HAMLET - 4^C LINGUISTICO

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy.

(Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5)

HAMLET - 4^D LINGUISTICO

PLAYS WITHIN PLAYS

One of Shakespeare’s techniques is the dramatic convention of a play-within-a-play, popular in Elizabethan times and used in several of his works including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and, most importantly, Hamlet. It is important to note that he wasn’t the first to use such technique. Read here.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream  the most obvious example is the laborers' performance of Pyramus and Thisbe, and their inept production serves three important functions in the larger structure of the larger play. Read here.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE SOLILOQUY

Hamlet’s "To Be Or Not To Be" Soliloquy

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH AS HAMLET

HAMLET - 4^C LINGUISTICO

SHAKESPEARE REVISION - 4^C LINGUISTICO

ROMEO AND JULIET

MACBETH

HAMLET

THE TEMPEST

HAMLET - 4^C LINGUISTICO

Here you can find my previous post on this tragedy which involves political intrigue and madness, philosophical reflection and violent action, tragic intensity and wild humour.
Hamlet is considered the fullest expression of Shakespeare’s genius.

A FATHER'S ADVICE TO HIS SON

William Shakespeare’s timeless words speak across generations and cultures. In Hamlet, I, iii, Polonius  gives some paternal advice to his son Laertes before he leaves for France.  All the advice is good, but the best comes at the end,  “To thine own self be true”  - be a man of honor and integrity, live life in a way that consent to you to look at yourself in the mirror and not be ashamed. Read here and here.

HAMLET - 4^C LINGUISTICO

Hamlet is generally considered the greatest revenge tragedy, if not the greatest tragedy, if not the greatest play, ever written. The central reason for the play's reputation is the character of Hamlet. His brooding (=gloomy), unpredictable nature has been analysed by many of the most famous thinkers and artists of the past four centuries. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described him as a poet - a sensitive man who is too weak to deal with the political pressures of Denmark. 

The story of the play originates in the legend of Hamlet as recounted in the 12^th-century Danish History, a Latin text by Saxo the Grammarian. Shakespeare was probably aware of this version, together with another play performed in 1589 in which a ghost apparently calls out, "Hamlet, revenge!" The 1589 play is lost, but most scholars attribute it to Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy of 1587. The Spanish Tragedy shares many elements with Hamlet, such as a ghost seeking revenge, a secret crime, a play-within-a-play, a tortured hero who feigns madness, and a heroine who goes mad and commits suicide.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH'S HAMLET

Read here a review of Benedict Cumberbatch's performance as Hamlet which is now at the Barbican until 31 October 2015. The production is sold out, but 30 £10 day tickets are made available to buy in person to every performance.

Flitting across the stage with an athletic intensity, he is walking in the footsteps of the greats; among them Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, Peter O’Toole, Kenneth Branagh and most recently, David Tennant. 

Although Benedict Cumberbatch is best known for his film and television roles, he undoubtedly knows classical theatre. He first performed in Shakespearean plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Love’s Labour’s Lost and A Midsummer Night’s Dream early in his career. He has appeared in films such as Atonement, Amazing Grace and  Star Trek Into Darkness, and was the star of the TV series Sherlock, receiving three Emmy award nominations for the role. For The Imitation Game, about  British cryptographer  Alan Turing during the Second World War, he received an Oscar nomination.

According to Henry Hitchings, the theatre critic on the London Evening Standard, Benedict Cumberbatch is "a charismatic Hamlet, energetic but also pensive."

HAMLET

"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio—a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar?"

Hamlet, Act V, Scene i

Here you can find a thorough analysis of  Shakespeare's most famous tragedy.