Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Shakespeare’s Hamlet can be read as offering not mere variations, but transformations of suicide [1]: After Hamlet wishes that God had not made laws against suicide, he later feels called by heaven and hell to avenge his father’s death [2], a kind of suicide mission. If he kills Claudius as God’s vengeful scourge [3], Hamlet may be hell-bound. He later realizes: it may be more damnable not to kill him, and for Claudius to cause Denmark further harm [4]; Hamlet may not survive, but his death might be transformed by a higher purpose. Ophelia’s is the first alleged suicide, in 4.7, transformed by her own madness in 4.5 [5] and by Gertrude’s account in three ways: 1. She says it was caused by the breaking of an “envious sliver” of willow [6], envious that it had no crowns like other willow branches (envious, like Claudius of his brother’s crown and wife). 2. Gertrude implies that, in the water, Ophelia seemed to surrender to the unfolding will of God [7]. 3. Her account may be...

JSTOR Daily recently published a piece called “In Defense of Polonius,” which is a little misleading in its title and subtitle: “Shakespeare’s tedious old fool was also a dad just doing his best” (15 June, 2022). [1] The article admits that in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius is a poor father figure, but argues that the role is not only a good one, but an essential one to the play. I agree on that point. The article is by Jeffrey Wilson, also the author of an article I shared a few days ago which explored how today, Claudius would probably be considered an alcoholic. [2] In this 15 June piece, Wilson notes that Polonius apologizes twice, perhaps more convincingly the second time. And yet he softens the effect of the second apology by putting his own mistake in a larger context of mistakes often made by the young: “I am sorry that with better heed and judgment I had not quoted him. I fear'd he did but trifle And meant to wrack thee; but beshrew my jealousy! By heaven, it i...

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is Claudius an alcoholic? Jeffrey Wilson explores this possibility in his (open-access) essay, “Sigma Alpha Elsinore” [1] using the analogy of university fraternities and drinking culture, among other things. [Left: Alan Bates as Claudius (1990), dir. Franco Zeffirelli. Fair use. Cropped, via screen grab from YouTube . Center: Derek Jacobi as Claudius (1996), dir. Kenneth Branagh. Fair use. Cropped, via Shakespeare Wiki . Right: Patrick Stewart as Claudius (2009), dir. Gregory Doran. Fair use. Cropped, via BBC. ] Wilson is a lecturer at Harvard who has written and published frequently on Shakespeare-related topics. I follow him on Twitter <@DrJeffreyWilson> in part because he often advocates online open access, as well as the idea that scholars should share their ideas more freely to stimulate good thinking and collaboration, rather than hoarding their ideas in fear they might be stolen before publication. (As a blogger, I agree.) His essay remin...