbage’s sons and some investors from the Chamberlains’ Men Early Modern Period (English or European)
(one of them, Shakespeare)
TRAGEDY:
• Made of wood
• Circular, open to the sky, rectangular stage • Based on human suffering
• Capacity for 2000 people; 12 actors could perform at stage at the same • Describes the sorrowful events that the main characters faces
time • “Catharsis”: used to make the public feel empathic with the emotions
• Destroyed by a fire on June 29th 1613; reconstructed on 1614 of the protagonist
• Closed during the English Civil War

Christopher Marlowe
Drama Genres
COMEDY • Canterbury, Kent, baptised February 26th
1584
• Humorous tone to describe • Son of a shoemaker
amusing events, with a happy • Pupil at The King’s School at Canterbury
ending (with a scholarship)
• Studies at Corpus Christy College at
Cambridge (with a scholarship)
PASTORAL • He wanted to be a clergyman BUT he
graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a
• Idealisation of nature and Master in Latin
rural life • Little is known about his adult life
 Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe
• Killed on May 30th 1593 in a drunken fight in an inn (stabbed above
• Spy? Government spy? = unusual absences during his university years the right eye) - Deptford
(sp. between 1584 and 1585)
• Admired and influential writer
• 1592 → arrested in the Netherlands under the charges of
counterfeiting coins → no imprisonment • PLAYS:
• Dido, Queen of Carthage (c. 1585)
• Accused of atheism
• Tamburlaine Part I (c. 1587)
• Arrested in May 1593 because of the writing of pamphlets against • Doctor Faustus (c. 1588)
protestant refugees from France and the Netherlands (accused by • The Jew of Malta (c. 1589)
Thomas Kyd) • The Massacre at Paris (c. 1589)
• Edward the Second (c. 1592)

William Shakespeare – Drama Production

William Shakespeare –
• Jacobean theatre
Drama Production • Dramatic satire
• Tragicomedy
• 39 dramatic works • Darker vision of the heroic nature incorruptive contexts
• Appeared in a series of quartos • Style:
• First Folio, 1623 (36 plays by Shakespeare) • Plays directed to all social stages
• Elizabethan theatre: • Verse, iambic pentameter
• Independence from Classical models • Blank verse
• Focus on high-born individuals • Rhyming couplet to end scenes in each Act of his plays
• National affairs • Humour and irony
• Influence of Marlowe
William Shakespeare – Drama Production William Shakespeare
– Drama Production
• Human vulnerability:
• Soliloquies
• Money vs. the minority
• Jealousy
• A character, who is alone in the
• Justice vs. authority
scene, makes a speech to make the
• Revenge
public understand the inner
motivations for their actions and
conflicts

Marlowe and Shakespeare • Written between 1599 and 1601

• Set in Medieval Denmark
• Theory that most of Shakespeare’s production was written by • Possible origins of the play → back
Marlowe to the 13th century? Indo-
• Shakespeare admired Marlowe and was shocked by his death European? Scandinavian?
• Shakespeare paid a tribute to Marlowe in his pastoral comedy As You • Ur-Hamlet by Thomas Kyd?
Like It
• English Reformation = Anglicanism
• Use of Marlovian themes in his works, specially in Antony and → contains both references to
Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice, Richard II, and Macbeth Catholicism and Protestantism

• Three different Hamlet texts:
1. The Revenge of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
2. The play included in the Second Quarto (1604)
3. Revised version of the previous
• Influence of Seneca = the idea of revenge
Structure
Three movements:
1. Movement of the Ghost, the
Court and Polonius’ family
2. Climax of the play (when
Hamlet kills Polonius sp.)
3. The King’s defiance

Characters: direct references to the

Elizabethan Court
Characters
• Hamlet = the Earl of Sussex? James I?
• Hamlet, Prince of Denmark • Polonius = William Cecil (counsellor of
• Claudius, King of Denmark Elizabeth I)
• Gertrude, Queen of Denmark • Laertes = Robert Cecil
• Polonius • Ophelia = Anne Cecil (later Anne de Vere)
• Ophelia
• Laertes
• Horatio
• …
 Hamlet in
Language Popular Culture:
Influences
• Courtly, following etiquette • Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister
• People from the royal family and upper classes = formal language // (1795)
people from lower social backgrounds (e.g. soldiers) = informal • Charles Dickens’ Great
language Expectations (1861)
• Royal first person plural = Claudius • James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922)
• Resemblance to political speeches from the Classical Greece • T. S. Eliot’s ”The Wasteland”
• Paronomasia: the use of a word with multiple meanings or sounds to (1922)
reinforce sarcasm, humour, rhetoric discourses…
“A little more than kin, less than kind”
• Ian McEwan’s Nutshell (2016)
• Soliloquies = speeches, monologues

