What a piece of work is Hamlet

This was my year for Hamlet. Through the course of the past 12 months, I’ve seen four different productions of Hamlet, some of them more than once. Each production had its own interpretations, underscoring what very rich text this best of all Shakespearean tragedies is.

It began last fall when a colleague of my husband invited us out to see him perform the title role at Grand Valley State University. It was a stunning production, one accompanied by chamber music and that included everything—including Polonius’ spy and all of the Fortinbras material.

A month later, my husband and I headed out to Kalamazoo to see the identical twin of that same colleague perform the same role. The play was cut differently and performed in a more intimate setting, but it was an incredible experience to see two such excellent performances so close together and by people who looked so much alike.

Then, partly inspired by a visit from the colleague mentioned above, the fifth and sixth grade Montessori students that my husband teaches begged to be allowed to do Hamlet for their end-of-year production. Who is going to turn down a request like that? So they performed Hambits—Scenes from Hamlet.

Finally, this summer my husband performed in a production of Hamlet for the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, playing the roles of Bernardo, Player Queen, and various others. We brought our Montessori students to see the show in a one-day camp experience.

Hold on, I’m almost to the review

It was the final two experiences in particular that drove me back to the text of Hamlet in this past year. I helped my husband select scenes and then spent time with a group of third through 12th graders introducing them to Hamlet.

One of the things we ended up talking about was that the text was so rich and can be played in so many different ways that it is impossible to give a single, authoritative interpretation of it. Rather it is a play that is dynamic and open to multiple interpretations and visions.

Most of us know what Hamlet is about even if we haven’t read it. It is the classic revenge play, though it is also far more than that. The young Prince Hamlet has come home from college to attend his father’s funeral. He’s depressed and angry that his mother then turns around and marries his uncle before the funeral leftovers have even been consumed.

Then Hamlet’s friend, Horatio, takes him to see a vision. It’s the ghost of Hamlet’s father who reveals that the uncle, Claudius, murdered him while he slept. He charges Hamlet with murder and thus begins the end for just about everyone in the play. (Yes, it’s Shakespeare and it’s a tragedy—everybody dies!)
What a piece of work!

It’s a play that raises more questions than it answers. Is it only a revenge play? If so, what makes it rise above the salaciousness of Titus Andronicus?

I’d argue that it is a play of Everyman. In all of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, the hero possesses some fatal flaw that makes his world crash down on him. It’s usually fitting that he receives the fate that he does. We might feel sorry for Othello, but who grieves Richard III or Macbeth? We might pity Lear, but still think he brought his own troubles on his head. Even Romeo and Juliet can be considered victims of their own impulsiveness.

Hamlet, however, is caught up in circumstances not of his making. He was born under a fated star. He’d far rather escape his fate, but possesses too much courage and integrity to turn his back on duty and justice. Where he is most flawed is his carelessness with the lives of others. The killing of Claudius would be considered justice. However, he also bears responsibility for the deaths of Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. He can be considered innocent only in the deaths of Laertes (though he delivers the wound) and Gertrude.

Shakespeare also provides the means for actors to make a compelling exploration of madness and grief. We see both the acting of those emotions and the real experience of those emotions by different characters throughout the play.

Words, words, words

One of the jokes about Hamlet is that it’s nothing special—Shakespeare just took a bunch of famous quotes and strung them together. Certainly, anyone reading or watching Hamlet is sure to find plenty of familiar lines, perhaps many that they were unaware Hamlet was the source of. There are so many beautiful lines about choices, the worthiness of life and a whole host of other topics that the lines have been absorbed into our popular culture. It can also make it challenging for an actor to breathe new life into these familiar lines.

To me, Hamlet is a play about how one should go about righting wrongs and how often it must be done regardless of the personal cost. However, in righting one’s own wrongs, one must be careful about creating new ones for other people.

Perhaps when I read it three years from now, I’ll find it to be about something different.