Historical and Biographical Approaches in Practice: Hamlet

Queen Elizabeth’s advanced age and poor health leads to the precarious state of the succession to the British crown.

Queen Elizabeth by Nicholas Hilliard (1585)Hatfield House

Hence, Shakespeare’s decision to mount a production of Hamlet, with its usurped throne and internally disordered state, comes as no surprise.

Shakespeare's "Hamlet" was a remake of an already popular play, based on an episode from the Dark Ages, the lawless, might-makes-right era that followed the collapse of Roman-era civilization.

Ophelia

Ophelia’s characterization of Hamlet may be intended to suggest the Earl of Essex.

The portrait of Earl of Essex

Another contemporary historical figure, the Lord Treasurer, Burghley, has been seen by some in the character of Polonius.

The Lord Treasurer, Burghley

Knowing about eleventh-century Danish court life or about Elizabethan England is particularly germane to analysis of Hamlet.

In Hamlet’s day the Danish throne was an elective one. The royal council, composed of the most powerful nobles in the land, named the next king.

The third quarto of Hamlet (1605); a straight reprint of the 2nd quarto (1604)

The custom of the throne’s descending to the oldest son of the late monarch had not yet crystallized into law.

Hamlet, Gertrude and the ghost

Although her second marriage to the brother of her deceased husband would not be considered incestuous today by many civil and religious codes, it was so to considered in Shakespeare’s day.

The charge of incest against the Claudius

Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard, 1839

What is “melancholy” to Elizabethans?

Nervous instability. Rapid and extreme

changes of feeling and mood.

The disposition to be for the time absorbed in a dominant feeling or mood, whether joyous or depressed.

Hamlet and the grave diggers by Jean Dagnan-Bouverte

If we examine Hamlet’s actions and speeches closely in an Elizabethan’s eyes, we will realize that at least part of Hamlet’s problem is that he is a victim of extreme melancholy.

Ophelia drowned

Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet

Different versions of Hamlet

The Raj Hamlet Shakespeare set in India

Hamlet in Germany

Hamlet in Germany

Many Hamlets

Laurence Olivier as Hamlet

Richard Burton as Hamlet

Mel Gibson as Hamlet, with Glenn Close as Gertrude

Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet

Campbell Scott as Hamlet

Kevin Kline as Hamlet, with Dana Ivey as Gertrude Ethan Hawke as Hamlet

Ethan Hawke as Hamlet, with Julia Stiles as Ophelia

Shamlet! 莎姆雷特劇照

「莎姆雷特」彩排，水晶燈掉

落莎姆雷特官網

Related links and Resources about Shakespeare and Hamlet

The life of Queen Elizabeth– http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizabio.htm

BBC- Drama- 60 seconds Shakespeare http://0rz.net/e61U6  

屏風表演班 << 莎姆雷特 >> http://www.pingfong.com.tw/shamlet2006/shamlet_02.htm

Kakiseni.com– our Hamlet http://www.kakiseni.com/articles/features/MDYyNA.html

Hamlet in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet