Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,
Much fruit of Sense beneath is rarely found.
(Essay on Criticism, ll.309-310)
Any investigation of Shakespeare's Hamlet that wishes to harvest "fruit of sense" must begin with the ghost. Dover Wilson is right in terming Hamlet's visitor the "linchpin," but the history of critical opinion regarding its origin has been diverse and conflicting. Generally, critics have opted for a Purgatorial ghost: Bradley speaks of "...a soul come from Purgatory," (1) Lily Campbell believes "Shakespeare has pictured a ghost from Purgatory according to all the tests possible," but adds, "Shakespeare chose rather to throw out suggestions which might satisfy those members of his audience who followed any one of the three schools of thought on the subject." (2). G. Wilson Knight fuses Purgatorial origin with ambiguity: "With exquisite aptness the poet has placed him, not in heaven or hell, but purgatory," adding "It is neither 'good' nor bad', True its effects are mostly evil." (3) In another work he notes, "The ghost may or may not have,., been a 'goblin damned': it certainly was no 'spirit of health,' (4) Wilson terms his 'linchpin' as Catholic: "...the Ghost is Catholic: he comes from Purgatory."(5)
A flurry of critical opinion began, however, in 1951 when Roy Battenhouse argued, "The ghost, then, does not come from a Catholic Purgatory, but from an afterward exactly suited to fascinate the imagination and understanding of the humanist intellectual of the Renaissance." By that he meant, "...the purgatory of the Ancients, or their hell...since all are Hell from a Christian point of view: an inhabitant of any one of them is a "damned" spirit...(6...
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...et: Pagan or Christian?" The Month. 9 (1953), pp. 233-234.
(8) Robert West. "King Hamlet's Ambiguous Ghost:" PMLA. 70 (1955), p. 1116.
(9) Harry Levin. The Queftion of Hamlet. New York: Oxford Books, 1970), p. 43.
(10) Sister Mariam Joseph. "Discerning the Ghost in Hamlet." PMLA 76 (1961), p. 502
(11) Eleanor Prosser. Hamlet and Revenge. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1091, p. 252.
(12) Stephen Greenblatt. Hamlet in Purgatory. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
(13) K.R. Eissler. Discourse on Hamlet and Hamlet: A Psychoanalytic Inquiry. New York: International Universities, Press, 1971, p. 68.
(14) Harold Boom. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998. Hamlet and Falstaff is treated throughout the book as touchstones for all other characters. Chapter 23 discusses Hamlet specifically.
After demolishing the theories of other critics, Bradley concluded that the essence of Hamlet’s character is contained in a three-fold analysis of it. First, that rather than being melancholy by temperament, in the usual sense of “profoundly sad,” he is a person of unusual nervous instability, one liable to extreme and profound alterations of mood, a potential manic-depressive type. Romantic, we might say. Second, this Hamlet is also a person of “exquisite moral sensibility, “ hypersensitive to goodness, a m...
It was a little bit harder for Jefferson to remember his commitment to his nannan and to the town. He had been charged with a crime he did not commit and didn’t know how to deal with it. They were asking a lot from a man who knew he was going to die soon."Me, Mr. Wiggins. Me. Me to take the cross. Your cross, nannan's cross, my own cross. Me, Mr. Wiggins. This old stumbling nigger. Y'all axe a lot, Mr. Wiggins." [p. 224] It takes a strong man to forget about yourself and do something for someone else when your in the position that Jefferson is in. It took a while; but Jefferson did what had to be done, in the end.
The story begins by Bailey’s grandmother trying to persuade him and his spouse to take their family for a tour in Tennessee rather than Florida. Her argument for the piece of advice is based on a story she locates in an article (O’Connor 73). According to the story, an old lag who had run away from the prison is also headed for a vocation in Florida, and he is worried about the safety of Bailey’s family if they choose to go to Florida for the tour. On the day of the trip, the grandmother dresses like a young lady and joins the family. The family later makes a stop at a restaurant whose owner, Red Sammy, complains of how untrustworthy people can sometimes be (O’Connor 73). Red Sammy’s wife also interjects the discussion between her husband and Bailey’s grandmother and says that she does not believe in any person, including her own husband, R...
Given Grant 's pent-up frustrations, he is much more likely than Jefferson to end up in jail, as illustrated by his fight with the mulatto bricklayers at the Rainbow Club. Note that without the intercession of Joe Claiborne and Vivian, Grant would likely have been arrested for assault or murder.
It took Grant much time and strength to convince him that he should live his last days with pride and dignity. Jefferson looks at the entire situation as his fault and will only do what Miss Emma and Tante Lou see fit for him to do. Grant begins his teaching as he has taught for ye...
