Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

 “Shakespeare is not treating us to an imaginative presentation of theology. He is testing theology with his imagination and using theology for his artistic purpose.” (105) - Robert G. Hunter “Shakespeare and the Mystery of God’s Judgments” (1976) ~~~~~ This is one of my favorite quotes from this book, and sums up an important perspective. It contrasts with the assumption by some scholars such as Charles Wordsworth (1864) - a position strongly disliked by many others - that Shakespeare used biblical references and religious themes to demonstrate and evangelize for the Christian faith. Other scholars such as Maurice Hunt (Shakespeare's Religious Allusiveness: Its Play and Tolerance) sometimes assume biblical references might be sorted into binary opposition between apparent Protestant and Catholic references, perhaps proving Shakespeare was one or the other, or that he at least conformed to the Protestant inclinations of his time. But "testing theology with his imagination...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INDEX OF POSTS IN THIS SERIES: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/index-hamlet-in-32-as-boy-jesus-lost.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When Hamlet implies after The Mousetrap that he and his parents are like (or ironically unlike) the boy Jesus and the Holy Family, [1] we have an analogy: Hamlet, his mom Gertrude and uncle/stepdad Claudius on one side, Jesus, his mother Mary and stepdad Joseph on the other.  Some analogies may seem simple and straightforward: The moon is like a pearl in the night. But what if both elements of the analogy are mysterious, ambiguous, moving targets? That is the case with Hamlet and Jesus. HAMLET IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE REVENGER: He wants to be sure his uncle is guilty, to avoid killing the wrong man.[2] Soon after Hamlet thinks he can be sure, he kills the wrong man - Polonius, by accident.[3] This is not your average revenger. Peter Lake says that Hamlet the play is a hybrid of four genres: Rev...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a continuation of a four-part series of blog posts, “Who am I to interpret  Hamlet ?” June 16, 2019:  To be or not? (Part 1: English Studies & Teaching) June 23:  How Literally Did Shakespeare Take the Bible? (Part 2: Religious Studies & Assumptions) July 30:  Reading  Hamlet  through personal & national traumas (Part 3: Lies & PTSD) August 6:  Hamlet , PTSD & Entitlement (Part 4) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first sentence in Hamlet is a question that Bernardo asks Francisco: “Who’s there?”  If the audience feels that the question is directed at all of us as well, we might ask: Who are we, reading or viewing this play? This week I’ll consider some key moments in my religious studies that changed my assumptions about the Christianity in which I was raised, assumptions I also ruminate about in my study of Shakespeare generally, and Hamlet in particular. Who a...

Gustav Klimt, Death of Romeo & Juliet, "Theatre of Shakespeare" (1886) from historic Burgtheater, Vienna, via UK Shakespeare Magazine, Twitter. Shakespeare has many plays with suicides in them. Most famously, perhaps, is the dual suicide of Romeo and Juliet. Lady Macbeth kills herself, as do Anthony and Cleopatra, Brutus, Cassius, the wife of Brutus, Timon of Athens, and a daughter of King Lear. In Lear, the blinded Gloucester wants to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff, but his son in disguise sets it up to make his father believe he has been miraculously saved. Othello kills himself after he realizes he has been tricked into killing his wife by Iago (whose name is a Spanish form of James, which makes sense considering how the English hated the Spanish after the Armada, and the Jesuits, based in Spain; but which creates cognitive dissonance when we think of how the play was written while a king named James occupied the English throne). In Hamlet, the prince c...

FOR SHAKESPEARE, MUST AN ALLUSION TO THE INCARNATION IMPLY A DIVINE INFANCY NARRATIVE? Two weeks ago, I posted regarding how Hamlet 1.1 refers to many Christian mysteries: Incarnation, teachings, passion, resurrection, and end times. The allusion to the incarnation takes the form of an allusion to “that season... / Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated.” But the gospels show that the Christian idea of God can be incarnate in more ways than a Bethlehem-born infant: —The Emmaus tale shows how one can find the risen Jesus in the stranger who does for us things like those things that Jesus did. —Ophelia’s mention of the story about how “the owl was a baker’s daughter” is an example of how we sometimes reject the presence of Jesus in the stranger or beggar, with negative consequences. So we should not assume that mention of “our savior’s birth” is a foreshadowing of another infancy narrative in the play. That never comes. Hamlet finds God’s hand at work in the pirates; p...