HAMLET: Memory & Doubling

Question 1

Ghost + Hamlet
(HAMLET)
1. “In my mind’s eye”
2. “O my prophetic soul!”
3. “Defend us!” / “What should we do?”
4. “Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell”
(GHOST)
5. “remember me”

Answer 1

1. Psychoanalytical:
   -> OLIVIER: Only hear the ghost; voice and Hamlet both Olivier
   - Ghost and Hamlet as one, the ghost is all in Hamlet’s subconscious mind - an expression of his grief?
   - “I’ll call thee Hamlet” - definite, as though calling the ghost into being

2.
-> “my” - figment of Hamlet’s psyche?
-> “prophetic” - saying what he seems to have already known?

3. Unlike his father - he can’t do it himself
4. Balanced syntax - opposed contracts = uncertainty
   -> Logical questioning, vs. ‘antic disposition’
5. Problem of LEGACY, not revenge…

Question 2

Ophelia
-> The way she is remembered doesn’t seem to parallel the way she was treated
1. (LAERTES) Leaps in the grave
HAMLET:
2. “This is I, Hamlet the Dane”
3. “I loved Ophelia”

Answer 2

1. Weird grappling over O’s body (Hamlet gets involved -> only ‘affection’ he ever demonstrates towards her!!!)
   -> “Her fair and unpolluted flesh”
   - Chastity: she can’t escape male control/interference, even in death
   - …Freud?
   - Hamlet (hypocritically) accuses Laertes of performative grief: “What is he whose grief bears such an emphasis?”
2. Even makes Ophelia’s funeral all about himself -> Ophelia can’t escape
3. Since when…

Question 3

Fortinbras
“Go bid the soldiers shoot”

Answer 3

End with warrior honour shoot
-> Out of place for Hamlet, King of Words?
-> Return (regression?) to the Medieval battle kind (eg. OH)
- Everything circular -> Emma Smith!
- Sometimes (?) depicted as a proto-Fascist

Question 4

Dumb Show

Answer 4

Body of stage direction, articulating an old-fashioned (for London at the time), comedic, silent mini-performance of the play that is just about to be performed
-> Dumb shows look forward to the play ahead, but this one is retrospective
-> Focus on sound and silence