Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INDEX OF POSTS IN THIS SERIES: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/index-hamlet-in-32-as-boy-jesus-lost.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In this recent series,[1] I’ve explored one scripture allusion in a Shakespeare play (Hamlet in 3.2 alluding to the boy Jesus among temple elders from Luke 2). Readers of literature can explore allusions on their own, or instructors can do so with their students. There are many ways to do this, many possible starting points. Below is an outline of the method I used in this series. In many ways I only scratched the surface. Some tasks listed below might benefit from working on as a whole group. Then a class might divide tasks # 3 - # 7 among groups, and then later meet to discuss results, before # 8. 1. IDENTIFY what seems to be a scripture allusion. - People long familiar with a religion’s sacred texts may have an advantage, but religious belief is not required to identify allusions. Fa...

Biblical allusions are not the only kinds in Shakespeare—there are many— and Hamlet invites us to consider many texts in light of others, as Julia Kristeva and Bakhtin would say regarding intertextuality; Robert Alter (“The Art of Biblical Narrative”) notes that allusion opens windows to other texts, inviting us to revisit/rethink each in new dialectics. Hamlet includes allusions to Horace and to Virgil’s Aeneid, a founding myth for Rome, founded by outsiders (Trojans), like England, settled/raided/conquered by many outsiders (including Danes). Like Aeneas, Hamlet has a kind of sacred duty. Rome later fell, suggesting in the play that, just as Rome fell, Shakespeare’s England, too, could fall. By the end, Hamlet’s idolatry of his father, voiced in Greek/Roman mythological allusions, effectively stops after his Jonah-like sea-voyage. Suicide, the “Roman” way out, is also rejected. Why? So that Horatio might tell Hamlet’s tale (spread his gospel?). In Hamlet, the potent...