Act I, Scene 1 Act I, Scene 1

• The appearance of the ghost in that context means that something is
wrong in the country → the late King’s death has upsetted the
balance of nature
• The corruption of the country, the anxiety the country is going through in the
path of changing from one King to another, from a King to his brother, and not
his son and rightful heir (tumultuous future for Denmark)
• Horatio compares the appearance of the ghost as an omen to what’s
going to happen in Denmark = the omens that presaged the murder
of Julius Caesar (I.1.112-125)
• The ghost as the indication of tragedy for both the characters and the
public
• Horatio as a man ruled by rationality (I.1.42) = after seeing the ghost,
he still does not wat to follow mystic, magical ideas = he does not
deny the existence of the ghost and he even is afraid of it (I.1.53-5) =
he is trustworthy
• ACT 1 principal theme = distinguishing between the truth and illusion
• Ghosts as agents of an afterlife, not always evil, the spirit of God
 Act I, Scene 1
Act I, Scene 1
• Introduction of the
• The ghost mirroring story between
1. Hallucination young Hamlet and young
Fortinbras (I.1.80-107)
2. Restless spirit
3. Spectre • Atmosphere of fear, distrust,
apprehension, the Kingdom
4. A spirit returned from the grave as rot…
5. Devil disguised as a dead person

Act I, Scene 2
• Contrasts scene 1: ghostly, foggy
context vs. the jovial court
• The outside world vs. the interior
of the castle = anxiety, dread… vs.
the escaping from that negative
• The corruption and weakness of the King and his court
energy
• Contradictions in Claudius’ speech
• Superficiality of the mirth the
Court shows Act I, Scene 2 • Claudius gives a negative impression when asking Hamlet
to stop grieving adapting to his new context
• Imbalanced political situation • Hamlet rejects the idea of mimicking a healthy royal
court
 Act I, Scene 2
• Suicide = eternal damnation →
the moral validity of suicide
• Hamlet = not focusing on the
appealing conditions of life
• Soliloquy = religion has failed him
and he cannot find comfort in his
family
Act I, scene 4
• The ill heart of Denmark → the
ghost appearance as a symbol of
the corruption of the country
• Spirituality and uncertainty →
spiritual ambiguity
• Impossible to know for Hamlet if
the ghost is his father or a devil
that wants to bring destruction
Act I, scene 3
• Introduction of the contrast between Hamlet and Laertes
Contemplative vs. affectionate
Broken family vs. the unity of household
• Polonius speech = fatherly love vs. Hamlet’s state of loss
• Troubling relationship between Ophelia and Laertes and Polonius
• Unquestioned authority over Ophelia → Ophelia’s feelings as irrelevant
(I.3.100-1)
• Incestuous undertone, mirroring Claudius and Gertrude
Act I, scene 5
• Retributive justice = sin must be returned with punishment
• Questioning of the things that are surrounding Hamlet → he wonders
if his perceptions are real
• Hamlet seems mad after his conversation with the Ghost
• Ear and hearing (I.5.36) = the power of words and the manipulation
of truth
 Act II, scene 1
• Introduction of the idea that words may be manipulated to alter the
truth
• Polonius conversation with Ophelia:
1. Shows Hamlet’s behaviour after encountering the ghost = behaving like a
madman (II.1.75-82)
2. She has obeyed her father and broke her relationship with Hamlet
3. Polonius thinks Hamlet’s behaviour is due to his love towards Ophelia
Act II, scene 2
• Four main parts:
1. Polonius’ conversation with the monarchs and the discussion with the
ambassadors
2. Hamlet’s conversation with Polonius
3. Hamlet’s reunion with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
4. The Players and Hamlet’s soliloquy
• Claudius as indifferent to the fact that he may be attacked by Norway
but really concerned about Hamlet’s madness
• King Hamlet, a warrior centred in expanding his territory vs King Claudius, a
politician centred in the threats within his own state

Act II, scene 2 Act II, scene 2

• Rosencrantz and Guildensten:

