Tanya Pollard's "What's Hecuba to Shakespeare?"
In her helpful essay, "What’s Hecuba to Shakespeare?" [1], Tanya Pollard does a remarkable job showing how the critical trend in Shakespeare scholarship goes wrong in assuming that tragedy is usually, mostly, about male tragic figures.
Pollard notes, “in the early modern period, Hecuba was the established icon of Greek tragedy [....] by far the most popular of the Greek plays printed, translated, and performed in sixteenth-century Europe.” (1064)
Hamlet wrestles with the genre: “Hamlet has more to say about his mother’s failure to grieve than about his own grief. His preoccupation with Gertrude has been widely read as a sign of his misogyny, and his Oedipal fixation on her sexuality. But in the context of Shakespeare’s interest in Hecuba, it might be more fruitfully understood as representing a confrontation with the genre’s conventions.” (1079)
Hamlet is frustrated that Gertrude fails to live up to the ideal represented by Hecuba.
Pollard notes other examples of the play-within-a-play (1073, 1082-3) but omits the prophet Nathan catching King David's conscience in George Peele’s c.1596 play, David and Bethsabe (7.12-68), based on 2 Samuel 11-12:10 (David arranged Uriah’s death to marry Bathsheba).
Pollard briefly considers political context: "Hecuba’s status as a fallen queen embodied tragedy’s emphasis on the instability of fortune, and gave her a particular cautionary power in an England ruled by a female monarch." (1072)
This makes me wonder:
Perhaps some of the continued power of the Hecuba revenge tale through the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I involved a perception of political revenge?
Hecuba felt passionately about her losses, and acted to achieve revenge.
Mary I and Elizabeth I seem to have followed Hecuba’s pattern (feuding Catholics and Protestants, like Capulet and Montague):
Under Mary, many Protestants were burned at the stake for heresy, seemingly (perhaps in part) in revenge for her father's break from Rome and divorcing her mother.
Under Elizabeth, many Catholics were drawn and quartered for treason, seemingly (perhaps in part) in revenge for executions during her half-sister's reign.
As Gandhi might say, in a country where an eye is taken for an eye, the blind increase exponentially. Pollard notes that Hamlet’s apparent misogyny and anger may be misdirected outwardly, masking feelings of grief, anxiety, insufficiency.
People still do that.
So if Shakespeare challenges or revises audience expectations of the Hecuba-revenge paradigm, as Pollard argues, perhaps it is in part to show what a mess it can make (the deaths of Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Laertes, Hamlet), and also to show how necessary it is to transcend revenge and the blindness that characterizes and results from it?
I highly recommend Pollard’s essay and look forward to reading more of her work.
~~~~~~
NOTES:
[1] Renaissance Quarterly, 65:4 (Winter 2012), 1060-1093.
https://doi.org/10.1086/669345
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/669345
Also available at Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/2306236/_What_s_Hecuba_to_Shakespeare_in_Renaissance_Quarterly_2012_
Pollard teaches at CUNY, has written and edited numerous books, including
Greek Tragic Women on Shakespearean Stages (Oxford, 2017) pictured above.
Fans of the video series, Shakespeare Uncovered, have seen her in interviews with Ethan Hawke and Christopher Plumber.
More on her bio (from CUNY and the web):
https://www.gc.cuny.edu/people/tanya-pollard
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/tpollard/
A Q&A profile with Pollard by The Rhodes Project:
https://rhodesproject.com/tanya-pollard-profile
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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 on the list):
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html
I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.
To find the subscribe button, see the = drop-down menu with three lines in the upper left.
Hamlet wrestles with the genre: “Hamlet has more to say about his mother’s failure to grieve than about his own grief. His preoccupation with Gertrude has been widely read as a sign of his misogyny, and his Oedipal fixation on her sexuality. But in the context of Shakespeare’s interest in Hecuba, it might be more fruitfully understood as representing a confrontation with the genre’s conventions.” (1079)
Hamlet is frustrated that Gertrude fails to live up to the ideal represented by Hecuba.
Pollard notes other examples of the play-within-a-play (1073, 1082-3) but omits the prophet Nathan catching King David's conscience in George Peele’s c.1596 play, David and Bethsabe (7.12-68), based on 2 Samuel 11-12:10 (David arranged Uriah’s death to marry Bathsheba).
Pollard briefly considers political context: "Hecuba’s status as a fallen queen embodied tragedy’s emphasis on the instability of fortune, and gave her a particular cautionary power in an England ruled by a female monarch." (1072)
This makes me wonder:
Perhaps some of the continued power of the Hecuba revenge tale through the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I involved a perception of political revenge?
Hecuba felt passionately about her losses, and acted to achieve revenge.
Mary I and Elizabeth I seem to have followed Hecuba’s pattern (feuding Catholics and Protestants, like Capulet and Montague):
Under Mary, many Protestants were burned at the stake for heresy, seemingly (perhaps in part) in revenge for her father's break from Rome and divorcing her mother.
Under Elizabeth, many Catholics were drawn and quartered for treason, seemingly (perhaps in part) in revenge for executions during her half-sister's reign.
As Gandhi might say, in a country where an eye is taken for an eye, the blind increase exponentially. Pollard notes that Hamlet’s apparent misogyny and anger may be misdirected outwardly, masking feelings of grief, anxiety, insufficiency.
People still do that.
So if Shakespeare challenges or revises audience expectations of the Hecuba-revenge paradigm, as Pollard argues, perhaps it is in part to show what a mess it can make (the deaths of Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Laertes, Hamlet), and also to show how necessary it is to transcend revenge and the blindness that characterizes and results from it?
I highly recommend Pollard’s essay and look forward to reading more of her work.
~~~~~~
NOTES:
[1] Renaissance Quarterly, 65:4 (Winter 2012), 1060-1093.
https://doi.org/10.1086/669345
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/669345
Also available at Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/2306236/_What_s_Hecuba_to_Shakespeare_in_Renaissance_Quarterly_2012_
Pollard teaches at CUNY, has written and edited numerous books, including
Greek Tragic Women on Shakespearean Stages (Oxford, 2017) pictured above.
Fans of the video series, Shakespeare Uncovered, have seen her in interviews with Ethan Hawke and Christopher Plumber.
More on her bio (from CUNY and the web):
https://www.gc.cuny.edu/people/tanya-pollard
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/tpollard/
A Q&A profile with Pollard by The Rhodes Project:
https://rhodesproject.com/tanya-pollard-profile
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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 on the list):
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html
I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.
To find the subscribe button, see the = drop-down menu with three lines in the upper left.
Comments
Post a Comment