Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Polonius & His Labor of Regret (Labors of Gratitude & Regret in Hamlet, Part 3) [Six Poloniuses, from Hamletes2 at Wordpress.com] Two weeks ago, I blogged about Lewis Hyde’s idea of “The Labor of Gratitude” (from his chapter by that name) and noted similarities in how both gratitude and regret make us feel indebted to others, either thankful, or needing to set right some harm or mistake we have made. Last week, I commented on some highlights of these for Hamlet. My overall impression of a great deal of criticism on Hamlet is that scholars often view characters too independently of their interactions with others. Hyde's ideas of gift exchange help me make sense of them more via their interactions and interdependencies. This week I want to focus on Polonius and a moment of regret for him that many readers and theatergoers may miss, either because he is so verbose that we miss much of what he says in his avalanche of words, or because of the distancing we sometime...

In last week’s post , I introduced Lewis Hyde’s idea of “The Labor of Gratitude” taken from a chapter by that name in his book, The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property (1979 ). If you didn’t read that post or are unfamiliar with Hyde’s ideas in that chapter, I highly recommend reading the excerpts from his book that I included in that blog post . For those who would like a brief summary: Hyde speaks of gifts that are often not material gifts: Elves give a shoemaker and his wife the gift, or favor, of making shoes while they sleep, and this symbolizes the shoemaker’s developing skill or artistic gift for making fine shoes. But many other examples could apply: A child expresses an interest in learning to play a musical instrument, and a parent or relative supplies the needed funds as a gift so that the child might develop their musical gifts. A person who has offended someone and feels regret is forgiven by the offended party, and perhaps through the example and emoti...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New multi-week series: - Lewis Hyde on "The Labor of Gratitude" (in the context of gift economies) in "Hansel & Gretel" & film, and - Next Week: Characters in  Hamlet  Transformed by Labors of Gratitude and Regret ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'd like to take the next few weeks to introduce the idea of characters in Hamlet who are changed by gratitude and/or regret, contrasted with (last week's topic) entitlement and revenge. When we receive life-changing gifts (even if they are mentorship, or opportunities, not material gifts) or when we experience deep regret, we feel we are in another's debt. These experiences of gift/gratitude and regret contrast with entitlement and revenge, in part, because with the latter, we feel others are in our debt. But in order to talk about characters in Hamlet in this way, I want to take some time to explain the ideas of Lewis Hyde that I will be drawing upon. These are from his book, The Gift: Imaginatio...