• Manipulated by all the members of • Hamlet portrays madness in a pretty convincing way → the
observations he makes show he is, in fact, pretending (II.2.347-8)
the royal family
• Hamlet’s confusion that leads him to seem mad
• Constantly being afraid of
offending the wrong person • Reintroduction of the contrast between Hamlet and Fortinbras:
• Both are grieving sons
• Similar to one another (II.2.33-4) • Indecision, despair… vs. the devotion to the pursuit of revenge
• Hamlet tries to mock them all over
the scene
 Act II, scene 2
• Real life is sometimes like a play-acting = the introduction of the
players and play-acting
• Hamlet refuses to act as he knows what he is doing, when he really
does not
• Hamlet wants to make Claudius confess his crime through the
performance of a playwright → Claudius’ feelings about a play
• Hamlet compares himself to an actor who is playing the drama of his
own life but he is incapable of moving from his state of melancholy
Act II, scene 2
• Overdramatization of Hamlet’s own misery
• True part on what he is saying = he lost his happiness and is incapable
of seeing positivity around him
• With the appearance of the player, what is real and fake blurs
• What happens in the play = what happens in Elsione
• The soliloquy:
• Devising the plan that will make him feel like taking action
Act II, scene 2
• Polonius knows how to be close to the King = he is willing to give up
Ophelia’s happiness in order to please the monarchs
• Polonius knows that nothing bonds people together like a common
enemy
• Hamlet shows Polonius is not that easy to control him → he suggests
the idea that Polonius should watch Ophelia closely or she could end
up pregnant of him
• Hamlet shows that he cares little for his life (II.2.202)
Act III, scene 1
The soliloquy:
• Speaks openly about what he really thinks
• “To be or not to be” = “Should I kill myself?”
• He is considering the idea of suicide and he is getting the courage to
do it, however, there is no moment in which he mentions why he
wants to do it
• He does not say “I” or “me”
• We ignore what happens after dying
• Philosophical debate
 Act III, scene 1

The conversation with Ophelia:

• A test = to see if his madness comes from
his love to Ophelia
• Does he really believe what he says about • Hamlet and Claudius try to trap one another = Hamlet
his feelings for Ophelia? = he may be tries to prove that what the ghost tells him is true
declaring the contrary of what he thinks through the play
• Bitterness against Ophelia = bitterness Act III, scene 2 • Hamlet appears to be under control
against all women → resonates with his • Sanity when he is with Horatio
discontent towards the rest of the world • Madness when he encounters the monarchs

Act III, scene 4

Act III, scene 4
• Hamlet wants his
mother to confess her • Polonius murder:
knowledge of King
• Hamlet’s inability to coordinate his
Hamlet’s poisoning thoughts with his actions
• Hamlet wants to • He ends up stabbing the wrong
prevent Gertrude to person when he decides to act →
share a bed with he believes his revenge will come
Claudius (III.4.90-4) → out of an accident
sexual imagery = • He interprets his mistake as a
Oedipus complex? punishment from God = both him
and Polonius as sinful
 Act IV, scene 1
Act IV, scene 5
• Gertrude betrays Hamlet = postulates herself at Claudius’ side
• The peak of Hamlet and Laertes’
• Shows how while the rest of the male characters think about honour,
and social balance, Claudius thinks about his own interests and power contrast
• He does not care about Gertrude’s safety, but his own → he plans to • Ophelia’s sanity is proven to be
send Hamlet away to secure his own safety dependent on the presence of men =
Laertes is away, Polonius is dead, and
Hamlet exiled

Act IV, scene 5

Act IV, scene 7
The flowers:
• ROSEMARY and PANSIES (Laertes): got
remembrance and thoughts • Ophelia’s
• FENNEL and COLUMBINES (Gertrude): adultery death/suicide: flower
• RUE (Ophelia and Claudius): bitterness and imagery, fragile beauty
repentance
• DAISY: innocence, that Ophelia and Hamlet have
= fragility of flowers
lost
• (rotten) VIOLETS: faithfulness, corrupted by
Claudius
 Act V, scene 1 Act V, scene 2

• Clowns = peasants, commoners

• The delayed violence now erupts
• Yorick’s skull: • Hamlet achieves his vengeance, but he didn’t consider
• Death inevitability and the the consequences → his mother’s death
desintegration of the body • The coming of Fortinbras:
• Hamlet’s encounter with physical death • Legitimacy
• Fascinated with the process of cadavers • Contrast between the weakness of the Danish royal family vs.
decomposition Fortinbras being a capable leader
• He even envisions flash and body forms • We do not know if his rule will change things in the
when he sees the skull kingdom

Characters: a description Characters: a description

HAMLET
• Enigmatic: even other characters notice CLAUDIUS
• Philosophical and contemplative = • Hamlet’s antagonist
questions that cannot be answered
• Lustful
• Thoughtful = obsession
• Only preoccupied with maintaining his
• Impulsive and harsh role as King
• Fits into the role of madness • Corrupt → manipulated through
• Melancholic language
• Contradictive
 Characters:
a description Characters: a description
OPHELIA
GERTRUDE • Linked with three men:
• Surrounded by mysteries • Polonius: her father
• Desire for station and • Laertes: her brother
affection
• Instinct of self- • Hamlet: her lover
preservation • Her relationships with men restrict
• Dependent on men her, to the extent of causing her death
• Morally frail • Madness, specially when she finds out
• Gracious and charming that her father has been murdered

