Bill Kerwin's Reviews > Hamlet

Trying to "rate" Hamlet is kind of like rating The Theory of Relativity or The Bill of Rights, doesn't it seem?

Not really. It's a masterpiece. As good as anything ever written. Slam dunk: five stars.

I've seen some terrible productions of Hamlet. I don't know how some companies get this amazing play so wrong.

Petra X aka Mummy wrote: "I've seen some terrible productions of Hamlet. I don't know how some companies get this amazing play so wrong."

The worst I ever saw was in those wonderful experimental '60's. It was set in the present, and opened on the basketball court of Wittenburg U. where Hamlet, a star player, receives a telegram telling him of his father's death. When he gets back to Denmark, he takes LSD and sees his father's ghost. I still remember him holding up a sugar cube for Horatio and the boys to see, and saying "This bids me to go away with it." There's also a psychedelic dream dance sequence with Hamlet and Gertrude umbilically connected by a rope. I forget most of the rest, except that when Laertes returns, hellbent on revenge,he comes back with a bunch of bearded buddies dressed in brown fatigues and carrying machine guns, looking like Fidel and Che.

That sounds terrible. They got the wrong play for drugs. That was Midsummer Night's Dream. The stuff in the eyes. Not that it is ever taught in schools that way.

What a lovely review, Bill - thank you.

Tina wrote: "What a lovely review, Bill - thank you."

I'm glad you liked it.

Great review, Bill.

I went to see a lovely production with my daughters and a dear friend only two nights ago. It was the first time I'd seen the play after learning about the possible connection it may have to the death of Shakespeare's son, Hamnet. I hadn't really meant to watch the play with that in mind, but when Claudius gave his early speech:

Tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd, whose common theme
Is death of fathers

I was struck numb. How completely inconsolable, incomprehensible the loss of a child would be. How totally out of the 'common theme' to lose one's only son. How 'words, words, words' would ring hollow - how much the paragon on animals would appear but the quintessence of dust.

The production had me breathless throughout - and I've seen and read the play, as you say, many, many times. You are so right, Bill, a damn fine piece of stagecraft.

Perhaps Hamnet's death was in Shakespeare's mind. The evidence of such a connection is non-existent, although I've read some of the speculation.

What I think is more interesting is how powerfully-wrought language like Shakespeare's may move us, even when the way we are moved is far from a passage's most obvious meaning. Poetry after all is a net for catching meaning, and the most powerful poetry casts a very wide net. And certainly the loss of a child is horrifying, and seems like a violation of nature.

I have always loved this monologue and the one immediately before for it for its obvious purpose and clear irony. What gall Claudius has! This incestuous fratricide rushes his unseemly and probably illegal marriage, imposing this violation of common norms on everyone merely because he can, dishonoring the mourning period of the brother he has murdered, and then accuses his nephew of engaging in behavior "against nature" because he still chooses to wear black for his father and refuses to cheer up! What a vile man! It makes me want Hamlet to kill him right now! This very minute!

But then, what a wonderful play we would lose...

What a fine review. Succinct and with new insights. As we grow older, the greats take on different meanings for us, especially as we look back on who we once were.

William wrote: "What a fine review. Succinct and with new insights. As we grow older, the greats take on different meanings for us, especially as we look back on who we once were."

Yes. My last time through Shakespeare, this play, Lear, Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida offered the most interesting changes in my own viewpoints.

Hamlet was not included when we covered Shakespeare in HS or Uni. But I as great as it is, can't help but think of the hilarious production that Pip saw in London in Great Expectations.

I've always read Hamlet as a conflict between the modern (Shakespeare's contemporary, Francis Bacon, was an early empiricist) and the pre-modern. The university educated Hamlet wanted sufficient empirical evidence of his father's murder and his uncle's treachery before taking action. That distinguishes him from the pre-modern hero who would start swinging his sword based on a tip from a ghost or the gods.

Hamlet's hesitation and inability to act before he has proof beyond a reasonable doubt ends in catastrophe. In other words, great leaders must often take action intuitively before all the facts of the matter are in. In that regard, Plato's "philosopher" king or queen seems an oxymoron, since like Hamlet their "conscience" (over-thinking a problem of life and death and failing to take decisive action) would make cowards of them all.

Gary wrote: "I've always read Hamlet as a conflict between the modern (Shakespeare's contemporary, Francis Bacon, was an early empiricist) and the pre-modern. The university educated Hamlet wanted sufficient em..."

A thought-provoking interpretation. Thanks!

