Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Part 44: Ophelia, Ariadne, Aegeus: Rejection, Ecstasy, Drowning After Ophelia’s father Polonius tells her to reject Hamlet [1], she obeys; later Hamlet is unkind to her and tells her, “Get thee to a nunnery” [2]. But the fact that her father forbade her to see him could not erase her feelings for him [3], or her hurt at being rejected. The story of Theseus, son of King Aegeus, and how he killed the Minotaur with help from Ariadne, was quite familiar in Shakespeare’s time, and the playwright even has Theseus as a character in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Ariadne loved Theseus, as Ophelia seems to have loved Hamlet. But like Polonius, Ariadne’s father, King Minos, would not have approved. In the Greek myth, Theseus takes Ariadne with him when he leaves the island of Crete after defeating Ariadne’s half-brother, the Minotaur [4]. He later abandons her on the island of Naxos. Ophelia may feel similarly abandoned after Hamlet leaves for England [5] and her father is found dead and given

Last week [1] I shared my belated realization that, after seeing Hamlet’s playlet that he calls “The Mousetrap” [2], Ophelia refers to a folktale in which a baker’s daughter is turned into an owl [3], and that an owl is a “living mousetrap.” For now, I’d like to call mousetraps masculine and externalizing, and owls, female and internalizing. In Shakespeare’s Elizabethan slang, a man had a “thing” between his legs, an external organ; a woman had a “nothing,” an “O,” which could potentially receive a man’s “thing” and which led to her womb, another “O” of potential.[4] Hamlet’s mousetrap analogy for a play to catch the king’s conscience [5] is an external thing, as the script and players (like moving parts of a mousetrap) are external to his body. One sets a mousetrap and waits.[6] In contrast, the owl, a living mousetrap, consumes mice, takes them inside itself, later regurgitating bones and hair. Mousetraps are externalizing and male, like rapiers that Hamlet and Laertes use

Thanks for the view this week! The blog received at least 192 views from more than (19 shown, plus 77 "other"). Your interest is greatly appreciated! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks for reading! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible , about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet . Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item

OPHELIA: “They say the owl was a baker’s daughter.” What are owls famous for eating — even a dozen in a single night? Mice. What does Hamlet call the play by which he hopes to catch the conscience of the king? “The Mousetrap” [1]. Ophelia sat with Hamlet at his playlet, heard him call it “The Mousetrap.” She soon references a folktale in which a baker’s daughter is ungenerous with a beggar at the door (Jesus or a fairy in disguise), and as punishment, is changed into an owl [2]. Into a living mousetrap. (And the owl asks, “Who? Who?” First words of the play: “Who’s there?”) The name “Gertrude” may point to a Christian saint famous for getting rid of mice [3]. I have argued that, by drinking the poison cup, Gertrude builds a better mousetrap, catching the conscience of Claudius [4]. So there is a trilogy of mouse-trapping characters in the play: Hamlet, Ophelia, and Gertrude. But Ophelia’s owl reference is usually not viewed by scholars, critics, teachers and students as a reference t

QUEEN: [...] for your part, Ophelia, I do wish That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet’s wildness. So shall I hope your virtues Will bring him to his wonted way again, To both your honors. OPHELIA  Madam, I wish it may.  (3.1.42-47)   Queen Gertrude expresses hope that Ophelia’s father Polonius may be correct in thinking that Hamlet is mad for the loss of Ophelia’s love. Shakespeare often described love as a madness in need of a cure.[1] This may be more significant than one might assume at first glance, for at least three reasons.   First, Gertrude’s comments apply not only to her son but also to her new husband, even if she doesn’t know it. For Claudius to kill his brother and take the throne and his brother’s wife seems a kind of madness. Gertrude’s “virtues” were not enough to cure him. Secondly, “The face that launched a thousand ships” is the famous Christopher Marlowe line describing the beauty of Helen of Troy. To steal her, Paris risked war, which seems madness

Consider how the impulse behind male resistance to women’s suffrage may have also manifested itself in male scholarly bias about Ophelia and Gertrude. If one feels women are too emotional, not rational enough to deserve to vote, how might that color one’s reading of Ophelia’s madness and drowning, and of Gertrude’s decision to drink from what Claudius knows is a poison cup, intended for Hamlet?  Women were not admitted to study at Oxford until 1920, and did not get the vote in England until 1918. (In other words, women have only had the vote in the UK for 100 years, out of four centuries of Shakespeare; and the vote is only one of many possible indicators of male bias.) It is easy to imagine average male literary critics writing off Ophelia’s many lines in Act 4, scene 5, as simply mad ravings, rather than finding any method in her madness; easy to imagine them missing how she acts like a court fool [1], or like Hamlet’s promised, handfast wife and queen regent in his absence [2]; ea

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is radical in a religious sense. Shakespeare hints that Ophelia, Gertrude, and Hamlet—apparently damned for different reasons—are not only saved, but in fact are Christ-figures [1]. The texts support such a reading. Yet even if Shakespeare uses religion mostly for dramatic (not religious)  purposes [2], it is safe to say that a majority of scholars today might reject this idea, or at least be quite disinterested in it. Ophelia is apparently damned as a suicide [3], but Gertrude blames her death in part on an “envious sliver” of willow [4], envious — like Claudius — that it didn’t get a crown. Ophelia was generous in bestowing crowns (coronets) [5], like Christian scriptures which claim that all people can be adopted sons and daughters of God, and can inherit a heavenly crown [6]. Gertrude is apparently damned for her “incestuous marriage” to her dead husband’s brother [7], scandalous and forbidden, especially after the divorce of Henry VIII from his first wife on s

Today is Holy Saturday, traditionally a day Jesus spends in the underworld, the “Harrowing of Hell,” referenced in the Apostles Creed: “He descended into hell,” or “to the dead.” Ancient sources claimed that after his death, Jesus went to the underworld to free the souls of the just, all who died in faith before the life and death of Jesus. The use of the word “harrowing” has old English roots [1]. Shakespeare parodies a medieval Mystery play based on the harrowing of hell in the porter scene of Macbeth [2] [3]. He uses the word “harrow” three times, once in Coriolanus, and twice in Hamlet, first by Horatio (1.1.51), and second, by the ghost (1.5.21). Some might claim that this was quite nice of Christians. Although to them, salvation and eternal life are only through Christ, how generous to say that Jesus descended to the dead to free the souls of the just. How inclusive. But this warrants greater scrutiny. The Christian claim that eternal life can only be obtained through Christ is

Today is Good Friday. In Shakespeare’s England, church rituals spoke of baptism as a dying to self in Christ, so as to be made new in him [1]. Contrary to some Shakespeare scholars who explicitly resist the idea of Christ-figures in the plays (including Harold Jenkins, Arden editor), all the baptized are called to be Christ-figures [2], imitators of Christ. The spiritual rhythm in medieval mystery, morality and miracle plays assumes all are sinners, but if they express sorrow for their sins, they can know God’s mercy and be saved. [3] Any drama in which a person who dies is saved, is a comedy; the only tragedies are those in which a sinner resists salvation. In her madness, Ophelia expresses regret through her story of the baker’s daughter [4]. Gertrude explains that Ophelia falls in the brook because of an “envious sliver” of willow [5]. Willows in Psalm 137 were incorporated weekly in Christian vespers and associated by St Benedict of Nursia [6] and Martin Luther [7] with the cruci