Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Hamlet Context
- The ambiguity in the play is intentional
because Shakespeare didn't want it to
seem as though it was an attack on the
court.
- Hamlet was written in 1601 and
probably first performed in The Globe
in 1602!
- It was written under the reign
of King James I
- Hamlet lives in a literal
'Panopticon' - 'Denmark is a
prison' & 'Madness in great ones
shall not unwatched go'.
- This explains why
Hamlet is such an
internal character and
an analytical thinker...
he has always been
watched by others.
- He took the basic revenge story of a
feeble-minded Prince of Denmark and
changed it to resonate with problems
occurring in the Renaissance era.
- Humanists in the
Renaissance era
- Humanists wanted to
develop a further
understanding of the 'human
experience'. It was thought
that humans could only
experience 'appearances'
and had difficulty seeing the
'reality'.
- THIS IS THE WORLD
HAMLET LIVES IN!
Hamlet's revenge is
based on something he
cannot be sure about. He
says he knows 'not
seems', but still puts on a
front/aparance of
madness. Everyone in
the court is hiding
behind appearances and
so the Danish court
represents the world
Shakespeare was living
in.
- The famous 'what a piece of work is a man' speech is
based on humanist Pico Della Mirandola's, 'Oration on
the dignity of man'.