Vancil narrates that Wiggins is “immersed in his own concerns and relates to his community from a perspective of superiority, a superiority as much bestowed as felt.”(489) Grant does not conduct his reasoning and underlying mentality as a higher status than all of the other community members in every illicit situation. It is not wrong to possess pride and matured culture for being a recipient of a fine education for a young Black man residing in Louisiana. He simply wants more than what a contained, prejudice society can offer him or his counterparts. His beliefs are further justified when Jefferson is convicted and sentenced to death for a murder not capable by an innocent man. Grant boasts out that Jefferson was educated in the community’s school system but the power of the finer ...
Jefferson’s self-perception is affected by the racist atmosphere. In chapter One, Jefferson’s defense attorney tries to win the jury by claiming that Jefferson has diminished capacity to reason. He tries to reach the jury’s heart and mind by implying it would be a cruel act to kill a man whose intelligence and moral are no greater than those of a hog. The attorney expresses the ugly belief, held by many Southern whites, that blacks are somewhat beneath whites. Jefferson becomes disturbed by the idea and begins acting like a hog, angrily refusing to talk and going through his food like a hog. Miss Emma realizes the impact the attorney’s words have on Jefferson and makes it her goal to ensure Jefferson dies like a man not like an animal. When Jefferson decides to die with dignity, he shakes off the spiteful stereotypes placed on him by whites. “Gentlemen of the jury, look at this----this----this boy. I almost said a man, but I can’t say man. Oh sure, he has reached the age of twenty-one, when we, civilized men, consider the male species has reached manhood, but would you call this---this---this a man? No, not I”,(Gaines, 7). This quote reveals how even Jefferson’s defense attorney from the start had a stereotype opinion held by many Southern whites, a negative opinion that blacks are inferior to whites. From that point on Grant’s mission in the book is to show Jefferson’s hope, dignity, and self-respect, and to prove to whites and blacks are alike, that i...
Goldman, Michael. "Hamlet and Our Problems." Critical Essays on Shakespeare's Hamlet. Ed. David Scott Kaston. New York City: Prentice Hall International. 1995. 43-55
The story opens with Grant recalling the trial and events leading up to it. Jefferson was on his way to a bar when he was offered a ride by two young black men. The trio went to hold up a liquor store to get drinks, but didn't have enough to pay. The two men demand to get drinks on credit and a shootout ensued, leaving Jefferson panicked in the aftermath. He grabs the money behind the counter, takes a drink and begins to run when two white men walk into the store. Of course, a young black man going to trial after the Civil War until the end of Jim Crow is bound to be unfairly and unjustly sentenced. Black men, even today are sometimes treated as guilty until proven otherwise. The prosecution spins the story, saying the three men went to the store with the intent to rob and murder Alcee Grope, the store owner. Jefferson was also accused of taking money and celebra...
Rising action: Overlooking the grandmother's warning, the family decides to pursue their trip as planned. When the day arrives for the family to depart on their road trip, instead of arguing, the grandmother climbs in the car before anyone else, just as June Star predicts. "She wouldn't stay at home for a million bucks," June Star said. "Afraid she'd miss something. She has to go everywhere we go." She dresses in a manner so that if anyone finds her dead on the highway, they shall characterize her as a lady. She wore a navy blue sailor hat with white violets on the brim, to match her navy blue dress covered with tiny white polka-dots. Her white organdy, lacy collars and cuffs completed the outfit. But although she agrees to follow through with the excursion, she refuses to go with out her cat Pitty Sing. Afraid that the cat will accidentally asphyxiate himself on the gas stove if left behind, she secretly hides Pitty Sing in her basket. After driving down the road a while, the family passes a cotton field with five or six graves right in the middle of it. Coincidentally, five or six family members sit in the car: the grandmother, Bailey, the mother, the baby, June Starr, and John Wesley.
In the beginning of the book when Grant and Jefferson are talking at the jail, Jefferson says““I’m a old hog,” he said. “Youmans don’t stay in no stall like this. I’m a old hog they fattening up to kill.””(Gaines 83). Jefferson has no dignity whatsoever and clings to the belief that he is a worthless hog. However, by the end of t...
Manning, John. "Symbola and Emblemata in Hamlet." New Essays on Hamlet. Ed. Mark Thornton Burnett and John Manning. New York: AMS Press, 1994. 11-18.
Mack, Maynard. "The World of Hamlet." Yale Review. vol. 41 (1952) p. 502-23. Rpt. in Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is arguably one of the best plays known to English literature. It presents the protagonist, Hamlet, and his increasingly complex path through self discovery. His character is of an abnormally complex nature, the likes of which not often found in plays, and many different theses have been put forward about Hamlet's dynamic disposition. One such thesis is that Hamlet is a young man with an identity crisis living in a world of conflicting values.
In traditional and modern, ghost reflects death and fear, and it never change. In Hamlet, the ghost is a symbol of Hamlet’s father who is killed by Claudius. Its propose is to demand Hamlet to avenge its death. Although the ghost only appears three times in front of Hamlet, it is a specify role to develop the whole story and plot. Through Hamlet, the ghost is the motive to make Hamlet kill Claudius, and the ghost plays a critical role to influence Hamlet.