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. |
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Page vii
... reader , the objection expressed in my Introduction to Hamlet 1934 remained unshaken : viz . that to abstract one figure from an elaborate dramatic composition and study it as a case in the psycho- analytical clinic is to attempt ...
... reader , the objection expressed in my Introduction to Hamlet 1934 remained unshaken : viz . that to abstract one figure from an elaborate dramatic composition and study it as a case in the psycho- analytical clinic is to attempt ...
Page ix
... reader of what follows will make himself acquainted if he has not already done so . Of his subtle sympathy and imaginative skill in interpretation it would be impertinence in me to speak . But , though his references to these pages have ...
... reader of what follows will make himself acquainted if he has not already done so . Of his subtle sympathy and imaginative skill in interpretation it would be impertinence in me to speak . But , though his references to these pages have ...
Page xi
... readers among actors and producers , amateur and professional , and its ideas have been utilized by more than one company in public performances , sometimes even - could tribute be more delicate ? -when its spokesmen were openly ...
... readers among actors and producers , amateur and professional , and its ideas have been utilized by more than one company in public performances , sometimes even - could tribute be more delicate ? -when its spokesmen were openly ...
Page xiii
... readers the kind of danger that threatens them from this quarter , in other words from this book , let me conclude by quoting a critic who is at once man of the theatre and man of the study , Mr Allardyce Nicoll , Professor of the ...
... readers the kind of danger that threatens them from this quarter , in other words from this book , let me conclude by quoting a critic who is at once man of the theatre and man of the study , Mr Allardyce Nicoll , Professor of the ...
Page xiv
... 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 the end of the volume ...
... 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 the end of the volume ...
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 | |
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Common terms and phrases
ยน 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