Characters: a description Characters: a description

POLONIUS THE GHOST

• Proud, concerned father • Late King Hamlet
• Manipulative (sp. with Ophelia) • Good and courageous man
• Not the perfect father • State of unrest
• Lack of self-awareness • Only speaks to Hamlet
 Characters:
a description
LAERTES
• Loyal son and citizen
• Protective brother
• Priority: his family
• Focus on honour
The Impossibility of Certainty and
The Complexity of Action
• Hamlet vs. Fortinbras / Inaction vs. Action / indecision vs. decision
• How to act? Not only ruled by rationality, but by emotions, ethics,
and psychology
The Impossibility of Certainty and
The Complexity of Action
• The action (revenge) is constantly being postponed until he gets
certain knowledge of the action he is about to make
• Indecisiveness
• Failure to act appropriately
• Action vs inaction: Hamlet is incapable of deciding if revenge is a
good idea or not. His inability to act makes him wonder if he really is
becoming mad. Hamlet is frightened to the point of contemplating
suicide
• He extends his action for too long = action and inaction are not
related to morality or any part of one’s life
The Mystery of Death
• Hamlet’s obsession with death = he considers many perspectives
1. The spiritual aftermath of death, embodied by the ghost
2. The physical death, portrayed by Yorick’s skull and the corpses at the
cemetery
• Death as tied to spirituality, truth and uncertainty
• Death as what may answer Hamlet’s questions → Hamlet longs for
death and even he thinks on ending his suffering by suiciding
• Suicide implies eternal suffering because of Christian values

The Mystery of Death
• “To be or not to be”
• “No one would choose to endure pain of
life if he were not afraid of what will
come after death” = fear as the cause of
action not taking place
• Not only literal death = the death of honour,
loyalty and the country of Denmark (after
the death of King Hamlet)
• Hamlet fixation with death = impossibility of
stopping what happens in the Kingdom
Performance
• Outward behaviour vs real
feelings
• Are Hamlet’s feelings real or
unreal? Is he really mad or just
performing?
• Constant references to the
theatrical performance → Polonius and Claudius using her to spy on Hamlet; 2. her feelings for
something fake can become real
Corruption
• “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”
• The health of nation linked to the legitimacy of the reigning monarch
• Act I, scene 1: distrust between characters
• The appearance of the ghost = deep corruption of Denmark
• Political corruption
• Physical corruption: rot, decay, disgusting nature of death
• Corruption of the body and the soul
• Hamlet’s obsession with rotten things
Madness
• Is Hamlet really mad or is he faking?
1. He acts in an erratic way, to demonstrate other characters that he is mad
2. He must have become mad after all the difficulties he is going through
• At the end of the play, Hamlet doubts about his own sanity
• Ophelia: she is corrupted by her situation at court: 1. Laertes,
Hamlet
 Revenge Revenge

• Three men pursuing revenge: • Society = Codes of conduct → Hamlet:

1. FORTINBRAS: King Hamlet of Denmark kills King Fortinbras of Norway, so his Christianity and aristocratic codes
son seeks revenge by planning to invade Denmark (honour)
2. LAERTES: Hamlet kills his father and he plots with Claudius to kill Hamlet • Hamlet is constantly considering the act
3. HAMLET of revenge
• Two approaches: • Revenge would entail murder
1. The immediate action of Laertes • Procrastination: not because he is afraid, but
2. The procrastination of Hamlet because of the social and religious
consequences
• Christian aversion to kill (Hamlet) vs. Laertes who does no hesitate

Women and Love

Women and Love
• Gertrude and Ophelia are victims of a misogynistic society. They are
• Prejudices and disadvantages of being a
misunderstood. They are products of their own environment
woman in this society (patriarchy)
• Hamlet is obsessed with the women that • They are victims of paternalism, sexually objectified, abused,
surround him, caring about them, but at dehumanised…
the same time he does not trust them, • They acknowledge that women from lower classes suffer the
the despises their actions and considers consequences of being a women in a harsher way than women from
them as ridicule, which drives him to upper classes, so they are constantly making the effort to retain their
violence (physical and psychological) position at Court
• Two women: Gertrude and Ophelia
 Women and Love
GERTRUDE
• Marries Claudius out of survival
• Was she having a sexual affair with
him before her late husband died?
• Did she know about Claudius killing
King Hamlet?
• Hamlet fails to see this
• She carries no political power =
marrying Claudius was the safest
thing to do
Women and Love
OPHELIA
• Makes decisions out of her survival at Court
• Forced to spy on Hamlet (game between
men)
• Loses her sanity after the murder of her
father
• Madwoman at Court = outcast, outsider
• Kills herself = the desire to make decisions
by her own?