HAMLET'S SOLILOQUIES

“Our wills and fates do so contrary run

That our devices still are overthrown

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.”

The Player King in Hamlet

Photo: Matthew Macquarrie on Unsplash

“Dramatic action tends to favour characters who are active above the reflective/passive . . .
Shakespeare struggled with this problem in Hamlet.”

Mark Ravenhill, playwright

Hamlet comes from the Senecan tradition of the revenge play. A much earlier play in Shakespeare’s canon – Titus Andronicus – is clearly fashioned on this model, and if you consider just the plot line of The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd (removing some of the limbs and outward flourishes) it is remarkably similar to the plot of Hamlet.

But, despite his first reaction to the Ghost’s story of murder:

“Haste me to know it, that I with wings as swift

As meditation or thoughts of love

May sweep to my revenge.”

Shakespeare’s Hamlet does not follow the trajectory or his own intention. Hamlet remains passive for much of the action of the play and reflects on his position in four great soliloquies.  Shakespeare’s struggle with the play has resulted in it now being regarded as possibly the best known and greatest of all dramatic works. “To be or not to be” is the one line of Shakespeare that almost everyone knows.

Over four evenings we will study these speeches individually. Participants are welcome to join for one or all sessions as we explore the power of the dramatist’s art.

SALON DETAILS:

• Facilitated by Jane Wymark (acclaimed for her performance as Ophelia to Derek Jacobi’s Hamlet)
• Four virtual meetings, Sunday evenings, 6-8.00 pm GMT, starting 9 January 2022
• £100 for four-meeting study