Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Introduction

Hamlet

It is important to note that Hamlet itself is a transformation, of form as well as ideas, which is based upon other transformations. Indeed the metatheme of Hamlet is transformation (whereas Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is about the inability to effect transformation or change). Tom McAlindon, in an article entitled What is a Shakespearean Tragedy, draws our attention to the fact that Hamlet, like Shakespeare’s other tragedies, has an intense focus on the phenomenon of change:

… change is not just one of worldly fortunes; it is above all else interpersonal, moral, and psychological change. An essential part of the hero’s experience is the horrified discovery that the world he knows and values, the people he loves and trusts, are changing or have changed utterly. He feels cheated and betrayed ‘to the very heart of loss’. (p.6)

Shakespeare was writing in the tradition of Revenge Tragedy, sometimes referred to as Theatre of the Blood. Elizabethan and Jacobean versions of revenge tragedy borrowed heavily from the tragedies of Seneca (4 BC-65 AD), a Roman dramatist whose tragedies were published in 1581. Seneca, in turn, based his tragedies on Greek mythology and he appeared to have been influenced by Aristotle (384-322 BC). Students should acquaint themselves with the features of these tragedies.

Shakespeare borrowed, and indeed transformed his tragedies from the classical form in a number of ways, such as the inclusion of comic elements (comic relief, satire, mocking, parody etc), the “common man” character and showing on stage acts of violent passion.

Shakespeare also appears to have borrowed quite extensively from a contemporary of his, Thomas Kyd (1558-1594) whose revenge tragedy The Spanish Tragedy was not only enormously popular but very influential to all in the Elizabethan and Jacobean drama industry.