Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

When a country's leader is responsible for many crimes, either in secret or publicly known, including the murder of one or the deaths of many, and he shrouds his actions in lies, what is to be done with old school-friends who tried to hitch their wagons to the dark star of the corrupt regime? Are they, essentially, complicit in the crimes and deserving some share of any punishment, should it come? Or were they just human beings who had average human ambitions to get ahead, and should not be held responsible for the evils in which they participated, even knowingly? These were questions asked by the Nuremberg trials after World War II, and that some asked after the Bush-Cheney regime with its scandals of torture and lies that got the U.S. into a war with Iraq that violated international law. They are questions that may soon be asked if Trump is replaced by Biden as U.S. president. And they are questions we might consider regarding Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Shakespeare's Ha...

Besides blogging here, I post links to new blog posts on FaceBook forums related to Shakespeare as well as on Twitter and LinkedIn. Last week, on LinkedIn , in a discussion thread below last week's blog post on anagnorisis , Dan Decker noted: " Hamlet is a tale of redemption. It is not a revenge plot." In fact, if one compares Hamlet (as many often do) to The Spanish Tragedy , it's interesting to note not only the many similarities scholars point out, but also how, while the protagonist in TST sinks deeper into revenge before the very bloody ending, while in contrast, Hamlet descends into violent and bloody thoughts, but then reascends after having his life saved by pirates, and after finding the skull of Yorick, identified with the help of the gravedigger. Yes, he still fights with Laertes over Ophelia's grave, but something has changed in him.  Yes, after being wounded by Laertes and unknowingly poisoned in what was supposed to be a fair fencing match, ...