Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Critics, readers, and viewers today may think of Ophelia’s suffering very differently than did devout Christians in Shakespeare’s time. Modern critics sometimes assume that, when characters suffer, when prayers to heaven seem unanswered, this must prove there is no God, or that Shakespeare didn’t believe in one. But many churchgoers viewed undeserved suffering differently. Three times every year (10 April, 9 August, and 6 December), Hebrews 12: 6-11 was read at Evening Prayer: 6 For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth: and he scourgeth every son that he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God offered himself unto you as unto sons: for what son is it whom the father chasteneth not? 8 If therefore ye be without correction, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9 Moreover we have had the fathers of our bodies which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: should we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits, that we might live? 10 For they ve...

One of my favorite things about the following video by John R. Yamamoto-Wilson is that he challenges prevailing scholarly and performance assumptions about what Hamlet means in his “To be or not to be” speech, and in particular, that he expands popular understanding of what Hamlet means by “quietus.” (3.1.64-96; 3.1.83.). [1] John points out very clearly that Hamlet already considered suicide in Act 1, scene 2: O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! 1.2.133-136 Later, in Act 1, scene 5, Hamlet had already promised the ghost that he will avenge his murder, so there is little dramatic purpose in Act 3 to considering suicide yet again. Importantly, John points out that the word “quietus” has a more primary meaning as found in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) than the one Shakespeare scholars and directors often assume. They wrongly assume that the phrase,...

In the second volume of his 1970 book on Shakespeare, Isaac Asimov has some interesting comments about Hamlet and his thoughts on suicide (considerations others have raised as well), and in particular about his "To be or not to be" speech, often assumed (perhaps incorrectly) to be about suicide. THE EVERLASTING FIXED HIS CANON 'GASINST SELF-SLAUGHTER Before considering Asimov's remarks, let's consider Hamlet's references to suicide in the play: We know that in the second scene of Act One, Hamlet endures the show Claudius puts on justifying his hasty marriage to Gertrude, and when alone, he begins: Oh, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! (1.2.313-316) Hamlet is saying: If only God had not made laws that not only prohibited killing others, but also prohibited suicide! At least at this moment of the play, he wishes he could k...