Sadness/melancholy

Question 1

Gross 1989 ‘the deep reserves of…’

Answer 1

‘The deep reserves of bitterness and bitter intelligence that make hamlet a hero as well as a victim’
- Gross in the Sunday telegraph
- found Eyre directed 1989 production at National Theatre hamlet as weak and missing the above

Question 2

Adrian Noble production 1992 RSC

Answer 2

• set the play in disintegrating Edwardian world which gave it a thick layer of melancholy
• many felt this production had feel of play by Russian playwright Chekhov (often haunted plays) because of its emphasis upon the breakup of the family
• Claudius & Gertrude wear white whilst hamlet wears black, suggestive of darkness/loneliness

Question 3

Kastan ‘tragedy, for Shakespeare, is…

Answer 3

‘Tragedy, for Shakespeare, is the genre of uncompensated suffering’