Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

It is said that in Shakespeare’s plays, all resurrections are staged, faked: Much Ado About Nothing (Hero) [1]; Henry IV, Part 1 (Falstaff) [2]. Staging can fail badly: Romeo and Juliet [3] (as if to admit the limitations of such staging?). Poor Tom/Edgar stages a miracle for Gloucester in King Lear [4].   Sonnet 18 ends, “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee,” as if the poem bestows (stages) everlasting life. What to make of this? As is said in Hamlet of Ophelia’s “mad” speech, many will “botch” these facts up “fit to their own thoughts” [5]: Atheists may claim this proves Shakespeare’s atheism. Christians may note: Miracle and Mystery Plays were banned by Henry VIII, still restricted in Elizabethan times. Even if Shakespeare wanted to portray resurrections, his hands were tied. Many of Hamlet’s verbal tricks with Claudius [6] and Polonius [7] (and Claudius again [8]) – and the gravedigger’s with Hamlet [8] – depend on ta...

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not seen the 2017 film, Wonder Woman , the following may contain spoilers. As I did last year, I'm using the holidays to stray a bit from the topic of biblical allusions in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Besides my posts about Hamlet Had an Uncle and "the jade's trick" in Much Ado , I will be making a few other posts before twelfth night (the day before Epiphany), including a post about Shakespeare's Twelfth Night . Gatherings with family members during the Christmas season usually includes, for us, taking in some films (either in a theater or at home). This year it has included a number of films, including Wonder Woman (2017), which we viewed again at home with... let's say it was with representatives of a younger generation. [Promotional image via Comicbook.com ] The film is set during World War I, known then as "The Great War," and Wonder Woman (played by Gal Godot) believes the war is being caused by Ares, god of ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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...