What Happens in HamletJohn Dover Wilson's What Happens in Hamlet is a classic of Shakespeare criticism. First published in 1935, it is still being read throughout the English-speaking world and has been widely translated. Hamlet has excited more curiosity and aroused more debate than any other play ever written. Is Hamlet really mad? Does he really see his father's ghost, or is it an illusion? Is the ghost good or bad? What does it all mean? Dover Wilson brings out the significance of each part of the complex action, against the background. His analysis of the play emphasises Shakespeare's dramatic art and shows how the play must be seen and heard to be understood. This is a readable, entertaining and scholarly book. |
From inside the book
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Page x
... hand when I dared to set up my judgment against his . The odds are desperate ; but I have found unexpected allies in the theatre itself , as will presently appear , while it was encouraging to learn from Mr Esme Percy that on one of the ...
... hand when I dared to set up my judgment against his . The odds are desperate ; but I have found unexpected allies in the theatre itself , as will presently appear , while it was encouraging to learn from Mr Esme Percy that on one of the ...
Page xiv
... hands . But , gentle reader , you have been warned ! It only remains to add that , with the exception of a few trivial corrections , the text of this edition stands as it was in 1935. I have , however , added several pages of notes at ...
... hands . But , gentle reader , you have been warned ! It only remains to add that , with the exception of a few trivial corrections , the text of this edition stands as it was in 1935. I have , however , added several pages of notes at ...
Page xvii
... hands , for the most part , to make it clear— or not to make it clear - that his antic disposition is put on , indeed , and used for particular ends , but that Hamlet is also , up to a point , mad . The actor , in effect , can express ...
... hands , for the most part , to make it clear— or not to make it clear - that his antic disposition is put on , indeed , and used for particular ends , but that Hamlet is also , up to a point , mad . The actor , in effect , can express ...
Page xix
... hand on Hamlet's shoulder , and Hamlet went a step or two up stage to meet him and spoke directly to him the line : " The players cannot keep counse , ' ey'll tell all . " At Stratford , Hamlet , before rushing across to the King ...
... hand on Hamlet's shoulder , and Hamlet went a step or two up stage to meet him and spoke directly to him the line : " The players cannot keep counse , ' ey'll tell all . " At Stratford , Hamlet , before rushing across to the King ...
Page xxii
... hands too late for me to make more than casual use of it . Very different in outlook from Dr Bradley , and sometimes voicing opinions from which I find myself in almost violent disagreement , Professor Adams is equipped with the full ...
... hands too late for me to make more than casual use of it . Very different in outlook from Dr Bradley , and sometimes voicing opinions from which I find myself in almost violent disagreement , Professor Adams is equipped with the full ...
Contents
THE ROAD TO ELSINORE BEING AN EPISTLE DEDICATORY TO DR W W GREG | 1 |
THE TRAGIC BURDEN | 25 |
The state of Denmark | 26 |
Gertrudes sin | 39 |
The task | 44 |
GHOST OR DEVIL? | 51 |
Modern difficulties | 52 |
Shakespeares realism | 55 |
HAMLETS MAKEUP | 199 |
The turningpoint | 200 |
Sore distraction | 205 |
The heart of the mystery | 217 |
Dramatic emphasis | 229 |
FAILURE AND TRIUMPH | 239 |
Fortunes pipe | 240 |
The bedroom scene | 246 |
Problems of Elizabethan spiritualism | 60 |
The four witnesses | 66 |
Other superstitions | 75 |
The cellarage scene | 78 |
ANTIC DISPOSITION | 87 |
Its origin purpose and character | 88 |
Hamlet and Ophelia | 101 |
Thwarted ambition | 114 |
The nunnery scene | 125 |
THE MULTIPLE MOUSETRAP | 137 |
The parallel subplots | 138 |
The problem of the dumbshow | 144 |
Miching mallecho | 153 |
Nephew to the King | 164 |
The play scene restored | 174 |
Eclipse | 258 |
Hamlet returns | 265 |
The hero at bay | 276 |
APPENDICES | 291 |
A The Adultery of Gertrude | 292 |
B The Funeral of Ophelia | 295 |
C The Identity of the Gonzago troupe | 301 |
D Mr T S Eliots Theory of Hamlet | 305 |
Shakespeares Knowledge of A Treatise of Melancholie by Timothy Bright | 309 |
Hamlet as Cesare Borgia | 321 |
NOTES to The Second Edition | 335 |
343 | |
347 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
¹ Vide actor Admiral's men antic disposition apparition appears audience beginning cellarage scene Cesare Borgia Claudius Claudius's critics death Denmark dialogue distemper doubt Dowden Dr Bradley Dr Johnson dramatic dramatist dumb-show Elizabethan Elsinore excitement explain eyes fact father follows Gertrude Ghost give Gonzago Gonzago-play Granville-Barker groundlings Hamlet's character Hamlet's mind hand hero hint Horatio imagination incestuous intended interpretation King Hamlet King's Laertes Lavater lines lord Lucianus madness Marcellus means melancholy modern mother murder nature never notes nunnery scene once Ophelia Osric passage play scene players plot poison Polonius Prince problem prologue Queen question quoted reader reference revenge Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Second Quarto seems seen Shakespeare Shakespearean Tragedy Shakespearian soliloquy soul speak spectators speech spirit stage suggests tells theatre theory thing thou thought tion tragedy Treatise uncle uttered W. W. Greg whole words