Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

After a sea-voyage and capture by pirates, Hamlet's life is spared, a gift of mercy. He sees in this the hand of Providence, like a father to whom he owes more than he does to the ghost of his earthly father. The sentinel Francisco has a namesake, Francis of Assisi, who underwent a similar conversion from an abusive, earthly father, to a heavenly father, a scene often depicted in art. This work by Giotto, often called "St. Francis Renouncing Worldly Goods," is in the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence, Italy. It might be called "Renouncing the Earthly Father" (see Luke 14:26). Francis was a soldier who became a prisoner of war and was held for ransom for about a year while his father refused or delayed payment. Once returned, he suffered depression and probably PTSD. He gave away some of his father's money and material goods to care for the sick and poor, so his father tied him up, a prisoner in his home. In this painting, the abusive father is rest...

Names of the sentries in Hamlet may seem unimportant. They might have been named Tom and Harry for all some care. But if they were named after Saints Francis of Assisi and Bernard of Clairvaux, their names matter. Both saints founded monastic movements present in England before Henry VIII dissolved them and sold off the land. Protesting Cistercian & Franciscan monks, priests, and abbots ("fathers") were executed after Henry's divorce and break with Rome. Francis of Assisi's biographers said his heart ached for the sick and poor; so "honest" Francisco has to be the one who ends his watch with heart-sickness, and then Hamlet is later heart-sick before the duel at the end of the play. It would make less sense if that sentinel were named Bernardo. Bernard of Clairvaux preached the second crusade, a kind of revenge for earlier setbacks in the Holy Land. Its failure haunted him; he blamed this failure on the Crusaders' sins. So it is appropriate that...

HAMLET THE CHARACTER MAY NOT HAVE AN OEDIPUS COMPLEX, BUT HAMLET THE PLAY DOES (says critic Frederick Crews).* The problem with Freudian readings: They accept in advance, as primary truth, another text, before they begin to read the new text. They accept Freud's quirky reading of the Oedipus tale: Oedipus unknowingly kills Dad & marries Mom? Instead of bad karma coming back to Oedipus' father (Laius), Freud assumes that this must demonstrate a secret sexual desire of all men for their mothers (something not present in the text). As Tamara Hammond has observed , citing Julia Kristeva's critique of Freud, this relocates the guilt of the violent, negligent father, to a sexually shamed son. Then this and all related Freudian truths have to be found in, or imposed on, all new texts. Any details that don't conform have to be ignored. If a new text challenges the Freudian doctrine, it must have penis envy, or perhaps the new text has not yet been sufficiently ...