Alcoholic Claudius? Jeffrey Wilson: Culture of Drunkenness in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
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...