Bill wrote: "Gary wrote: "I've always read Hamlet as a conflict between the modern (Shakespeare's contemporary, Francis Bacon, was an early empiricist) and the pre-modern. The university educated Hamlet wanted ..."

You're welcome. And thank you for another thought-provoking review!

Sabah wrote: "Lovely review Bill! Haven't read this play by Shakespeare yet...really must get round to it."

Yes. It is deep and poetic...but it is also exciting with a lot of action and a bunch of murders at the end! It was after all the popular entertainment of its day.

Ooh. Great analysis. I have chills.

Intelligent analysis - not something we see that often with Shakespeare's works. ;-)

Colin wrote: "Intelligent analysis - not something we see that often with Shakespeare's works. ;-)"

Helen wrote: "Ooh. Great analysis. I have chills."

Thanks!

I have always had a hard time reading Shakespeare as it comes off rather dry to me in print but will willingly watch ANYTHING that deals with Shakespeare. That being said, the movie version of this masterpiece done by Mel Gibson and Glenn Close absolutely gave me chills. If watching superb actors transform the written word into palpable feelings, this is the sign of genius. Not only from the actor themselves but from the author himself.

I think part of the reason I have a hard time reading Shakespeare comes from the vernacular he uses. Most common in his day, but unfortunately doesn't translate well for me in a much more modern time.

Maybe you can suggest ways for me to read Shakespeare that would assist in making it easier for me to comprehend in my brain?? I know it is a case of Lost In Translation for me. Or maybe suggest something "remedial" to start off with and then work up from there?? Any assistance or advice is appreciated as I feel COMPLETELY ignorant of some of the greatest works ever committed to paper.

One of my all time favorite Shakespeare play! :)

hamlet is very plainly in violation of the witchcraft acts, as he has contracted with an evil spirit to commit a murder. he is accordingly subject to the writ de haeretico comburendo!

Truly this is much better the second time I read it. I love the poetry more, for sure. Everything is brilliant. Even when it seems too long, it's justified. It has so much to give. It's as Harold Bloom called it: a "poem unlimited".

My favorite Shakespeare! Nice review Bill!

Wonderful review. On my recent (second) reading of Hamlet, I was struck by the bleakness of Hamlet's thoughts, especially in the "To be or not to be" soliloquy: Hamlet doesn't choose between life and death here because he ultimately decides that life is better. It's because death may be infinitely worse, and thus there is no true escape.

And some interpret his remarks to Horatio before the duel ("the readiness is all", "let be") as a coming to terms with life, but Shakespeare seems to leave it much more ambiguous than that.

Gail wrote: "Wonderful review. On my recent (second) reading of Hamlet, I was struck by the bleakness of Hamlet's thoughts, especially in the "To be or not to be" soliloquy: Hamlet doesn't choose between life a..."

Excellent observations. And you are exactly right: it is the bleakness of Hamlet's "thoughts," not Hamlet himself, in his totality, that seem so bleak. The soliloquy pretty much nails it his "native hue of resolution" is "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought." Hamlet is "melancholic," as Shakespeare's contemporaries would say, or "depressed" or--even better--"bi-polar"--as we would say today.

One of my favorite of Hamlet's speeches is the one where he tells his old school buddies R & G about his attitude toward things. The whole speech is wonderful, but the end is particularly illuminating:

"What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! Iin apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust?"

He shares the Renaissance vision of the nobility of humankind, but cannot feel it, not right now, not the way he is: felled by the shock of his father's death and the aftershock of his mother's marriage. But that is his tragedy. Now is precisely the time in which he must act, and he--magnificent prince though he might be at some other time--is not now ready for the challenge.

Well put.

Now the question: Hamlet or Lear?

For me, it depends on the day, mood, what I’m looking at.

Both are the greatest of Shakespeare’s plays and tragedies.

I lean more to Hamlet in terms of entertainment value and ubiquity, but King Lear might be his grandest, weirdest, most pitiless, “sublime” of masterpieces.

Long ago I listened to a BBC radio production of King Lear while tripping on LSD.

It was utterly fabulous. The hair literally stood up on my neck when they plucked out the vile jellies!!!

This: "the audience simply bows before the great mystery of human personality" -- that's incredible.

I used to love hamlet but know I don’t I’m more into Romeo and Juliet 😂😂😂😂

I like this review a lot, great writing

Beautiful review. Thanks Bill. What an extraordinary piece of literature.

Sylvia wrote: "Beautiful review. Thanks Bill. What an extraordinary piece of literature." Yes, it is. Glad you liked the review!

Extraordinary books

Nice book