How to Read Shakespeare's Hamlet (Banquets of Blood, Pre-Play Preparation) (Patreon)

Hamlet is one of the greatest artistic achievements in human history.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is also an intellectual challenge and meta-theatrical treat that houses some of the best prose and poetry in the English language.

So whilst our discussion around King Lear continues, let’s fortify ourselves for our meeting with the Ambassador of Death.

Consider these pre-play preps as treasure troves to use however best suits you. Feel free to utilise the timestamps to jump to the topics where you would like the most direction.

Below the timestamps, we have links to everything mentioned, scenes to focus on, and reading assignments in anticipation for the deep-dive lecture and appreciation.

We are discussing:

• recommended editions
• adaptations (audio and film)
• the characters, themes, and story
• focused challenges and assignments

Video Timestamps:

• 0:00 the tradition of playing Hamlet
• 3:00 the difficulty of sheer size
• 3:30 Hamlet specific challenge
• 4:30 why read Hamlet?
• 5:00 unlocking Milton, Melville, Joyce
• 5:40 Hamlet as centreless centre
• 6:30 the versatility of the role of Hamlet
• 7:00 how to approach Hamlet
• 7:30 thinking like actor and director
• 8:20 Harold Bloom on Hamlet
• 9:00 the joys of Hamlet’s endlessness
• 9:45 the best poetry and prose in English
• 11:00 hearing Hamlet thinking
• 11:40 Hamlet, meta-theatricality & the sonnets
• 12:00 pacing your reading of Hamlet
• 13:00 Nietzsche and Schlegel on Hamlet
• 13:25 the challenge of overfamiliarity
• 15:20 my first experience with Hamlet
• 17:00 my opinion on Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet
• 19:30 studying Shakespeare at Oxford
• 20:30 is Hamlet a revenge tragedy?
• 21:00 Hamlet vs Titus Andronicus
• 22:00 the Ur-Hamlet
• 23:00 Shakespeare’s Lost Years
• 24:20 Shakespeare at time of writing
• 25:30 the story of Hamlet
• 26:50 the characters of Hamlet
• 29:00 the play-within-the-play
• 29:50 Hamlet memorisation challenge
• 32:15 finding your Hamlet
• 33:00 finding Shakespeare between the lines
• 34:20 recommended criticism of Hamlet
• 36:20 recommended productions of Hamlet
• 39:20 areas to focus on
• 40:00 words of encouragement

🎭 🎭🎭 Recommended Editions

• Arden - Hamlet: Wonderful series with quality introductions, notes, and annotations.
• Everyman Tragedies Vol.1: This volume has four of Shakespeare's masterpiece tragedies in one elegant volume: Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello.

🎬🎬 Recommended Film Adaptations

• Kenneth Branagh's visually stunning, star-studded 1996 film adaptation with 4-hour runtime is streamable here.
• Laurence Olivier's iconic 1948 film version is available to view, fully HD restored in 4k, here.
• Grigori Kozintsev's 1964 USSR version, for the fearless film connoisseurs among us, is available for viewing here.

🎙️Worthy Audio Productions

• One of my favourite BBC Radio Classic Drama productions, again with Kenneth Branagh, is available to listen to here.
• John Gielgud is on audio delivering a handful of Hamlet's famous soliloquies here.
• Arkangel Shakespeare have a wonderful audiobook version with Simon Russell Beale playing the Prince of Denmark here.

📖Deep-Cuts Shakespeare Criticism

• Hamlet: Poem Unlimited by Harold Bloom: This slim, digestible, and endlessly thought-provoking meditation on the play, from one of the best Shakespeare critics of our generation, makes a marvellous companion to the reading experience.
• Hamlet and Oedipus by Ernest Jones: For the psychoanalysts among us, we have a provocative work reading the play in light of one of Freud's most controversial theories.

(Optional) Reading Challenges:

• Choose 1x soliloquy that you would like to commit to memory. Which of Hamlet's monologues most speaks to you? Seek to learn as much as you can about your chosen speech, and practice delivering it with different rhythms. 
• Find your Hamlet. This is a life-long challenge that, like Lear, might prove to be rather difficult. Be on the lookout for actors who best portray the Prince of Denmark that you see in the theatre of your mind.
• Search for Shakespeare between the lines. Hamlet, along with the sonnets, is considered to be the writer's most personally revealing work. So where do you hear his voice?
• And do continue collecting your favourite passages, reading aloud, and comparing your reading of the play with any adaptations you enjoy.

Scenes to look out for:

These are just a selection of orienting scenes. Let us know what other scenes you find resonant, and for what reason. 

We have links here to sample interpretations from different actors, but do have fun finding your own too (and share with us). Consider these links as wrapped presents, with a Shakespearean surprise waiting you for. 

• Act 1, Scene 1, "O, that this too too solid flesh would melt" (interpretation)
• Act 2, Scene 2, "I have of late—but wherefore I know not—lost all my mirth" (interpretation)
• Act 3, Scene 1, "To be, or not to be" (interpretation)
• Act 4, Scene 4, "How all occasions do inform against me, And spur my dull revenge!" (interpretation)
• Act 5, Scene 1, "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio" (interpretation)

Questions to think about:

1) To what extent is Hamlet evil? 

2) What makes the play a tragedy?

3) T. S. Eliot famously called Hamlet an "artistic failure," prompting Harold Bloom to say that if the play were a failure then there's no such thing as an aesthetic success. What do you make of this? Can you see where they're both coming from?

Happy Hamletting, everybody!