I wanted to explore the play in the context of the Revenge Tragedy tradition and to identify critics whose views about the play might accord with my own. I also watched three film versions of the play in order to see how the meanings of the play were conveyed visually in each case. When I read the play I found myself sympathizing all the time with Hamlet and I could not understand the criticism which insists he has a fatal flaw, so I wanted to explore areas of the play and reactions to it which would allow me to question that notion.
Annotated Bibliography
Barron, David (Producer) and Branagh, Kenneth (Director). Hamlet. 1996. UK/USA: Columbia Pictures. The version of the play that is famous for being uncut. Famously it creates a back story by suggesting that Hamlet and Ophelia have consummated their relationship before the play begins.
Doran, Gregory (Director). Hamlet. 2009. UK:BBC & RSC. A recent and highly acclaimed version based on an RSC stage production and then filmed, away from the theatre sett, in collaboration with the BBC. David Tennant’s Hamlet brings lots of comedy to the role, whoile Claudius’s Elsinore is portrayed as a repressive police state.
Fierberg, Andrew & Hobby, Amy (Producers) and Almereyda, Michael (Director). Hamlet. 2000. USA: Miramax. Set in contemporary New York, this production gives a strong emphasis to modern techniques of surveillance.
Gibson, Rex, Hamlet. Cambridge Student Guide. 2002. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Print. This is a very useful overview of he play, but which excels at the context of the play, both historical and dramatic.
Kermode, Frank. Shakespeare’s Language. London: Penguin. Print. Kermode’s book concentrates solely on the language of each play, teasing out the play’s overall themes and meanings for a close look at the techniques which inform ther syntax of Shakespeare’s sentences.
Lever, J. W. The Tragedy of State. 1971. London: Methuen. Print. Lever rejects completely the Aristotelian approach to the tragic hero and his so-called ‘flaw’ to look at the social conditions in which the protagonist has to operate.
Long, Michael. The Unnatural Scene: A Study in Shakespearean Tragedy. 1976. London: Methuen. Print. In this study Long concentrates on Shakespeare’s creation of a social context within each play and argues that it is society which causes the downfall of the tragic hero.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. 1987. London: Heinemann. Print.
Spurgeon, Caroline. Shakespeare’s Imagery and What it Tells Us. 1935. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Print. This was a critical landmark in Shakespearean studies. It rejected the approach to the plays based on character, and instead analyses the patterns of imagery that each play uses to give overall meaning.
