2025 RETROSPECTIVE and THANKS

2025 WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR for the “Hamlet’s Bible” blog…

VIEWS FOR THE YEAR came to about 77.6k, averaging about 1.5k views per week.

This was a significant increase over the average for the past eight years, which was about 23.5k per year and .45k  per week, out of an eight-year total of 188k views from more than 80 countries since 2018.

In 2025, I completed two series begun the previous year:
One on Claudius [1],
and one on the Twelve Days of Christmas - including Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night [2].

See also
MASTER INDEX (for series) [3].  In all of my posts and research, I strive to welcome the strange, and to let my curiosity lead my research to new insights.

Among my three favorite posts:
New realizations about how references to classical gods and deified Roman Caesars should be reconsidered in conjunction with references to Jesus: All of these involve divinity claims, sometimes in stark contrast with one another.
See my post,
Hamlet's Christmas, Caesar, Taxes, and Contested Divinities - Dec. 20, 2025 [4].

Defying Augury: When Hamlet says, “we defy augury,” I realized that this may be a reference to the Roman origin tale of Romulus and Remus, which depended in part on a dispute between brothers, resolved by augury, but the augury’s interpretation still contested.
See
What does it mean that Hamlet defies augury? - Aug. 11, 2025 [5]

Realizations about the theme of transcendent parentage, inspired in part by having seen the latest Superman film.
See my post,
HAMLET, SUPERMAN, and ST. FRANCIS WALK INTO A BAR - Oct. 22, 2025 [6]

When Hamlet calls his uncle a “moor”, among many possible meanings, this may also be a reference to Sir Thomas More, who supported what Henry VIII claimed was his incestuous marriage (an insight I had long resisted due to residual Catholic bias).
See my post,
Why Claudius as a (Thomas) "More" was an insult in Hamlet 3.4 - Dec. 01, 2025 [7] 

THANK YOU for your interest, comments, questions, and support!

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NOTES:
[1] INDEX: Why Claudius, not Feng? What's in a name? - November 19, 2024
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/11/index-why-claudius-not-feng-whats-in.html 

[2] The Twelve Days of Christmas in Churches of Shakespeare’s Time (Dec. 25, 2024-Jan. 2025)

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/12/twelve-days-of-christmas-in-churches-of.html 

[3] MASTER INDEX to quickly find the index for each series on the blog - January 15, 2025
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/01/master-index-to-quickly-find-index-for.html 

[4] Hamlet's Christmas, Caesar, Taxes, and Contested Divinities - December 20, 2025
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/12/hamlets-christmas-caesar-taxes-and.html 

[5] What does it mean that Hamlet defies augury? - August 11, 2025
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/08/what-does-it-mean-that-hamlet-defies.html 

[6] HAMLET, SUPERMAN, and ST. FRANCIS WALK INTO A BAR - October 22, 2025
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/10/hamlet-superman-and-st-francis-of.html 

[7] Why Claudius as a (Thomas) "More" was an insult in Hamlet 3.4 - December 01, 2025

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/12/why-claudius-as-thomas-more-was-insult.html

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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.
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Thanks for reading!
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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

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